Day 20, August 14: prairie potholes

Aberdeen, SD to Waubay, SD http://cyclemeter.com/85ef50859d8f1e5c/Cycle-20150814-1101Distance: 61.5 miles 

Total trip distance: 1281.8 miles

Average speed: 12.9 mph

Maximum speed: 19.3 mph

Riding time: 4:44

Weather: 82° at my start time of 11:00; temperatures rose to the low 90s in the mid to late afternoon. The dew point varied from the low to mid 70s-very muggy. The crosswinds were gentle, about 2 mph, mostly SSW and sometimes SSE.

Terrain: uphill 1171 feet, downhill 644 feet. The profile shows the first 20 miles to be pretty flat (the horizontally compressed route profile makes it look hillier than it is) followed by a 20-mile climb up the Coteau des Prairies although the vertical for that 20 miles was only 500 feet so it was a very gradual climb. The Coteau des Prairies has lots of lakes that my college friend Mike Mueller informed me are prairie potholes. The Wikipedia article on the Prairie Pothole Region notes that potholes "are the result of glacier activity in the Wisconsin glaciation, which ended about 10,000 years ago. The decaying ice sheet left behind depressions formed by the uneven deposition of till in ground moraines. These depressions are called potholes, glacial potholes, kettles, or kettle lakes." 

US 12 all the way, once again.

I left Aberdeen on US 12 on an endless suburban strip that could have been Anytown, USA except for some of the regionally based business names, e.g., Dacotah Bank, and for a large number of agricultural equipment dealers.

John Deere dealership outside Aberdeen featuring really large tractors.

As I mentioned in my last post, Aberdeen is in the flat James River Valley.

Soybean fields forever. 

The James River.

Grain terminal in the James River Valley. It's near US 12 and the BNSF Railroad. There is some new construction  going on toward the front.

The previous three photos showed very flat landscapes. After about 20 miles I began ascending the Coteau des Prairies. The Coteau has many lakes.

Here is uneven terrain and some large rocks that you see as you ascend the plateau.

It looks like this road has been closed for a long time. The rising water levels that have narrowed the former road are typical throughout this region. Farmer have lost much productive land while recreational uses such as fishing and boating have increased.

This Google Maps terrain view screen capture shows many small and large lakes. A large percentage of the small ones have appeared in the last several decades because of an increasing precipitation trend.

This map shows average annual precipitation, although it doesn't show change over time. The Coteau des Prairies is in the 20-25 inch band of precipitation, so I guess you don't need a whole lot of precipitation to have a bunch of lakes. The map also shows the great diversity of precipitation regimes I have passed through since I started in eastern Washington.

This map of prairies corresponds fairly closely to the precipitation map above. On today's trip I passed from the mid-grass prairie to the tall grass prairie. You can only see the prairies in a few remnant patches here and there in protected areas.

Blue-green algae or cyanobacteria in a prairie pothole. I smelled it before I saw it. Potholes are more prone to blue-green algae than other water bodies, I think, because the water is stagnant. Potholes are not connected to surface streams and depend mostly on spring snowmelt for their water.

Near Webster, SD, I saw an advertising sign that simply said Museum, 23 Buildings. When I came upon the museum, I checked my Roadside America app and saw that it has the world's largest hairball. Naturally I had to see the hairball. I must have looked a little ragged from biking in the very warm, muggy weather, because the two women in the front office immediately offered me a bottle of cold water, which I gratefully accepted.

The official title of the museum is "Museum: Bringing the past into the present." It used to be called the Museum of Wildlife, Science & Industry, but the scope of the collection has widened since its opening in 1986, thereby necessitating a name change.

World's largest hairball (?) on public display at Museum in Webster, SD.  There is some controversy about the largest hairball--a county historical museum in Kansas may have a larger one. Both hairballs came from a cow's stomach.

This hair perming contraption is similar to the one I showed in my Day 14, Baker, MT post. The other photo shows the device more clearly.

An iron lung at Museum.

I obsessed some about bears in the Montana portion of my trip. Now I have finally seen one at the Museum.

The jail from nearby Grenville, SD is on display at the Museum.

I continued on to my destination of Waubay, SD. Road conditions were mostly fine, with wide shoulders.

I didn't exceed the speed limit. The building in back sells boat lifts.

Rush Lake near Waubay is one of the largest in the Coteau region.

Waubay started as a railroad town. It reached its peak population of 976 in 1920 and how has 576 people.

Once handsome early 20th century building on Main Street, not far from the railroad. On the left, the senior center abuts the youth center.

 I stayed at the Circle Pines Motel. A sign on the wall of my room asked guest to not clean fish in their rooms. The motel has a special room for fish cleaning out back.