Sunday, August 31, 2014

Day 61-Valentine to Wood Lake (25 Miles)

The first time checking my phone in the morning, it showed me the time was 9 am. I thought it impossible that I slept in that much, but then realized I was still adjusting to a time change. The humidity, combined with my over cautiousness of putting the rain fly on, combined for a pretty crummy night's sleep.

After eating my breakfast of Pop-Tarts, a granola bar and the last of my trail mix, I walked up the big hill from the park to the main part of town and to the Cowboy Trailhead Park. The Cowboy Trail claims to be the longest rails-to-trails in the United States with its completed section stretching from Valentine to Norfolk, almost 200 miles away.

A lot of times driving longer road trips I'll notice the railroad parallels the highway for the vast majority of the distance before occasionally disappearing. It's when it disappears that it becomes a lot of fun. Instead of climbing and descending the sand hills, like the highway, it knifes right through them. The excavations and embankments were pretty impressive and, most importantly, kept things very flat.

Before the railroad returned to parallel the highway, I stopped and noticed my phone was missing. The music from Pandora had stopped two miles earlier, and I had just figured I'd lost service-but it'd fallen off the wagon! With the phone being too important to leave behind, I would have to add four more miles to the day-not a very fun prospect. Luckily, it was only about a half mile back.

The nice cinder surface of the Cowboy Trail got noticeably rougher along the highway where, despite signs warning them not to, ranchers had run their cattle on the path. The surface became really rough and jostled the cart way too much. Because it was no longer like running on an air hockey table, I jumped back onto the shoulder of Highway 20 to the town with a posted population of 64, Wood Lake.

I stopped into the Wood Lake Cafe for an early dinner and watched a couple episodes of Law and Order with the waitress, who wasn't too busy as I was the only customer. On my way to the city park for the night, I stopped by Grandma's Playhouse and Ice Cream Shoppe. The open sign wasn't on, but the lights were and she said it'd be alright if she made me a cherry malt. I visited with Grandma Norma for awhile and she told me if the storms got too bad tonight, I could stay with her in the house adjacent to the park.

The forecast called for 2-3 inches of rain tonight, a pretty impressive amount for an area that averages 16-17 inches per year. I set up camp under an 8' x 10' covered picnic area with a concrete slab. During the calm before the storm I walked around town and met a couple, one of whom was the pastor, who were coming back from Bible study at the church. They too offered their home if the storm got too rough.

Right as I fell asleep the rain started pounding the corrugated metal roof. Because their was no lightning, the sounds were actually pretty relaxing and served as great white noise. There were three solid bursts of rain that night, but my tent and I managed to stay mostly dry.

Crossing the Niobrara River on the Cowboy Trail

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