Jon Ahrendsen likes to go the distance. He has run marathons and half marathons. He once trekked to the base camp of Mount Everest. He regularly rides in RAGBRAI. Clearly, Ahrendsen is a goal-driven person. So earlier this spring, when he set a new goal, his family was not surprised. Ahrendsen had a plan to ride a bicycle down every single road in Wright County. In the end, his family was a little surprised at how quickly he finished this ride.
Ahrendsen, who works as a physician at Iowa Specialty Hospital, traces the origins of the county-covering bike ride back several years. He says that when he was training for the Des Moines marathon way back in 2002, he was running many of the roads throughout Wright County. In the back of his mind, he began mulling over the idea of covering ALL the roads in the county one way or another.
Ahrendsen’s daughter Andrea McLoughlin remembers throwing around the idea with him years later when he was training for his Everest base camp trek. “He was doing a lot of walking and we talked about how he could maybe cover all the roads in the county,” McLoughlin said.
With the sheer number of roads in the county, both paved and gravel, Ahrendsen said he knew that walking or running all of them really would not be a feasible option. So this spring, when he stumbled upon someone selling a fat tire bike online, he saw his chance. That type of bike would make it much easier to ride the hundreds of miles of gravel and minimally maintained roads throughout the county. Biking the county would also give him his cycling fix since his planned participation in RAGBRAI and Iowa’s Ride was no longer an option. He decided to go for it.
Ahrendsen said he knew he had to keep careful track of what roads he was riding. “I got an online map from the Iowa DOT, specific to the county,” he explained. “I knew I had already ridden some roads so I marked those off.” As far as the ones he hadn’t covered, he got busy riding in April and started marking up the map.
Throughout the summer, Ahrendsen methodically chipped away at the county. To cover every corner of Wright County, he says that he would get a lift from people who would drop him and his bike off and he would ride back to Clarion. Sometimes he would drive himself and bike a loop back to his vehicle.
Depending on how long he had to ride, Ahrendsen’s distances varied. Somedays it was only a few miles and other days much longer. He said his longest ride was a 71 mile stretch, covering roads between Belmond to Renwick. He added that depending on his work schedule, some weeks he rode four or five days and other weeks, rode all seven days.
His family was supportive of his bike riding goal. His wife Becky says they quickly got in a routine. “I knew not to expect him for supper,” she laughs. She also says she got a few calls from law enforcement asking about her husband’s vehicle sitting on the side of the road. Becky added that she rode a few small stretches with him but was not a fan of biking the gravel roads with her regular bike. McLoughlin noted that they enjoyed hearing updates about what her dad saw during his rides.
When asked about what intrigued him as he rode throughout the Wright County countryside, Ahrendsen said he was reminded just how rural the area is. He was surprised by how far he could ride without seeing a mailbox and the sheer number of uninhabited farmhouses. He also appreciated the number of conservation sites that most people probably don’t realize exist. Ahrendsen occasionally enjoyed scaring up deer, raccoon and even a bald eagle.
As far as obstacles go, Ahrendsen said he encountered a few. He came across at least one collapsed bridge that he had to go around and come back to in order to cover that stretch. He emphasized that the most difficult part was when he had to mark off the small section of interstate that crosses through the southeast portion of the county. Because you cannot ride a bicycle on the interstate, Ahrendsen had to stash his bike and walk in the ditch to cover those miles. At the most extreme, he walked through corn fields next to the interstate.
By early this month, Ahrendsen had almost finished covering the entire county. On Sunday, September 6, he rode the final stretch of around two miles near Belmond, accompanied by Becky, McLoughlin, and his granddaughter Lillian. In all, according to his ride tracking app, he had ridden 1,002 miles to cover the county, and only around 60 of those miles were paved.
Ahrendsen said he is hoping to have a “mission accomplished” party sometime in the next few months. He not only wants to commemorate his ride, but also use it as a fundraiser for the Wright County Trail System. Look for more information on that in the future.
In hindsight, Ahrendsen is happy with how the ride went. He says he would even consider doing it again next summer, minus the part where he was getting slapped in the face by corn stalks. He added that the ride was a great form of meditation. He encourages others to get out there, take to the road, and discover the wonders in your own county.
