In what seems like no time at all, ATW has crossed into North Dakota from Canada, and is now three quarters the way across the state towards Minnesota. 618 is another stage that piles on east with just a hint of latitude reclaiming thrown in by virtue of a short run south soon after the start. It’s a flat stage in as much as both the ascent and descent amount to nothing much either side of two hundred feet, and that will make for a powerfest.
The rollout is east and gently lumpy uphill for two miles to 82nd Avenue NE where Stage Highway 5 hangs a right to start heading south. Half a mile further on around the bend marks the highest elevation of the stage at just under sixteen hundred feet.
The run south descends to the town of Clyde at three miles where no sooner has the southerly started than it ends with a left hander at 93rd Street NE where Route 5 starts heading east: indeed it’s east for the remainder of the stage. There’s a down/up to six miles where the elevation is within a foot of the previous summit, and that section of the highway takes in the junction with State Highway 20 which heads south to Munich and beyond that to Starkweather.
Off the top of the second summit, the road descends in lumpy fashion to twelve miles where the intersection with Highway 13 runs north and south of Highway 5. From there to the finish, it’s just lumpy flat, except that it’s really just lumpy with no flat road at all. What the road doesn’t do however is climb or descend significantly over those eight miles.
Highway 17 intersects rather aptly at seventeen miles, aka’d as County Road 17 heading north to Wales then after that it’s just more of the same and a straight lumpy run into the finish at 99th avenue NE.
Distance: 20 miles / 32 kilometres
Ascent: 233 feet / 71 metres
RGT Magic Road: hQopwYClYpyC
Max elevation: 1565 ft
Min elevation: 1523 ft
Total climbing: 233 ft
Total descent: -253 ft
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