Back to the Fargo, Episode 2

West Fargo High School

Run Time: 38:18 + 1-lap kick

These photos refer to places I tried to run between Minot and Fargo that did not work out. No need for photos of West Fargo High School’s track — I shared those 2 weeks ago.

I left Minot around noon with no more sales stops to make for the day, so this was the ideal time and place to find something on All Trails outside of the cities. First try was the Historic Fort Totten Trail, in the Arrowwood National Wildlife Refuge, a 20-mile out-and-back trail with some mild inclines. It was about forty miles north of Jamestown, 8 miles of gravel road from the highway.

What is historic about the Fort Totten Trail is the community of insects that reside there. I parked in a small parking lot, changed into my commando running shorts, looked at the trail map, and all was well. The trail went north about a mile to a lake, and south about 19 miles along a creek, and I chose the longer section, but rather than run down the road to the south section, I drove down to where the trail left the road and entered through a fence into a field. There wasn’t really a place to park there, but I made one and got out to run.

As I entered the field, I heard a loud hum that I actually thought might be the hum of an electric fence. We had electric fences in the rural area where I lived as a kid. It was a little loud for that, but I could not have imagined it was the hum of the hordes of bugs which quickly found me and welcomed me to their home. I quickly fled back to the Edge, which is not just where the bugs were pursuing me to but also was the kind of rental car I had.

Onto Plan Y — the Jamestown Overlook Trail, which was much closer to town but also not in an urban setting. There were families down by the water in bathing suits, splashing in the water. The trail was kind of a flat loop trail snaking through some nice trees and shrubberies.

Started out okay, a few bugs, but nothing alarming. Then I rounded the first bush, and a cloud of insects emerged. I sped up. Next bush, same thing. Then there was a grove of bushes, and I thought I might not make it through. Decided to give it up a quarter-mile in — cut up to the upper section to get away from vegetation. Made it back to the parking lot with minor emotional trauma.

Okay, so how does anyone enjoy the outdoors in North Dakota? How were those people down by the water’s edge surviving with open skin? Do the bugs just pester but not bite? Were the locals doused in insecticide? I have been reading Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and feeling kind of bad for the bugs, but Jesus.

So, since I was already in my running attire, I just drove to Fargo and stopped at the high school before I went to the hotel and got in a partial run. It was hot, and I was tired, and my left calf kept threatening to tighten up on me, but it was great to run without fear of something buzzing loud enough by my headphones to drown out The Who.

It might be the time of the year. Maybe if you head out to Fort T in late November, right before the first late fall blizzard, you can lope across the prairie unmolested. But right now, in May, with grasses and shrubberies and bushes and trees in full bloom, this part of the country is the insects’ domain. Beautiful and unrunnable.