Monday 19 July 2010

Camping by a lake after nice day

18th July: Baudette to Northome

Odometer: 117 km, Start: 9.15am, Finish: 4.30pm, Avg: 23.3 km/h,
Weather: Sunny, NW wind, Temp: 17-28°C
Mosquito Bites: 73, Hills walked: 0
Road Conditions: #72 0.5m shoulder, light traffic, reasonable road surface, some perpendicular cracks from time to time. #1, 0.75m shoulder, light traffic, good road surface. Small services at Waskish (63km), Gas station at Kelliher (95km). Ascent: 80m/50m.

I gave the Brooks saddle tensioner a half-turn tighten-up last night and that's made a big improvement. I guess after nearly 4000km my saddle had softened a touch and that's why it hadn't been so comfortable these last few days.

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River at Baudette. Bridge to Canada in far distance
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That's Baudette, "The Wall-eye capital of the world"!

The weather was perfect for today’s ride. Around 28 degrees, but not humid and mostly sunny. A refreshing breeze kept things comfortable as I pedalled south. I thought it was going to be another lonely ride on a long straight road, but the pine forests along the route made for a refreshing change from the open farmland of the last three weeks!

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Rapid River... on a quiet day

I had a 3/4 tail-wind and that made the ride pretty easy. I’d stocked up with food and water as I wasn’t sure what the tiny towns (< 500 people) ahead could provide. I didn’t really have a problem though. Small town America isn’t as small as small town Canada. There are certainly more gas stations around for a start.

I have started to see a lot more water towers in this neck of the woods. There were a few in SK, MB, but more here. I remember the water towers well from my ride across America in 2007. They were normally the first thing you’d see approaching a town.

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Water tower in Kelliher, MN
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Close up of tower

I reached my destination town, Northome, around 3.30pm. I went to the motel but it was closed for Sunday. Probably thought there would be no custom that night! It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The grill house next door told me there was a quiet campsite by a lake just the other side of town. I had a nice pasta meal and then went to find the campsite.

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Bailing up the hay

It was on the shore of Bartlett Lake and was completely deserted and relatively bug free! I’ll take it! I’ve set my tent up on a small hillock to catch the nice evening breeze. I can see out over the lake from the tent door. I’m not sure the love affair with camping is back on, but this will do for this evening…  

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Bartlett Lake, Northome where I camped tonight

1 comment:

Jason Dalton said...

If only that large fish was a shark.... Ciaran would love it!!

Does the 'water tower' remind you of Tilehurst?!?

I would be happy to go white-water rafting down that river!!

Jase