Sakakawea Wind - Day 207

  The day began with a really strange coincidence. When I got to Lake Sakakawea State Park to sign the register for the Western Terminus, there was another young man there who was beginning a hike of the NCT this exact same morning. His name is Patrick. He says he'll be posting on Instagram. Here are the two of us at the sign. But he'll be moving much faster than I am. He's young with long legs and a lot of hiking experience. He plans to do 40 miles a day.

Someone snapped a picture of Omer and me there.

Speaking of the register, there were "historic" entries by Ed Talone; Sue Lockwood and her brother Gordon; me with Marie, Mathilda and David in 1995; Chet Fromm, Dan and Ruth Dorrough; Shane Peltonen; and more. Very cool stuff.

The trail is a grassy mowed path through the State Park to this gateway. On "my" side, it said "Onward to Vermont." On the other, it has "Gateway to the Western Terminus." You can see the lake beyond it.

For safety reasons, we no longer walk across the top of Garrison Dam, but drop down the face, and then climb back up, on a service road. This does give a good view of the huge dam itself. When this was built in the mid-1950s, it was the largest packed earth dam in the world. It holds back the waters of the Missouri River to create Lake Sakakawea (suh-KA-kuh-WEE-uh). The lake is about 14 miles long and 2-3 miles wide.

Here's a much better view of the Badlands, across the Missouri River. I think the answer to why they look so different from the rest of the state is that they were not glaciated.

The challenge for today was wind. Serious wind. 40 mph wind that made it difficult to stand up. As I was walking along the east side of the lake, the wind was picking water up from the surface and spraying it as horizontal rain. It was wet enough that I had to put the camera in its plastic bag.

When I stopped for lunch, I was sitting surrounded by grass waving in every direction. I could not see the road. It was surprisingly disorienting.

It was overcast and downright chilly, so the water was not sparkling blue, but here's the picture of the lake I like best from today.

Once I left the shores of the lake, it was soybeans, corn, wheat and grass forever. Several of the roadwalks were nice farm lanes.

I was very glad to be done for the day and out of that wind. It will take a few days for my feet to get happy about 15 miles a day again, but I'll get there.

Miles today: 15.0. Total miles so far: About 2463 (will be updated when I have the exact number)

See 3 Miles that Don't Count