After a fine night’s sleep, we packed, ate breakfast, and rode thru quiet Medora, North Dakota. A 6-mile ride on I-94 took us to the Painted Canyon Visitor Center- with fine views of the Badlands in Theodore Roosevelt National Park (see photo). We then rode eastward on I-94 for 10 miles, toward Belfield. As we biked, menacing dark clouds built overhead and to the north. At the Belfield exit, we chose to head to a restaurant to avoid the impending storm.
As soon as we propped our bikes against Trapper’s Restaurant, the storm arrived. While eating breakfast and drinking coffee, we watched the rain and felt grateful to be inside. After the rain, we traveled eastward, on I-94, past wheat fields on gentle topography. We rode into Dickinson-the largest town thus far- to pump up our tires, mail stuff home, and buy food. We found a park with a covered picnic table for lunch. From Dickinson, we followed the official route on Old Highway 10, more or less parallel to I-94.
Our view from the road was mostly grassy pastures and some wheat fields on gently rolling terrain. I met west-bound Northern Tier biker Liam. He was biking from Boston to Anacortes, Washington. Betsy and I stopped in the hamlet of Taylor to admire a beautiful church and get a cold drink. The last 16 miles of the day featured more gently rolling terrain with grassy pastures, but with few cattle. We pulled into Hebron and found the town park to camp. Three other bikers were already set up under a covered pavilion. This was a fine spot, considering the predicted evening thunderstorms. Angela and Vince were biking the Lewis and Clark Trail, while Craig was heading east on the Northern Tier like us. We enjoyed the company of our biker friends and the shade! Today we biked from Medora, ND to Hebron, ND- a distance of 78.7 miles.
