I found that the road followed the coulee for a mile before the pavement ended. I decided to ride further. When the road climbed south out of the coulee I decided to continue on to see what was on top. Those who know me know when going somewhere new, I will go a little further, then talk myself into going a little further, then a little further. It is the "North Dakotan" in me, always curious as to what lays beyond the horizon.
The road continue on south and west. While I didn't expect another road soon that would allow me to return north as the coulee was quite large, I did expect to eventually find one, sooner rather than later. Just as I was about to turn around and head back on this washboard gravel road I came to a connecting north/south road, which I took.
A half mile or so later my only option was to again go west as the road north was marked as a dead end. The west road was no longer a washboard road, but it was only a single lane and the indications was that it was not heavily traveled.
The entire time I was on a gravel road I did not see or hear another vehicle and only saw a few far off groves of trees surrounding a farmstead. Otherwise the scenery was yellow and brown fields. It was all flat except for the coulee to the north I saw when the road would come nearer it.
Where am I going? I had ridden over a dozen miles out into the middle of nowhere on a bicycle. The sun would set in the not too distant future. While the temperature was in the upper 30s, riding out here the end of December might not have been the smartest thing to do. But then that's me.
Finally I came to another north/south road. After two miles I came to a paved road and I took it east until I came down a long hill and returned to the Souris River valley. Fortunately the wind was now at my back as I had traveled many miles, a lot of them on washboard gravel roads.
It got dark before I returned home. 30 miles was my adventure today.
Here are some photos of the Trestle Valley bridge. They were taken a few days ago when it was sunny. The sky clouded over today shortly after I began my ride. Snow is in the forecast.
From near the bridge, the view of Minot. Normal and zoom.
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