Pictures -- North Country Trail: North Dakota
I entered North Dakota amidst a 3-day long rainstorm. Normally my rain gear consists only of a poncho, but the constant winds out on the plains make it necessary to have a full-on rainsuit. To give you an idea of the winds: it was not uncommon for one side of my body to be completely dry and the other side to be completely soaked, depending on what direction I was heading and from what direction the rain was coming.
First night in the Sheyenne National Grasslands.
The Grasslands are managed by the US Forest Service and are used for grazing by local ranchers -- I always had to be careful of where I was stepping. The land was homesteaded and farmed in the early-1900's but the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl really put the squeeze on the farmers because the soil quality there is sub-par, being very sandy. The government stepped and purchased the land.
My only source of water for 2 days was scattered stock tanks that are filled by wind-powered wells. Yum.
The Sheyenne River Valley, which I followed for about a week. The valley is defined by 100-300 foot high bluffs that lead up to the endless plains above. Sometimes I felt like I was in a scene from Little House on the Prairie -- I could almost see covered wagons working their way along the river.
The valley is deep enough to host a small ski slope, which has a whole 300 feet of vertical.
You probably have heard about the consolidation of farming interests in rural America. Eighty years ago there was a house every quarter-mile; the Homestead Act allotted each family 160 acres (a "quarter"). Today, primarily due to significant improvements in the efficiency of farming equipment and methods (e.g. huge tractors and implements, fertilizers, seed breeding, etc.), there are far fewer small family farms. "Get big or sell out," is the motto. Families that sell out oftentimes leave their beautiful houses to deteriorate under the intense sun and in the harsh winters -- it is always a sad sight to come up on one.
The original swing set at King School, a one-classroom frontier school in the Sheyenne Valley that was closed only in 1967.
I arrived in Valley City to find my face on the front page of the daily paper. It was a complete surprise since the journalist had used this website to write the article without even talking with me.
The "Highline" bridge over the Sheyenne River on the north end of Valley City.