Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/125316
There are more than 150 time travellers and crew here, some riding their own horses, but most assigned to one of the wagons, where we stash our daypacks. To keep things going, there's a large volunteer support crew. All participants are from the U.S. this year, except for Jenny Fletcher and me, from B.C. We mount small Canadian flags at the door of our tent. The dinner bell sounds and we line up for dinner cooked in huge pots over open fires. Sitting on a hay bale in the fresh air encourages the appetite. I'd like a cold beer, but the pioneers must have been puritans because the only choices are Kool-Aid or water. No ice. There is no washing-up (just the pots) because we use disposable plates and cutlery – a waste the pioneers could not have imagined. We all take turns with the chores, even cleaning out the biffies that travel with us (at a discreet distance). The evening stretches on. It is cooler now and the blue Dakota sky begins to blush. I walk through long grass and yellow spurge flowers down to the creek to wait for the sunset and stars. Away from camp clatter, it is quiet enough to hear the sounds of the prairie night: crickets in the rustling grass, a few chirping sparrows and the lovely warm song of a meadowlark. As a young girl reading stories of the pioneers who crossed the country to resettle in the West, I always wanted to go back in time to ride the wagons into unknown lands. This wagon train is the next best thing, though much of the prairie has been plowed and little towns dot a grid of country roads between endless fields of corn, wheat and beans. But on a night like this, one can believe in dreams. The first day of our trek is finished and sleep comes easily. DAY 2: Breakfast at 6 a.m. We pack up camp and help with the chores before the horses are hitched and the wagon train moves out. Leaving the tall grass prairie on a country road, we bypass towns and head south through the small hills of the James River Valley. Happily, there's nothing to do but watch the scenery inch by. We stop for lunch, making our own sandwiches from a huge array of meats, cheese and salads, then continue on to cross the river on a heritage 1910 Double Pony truss bridge. Night camp is in a field right beside the farmhouse of Bob and Mary Muhs. 38 G O I N G P L A C E S p36-43_North Dakota.indd 38 >> summer 2013 13-04-12 1:11 PM