Hills on the Way to Pink Mountain

Here is the elevation graph that Dee requested for the Alaskan Highway between Shepherd's Inn and Pink Mountain. I am not quite sure why the distance is off by so much, but my indicator pins (as located by Google) may not be entirely accurate.

The River List

Dee mentioned crossing the Smoky River (not to be confused with the Smoky Hill River), so this seems like a good time to review the rivers that the trikers have crossed on their journey so far.

• Arkansas
• Smoky Hill
• Saline
• Solomon (S. and N. Forks)
• Republican
• Platte
• Loup (South and Middle)
• Cheyenne
• Belle Fourche
• Grand South Fork
• Grand North Fork
• Little Missouri
• Missouri
• South Saskatchewan
• North Saskatchewan
• Abthbasca
• Smoky

The Missouri River and all above it drain into the Atlantic Ocean, while those below it drain into the Arctic Ocean.

Wind Halo?

At 2:25 pm MT this afternoon it appears that there was wind at 10-15 mph over most of North Dakota and Montana except for a halo of calm between Watford City and Williston. Could it be true?.

Little Missouri River

Dee asked me to look up the elevation change for today's ride, which is gradually downhill the whole way with a 450 foot drop in elevation between Belfield and Watford City. That is, the whole way EXCEPT leaving the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The Little Missouri River runs through the park creating a narrow valley. The uphill grade coming out of the valley is 4% for almost two miles. A "'Lordy, Lordy' hill" to quote Dee.

This is not the place to post a biography of the 26th U.S. President, but I would be remiss if I did not pass along a quote by Theodore Roosevelt: "I would never have been president if it had not been for my experiences in North Dakota." Read more at: T. R. the Rancher, Maltese Cross Cabin, and Elkhorn Ranch. (See also: T. R. Association, and Wikipedia). If I understand the location correctly, Roosevelt's Elkhorn Ranch was along the Little Missouri.

Wind Speed

If we have learned anything from the reports posted by Dee and Cal it is that wind is a much more formidable adversary than distance or elevation, maybe even than precipitation, though that is debatable and rain is not unrelated to wind. In any case, I figured out this morning that if one looks at the interactive local radar map, it is possible to click on "Weather Layers" below the map and then select wind speed for current wind conditions. As far as I can figure out, though, it does not indicate the direction.

Dee, you probably cannot get all this on your BB, but for those of us spectating from our desks, this is one more tool for the Vicarious Trikers. For what it is worth, Weather.com predicts less wind today and maybe a shift out of the WSW.

While I am thinking about it, I am not sure how many of these tools will follow you all the way through Canada to Alaska. In particular, I am worried about your broadband coverage. I have become addicted to reading your posts each evening.

The French Fur Trade

One of the things now on my list of things to research is the French fur trade in the High Plains during the 19th century. This first came up in my reading about Fort Kearney. Then today I started reading Crazy Horse (which I will write about later), and a prominent character in the second chapter is a fur trader by the name of Jim Bordeaux. And now Dee and Cal have stopped in Chadron, named after the manager of the fur trading post in that area, a Frenchman by the name of Louis B. Chartran.

The ride from Alliance to Chadron must have been miserably cold and wet, but it would seem that the last 14 miles so so might have been "all down hill," as they say. Here is the elevation map from MapMyRide.

Sandhills Journey Scenic Byway

From Hazard, Dee and Cal have started northwest on NE-2, the Sandhills Journey Scenic Byway, stopping tonight in Broken Bow. By the time they reach Alliance, our trikers will have climbed nearly 2000 ft in about 230 miles.

Incidentally, I have added yet another gadget at right. In the Gmaps-Pedometer you can click on the "elevation: large" link on the left-hand side to calculate a graph of elevation change over the distance.

Tools for the Vicarious Journey

The thing that probably drew me into this adventure more than anything else was looking at the planned route from Wichita to Alaska. I quickly realized that after the first 300 miles or so, I hardly had a clue where any of these places are. So I pulled up Google maps and searched for each of the cities listed. It then occurred to me to save this as one of "My Maps" so I could look it up frequently, and subsequently to update it as the trikers post their location on their blog each day. That map can be found at: tinyurl.com/cjgm39. You can also always find it in the "Tools for the Journey" gadget in the upper right-hand corner of this page.

The fun thing about the map is that it is interactive. You can zoom in or out for more or less detail by clicking on the + or – on the left-hand side of the map. You can also move the map by dragging the hand, or with the upper left-hand control. Between the two controls is a little yellow figure that you can drag to a given location to get a "street view" of that location. Talk about vicarious! (Unfortunately, the street view doesn't work in Canada, at least not yet.) In the upper right-hand corner of the map you can select from Map, Satellite, and Terrain views.

The other tool that allows me to travel vicariously with the trikers is the live Doppler radar. I will do my best to keep their location updated on the area radar tool as well.