We left Wolf Point, Montana kind of late as the newspaper showed up and wanted to do a story about the now famous 1st Annual Portland to Portland ATV Run.  I think we got out of town around 11:30 and we were still dragging from the day before.  Tuesday was toughest day we had.  Temperature was actually above 100 for good part of the day and we really really did go 201 miles for the day.  That was a getting with the program for two young guys like Larry and Jim.

After getting Rod lined up on where to meet us in Culbertson, we headed out of town and soon came upon Herman Shumways ranch.  He raises Black & White Tobiano Paints and we stopped in a visited for a bit.  His email is www.shumwayranch.com if you need to buy a horse this year.  He has customers throughout the United States.  

We traveled most of the day on numerous county roads that were the smoothest gravel roads I’ve ever seen.  Hats off to the guy running the graders in northeastern Montana.  These roads are smoother than most interstates back east. 

Our route was basically in the ditches along highway 13 until we got south of town.  Then we hooked up with Nickwall Rd, followed that and it became gravel road 149.  We stayed on that until we hooked up with Montana 480 which is also gravel.  That turned into county road 146 and stayed on that for quite awhile.  We then headed north on county road 332 which hooked us up to county road 132.  When we hit highway 16 we rode the ditches north until jumping on the road for a few blocks to get across the Missouri River.  That got us to Culbertson for lunch. 

We headed north out of Culbertson around the little air strip and that hooked us up with gravel road 1019 which is also called Sugar Top Rd.  From there it was a series of gravel roads until the North Dakota border.  The photo of a guy named Dave and Jim was actually at the border of the two states.  The line runs north and south along the middle of the road.  When I stopped Dave and asked him if I was in North Dakota yet, he said “nope, you’re in Montana, but I’m in North Dakota.  So we had to snap a picture of that since it was the most exciting thing that had happened that day.  Actually it was not the most exciting thing, the shade tree was!  Man, 100 or more all day and once again a shade tree was a welcome relief.  

We were glad to get to our stopping point about 15 miles north of Williston, North Dakota.  We trailered into Williston for the night and are planning to leave about noon on Thursday even though it says it’s a day of rest.  It’s supposed to be hot again and I want to get rolling to divide make it a shorter ride on Thursday and Friday.  I’m planning on meeting another friend from home who will ride across North Dakota, Minnesota and part of Wisconsin with me.  I’m looking forward to getting to Thief River Falls for an oil change.  I’m not sure, but I think there should be someone there who can do that for me!!!  

Our SageTracker is working find, but it will always be a few days behind in these remote areas as there has to be an uplink with data phone capability to bring it up to date.  Be patient as it WILL show you where we have been.  Once again, the Lowrance GPS has proved its worth many times during the day.  We have not really been lost on any part of the trip to this point. It’s an amazing piece of equipment.  The Arctic Cat is purring right along and I have only had to use my Warn Winch twice on the entire trip.  

I think we are getting closer to the half way point.  I can almost taste those lobsters in Maine!!!!!
 

Click Here Photos from Today!!!