Lonetree Wildlife Management Area - Day 216

  I'm starting with a throwback picture, one of my favorite lonely North Dakota pictures of all time. This was in 1995 with Marie, David, and Mathilda. It's made the rounds of brochures, the North Star, programs, etc. It was taken in Lonetree, with the headwaters of the Sheyenne River in the background.

There was less water out there today, but it was still lovely and lonely.

In Lonetree, I saw a lot of this. The mowed path is invisible in the foreground, but you can see an NCT marker. Then the trail curves up a hill ahead.

The good news is- you are seeing a mowed path. That made the trail finding really easy. There are Carsonite posts, but some are damaged or missing (they tried a new kind of post, and it doesn't hold up to the ND wind), and they don't stick up above the really tall grass. The person responsible for the mowing is Shelly. He came to visit us the other night. I had already decided that whoever pulled off that 30-mile feat was "A BEAST." His wife Nikki concurred with that. What a job! Thank you, Shelly. He hopes to keep it mowed to improve the footing.

There is way too much about Lonetree to cover in one post, but I have to try. In the western half, probably the best feature is a shallow double lake created by an impoundment of the Sheyenne River that is 5 miles long. The western half is called Sheyenne Lake, and the eastern part is Coal Mine Lake. The trail crosses on a causeway in the middle that divides them. There is a nice campground at each end.

In the east half of Lonetree, the best feature is the Sheyenne River Valley two pictures above-. Here the headwaters of this 591-mile-long river are lazy and meandering. But you can see from the broad valley that it did some significant work in the past.

One very special place is a tipi site identified by someone from North Dakota Game and Fish. I'm told you can't see the ring shapes unless they burn the grass, but I tried to take a picture that shows the flat plateau on the left and the view across the valley beyond. You can easily see why it was chosen as a location to live.

I got one fairly good picture of a bobolink. There are so many prairie plants. I don't know how I'll ever show you those. I suppose some day I'll have to choose the best pictures and just do flowers. They are so different from the East.

Today, I finished Lonetree and began the New Rockford Canal section.

Miles today: 15.9. Total miles so far: 2590.1

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