Katie MacDonald - Bike the US for MS
Day 39 - July 5 - Fergus Falls, MN to Fargo, ND - 86.2miIt thundered during the night, but was dry when we woke up and started getting ready for the day. There was even a rainbow over the lake at our campsite. The first 30mi brought us through rolling hills, and into rest stop one in Pelican Rapids. It was here that we were informed that the route leaders notes were not quite accurate, and that the day would be 84mi, rather than 64mi as we had been told initially. I didn't eat enough for breakfast at camp, so we stopped for breakfast at a cute little place called The Muddy Moose. By rest stop two, we were out of the hills, and back to the flat farmlands. With the flats, came the winds, which were somewhat manageable, but pretty tough in sections. I spent most of the day listening to Unbroken on Audible, which is fantastic. Rest stop three was at a general store, and I was able to stock up on Clif Bars and Powerade, and get an ice cream cone. After R3, it was a quick 12mi to camp. We crossed the border into North Dakota, but there was no state sign to take a picture with. Once we got to camp we met Connor, the new route leader/mechanic, showered, set up our tents, and headed out to see Fargo. Jen, Vikki, Catherine, Frank, and I took an Uber to grab Thai food. After that, we met up with Alison, Chandler, Luke, Sharon, and Ethan for Jenga and corn-hole at a local brewery. Day 40 - July 6 - Fargo, ND to Kathryn, ND - 76.9miMy alarm failed to go off this morning, so I slept in an hour later than I wanted to. I probably would have slept longer, if I hadn't woken up to a FaceTime call from Griffin. Since I slept so late, I told the group to go ahead without me, and set off on my own about an hour later. I cruised along on my own, listening to Unbroken, and enjoying the landscape. I stopped for a quick snack at R1, then headed out again. A little while later, I caught up to Chandler at a construction sight. The flagged told us how terrible the road would be, and we were offered a shuttle across, but we decided to go for it. I haven't missed a single mile yet, and I didn't want to start today. Warned about there being a lot of dust in the air, I used one of my arm warmers as a dust mask, but barely ended up needing it. The road was nowhere near as bad as the flagged had described. At rest stop 3, I caught up with Alison, Julia, and Andrea. I grabbed some pizza, relaxed for a bit, and then we set out for the last 21mi, which included some decent sized descents and climbs. We made it into Kathryn (pop. 52) at around 3:30pm, and I joined some people for a snack at the town's only restaurant. After some onion rings, I had my first spigot/hose shower of the trip. Catherine, Stefan, and I walked over to the nearby RV park, and took turns hosing ourselves off with the freezing cold water. Later in the day, I made soup for dinner, which was promptly followed by a couple bowls of corn flakes. We had a safety talk with the route leaders, and then a bunch of us watched Top Gun on my laptop. Day 41 - July 7 - Kathryn, ND to Napoleon, ND - 100.2miToday was our first complete century (100mi ride) of the trip! We started the day early, as a group, but I lagged behind listening to my audio book and rode most of the morning by myself. The first rest stop was on the side of the road, about 30mi into the day. There, I caught up with almost everyone who left before me, except for Andrea who left at about 4:30am and was way ahead. I made a PB&J tortilla, then set off again. At rest stop two, we finally reached a town, and stopped to get lunch. After eating, Andrea, Julia, Alison, and I left together. I stopped to take a number of pictures of the landscape, which was pretty beautiful today. I was starting to feel a bit drained, but eventually I made it to rest stop 3, also on the side of the road, after approximately 80mi. The final 20mi were the hardest of the day, as we had to fight hills and headwinds. It took me over 2 hours to get through that last stretch. When I eventually got to camp, I realized I was 0.8mi short of hitting the 100mi mark, so I did a couple laps around the block to round out the century. We are camping in a town park tonight, so after completing the ride I made a quick run to the grocery store for dinner ingredients. When I got back from the store, I discovered that Eddie had taken my bike, and was cleaning it for me! So sweet of him. I attempted to make scrambled eggs on my camp stove, but somehow, something went wrong and I ended up eating a bowl of cereal instead. After dinner, I had a quick shower at the town pool, which was certainly the best pool shower we have had to date. Vikki, Frank, Catherine, and I then biked into town for ice cream. After ice cream, since I've had no service for over a day and a half (thanks T-Mobile), Catherine and I hung out outside a local bar that had wifi, and dealt with some emails, texts, and other internet related things. After this, I set up my tent, and got ready for bed. Exhausted after such a long day! Day 42 - July 8 - Napoleon, ND to Bismarck, ND - 69.2miSlow moving this morning, and I hit the snooze on my alarm clock at least twice. Set off on my own again, and had finished my audio book by rest stop one. Tonight is brom (bike + prom), so at R1, I hid something in Ethan's trunk bag with a note asking if he'd be my date. Brom is a BTUSFMS tradition, where everyone finds a date (girls have to ask guys), and then gets dressed up in crazy outfits. Ethan didn't end up finding the note until R2, after I hinted about getting something out of his bag. After we got to camp, we took a van into town so that some people could do laundry, and some others could go to the bike store. I was on the laundry team, but after we put the laundry in the wash we headed to a nearby thrift store to find some brom outfits. Thrift store shopping was crazy fun, and Ethan and I decided to go with a tourist themed outfit - Hawaiian shirts, funny hats and sunglasses, and old school cameras. When we got back to camp after laundry/shopping, we got dressed and commenced brom celebrations. The outfits were absolutely insane, and everyone had a great time. Ethan totally committed to the tourist role, and was going around pretending to take pictures with his old camera. Everyone took prom photos with their dates, and then we got some group pics. Catherine, Luke, and Andrea even got some magic marker tattoos to complete their outfits. At 10pm, when camp quiet hours began, we piled into the van and enjoyed a night out on the town. Hands down, on of the most memorable nights of the trip so far. Day 43 - July 9 - Bismarck, ND - Rest DayI woke up to a thunderstorm this morning, my tent rustling in the wind. It wasn't raining though, so I was able to get up and get ready to go to our service project. We had two today, so we split up into groups and headed out. The group I was in went to help Suzie. We did a lot of landscape work, including righting a grape vine that had been blown over by some wind. It was a lot of work, and took about 5h, but the garden looked pretty good after we left. At the other service project, the family offered to let us sleep in their house so that we wouldn't have to camp out in the storm tonight. They're group was also on TV! You can check out the clip here. After packing up our stuff, some of us did a Target run, and then Alison, Catherine and I went out for Mongolian food and frozen yogurt. It was 96F outside, but we had a great afternoon. At Nettie's house, we hung out and watched TV, showered, and did laundry. So happy we're not sleeping outside in this heat! Day 44 - July 10 - Bismarck, ND to Hebron, ND - 69.7miWe woke up this morning to Nettie and Jack's three dogs squealing, barking, and running around the house. Can't complain though, the dogs are absolutely adorable. When I started to pack up my sleeping bag, the biggest of the three dogs came over and curled up in my lap. We finished packing up, had a lovely conversation with Nettie and Jack, and then left for the day. We knew it was going to be hot, so we left relatively early. I rode with Alison and Catherine for the morning, and we quickly got lost on our way out of town. Who designs a city to have two streets named 10th Ave less than 2mi apart? Eventually, we made it to the first rest stop, where we met up with Eddie, who rode into R2 with Catherine and I. Eddie's wheels broke about a month back, and he just got the replacements while we were in Bismarck, so today was his first day riding in a while. It was really hot today, close to, if not over, 100F, so we rolled into R3 at about 12pm, and chilled really hard. We stayed there for over two hours, and I even got a nap in. Eventually, Eddie, Catherine, and I left to wrap up the day with a quick 17mi. The last 17mi were probably one of the best rides of the trip. We took a bunch of photos, and even traded bikes for a bit. We had a nice tailwind, so we made it to our campsite in no time. When we got to camp however, we heard that there was a major storm with softball sized hail and possible tornadoes coming our way. Thankfully, the church next to our campsite let us sleep in their basement for the night. We hung out at the town bar for the night, playing darts, and celebrating Stefan's birthday. Eventually, Catherine and I went to the cafe to get dinner, and Eddie ended up joining us. We were in the cafe when the storm hit, and it was absolutely insane. I have never seen a thunderstorm this bad. We had to run from the cafe back to the church, through the wind and rain and flooded streets. We stayed under the pavilion for a while and watched the storm, and then we cleaned off and watched a movie. Pretty fantastic day! Day 45 - July 11 - Hebron, ND to Medora, ND - 76.2miI rode most of the first section by myself today, and had a pretty solid ride until R1. We had heard that it was going to be really windy, so we were all nervous starting the day, but I had a bit of a tailwind for the first section! We also officially crossed into mountain time. At R2, I caught up with Catherine, Alison, and Vikki, and Catherine and I went to subway for 'lunch' at around 10am. After R2, the wind started to pick up, and Catherine and I took turns drafting off each other. I was feeling pretty good, but the wind was tough. Today was probably the worst headwinds we've had so far on the trip. By R3, we were both pretty exhausted. Leaving the rest stop, Chandler rode with us, and we headed to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park visitor centre, which was on route. The ride down the highway was pretty scary in the wind, and I got blown off the road by a strong gust at one point, but the view of Painted Canyon was absolutely gorgeous! After that, it was a slow, but scenic 7mi ride to camp in Medora. We were supposed to camp tonight, but the campground we were booked at had flooded in last night's storm, so we ended up at a motel called The Bunkhouse. After getting settled and showering, a bunch of us went for dinner and then ice cream. We had a great conversation with the lady at the ice cream store about our journey. Winds are supposed to be the same tomorrow, so heading to bed early! So nice to have a real bed for the night. Day 46 - July 12 - Medora, ND to Glendive, MT - 79miCatherine, Vikki, and I woke up super early, and left at 5:15am to do a quick ride around the national park before setting off for the day. The park was stunningly beautiful, and so worth the extra 12mi. We got tons of pictures, and even saw some prairie dogs. After the park, Catherine and I headed back to our room to pack up. We were procrastinating hard, and sat in the trailer for a while, eating breakfast. Eventually, we headed out for the day at around 8am. I've mentioned headwinds before in this blog, but I had not experienced truly awful headwinds until this morning. As soon as we got on the highway, my iPod starting playing "Blown Away" by Carrie Underwood, which was a good indication of things to come. It took us about 3h to make it the first 25mi, during which time I went through every emotion possible. Catherine and I drafted off each other the whole way there. By the time I got to R1 (which was in a town called Beach, and is nowhere near a real beach) I was more tired than I usually am at the end of a long day. We got subway to refuel, chilled for a bit, then headed out. Shortly after leaving, we entered Montana, and stopped for the obligatory state sign photo. We also crossed the highway to get a picture with the North Dakota sign, as we didn't see one on the way in to Fargo. Less than two miles after leaving, I heard a loud BANG behind me, and turned around to see Catherine with a blown tire. Since the tire itself was wrecked, not just the tube, we had to call the van for help. Stefan and Megan arrived quickly, and we attempted to put a 28x700 tire on Catherine's wheel, to no avail. We were out of the tires that fit her bike, which are slightly different than everyone else's. In an act of desperation, we tried to fix the blown tire with BTUSFMS stickers, but this didn't work. Without a tire, Catherine was forced to get in the van for the next 8mi, so I took off by myself. Catherine actually started an attempt to run the 8mi she was unable to bike, absolutely determined not to miss a mile, but realized it probably wasn't a safe idea and got in the van. I met up with the group again at R2, at a rest stop off the highway, and ate/rested while we waited for Connor to arrive with a new tire. Once the new tire was on, we set off again. The winds in the afternoon weren't quite as bad as the morning, but they were still brutal. There were times when the crosswinds were so bad, I worried a gust would come and push me off the road or into traffic. Thankfully though, there were no such incidents. We made it to camp exhausted, having finished the hardest day of the trip to date. We got in just before 7pm, meaning we were out on the road for almost 14h. A number of people had to get in the van and be driven to camp because the winds were just than awful. I was almost zombie-like as I ate my dinner, set up my stuff, and took a shower. So unbelievably tired. Tomorrow we ride 100mi, but the winds shouldn't be as bad as they were today.
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katie macdonald
Summer 2016, I biked 4,295 miles, coast to coast across the USA to raise money and awareness for MS. March 2017, I biked self-contained from San Francisco to San Diego with my friend Carissa. August 2017 I connected the dots and biked from Seattle to San Francisco. Summer 2018 I am heading to the UK! Follow my journey here! Miles biked for MS:
6,800.13
Updated August 27, 2018 Archives
January 2019
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