The rain that greeted me yesterday continued through most of the night. I stayed plenty dry since I’d set my tent up under the picnic shelter. The only downside was that my air mattress has a leak and I’m on concrete. I fashioned a pad using the AirHawk seat pad from my bike and my cooling vest. It’s crude but it works and, hey, it’s what camping is all about. I’m not going for the “glamping” thing.
I woke up to a dense fog across the river and the sounds of big fish splashing on the surface.
Some guys were camped down at the far end of the park but other than them, I’m the only one here. I started the packing routine which takes about an hour and was ready to move out about 8am or so. I went back up to Highway 11 but rather than head west toward Baudette, I did a 3 mile side trip going east again. I use a site called Atlas Obscura that locates the more unusual “attractions” around the world and it said that “Basshenge” was nearby. Sure enough, it was, carved out of a small clearing in the forest right alongside the road. Here a link to the details on Atlas Obscura: Basshenge.
Basshenge is, of course, a play on Stonehenge but in this case it is made up of sheet metal sculptures mounted on concrete columns, with all the pieces making reference to the double bass musical instrument. From the air they are seen arranged to form a bass clef. This is pretty typical of what is found on Atlas Obscura, things simply not to be missed.
I headed down the road toward Baudette in a pretty heavy fog at times.
When I got to town I stopped for another photo opportunity, thanks to a heads up from Atlas Obscura. Baudette claims to be the walleye capital of the world and in making that announcement they have a statue of “Wally” at the town enterance.
I know that a walleye is a fish but as a non-fishing person, that’s all I know but the town has plenty of bait and tackle shops, guides, outfitters, and rental places to assist the interested in pursuit of this piscine character.
Baudette has more that fish going for it. AMI Pharmaceuticals has a big plant there and there is a automotive test track that some of the big companies use to test their products in cold weather conditions. This is northern, very northern Minnesota after all. When I think of this part of the state I’m always remind of the references to “Frostbite Falls, Minnesota” on the Rocky and Bullwinkle show from years ago.
Not long after I left Baudette the fog made a quick transition to rain. Dang. The weather app said it was likely to be clear today but it came down heavy for the next 20-miles of so. Then it turned dark, there was horizontal lightening overhead, and the rain came down harder. This is wide open farmland with no shelter in sight. At one point I experienced a short hydroplaning adventure when the road was completely covered with water. It was momentary but it sent a message: slow down. I got to Roseau and some of the streets had started flood so I pulled into a gas station to hide out under their canopy while I pulled on my rain pants. I checked the satellite view of the weather it it looked bad.
When I ran the animation it looked like I was going to continue to get wet, however, the worse of it was to the south and it was moving to the northeast. I decided that if I took off now I might be able to outrun it so off I went.
After a few miles the rain lightened up and I even saw some chance of it stopping as the sky up ahead lightened.
I went through Warroad, the home of Marvin windows, and was impressed by the size of their factory. It must have been 8-blocks long. Up ahead things cleared up and I stopped for some roadside photos.
I needed a break and, just in time, a wind farm showed up with a pullout and explanatory signage.
I needed a snack and dug these out of my bag.
These roads I am riding on today are as straight as a ruler. Maybe a few hills but it’s mostly flat. I would ride on one road to the west for 20-miles and turn right, north, go on for 1- to 2-miles and then turn west again for another 20-miles. Rinse and repeat. I went through sections that were infested with grasshoppers as I could feel them hitting my feet and, at one point, one landed on my tank bag in front of me. It will be a mess to clean off when I get back to Billings. Sorry, no pictures of that, yet.
I made it to Rugby, North Dakota and spotted their county courthouse so added another one to my collection.
Rugby has the distinction of being the “Geographical Center of North America” so I found the monument and grabbed a photo. There was a Subway across the street so I went there for a late lunch/early dinner. Their veggie sandwich has been a staple of this trip. It’s like a salad in a piece of bread. Good stuff.
I gassed up and headed west on US Highway 2, again, and this section was stretching my goal of staying on the secondary roads. It was a 4-lane, divided highway with a speed limit of 70 mph, but it had stop lights, cross traffic, and speed limits through the towns it crossed so I guess it counts. At lunch, as is my routine, I’d searched online for camping options and saw that the town of Stanley, ND had camping in a city park. I’d had a good experience with small town city park camping in the past so I set my navigation app to take me there. The campground is right across the street from the Mountrail county courthouse so I’ll bag another photo while I’m here. It’s a small site, about a dozen spots, right on Main Street and adjacent to a railroad that has something rolling down the track once an hour or so. I don’t consider those a nuisance, more like just part of the atmosphere.
Only three other spots were taken when I pulled in. The instructions said to walk across the street to the courthouse to register but since it was the weekend and after a hours it gave me a number to call. It was answered by the sheriff’s office and they said they’d send someone right over. Sure enough, a few minutes later a sheriff's patrol car pulled in and registered me. It’s supposed to $15/ night but when he saw I was tenting he said it was only $7. What a deal with flush toilets and a shower too. The officer and I had a nice chat about the town and his job. He’s the only one on patrol and another officer is on-call in case something big happens. Their third and remaining officer has the day off. The only other policeman in town is the chief who has been in that position for almost 30-years. He told me that he’d worked 4-years on the nearby reservation and that was pretty busy compared to working in Stanley.
So, I got the tent set up, unloaded my gear and sat down to write this while enjoying an IPA I brought with me from yesterday’s stop. It looked like rain for a bit but now it’s clear. Maybe I’ll have some dry weather for a while.
Today’s ride was 451 miles for a total for 6,071 miles on this trip so far.
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