51.3 miles, 1508′ of climbing, (1708.8 tot) – to read from the beginning, click here.
As mentioned in the previous post, Glen Ullin wasn’t a peaceful night. We got up, made coffee on a pile of concrete railroad ties (no picnic tables by the tent sites), had a spot of java and wandered over to where our electronics were charging and Paul and Sam were having breakfast. They were looking at headwinds all day which meant we were going to have tailwinds again. Yeah!
We packed up and headed out for Dickinson. Our first stop was in Hebron (Heh, not Hee) at a family run convenience store where we met the owners and a couple of locals, bought another cup of java and I got a breakfast sandwich and coffee cake to supplement our PB tortillas. We took our haul to the city park and had breakfast. Then onward…
Our next stop was in Richardton where we visited the Benedictine Monks’ Assumption Abbey and St. Mary’s Church. Our host Chris in Milwaukee told us he had stayed there on a cycling tour and suggested we stop if we got a chance. It wasn’t at a good overnight point for us, so we just took a little walk around and met Brothers Udo & John who were as they said, putzing around with a lawnmower. The visitor center was closed but the Brothers said we could look around and visit the church. The Abbey sits on a high bluff with an amazing view and we walked the grounds and went into the church. It was empty save for a women cleaning and watering plants.
On to Dickinson. I had made a reservation at the Red Roof Inn, but Dana had called the North Park campground and left a message. The owner called her back and said they had tent sites. When Dana said we were worried about rain that night he offered a cabin for the same price as the tent site. With the Red Roof in our back pocket, we headed for the campground and were met by the manager who had all the deets of the deal. I got online and cancelled the hotel and we settled in. The cabin was just a step above a pavilion with a wobbly single bed wrapped in plastic. I slept on my sleeping pad & bag on the floor and Dana put her bag on the plastic. It did rain that night, so we were glad we had a roof.
Dickinson, at least the part we saw, was underwhelming — a suburban strip mall. We did some shopping and had a second visit to the Pizza Ranch and got a good load of calories in.
