Ragbrai. The Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa. The myth. The legend. 2025 marked 52 years of Ragbrai and it was the year it came together for us.

Okay, a little more background. When we started biking our way across Minnesota, people would ask if we had ever done or planned to do Ragbrai. We gave it a search and it seemed like a good time, but it was never the right time. For several years, the dates would be released and it conflicted with too many things. Our weekends to work, an existing vacation, a wedding….it is 7 days of riding from a Sunday to a Saturday….so for people who work many weekends that’s a bit of an ask….in July.

We typically set up our time off for most of the year at the end of the previous year. With Brandon’s work schedule thats just how it happens. So we tend to base our time off around what days make the most sense for him to take to maximize time and frequency away. Then I can trade shifts, or request off as we get closer to set dates. This year the dates that Brandon requested off just happened to line up with Ragbrai dates. This was the year.

Ragbrai is yes, 7 days of riding across Iowa with about 20,000 other people at any given time. The route changes from year to year and crosses the state from West to East (Missouri to Mississippi rivers) passing through small towns along the way. It means that some days are longer days of 70ish miles (or 100 if you opt into the Century ride day) and some days are less than 40. It isn’t a direct shot across the state because the route will maximize towns, landmarks, safest roads etc.

Now you may be asking, “Why didn’t you guys just do it like you did Minnesota? On your own?” What a great question, I’m so glad you asked. Ragbrai is supported. Meaning that pass through towns offer food, drink, repair services (for a cost) and the ability for support teams to meet with riders. Being a registered rider also means you have SAG (support and gear) available to you. Camping is also included, as well as luggage service* to transport 50lbs of gear from overnight town to overnight town. There is also live music, drinks, merriment and loads and loads of people-many of which do it every year! So there must be something to it right?

*2 full semi-trucks that you load your gear onto and pick up from at the end of the day

This post is all about our experience, the official Trip Report. At a later date I plan to break-down Ragbrai, share our opinions about the event, our tips/tricks etc. Stay tuned.

If you haven’t read /watched any of our previous posts about biking across Minnesota, check our last section here.

This might be long, hopefully you’ve got full bottles and wearing your favorite chamois. Clip in-here we go.

Day 0

The day before you start riding, Ragbrai refers to as Day 0. Our trip actually started with day -0 the day before on Friday. We spent the day packing, cleaning and dropping Sage with friends where he spent the next 8 days! Without them a trip like this would never have been possible and we are eternally grateful. Worst part? How excited Sage is to see them. What are we? Chopped liver? From there we drove to Decorah, IA to spend the night in the camper in a Walmart parking lot. On Saturday morning we needed to be on a bus in Guttenberg, IA (a 4 hour drive from our home) at 9am with bikes and gear loaded and car parked. We opted for the 2 stage strategy and thank-goodness because sh#t really hit the fan quick.

Saturday morning brought non-stop rain and thunderstorms which just always means chaos. We had pre-paid ($130) for long-term parking for the week nearest our shuttle pick up ($450 for the 2 of us). When we got there, we were told parking was full…..ummmm what? Not to be deterred, we were able to park somewhere else, but it meant being shuttled to our shuttle, staging our gear under and overhang and waiting for 30 minutes in a downpour to load our bikes onto a semi. Now, throughly wet and loading onto our designated bus, we didn’t have a seat! No spots that we had paid $200 for. This was just the start of a really chaotic day of travel with stressful logistics that are difficult to navigate for first timers. In the end, balls were dropped by PorkBelly Charters-who supplied us a beer to say sorry while we waited for our luggage.

Once shuttled to the start (our vehicle now safely parked at the finish) and reunited with our gear-we were able to set up camp and make our way to the Expo for food, drink and music while waiting for bikes to arrive. Orange City really put on an event. We had so much excitement and high hopes just seeing thousands of people and bikes everywhere you looked. It was wild. We didn’t have time to relax after we retrieved our bikes. Severe weather moved in quick and as we prepared to dive into our tent we realized people didn’t have theirs set up! Having set up a few (many) different tents on our life, we dove to help; lining up color coded nylon and clicking poles together!

That night we laid stuck to our sleeping pads with the rainfly firmly fastened, in the hot, humid, stormy July air.

The next morning we packed our wet tent-attempted to fasten it outside of our duffle to keep everything else dry, dropped it on the scale and then onto the semi for it to be delivered to the next overnight town!

Day 1

What an absolute whirlwind. Day 1 was a crash course in what the rest of the week was going to look like. And it was crowded. If you’ve ever run a standard urban marathon….something along the lines of Twin Cities or Grandmas in Minnesota, then you know it starts out super congested, but then everyone spreads out, paces separate everyone and suddenly it’s not so bad. Ragbrai is not like that. Because of the hills, headwinds and stops-people moving at different paces don’t just separate and stay in those zones. Some people are slow and steady all day, some people ride fast and end early, many ride fast and spend lots of time at the stops and the rest (us) are somewhere in the middle. It makes for lots of people around you all of the time. It also means a lot of lines.

We started with Orange City to Milford. We clocked 72.8 miles and 1,488 ft of gain. We left at 6:30am and arrived at 4:30pm. We had 4 ‘pass through’ towns that first day and Primghar was the best!

The music was great, they spread out people and bathrooms well, there was seating…..best stop of maybe the entire week. That night, camp disappointed us dreadfully.

“What kind of campground can hold thousands of people?” Once again-such a great question I’m so glad you asked. Camping is more music festival than camping. Think, big open field and anything goes. This was expected, along with a few other things that were unexpected, making night 1 pretty icky. I won’t lie.

After spending over an hour standing in the heat for a $8 shower in a semi-truck, we made our way to find food, only to discover that much was sold out or gone. Milford then treated us to the worst hospitality of the entire trip before finding a grocery store of accommodating staff, where we bought ready made food and ice for our sore legs/knees. Another terribly sticky night and day 1 had come to a close.

Day 2

Day 2 brought us from Milford to Estherville. 43 miles and about 1,000ft of gain. We left at 6:45am and arrived at 1:15pm. This was a historic day for Ragbrai-we went to Minnesota!!!!!! Brown Park was a little hairy to get into, but was a well organized and set-up with a good amount of space. We skipped the ceremonious ‘tire dip’ since riding in Minnesota isn’t that special for us….

We took our time in the other towns before riding into Estherville. We camped next to a school that night which meant a shower in a real locker room (also $8). We stayed too late on the town, having no other way to soak up much needed AC before calling it a night.

Day 3

Day 3 was not fun. It just wasn’t. We left that morning at 6:45am and arrived around 4pm in Forest City. 75 miles and I’m not sure how much gain that day. We made it safe and that’s all that mattered. After fighting heat, sun and headwinds all day, near the end we turned to ride up hill with the wind to our backs. Suddenly I was in an oven. I don’t like the heat. This was a factor considering this event for sure. But so many people do it-it can’t be that bad right? Spoiler-I thought it was bad.

Once I crested the hill, my eyes frantically searched for shade. In the distance I saw some trees near what looked like a driveway. I pulled in, along with several other red faced riders and found the older man who lived there had a cooler of ice waters he was handing out. The waters were gone but the cooler had melted ice. Gasping for breath, feeling like I might actually melt, I reached my sweaty hands in for a scoop and dumped it down my shirt. It took me several mins to return to state I felt safe enough to bike in*.

Any positivity I had about the week evaporated when I saw that camp had virtually no trees/shade and what there was had been claimed by groups with support drivers who could set up before their riders arrived. It was zapped again, after showering, when we discovered that dinner options would be downhill and several miles away. We ate a very somber and tired dinner in an air-conditioned restaurant before gathering more snacks and ice and hoofing it back up hill to camp. That sticky night was interrupted by fireworks around midnight. It was’t my favorite.

*The next day I dealt with abdominal cramps that didn’t include an upset stomach. In addition to my headache the evening before I felt confident about my case of mild heat exhaustion despite our efforts. It was very hot.

Day 4

Wanting to spend less time in the midday heat, we left at 5:30 am (the earliest you can put your bags on the semi is 5am) but still arrived at camp a little after 3pm…..72 miles later in Iowa City. It was another terribly hot day, again with headwinds much of the day. We felt fortunate though for the repair services of Ragbrai. Brandon discovered a leak in his tire, and instead of having to change it ourselves in the blistering heat, we were able to pay a very reasonable fee to have it changed in one of the towns while we ate lunch.

We also stopped getting Ragbrai food for the most part. We started utilizing small convenience stores for quick snacks and lunches. This meant much less waiting, and healthier food options; and foods that settled much better in the cramping tummies of hot riders.

That night we also took advantage of the beautiful outdoor aquatic center in town. This meant a way to cool down and a shower all for one price! I also took advantage of the women’s locker room to get an answer for some issues I’d been having with my skin. The answer? Diaper rash….more on that in a later post.

That night at camp (thankfully after choosing a spot in the sun but on high ground) we got more severe weather. It was also a night we made a bit of an error. All our belongings were in 2 TNF Basecamp Duffles. They are waterproof, as was recommended. The zipper of those bags are not waterproof however. No problem since we weren’t submerging them in water-we just needed them to shed water. However, when the duffles aren’t completely full, the top sinks in a bit, allowing water to pool and then seep through the zipper. This means anything not inside our tent was completely soaked. Saturated. Wring it out, wet.

What wasn’t in our tent? Anything we could leave out. When its 90 degrees and there is no airflow, you don’t want extra items crowding you in the tent. So other than the clothes we had on, what we slept on and what we planned to wear the next morning…..it was drenched.

“But Hannah, you talk about vestibules on tents all the time-why didn’t you have your stuff in there?” Again, heat. With rain predicted and in this case, severe weather, having the rainfly down tight means no air. The little flow you do get comes from under the fly. If you have that area stuffed with bags it is even more stifling. So we left the bags out.* We spent the morning wishing we could make our own schedule and packed up our wildly heavy, now soaking wet bags.

*We picked up some trash bags for extra protected the remaining nights.

Day 5

After a tough pack job, we left at 7:15 am and arrived in Cedar Falls 51 miles later at 1:15pm. Finally we had a nice weather day. This was a hero day. No wind, it was cloudy, the roads were smooth. We flew! We enjoyed pass through towns like Parkersberg and were eager to get to camp to sort out our gear.

After searching laundromats (Cedar Falls is a college town after all) we realized that our gear wasn’t packed to be carried on our bikes and we’d never make it the 5 miles to the nearest one. We resigned to stringing up everything from anything in hopes that it would come close to dry. We made our way into town for our favorite night of the entire week and crossed our fingers that it wouldn’t rain while we were gone. We ate at The Other Place and Whisky Road and enjoyed live music in the cutest town we had seen so far!

That night we even enjoyed a little walk by the river, feeling some very welcomed cool air from the water.

Day 6

Our last full day was our shortest day. 38 miles to Oelwein. This was another hot day, but so short it didn’t seem to matter. We left our latest ever at 7:45am (8am is the latest time to load your gear) and arrived just 3 hours later in Oelwein (taking our time-bags aren’t promised in the next town until 11am).

We enjoyed pass through towns like Fairbank and busted our tired little legs up a hill to camp for the night next to the school. That evening we flew back down that hill for dinner at the local Mexican Restaurant, those frozen margaritas were clutch, before grabbing ice and snacks for our nighttime routine.

Day 7

To Guttenberg. 62 miles and 2,225 ft of gain. We left early again 5:30am, knowing we’d be driving home after arriving at the finish and actually made it in by 10:30am. The last day was nearly double the elevation gain of the average days for the rest of the week. I had no idea what 2,000 ft was going to feel like on Iowa roads. It turns out-not bad. Everything that went up seemed to go down 2x. One downhill was so steep I was actually scared and I saw people walking. I might have joined them if a bailout wouldn’t have been deadly. My Garmin tracked my max speed ay 52 mph….I’m guessing some missing spots of satellite coverage explain that??

The last day was a beautiful ride. The most beautiful part by far! Gorgeous hills overlooked rolling valleys in Amish country, high cliff walls on both sides of the road led us to the river and for once it wasn’t really hot. It was pouring down rain. It rained for about half of that last day for us. A cool mist at first, and then a soaking rain that coated the roadways, making it questionably slick and interfering with your ability to see.

Peddling into Guttenberg was a really amazing feeling. We felt incredibly accomplished. All told (overnight towns and random miles) we biked almost 450 miles and 7 consecutive days in the July heat. It is truly amazing to me that so many people do Ragbrai every….single…..year. The last day I could see how it would grow on you.

We waited in line to dip our tires in the Mighty Mississippi, signifying the end of our journey. We had made it. The best part? We were uninjured, we did it together and we were happy.

This was a wild and dare I say transformative(?) experience. While it may not be one we’d jump to repeat (again-more later) it is one we are certainly glad to have.

If you made it to the end, that you so much for reading. Follow along for more adventures, and before to check back and read about our advice and breakdown of Ragrai.

As always, get out and enjoy some Days Off!