Saturday at a glance
Miles	53.5
Mph	12.8
Max Speed	29.8
Route	Butte to Ft. Stevenson State Park via Benedict, Max.
Wind	A brisk 20-30 mph from the west-northwest, mostly a fierce headwind.
Temperature	60 to upper 60s
Elapsed Time	4:09:04
Clock Time	7:15 - 11:55

The winds hit Butte around 1:30am. The church creaked and I slept through most of it. It apparently rained a bit too but I was oblivious to that. Around 4am I heard someone getting dropped off at the church--probably a tent that didn't make it through the storm. It was nice to be inside.

Even with less packing to do, we weren't moving very quickly and didn't get going until 7:15. The volunteer fire department was shuttling bags for riders, so we just had to leave them on the sidewalk by the street.

Roads were again wet, but there was a sun in the east. And, a headwind. I'd been hoping for about three hours of actual biking, but it didn't pan out that way. First on the route was climbing the butte, or rather large hill, just west of town. When we got almost to the top, the view looking behind us was spectacular. We stopped so I could take a few pictures, and continued on.

That was about it for noteworthy items for the day! The winds picked up to 20-30 mph from the west northwest and we averaged 11.5 mph for the first 30 miles. That brought us to Max, the second and final rest stop. The first stop had been at Bennedict, featuring a free will donation for as many cookies as a person wanted. They seemed to really hit the spot. I was just missing the coffee.

At Max we turned south on US83 for twelve miles, with more help from the wind than hinderance. Then it was another six miles to Garrison in the wind, which took half an hour, and a final four heading south again to Fort Stevenson State Park. Our ride time was 4:09, a bit more than for what I'd hoped. Cruising on the tandem is great fun, but even though we felt like we were plodding along fighting the wind, we were still better off than if we'd been on singles.

There wasn't much left to do: find our bags, stash the tandem inside the minivan, head to Garrison for the final meal, and then head back to Minot. As we were driving east on that six mile stretch, marveling at how easy and comfortable riding in a vehicle is, we met the final riders battling the wind. The farthest out still had half an hour of riding left, a distance we'd just covered in five minutes. We were thankful to be where we were!