Saturday, April 24, 2021

Day 6: 4/23/21: Bismarck Conservation Area to Maramec Spring Park

 It rained most of the night last night.  I knew rain would greatly reduce the risk of someone meandering thru the woods stumbling upon my campsite.  Also, the rain pattering on the rain fly has about the same effect on me as rain on a tin roof.  Good sleep.

As I was pushing my bike out of the woods this morning, I met a turkey hunter headed in. We greeted each other and kept going our separate ways.  He did ask if I had heard any turkeys, and I told him all I heard was an owl this morning.

A few photos around Bismarck.



I ate a large breakfast at Carla's Cafe in Bismarck (pic below).  When is the last time you saw the black thing sitting on the table beside my breakfast (ashtray) in a restaurant?


Most of the scenery today was similar to that yesterday.  A lot of ups and downs.  After Bismarck, the only towns I went through were Potosi and Steelville.

I stopped at the library in Potosi to use their WiFi to upload pictures to yesterday's blog and finish the blog.  Below is a pic of the courthouse in Potosi.


Steelville was a unique little town.  Their common town art consisted of canoes sawed in half, painted, and then stood upright.  There were a few of them around town (see pic below). 


My destination tonight is Maramec Spring Park (pics below).  I was able to take a hot shower, which felt great. 


Looks like I will be heading out in rain tomorrow. Looking forward to that - NOT.

Total miles today: 70

So here I lay in my tent at 12:49 a.m. adding to today's blog even though it's officially tomorrow.  I went to sleep at about 8:30 p.m. and was in a deep sleep when a thunderstorm with lots of initial rain came through and woke me up.  I had earlier checked the weather and knew it was going to rain later tonight and in the morning.  When I set up my tent, I noticed that the spot seemed in a low area, but didn't give it any other thought.  After a good round of rain, I got my headlight and noticed the perimeter floor of the tent seemed too wet. Then I patted the floor of the tent and it felt like a water bed of the 1970s.  

So a few minutes ago the rain eased up, but didn't stop, so I put on my dirty biking clothes and went out and moved my tent to what seems to be higher ground.  I'm now back in my sleeping attire and feel a lot better about the tent's location.  This one's on me - I should have done a better job picking the location when I set up the tent.




2 comments:

  1. Wow, that sounds like a rough night of sleep. I enjoyed seeing the ashtray! Evidently it must get used sometime - maybe the owner smokes (defiantly) in the restaurant. The courthouse is lovely - looks like the one in Back to the Future.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The guy in the booth beside me was vaping. I think the restaurant still had smoking and non-smoking areas.

    ReplyDelete