what a difference riding with the wind makes. and a good nights rest. and a couple of good meals. and a smooth gently rolling road. 35 miles in around 2 hours.
i was not thinking there was going to be a significant difference between montana and north dakota, but there is. in montana, rte 2 followed the milk river and , after glasgow, the missouri. the rivers run in a valley, maybe a mile wide? the valley is like an old river bed with 'banks' 50 - 100 feet high on either side. inside the valley, the river meanders. you can tell where the river is, because that's where the trees are. the rest of the valley is green fields, either crops or pasture. above the valley, where there is no irrigation, are the long expanses of grasslands and wheat fields.
north dakota, somewhere along the line, has changed. rte 2 no long follows the river. the missouri turned se to join the yellowstone just before the boarder. the central part of dakota is a series of gently rolling hills. grass and wheat dominate, most trees are still grouped around the house, barn, silo complex. scattered throughout are ponds. natural water features of various sizes. i can't see what feeds them, they look like sink holes, but obviously don't drain. it averages only 15 inches of rain a year here, so it doesn't seem like runoff would be enough to keep them full. this year both montana and north dakota have gotten significantly more rain, around 20-25 inches already. north dakota feels less western than montana. i get the feeling this is a little prelude to wisconsin. the farm building cluster is different. rather than the weathered wood clapboard of montana, there's starting to be nicer houses, painted, and a little neater.
i remember chris welsh mentioned the water and the birding along the northern tier, the high-line.
a little later, just passed minot (pronounced my-not) and the rolling hills have changed to pancake flat. the water is still there, but not it takes the form of wet lands. i never thought of the word 'slough' in the same sentence as 'north dakota', but there it was. this morning, while sitting out another brief shower, i was talking to a farmer and that was how he referred to them.
i spend a lot of time looking at birds and vegetation. i'm not very good at identifying them, but i've learned a lot in the last couple of years, thank you chris. would probably learn more if i had better eyesight.
it occurred to me that the crows have disappeared. out west they were everywhere. but now there are blackbirds and red wing blackbirds everywhere. as i ride along, they like to fly above me and scold me. they and the, what i think, are sparrows and the gulls that seem to be everywhere. i pack very light and haven't missed anything yet, except i would have liked to have those binoculars suzi wanted me to take. she said she would bring them to chicago.
there are no blue jays or cardinals. didn't wake to a morning dove for the first time in a while. haven't heard a towhee in sometime. think i saw a hawk today, the first in a week, and then later a pair chasing each other. not a hawk like i'm used to, but a little leaner type. thought i saw a magpie. there's a few water fowl: basic duck, mallard, only one flock of geese. there was a pair of black ones, taking off out of the water, classic dragging the feet as it flapped wings. no herons or egretts. a couple of sounds i don't recognize.
i've talked with several farmers and ranchers now. it's interesting, i would have thought getting 20 inches instead of 12 would have been a blessing. not so, apparently, though a lady at a grocery store told me that everything is much greener now than usual. yesterday, storm clouds came in and it started to rain lightly. i stopped and asked a farmer if i could take shelter in his barn to i knew what the weather was going to do. he said 'sure', but he never stopped working outside mowing grass. we did talk for a little before i hit the roadc again. he said that he was lucky, he got all his seed planted, but he knew a bunch of other farmers who hadn't been able to because of the rain. on the other hand, it's been wet enough that he needed to spray his crops with a fungicide, but it wasn't worth it to him because he had too much crop damage from hail. he'd never seen weather like it.
today, i stopped at one of ther small towns spaced 6 miles apart on the railroad line. there had been a light drizzle, but i thought it was sliding by. while inside, there was a 15 minute rain burst. this gave me a little time to talk to a couple of farmers. they were going to mow hay, then head to the state fair over in minot. i was told that the problem is that the soil is too heavy, it can't drain the water. by 'heavy' i think he was talking about clay. he should be in tenessee.
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