Day 36 — Culbertson to Little Egypt

July 18, 2021. It’s become my pattern because of the heat. Get up super early and get on the road while it’s still dark. It’s cool, there’s no traffic, and I can get to my destination before the heat of the afternoon sun.

Within about 20 miles I made it to the Montana/North Dakota state line. I’ve been pedaling and paddling through Montana for 20 days (!). Getting into North Dakota makes me feel like I’m making progress.

As I rode further east, I entered the industrial ag/fossil fuel landscape of the Bakkan oil fields. Virtually all the traffic was trucks servicing the thousands of wells spread across this part of Eastern Montana and Western North Dakota.

At Williston, I decided to stay on a lesser used road south of Highway 2. I ended the day camping at the Little Egypt County Park, located on Lake Sakakawea. All the water was marked “non-potable”, so I stopped at a random RV and asked if they had any drinking water to spare. It turned out that the owner was Jeremy Ludlam, the director of Williams County Parks, and he manages 5 of these campgrounds. He graciously gave me a few gallons of water, and showed me a shady space to camp.

The campground overlooks the Sakakawea Reservoir. You can see that the water level is way, way down.

The other issue is that I was expecting the store at Lund’s Landing to be open, but it turns out they are closed on Sunday. So it was a couple energy bars for dinner. I tried to go to crash early but the heat made it hard to sleep.

Tomorrow it’s supposed to get to 100, and I have close to 100 miles to ride to Minot. So the plan is to get up super early.