NCT Diary: Oct 19-Nov 3

Fergus Falls, MN to Sakakawea State Park, ND (THE END!)

Oct 19: stayed up far too late enjoying having internet/cell service/ access to the world outside the trail. Only two weeks left! Got the number of a shuttle company from the hotel front desk, so we get dropped off at the intersection we stopped tracking at. Long flat road paralleling the interstates so traffic is quiet - these are the plains I'm familiar with and was expecting in Minnesota. Nothing but hydroelectric transmission lines and stubbly fields for miles and miles and miles - think Highway 16 through Saskatchewan. Alternatively, if not from the prairies, imagine the move Fargo but no snow. Actually, we're quite near Fargo. Its very windy, smells like the autumn of my childhood; dry concrete, burning straw, and the bready scent of a nearby malting plant. Not unpleasant. Only 40 miles from MN/ND border, only 15 days left on trail! I can't imagine what not hiking every day is like. 404, file not found. Stopped at Rothsay truck stop for water and C encountered peanut butter squares for the first time - enormous ones, 4x the size of normal. Ate our treats on a bench behind the ice machine outside because the wind was picking up. And then it was really, really windy for miles on a straight flat road, crosswind screaming in your ears and pushing you sideways into the shoulder. The kind of wind that makes you wait eagerly for trees just for a moment of peace and quiet. Couldn't find a windbreak to camp near so setting up the tent was a two-person job. Wind made my brain too tired to write

Oct 20: absolute misery, 2°c and sleeting, called it early in town of Colfax when it was too dangerously cold to hike more

Oct 21: good 35 mile day, mostly off road which I wasn't expecting, felt some despair in the morning but as the day warmed up it turned out to be good. Nice trail through Sheyenne National Grassland, nighthiking with cows - cows look kinda creepy at night with their eyes, but big golden harvest moon. A little frosty snow after the sun set, definitely right around freezing, eyelash frost. Didn't pack enough hipbelt snacks, starving waiting for dinner.

Oct 22: grassland morning, windmill pump, dogs!! Had to call sherrif because friendly dogs followed us wanting to play for 10 miles, fun but stressful when we realized they couldn't figure out how to get home. Dogs ended up being ok, their owner came to get them.

Oct 23: flustered at the gas station in the morning, long but pretty road walk, trail magic from Matt and family, first pointless loop of North Dakota was a real doozy, mice scurrying from headlamp beam on paved county road (weirdly a lot of mice out), bad trail down big escarpment at night, not ideal. Made all the dogs bark in Kathryn.

Oct 24: day into Valley city, last nearo day. Bad weather forecasted, made it to town just in time, around 2:30 weather miserable

Oct 25: full breakfast buffet, nice roadwalk, Lake Ashtabula absolute shit, feeling PMS-y & grouch. Trail magic for dinner

Oct 26: finish with terrible trail near Ashtabula, forecast calls for rain overnight so we stay at a motel in Cooperstown

Oct 27: unexpected zero because of bad weather. Frustrating - we're full of energy and restless and all we want to do is finish this thing. Nothing good on TV either, so we watch way too many hours of a bad Discovery show.

Oct 28: gotta do a 40 today so we can make it to the New Rockford post office in time to pick up Constantine's passport tomorrow. Sunny, cold in the morning and the cafe isn't open so I'm tired and grumpy when we leave town. After a couple right-angle turns we get to the road we'll follow for the rest of the day, and some of the day after. Not quite dead straight, since it has a few bends in it to go around lakes, but it might as well be. Turn off the brain and walk, no navigation to speak of. The wind is hard and constant and becomes annoying, pushing my pack against my back at an angle that torques my shoulder, and there's nothing I can do except suck it up. At least it's a pretty warm day. Hiked 1.8mi off trail to get to legal camping in Grace City, saw a meteor explode in a shower of sparks. Didn't get to camp until 9:10ish, stars are unreal out here. Can see the milky way and everything, so gorgeous.

Oct 29: birthday! Turned 29 today - I'm old. Day started early to make the post office in New Rockford, didn't feel like much of a birthday. Rushed, cold, tired, yawning all the way through the sunrise at 7am. Straight dirt roads, uneventful, made it to town around 2:40pm & made a gas station pit stop for pizza. C's passport arrived, no problems. Have to resupply for 4 days, last major section, last week of trail and last heavy pack for this whole adventure. Surreal. Checked messages and drank an iced tea, caffeine rush plus happy birthday messages make me happy. Do a little dance and sing silly songs with C and actually feel like it's my birthday for a minute, despite meager resupply lunch and the rushed day. For the rest of the day I'm happy, it's warm enough to take off puffy and we hit a canal trail where we can camp wherever we want. Stars are amazing again. Wish my shoulder wasn't so painful but otherwise, no complaints. A very thru-hiking birthday but a pretty good one after all, even if low-key. I realize we're really low on fuel in camp, only 3-4 boils left in the can, and start to worry about where we'll buy more, until C points out that we have only 4 more nights left after tonight. We don't have to buy more fuel. We can just do no-cook dinner the last night. Only four more nights! Wild. Suprise birthday cupcakes. Coyotes howling and yipping in an uncharacteristically still night.

Oct 30: didn't take notes

Oct 31: what looks like a white pebbled shoreline from a distance is actually thousands of migrating birds. Wow. Nice trail

Nov 1: can't get warm for hours in the morning, so cold that we break out the chemical heat packs and discover that half of them don't work. Only becomes a reasonable temperature at 11am. Canal all day, and most of tomorrow. A newer canal, full of water, surrounded by high banks on either side. From the service road at the bottom we can't really see out much, so it's a dream landscape; perfectly straight water, perfectly straight road to either side, perfectly even grass banks extending straight on forever, with the silhouette of bare trees breaking now and then against the sun. All we can hear is the wind rushing overhead and the distant sound of geese. I use the world surreal too often but it's truly an unreal place.

Nov 2: hands too cold to type. Almost done. Just imagine the word "surreal" typed over and over. Don't think I would be capable of even another week on trail, body broken down. So tired. So ready to be done. What does it mean to be done?

Nov 3: done! No notes.