Day 23: The Badlands

For 60 some miles of today's ride, the landscape appeared unchanged from the previous several days. Then, as I came over a hill, it all changed quite unexpectedly as the grasslands gave way to the badlands - places were wind and water have worn away the sandy soil to carve out curious looking buttes and hills out of the prairie.

North Dakota badlands

In the middle of North Dakota badlands, I stumbled upon the crumbling town of Marmarth, ND. Once a bustling stop on Milwaukee Road (a old time passenger railroad line along which US-12 is built), the town's main street is mostly boarded up and many of the homes abandoned. However, a solitary restaurant and bar continues to serve both locals and the occasional fossil hunter passing through: Pastime Club and Steakhouse. Like other stops in recent days, I was greeted with surprised and dumbfounded looks - a solo cyclist crossing the windswept Plains. Strangers are eager to ask about the trip and its logistics. I am beginning to see that the US-12 route I have taken is a somewhat rare one for cross-country cyclists.

Abandoned theater on the main street in Marmarth, ND

With dining options being highly limited in this part of the country, my friends Steve and Lauren (who spent their day in Theodore Roosevelt National Park) and I returned to Marmarth for dinner at Pastime. Despite furnishings resembling what one might find at a VFW hall, we enjoyed a decent meal in the sparsely populated restaurant. With few tables to attend, our gregarious waitress sat down with us and queried me extensively about my bike trip flabbergasted by the undertaking.

Despite the problematic headwind, I left behind the Dakotas today and entered the largest state on my cross-country ride: Montana. The next 10 days or so will be spent traversing Big Sky country including the remaining stretches of the Plains and the Rockies.

STAGE SUMMARY:

Starting Point - Hettinger, ND

Ending Point - Baker, MT
Distance - 86.1 miles
Cumulative Distance - 1995.5 miles
Vertical Elevation - 2236 feet

Counties - Adams, Bowman, Slope, ND; Fallon, MT

Wind - moderate headwind