Bismark, North Dakota 1126kms done, 2169kms to go

Ahhh, it feels great to be off the lake and once more on a moving river. The past week on Lake Sakakawea was marked by tough paddling, strong winds, rough water and some very unpredictable weather.A couple of days back I had just finished setting up camp and was listening to the radio when the programming was interrupted by an emergency broadcast. A call had gone out to everyone in the area to move to their basements as a tornado was forming. As my tent lacks a basement and burrowing into the sand didnt seem worthwhile, I got to stand out in the open and marvel as the sky seemed at war with itself. Pretty awe inspiring. Luckily after about 20 minutes the whole thing moved south leaving behind only heavy rain.

Aside from all that the lake was rather rewarding with spectular scereny, lots of good folk at places like Indian Hills and I even got to see an Indian Pow Wow which was really interesting and continued over 3 days. On my last night on the lake I was picked up by the nice folk above, Ron & Elsie Reichert and was taken back to their place for an excellent steak dinner. Setting up the tent at 10pm later that night was interesting to say the least. And now its time to gather supplies and continue on down to South Dakota.