Dickinson to Bismarck (or, North Dakota’s Most Wanted)

After a night of very little sleep at the hotel in Dickinson, we moved everything out of the room (which required reassembling Higgs’ trailer), hit up a grocery store for some much needed noms, and headed east again. This time we got off I-94 and took a frontage highway. The interstate is fun and all, but occasionally it is nice to have a few minutes of your day absent the Sword of Damocles in the form of a Mac truck flying at you from behind at 75 MPH. The day was fairly easy – the wind wasn’t in our favor (what else is new) but the hills were fairly mild.

We have stuff…

As early evening approached, we stopped to try and find a place to camp in the small town of Richardton. There was a small park near the rail tracks that we stopped at, but we weren’t sure if camping was allowed. Anna went into a local bar to see if anyone knew if we could set up our tent in the park or not. After about five minutes she came back and reported we couldn’t, but that there was a cheap campground just a few miles away. That sounded good to us so, after a bit of lounging around in the park to eat some dinner, we hit the road again headed for the campground.

About one mile out of town, a car came flying down the road and just barely missed hitting us when it passed. The car then swerved over onto the shoulder directly in front of us and came to a complete stop. The driver (let’s call him Bobby) got out of the car to flag me down. I thought he might be drunk at first…then when he got out of the car, I thought maybe he was trying to be helpful, despite being a very shitty driver. When I stopped near him, he informed me he’d been in the bar in Richardton when Anna came in, his wallet was now missing, and he thought Anna had stolen it. I informed him she hadn’t done that, and even told him he could call a sheriff to search our stuff if he wanted.

Now, we wouldn’t actually consent to a sheriff searching our stuff without a warrant. We both think it is important to flex your rights and resist the overreach of government agencies. Besides, we have private things in our possessions (i.e. sex toys), which were none of Bobby’s business, and also it takes about 60-90 minutes to pack everything up – the sun was setting and we didn’t have time for that. But, I figured convincing Bobby that we were going to cooperate was better than just riding off and appearing very guilty/suspicious. He clearly could keep up with us in his car wherever we went, and he’d showed us he wasn’t particularly concerned with our safety.

A few minutes later, a minivan pulled up with a woman in the driver’s seat (her name is now Trixie). She informed us that the bar had a video that they were in the process of reviewing. We responded that this was good news, since a video would clearly prove that Anna hadn’t stolen anyone’s wallet. They seemed to be displeased that we were comfortable with a video. Bobby seemed to double-down on the sheriff threat and told us we should ditch any weed we might have. I feel like we should have been offended by his assumption. Or maybe everyone just carries weed around all the time in North Dakota?

Forty-five minutes or so passed with us just standing around, waiting. Just as I was going to insist that we needed to get going before the sun set, Bobby said he was giving up and heading back into town. The guy that had been in the car with Bobby (Ricky… sure, let’s go with Ricky) asked me to call him so that he would have my phone number. Then he changed his mind and said he would call me. It took him a long time to type in my number. I got his phone call and read out his number to him. He then asked me to text him so that he had my number. I think he might have been drunk. After my text finally went through so that they had my number, Bobby, Ricky, and Trixie all finally drove off back towards town.

We’ve thought a lot about this incident in hindsight, and we’re not convinced a sheriff was ever called, nor that a video actually exists. I think Bobby lost his wallet (or forgot it at home) and when he couldn’t find it, his gut reaction was to blame the outsiders for stealing it. Chasing us was pretty illogical though. Even if Anna did steal the wallet, she certainly would not have kept it on her an hour after the theft. It would be crazy foolish to try and use someone’s credit cards the next day and we have no use for a driver’s license. Cash is valuable but they could never prove that cash once belonged to him.

We are often treated as outsiders when we come into towns, and I guess we are outsiders in a lot of ways. It is really interesting, the types of assumptions people make about us. Many are friendly but occasionally we get grouped into one of two negative boxes. We are often seen as either transient criminals or trust-fund babies. The assumption seems to be that two people who travel by bicycle around the country are not truly contributing to society. In reality, the truth is more complex…we both have jobs and work hard to sustain our lives. We may not see working full-time as something that fits our life but we aren’t mooching off our parents (or stealing wallets from strangers) in order to fund our lives. We are the product of a new world where technology allows minimalists to have little while living a lot. Many people seem to have a problem grasping that.

Anyway, after the long delay by Bobby and crew, we were finally able to bike the last two miles to the campground. The road was dirty and hilly but we made it with a little bit of daylight left. Just as we finished setting up our tent, a truck pulled into the camping area and pulled up to our site. Anna and I both assumed that this had something to do with our previous encounter – maybe the sheriff was here to try to search our stuff without a warrant – but we were wrong. A woman was driving the truck and she was visibly upset. Her name is now Vivian.

Vivian told us that her husband had left her that morning and that she needed a phone to borrow to make a phone call. Unfortunately, we had no signal at the campground. She said her vehicles were all basically out of gas and, since she was still waiting for her debit card to arrive in the mail, she had no way to access any of her money. Anna asked if a few dollars would help and Vivian said yes, so Anna gave her $20 (a little “pass it on” from our time in Glendive). Vivian swore she would pay us back before we left, but we told her not to worry about it.

In the morning, Vivian returned to our campsite with her horse. She came to just chat and thank us for our generosity. She still hadn’t gotten her debit card in the mail, so she couldn’t pay us back, but she promised to “pass it on” to someone in need when she was able. Her horse munched cheerfully on the leaves of a nearby tree as we talked. I always forget how huge horses are. Vivian told us about her riding accident 8 years ago and how she still had some brain damage from it. People telling us about tragedies in their lives is a pretty common occurrence – I’m not really sure why, but people seem to open up easily to Anna and me. Maybe bearded men and dirty blonde girls seem naturally trustworthy. (Although, given what happened yesterday in Richardton, maybe not!)

Leaving the park was a huge pain because of the unpaved road and insanely steep hills, but we eventually made it back to the paved road with a little towing help from Higgins. That dog is strong. Once back on the (real) road, we had a solid tailwind for the first time ever, not just some 4 MPH breeze but a full-on 15-20 MPH blast at our backs. It was fucking magnificent. We did end up getting back on the interstate for the final stretch of the day because the side road turned into gravel. We couldn’t find a good place to camp until the very end of the day after the sun had already set, when we finally ended up setting up our tent in a grove of trees under the watchful eye of Salem Sue (a giant cow statue, obviously). The day ended up being over 50 miles, but we crossed into the Central Time Zone and knew that we would be in Bismarck for a three day rest the following day.

We woke early from our nest under the protection of the unsleeping Sue. It wasn’t a great night’s sleep, since several cars and a few pedestrians passed noisily by our spot throughout the night, but none of them spotted us. It also rained most of the night, which is always a bummer. Once we got moving for the day, our first priority was refilling our water, so we stopped by a park about half a mile away. The park actually allowed camping and would have covered us from the rain, but we hadn’t known it existed. The lack of Internet presence for some of these cities and their resources is pretty disappointing. Even Google didn’t know the park existed. I did end up adding it to Google though. I do my best to add and rate places on Google, Yelp, and Freecampsites.net whenever appropriate.

Thanks Sue!

While Anna was filling water, a truck pulled up and asked her if we had paid the $10 fee for camping at the park. She explained that we hadn’t actually camped there, we were just refilling water at the pump. The man in the truck rolled his eyes and grunted, clearly not believing her. He then drove over to me near the bathroom and asked the same question. I told him the same thing and he grunted again and sped off. I guess we can add “alleged freeloaders” to our list of things North Dakota has accused of us, along with “alleged pickpockets”. Maybe I should put those things on LinkedIn (shit…when was the last time I updated that thing?).

The day warmed up quickly and soon we were sweating as we rode along the steady rolling hills towards Bismarck. During one of our breaks on the side of the road, a man drove up on an ATV. (Apparently ATVs are a primary form of transportation out here. We see them everywhere on all types of roads being driven by children and adults.) The man told us some of the history of the area, including how his grandfather homesteaded the area when he came west over 100 years ago. He also told us how he would destroy any Native American artifacts he found on his farmland because if he reported them it would be a bureaucratic nightmare that could lead to him losing his land.

About halfway between New Salem and Bismarck, the trail flattened out and we had some smooth, flat riding for a change. When we got to Mandan (a suburb of Bismarck), we even had a beautiful bike trail leading into the city. With the exception of one little stretch of highway, we had bike trails throughout the whole city, including on a bridge going over the Missouri River. It being a beautiful Sunday, there were tons of people around our age floating the river, tanning their bodies, and stirring some feelings in our loins. It has been a while since we banged.

The Mighty Missouri!

Before heading to our campsite for the night, we stopped by a grocery store to get some food. While Anna was inside shopping, I was approached by two people who saw the bikes and gear. Strangers chatting with us is not an uncommon experience. These two (a mother and son I think) kind of stuck out though. When they found out that we started in Los Angeles, the son’s eyes grew bright. He told me that he had always wanted to go to Los Angeles but didn’t think he would ever make it. He was probably in his early 20’s and the statement made me a bit sad – he seemed much too young to have given up on visiting a city that interested him. In reality, pretty much any age is too young for that in today’s world. Bismarck is a fairly large city but to have resigned yourself to never leaving is a foreign idea to me.

The mother mentioned that she had never really left Bismarck and seemed very afraid of the world. And of course, she asked if I had a weapon of some sort to protect myself. This is also a pretty common question, but seems to come exclusively from people who have spent a long time in the same place and haven’t traveled much. These people seem to have a fear about the world that is almost entirely unfounded. We live in the safest time ever in human history and the vast, vast, vast majority of people are good. While there is some truth to Tolkien’s statement that stepping outside your door is dangerous (“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to”), it is mostly just dangerous to your biases and sheltered view of the world. In our experience Mark Twain had it right:

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

The campground we decided to stay in in Bismarck wasn’t perfect but the price was right ($10 per tent per night). Water, bathrooms, and such are all we really need. Sadly, no WiFi or electricity were easily accessible, so after a morning quickie we biked into town to hang out in a Starbucks for 8 hours or so. After getting our work done, we hit the store to get some fresh food to grill, including eggplant (my favorite). We got to sleep pretty late at night and soon after falling asleep the rain started… a rain that would last all day Tuesday and confine us to the tent all day (working, for the most part). Stupid rain.

Stupid rain…

Oh well, we still have another day in Bismarck to tidy up any loose ends, and maybe even explore the city a bit.

 

Helena to Bozeman (or, The Hills of Methtana)

Helena proved to be a fun little town. There was definitely a more rural feel to it than Missoula, but it still had some great breweries and bars, and our Couchsurfing host was amazing. She showed us around town a bit (took us to Blackfoot River brewery as well as Lewis and Clark brewery), and she graciously let us take over her backyard and house for a few days. I feel like Helena has a lot more for us to find if we had time to explore and dive in a bit. Maybe someday we will be back for an extended stay.

Higgs. Chillin’.

On Wednesday (5/20) we hit the road again. Our next major stop was Bozeman, Montana…another city we knew nothing about but shows up on a map. The day started out a little late for us, it is always tough to gather up and get moving after a few days off, but by 11 AM or so we were back on the road. It wasn’t long before we were greeted by our old friend, Headwind. Headwind sucks and I want to punch him in his cocky throat. The first hour or so was a little rough with Headwind plus a slight uphill, but eventually the wind settled down and things got a bit easier. The time passed quickly as we wound through the mountains, and we even saw some antelope (antelopes?) in a field!

The last ten miles or so of the day were pretty easy, it was mostly downhill. We are now coasting along the Missouri River which eventually finds its way to St. Louis (thank you informative sign at the campsite for that info). Also, Lewis and Clark hung out around here a couple hundred years ago, which I find kind of cool.

Home is where the tent is.

Our place of rest for the night was a little campground along the Missouri (Indian Road Campground). It was free, which is always a bonus. Also, someone left a full can of Coke on the table near our spot so we mixed that with some rum we happened to have. I don’t remember where the hell we got a small bottle of rum but I’m glad we had it. It was nice getting into the campground a bit early, I was able to plug in the solar system, get some work done, and even do a little reading. This camping thing is pretty cool when you have some daylight to enjoy it.

The night was fairly uneventful and our morning was calm and relaxed. We eventually hit the road around 10:30 AM and made a quick stop at a gas station in Townsend to get some water. The campground we stayed at was wonderful in many ways (including being free) but it didn’t have any potable water available. But, nothing a stop at a gas station couldn’t fix!

The route for the day was similar to yesterday, a gradual uphill for about two-thirds of the ride and then a downhill into our planned camping spot near Three Rivers. Despite an early appearance by Headwind (blast him), things went smoothly until about 10 miles into the ride. Then, we hit some construction. This wasn’t just normal construction with flaggers or a detour of a few hundred yards, this was serious construction. The entire road had been torn up and was basically gravel-covered mud for about five miles. Hardly ideal for a car, much less a bicycle. We didn’t really have a choice, as no alternative routes showed up on any maps, so we just continued through the construction zone cautiously as semis blazed past us at alarming speed. (It seems they really don’t care if there are no road markings or actual pavement to drive on.) About halfway through the construction, one of the workers stopped us and said we could ride in an area that was sectioned off from the main road. Apparently they weren’t doing any work in that area today so it was all ours. It was still gravel, but at least we didn’t have vehicles flying past us spraying us with mud and flying rocks.

Reluctantly crouched at the starting line.
Engines pumping and thumping in time.
The green light flashes, the flag goes up.

We eventually made it through the construction, got back on solid road, and were finally able to take a much-needed break. We saw a hitchhiker who waved to us, but that was about it. Then, a few minutes later, we spotted a bicycle chained to a piece of farm equipment. Sitting nearby was a bedroll, a backpack, and some other belongings. One of the tires on the bike was flat and we realized the hitchhiker may have actually been a cyclist who needed assistance. If that was the case, we wished he would have asked for our help! Regardless, Anna and I both promised to start explicitly asking any travelers we pass, especially those on foot, if they need help instead of just smiling and waving. One benefit of riding so heavy is that we generally have plenty of water, food, and electricity to share with anyone who might need it.

Peter admiring that world famous “Big Sky”

Eventually we got back on the road after our break, climbed to the top of our hill, and found ourselves staring at dark storm clouds right in our path. It was tough to judge distance but we guessed they were a couple miles away, coming our direction. There wasn’t much we could do so we just pressed on and hoped for the best. Luckily, we somehow missed the storm and made it to our campground without really encountering anything more than a few random raindrops.

Hmm, that doesn’t look good.

The campsite (Missouri Headwaters State Park) was a bit of a disappointment. First off, it is expensive as fuck. It is $28 for a tent spot (despite saying $10 online). Normally a campground will offer you some amenities for that price, like running water, electricity, possibly a shower and/or laundry facility on site, maybe a pavilion, or even just beautiful scenery. Unfortunately, this campground did not get the memo. It is miles away from any actual rivers or trails or anything you would come to the state park to see. There is no electricity, showers, laundry, or even trash removal on site. The bathroom is an outhouse. And the only place to refill water is about three miles away from the campsites…which meant we had to bike an extra six miles to fill our water bottles. We essentially paid nearly $30 for worse amenities than we had at the free campground the night before. Kind of disappointing, but not much could be done. (We were pretty beat at the end of the day and biking an unknown number of extra miles to avoid this campsite didn’t sound fun.) We set up our tent, ate some food, charged the solar battery for a bit, and went to bed. Soon, we would be in Bozeman.

Rainbow!

The road to Bozeman was fairly straightforward – we had some rolling hills with small towns and farms along the way. We met some friendly horses who ran up to their fence and eagerly snatched up a few baby carrots out of Anna’s hands. This might have been some sort of farming taboo, feeding horses that aren’t yours, but everything seemed to turn out okay.

Anna feeding some carrots to our biggest fans.

And, of course, we were surrounded by meth. Anti-meth signs were everywhere. The hand-drawn “not even once” posters dotted the landscape and every city advertised (bragged? warned?) that they were a “Meth Watch” community. I really never knew Montana had a meth problem and part of me seriously wonders why. Is it just impossible to get good drugs? I guess Montana is pretty far from the traditional drug pipelines of Seattle, Chicago, New York, Miami, San Diego, etc… but man, this is the age of the Internet. I know for a fact you can order incredibly clean MDMA online and have it delivered by the postal service, and all you need is an Internet connection, Google, a few hours of spare time, and a ninth grade level reading comprehension. Oh well, I guess out here meth is king, which is really kind of sad because MDMA is such a better experience. I’ve never actually done meth unless it was mixed with Molly to make it a bit speedier. Much like heroin it really doesn’t appeal to me, but I do know people who use meth recreationally and are functional parts of society.

I’m torn on these scare tactics. I could see them being effective in a limited way if only applied to certain drugs. If we had a comprehensive education program about drugs and ended the tyrannical war on drugs, then it could be effective to have a couple drugs (like meth) that are advertised as too dangerous to try even once. But clearly that requires us to stop putting weed, MDMA, cocaine, ketamine, 2C-B, LSD, shrooms, and everything else into the same category. If you tell students that all drugs are really bad (mmm-kay) and they end up smoking some weed and see that it isn’t that bad, then you undermine the entire program. If the government is willing to lie about weed, why should I trust them about meth?

Of course, the best thing to do is to legalize everything and put more money into health services like Portugal did. Further research into addiction is showing that the environment is a major factor, and people (or rats) don’t sink their whole lives into a drug if they have a community to be a part of. The research and work done by Dr. Carl Hart is really changing how we look at drugs and policy, but sadly not many politicians are listening because power is gained by blaming drugs.

Anyway…that was an unexpected tangent.

About halfway into Bozeman, we started getting some ominous clouds forming over us. I thought we were going to be luck out again, Anna wasn’t so sure. Anna was right. I should listen to her more. After lunch we ended up getting soaked for about 20 minutes. To be honest, sometimes that sucks more than it raining all day. Getting pissed on for just 20 minutes feels like a prank. Like Zeus and Poseidon are on Mount Olympus laughing at our happiness and thinking it would be funny if we had dripping wet socks, but not wanting the farmers in the area to actually get their crops watered. Fuck you Zeus and Poseidon.

Welcome to Bozeman?

Despite the downpour (and another one soon after that, which we escaped by hiding under a Safeway awning), we made it to our wonderful Couchsurfing host’s home in Bozeman around 6 PM. We chatted for a couple hours, despite all of us being pretty tired (she had early work in the morning). Our host is going to start a European bike tour later this year and it was fun to exchange experiences, talk about equipment, and hear each other’s plans. Sadly, we are only staying here one night and the rest of our time in Bozeman will be with someone we met off Warm Showers. She seems pretty awesome too so I am sure things will continue to be great. In some ways this bike ride is more about the people than anything. We meet such awesome fucking people. Hell, we even had a stranger offer to let us crash in his living room when we were buying supplies at REI. The world really is filled with beautiful, amazing souls who genuinely want to help others reach their potential and experience all this world has to offer. It is an inspiring thing.

**If you are interested in more photos of our journey we have a Facebook page you can follow (www.facebook.com/shiftsandhiggles).**