And I'm Home!

Last night, we stayed with Ken and Mary near Chicago, where I visited a year ago January (link at end).

Ken is a fellow author, and Diane bought one of his fantasy books, Eclipse of the Triple Moons, for her granddaughter.

Mary has some nice garden plants.

We concentrated on driving, but had to make a couple of pit stops, of course. This is at the Welcome Center at Berrien Springs, MI. Some very nice gardens there.

We arrived at my house a little after 3 pm. Marie and Diane took on the "big sort," taking everything out of the car and figuring out who it belonged to, tallying up the money and who spent what. I went for groceries, because the fridge was bare here!

We had rhubarb chicken, rice, and corn on the cob for dinner, with Moose Tracks (of course) ice cream for dessert. Not a great picture with the sun in our eyes, but at least we will remember.

We visited a litte bit after that.

Sigh. Diane and Marie have to leave at 7:30 in the morning. They have a really long driving day tomorrow to get back to Diane's house. It would be great to have one more day together that wasn't a total rat race, but we all have lives that require re-entry.

It was a wonderful trip.

See Ice Age Trail See Stop Two - Ken

Ice Age Trail

We mainly wanted to put a good number of miles under our tires today. But I had one planned wish, and that was to at least put my feet on the Ice Age Trail. We chose Janesville, Wisconsin, because it was on the way to where we were staying for the night.

I did a total of 0.7 mile. But my 20 minutes had just about everything a trail adventure can provide. Some was dirt, some was paved. A turn wasn't marked and I ended up at a dead end in a golf course. I needed a bathroom (but did find a porta-potty- Lon's Jons, actually). Once I went back and found the turn, I saw this. The Ice Age Trail has yellow blazes.

I followed the blazes down some beautifully made rock steps to the Rock River.

So now I have at least put a foot on 4 national scenic trails. Am I trying for all 11? Probably not; my chances of getting out west are low. But if the opportunity arises, I'll take it.

The day started with a fast look at a place called End-O-Line Railroad Park. We were not there when it was really open. That's probably good, or Diane and I would have seriously wanted to take the tour. It was much more than a village park with an engine. Basically, they are recreating a small village from the past. As far as I'm concerned, the key feature is an old turntable. I've seen some old ones, but never one that still has the rail down in the pit that allows the table to turn.

Here are some of the buildings in their historic village.

I was sadly thinking I was not going to see white pelicans on this trip. But we found some!

And just a quick shot out the window as we crossed to the east side of the Mississippi "where we belong."

Staying with friends for the night. Didn't have to set up the tents!

Hiked 0.7 miles, some of it on the Ice Age Trail.

See Dignity of Earth and Sky

Dignity of Earth and Sky

We enjoyed a breakfast with Bill and Bob before completely breaking off from all trail people. The Spillway Cafe got a nice amount of business this week from trail folks. We understand they support the trail, so that's great.

Morning light on the bluffs along the west side of the Missouri River was beautiful. The river divides two geologic regions. On the east side is rolling prairie, and on the west are the eroded plateaus of the badlands. They are higher farther west, but you can clearly see the change in geology.

The boys headed east, and we dropped south into South Dakota. Similar landscape, and yet different.

For sure I learned one thing. I had no idea the Missouri River got this wide so soon. I knew it is huge nearer to where it joins the Mississippi, but this is still far north from there.

Our big goal for the day was to see the "Dignity of Earth and Sky" statue at Chamberlain, SD. Apparently, this is not actually a statue of Sacajawea, although it gets called that a lot. It is to symbolize the interaction of earth and sky and people. She represents the dignity of the native people, the Dakota, Lakota, Nakota. (Nakota was new to me)

It's 50 feet tall, made of stainless steel and weighs 12.5 tons.

I thought the back nearly as interesting as the front. The star quilt is a common design used by the plains tribes. Each diamond is 4 feet from tip to tip. The diamonds have air space between them. This is to allow wind to pass through. It also sort of makes the quilt shimmer.

Here's a closer look at her face.

There was also a Lewis and Clark interpretive center there with some really good displays. Maybe you'll get to see some of that another day.

We are striving to get serious miles in each day on the way home. We continued to a campground and tented yet again, getting in just before dark.

See Western Terminus

Western Terminus

Last day of the Hike Fest. We are all worn out, but it's sad anyway. This is a beautiful laser-cut metal sign support on the Audubon National Wildlife Refuge. This was a gift to the trail by Kathy Beal who has worked at Audubon her whole career and is a great advocate for the NCT. She recently retired.

The trail through Audubon used to be restricted to the road, but before I did my big hike, they decided we could have our own mowed trail.

There is a beautiful visitor's center with nice displays and interpretation of the wildlife. Lake Audubon is an arm of Lake Sakakawea, but it is hydrologically separate because the water level in Audubon is kept the same all year.

The afternoon hikes were staged to end at the western terminus of the entire trail. The one I chose began at the arch which welcomes hikers to Lake Sakakawea State Park (the westernmost land manager for the trail). There is a bell you can ring to celebrate beginning or ending.

And... here are the three muskateers at the actual terminus. My third time here. Marie's second, and Diane's first. The weather was dull when I was here in 2022, so I'm glad to have a picture in nice light.

This was followed by a nice dinner with pulled pork and corn on the cob served by the ladies of Riverdale (the local community). After that was a good presentation on the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

The speaker clarified that the reason there are so many pronunciations of Sacajawea's name is because each tribal language had it's own nuances. In the Lewis and Clark journals it's usually Sacajawea or Sacagawea, but in North Dakota, one says Sakakawea!

Always hard to say goodbye to such good friends who care about this trail. We have noted that quite few of the people who have been involved for years are aging out. I think we have some younger folks stepping up to fill in. But, you know, I've been a member since 1995. In that amount of time there is bound to be a serious attrition rate. There were about 90 people who participated, which seems pretty good for an event that wasn't an actual national conference, and was at one of the termini. Those always have lower attendance because of the travel burden. The North Dakota chapters did a tremendous job of putting this together. Major Kudos!

Hiked 4 miles on the NCT in Audubon Wildlife Refuge and Lake Sakakawea State Park.

See Travel Day

Travel Day

The main project for everyone on Friday was to travel from the east side of the state to Lake Sakakawea in time for an evening hike.

There were clues to gather for the Scavenger Hunt, and we also had an agenda of our own. Of course I wanted to show Diane everything, but that wasn't going to work. She did want to see the two big railroad bridges across the Sheyenne. This is the Hi-Line Bridge in Valley City. It's double track up there!.

Then we went farther up the Sheyenne where it has been dammed to form Lake Ashtabula to see the Karnak Bridge. This one is single track. This bridge was there before they created the lake, because of course the valley was there and had to be spanned whether there was water in it or not. I loved seeing this bridge from a different perspective. The trail goes beneath both of these.

By then it was lunchtime. We stopped at a little cafe and had really good wraps or burgers. Acress the street was an unusually well-planned and attractive little park filled with flowers. The butterflies love the Joe-Pye Weed. Note both a Tiger Swallowtail and a Monarch.

This picture doesn't look like much, but it was the big "wow moment" of the day to me. This is a shot of the McClusky Canal from up above. The trail follows the canal for miles. While you are down there on the service road, the canal is your whole world. You just keep hiking with only the next bridge as your next goal. See McClusky Canal

From above, and this is a very busy place, it's just a thin wet line through the landscape. Here the canal is in a culvert under the state highway and the curved line is the service road that switchbacks up to cross the highway. The canal looks incredibly insignificant. I find this amazing, because it's such a huge part of the NCT North Dakota experience.

We arrived at Lake Sakakawea. This is the third-largest man-made lake in the US. It is created by damming the Missouri River.

We set up camp, wolfed down a fast dinner and arrived just in time for the ribbon cutting for a brand new segment of trail.

This is so new, I hadn't seen it. It's a three-mile secgment around the city of Riverdale, instead of following a street. It's closer to the lake with several views which is quite nice. Hikers in the hazy evening with the lake behind them.

This was followed by a campfire and s'mores which we took a pass on. It had been a long day.

Miles hiked- 3 North Country Trail around Riverdale ND.

See Sheyenne River State Forest