Day 14 - To Jamestown, ND
Lé iyótaŋ wóuŋspe uŋkáȟpi kte…
Mary Lee and Steven were up as I came upstairs and we had a brief converstation about my destination for the day: Jamestown. Mary Lee generously offered to make me some breakfast while I attempted some alterations to the bike, which unfortunately I don’t have the tools for right now. I wanted to swap out the front gear for a smaller one, but the clearance to one of the bolts is obstructed by the crank arm, which requires a special tool to remove — And that’s my mistake, because if I had gotten diamond hole instead of square hole pattern crank arms it wouldn’t have any interference issues. Perhaps if I can find a low clearance Allen wrench I could make it work, but it’s unlikely.
After breakfast Mary Lee and Steven signed the front wheel and I was off.
The way out of Valley City was a 300ft climb up a steep hill that it really would have been nice to have a smaller front gear to get up. So instead I burned up my legs and some of my battery to make the climb.
From the top of the hill there was simply a single left turn and then 34 miles of unbroken straight asphalt to Jamestown. After over 160 miles without rest, I intended to make this shorter, easy trek and then take a longer rest.
The terrain was the same undulating small hills with fields stretching in every direction, only broken by occasional wind brakes of trees or small groups of houses near a grain silo or large farm complex. The only thing that I noted that were substantially different was the general sparsity of tree cover overall, and the frequent causeways across medium sized lakes which afforded no shade, but sweeping cool winds.
Asphalt is preferable to dirt track, but I must say this road wasn’t the best experience. It had large horizontal cracks every 15-20ft along its surface that dived down, some deeper than others. If you’ve ever driven over a similar highway you understand how violent the transition in a car can be. The same was the case with these, and a few of them made me thankful I have a front suspension and fat tires. All that to say, it was not the most comfortable or smooth ride.
There were a few high vantage points, like a bridge over the rail line just north of Valley city that offered views into the distance:
Rebekah can testify that I am a lover of trees. Frequently I will point out particularly interesting or beautiful trees as we drive by. Our third date we went out and hiked around Joyce Kilmer National Forest in Western NC. She remarked at the time “This is such a Robert thing to do.” There is something that fascinates me about the structure and shape of trees. They are silent sentinels that are living pieces of art and history at the same time. In light of this you might find it interesting that the great undulating sea of grassland of North Dakota has its own majesty. There is something about the sense of scale of it that leaves me with a sense of awe. It feels both beautiful and dangerous in its own way. I think that’s one of the reasons at some point in my life I would like to see the rolling grasslands of Mongolia.
I haven’t yet told you about it, but the Dakotas into western Minnesota recently endured both tornadoes and violent straightline winds that devastated communities. When I stayed with Debra and Gary in Fargo I was dissuaded of following the planned route to Enderlin because three people had been killed there due to tornadoes and the town was severely damaged. In other places the straight line winds were as forceful as a category 3 hurricane, reaching up to 130mph for hours.
When I was at Bob and Robin’s house Bemidji up the road lost every tree on the university campus. When I toured Valley City my hosts pointed out the many trees that had been felled by the winds. Further as I crossed the terrain to Jamestown I could see many pines snapped in half in the wind brakes between fields. Though I didn’t take pictures of these, you can see the damage from photos Bob sent me of the damage to Bemidji.
About every 6 or so miles I found myself needing a short break along the trail. My muscles, my butt, my hands all seemed to be in a bad state with aches or numbness. Early in the journey I was spoiled for beautiful places to stop and rest:
Eventually the prevailing winds changed from blowing from the south to blowing from the south west. It wasn’t a full on headwind, but it was certainly a drag upon me and the trailer. At around 17 miles to go I decided that with 70% charge it was safe to kick up the assistance level on the bike to make better time. And so my pace went from 11mph to around 15mph. I resolved that when it dropped to 30% I would put the bike into a low power state.
Even with this strategy the heat and winds were oppressive. Both my human battery and my bike battery were running low and a pleasant ride quickly was turning into a grind.
At 8 miles out I had to drop down to low power as I was already below 30% battery. The bike felt extremely draggy to the point where I started to think something was working against me other than just headwinds. Looking down I spotted that my front tire seemed to be very low, but not flat.
So I dismounted the bike in full sun and attempted for 20 minutes to pump it up, unsure if there was a puncture or if it had just lost pressure for other reasons. In the back of my mind I knew I should have just pulled the wheel off and removed the tire, but the process is even more onerous than with my normal bike, requiring a wrench and fanagling with a huge wheel. I naively hoped I could just pump it up and be good.
Nope.
No matter how much air I pushed it the tire just wouldn’t become firmer, yet it also didn’t entirely deflate under pressure. So finally I relented and got out the tools, dismounted the wheel and removed the inner tube. I searched for minutes and only found one seemingly small gash across the surface that let out no perceptible air when the tire was pressurized. Rather than attempt to patch this, I just went directly to my spare tube, and after some struggle to get the tire liner into position I had mostly inflated the tube, at least enough so it was firm enough to limp to a gas station two miles down the road in hopes of a pump. At this point I had literally been pumping for 30 minutes and I just couldn’t continue.
Somehow my bike was now screaming that it was about to lose power completely and so, baked, bedraggled, and bushed I struggled on to the gas station. I took on some much needed fluids before using the automated pump to get the tire completely firm and then rode off towards the motel I had contacted just before my flat.
Lé iyótaŋ wóuŋspe uŋkáȟpi kte…
“This was supposed to be easy…”
Ain’t that the way of it though? Some easy days are the worst, and some of the days you think will be hardest turn out to be easy and pleasant miles.
At least the journey was beautiful:
A needed rest, and beyond Jamestown:
Because of the strain of the last four days, and having made a good pace I opted to take a full day’s rest in Jamestown. So today I’m just puttering around the city conserving energy. Right now I’m sat in a funky little coffee shop “Babb’s Coffee House” situated in a remodeled historical building in the center of Jamestown, enjoying an Irish American and some cookie dough cheesecake while writing.
Earlier today I started to make some calls out to numbers I found in a PDF of different UMC contacts in the area. I connected with a former DS named Kermit who retired and is now living in Tennessee, and then with a current DS named Joel who has promised to get back to me later today with some potential leads.
I was able to talk to the pastor of the UMC fellowship in Steele, my next destination and he’s offered up his camper for a night. So I expect that’s where I will be tomorrow. It’s bound to be a long day requiring a mid-day charge or two because it’s 62 miles over mostly dirt roads. However I expect these to be well travelled and so they should be hard packed as it’s listed as hwy 10.
Are you interested in supporting my journey?
As I’ve described on previous days there are always unexpected expenses, and while I feel like I’ve hit a stride where equipment is finally working I would still be open to any financial help you might be willing to give. Mainly this is to offset the costs of future equipment I may need, or occasional hotel stays (like tonight) which are necessary from time to time. At the end of the trip I will try to donate any unused excess funds to charities like UMCOR to be used for disaster relief.
Here’s the link to my PayPal donation page: