RAGBRAI L July 22nd to July 29 2023
RAGBRAI, Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, is more than just a bike ride, it is an epic eight-day rolling festival of bicycles, music, food, community, etc. per their website. This year of 2023 was the 50th edition of the ride, which marked a special one for the ride organizers as record number of riders were expected and reported throughout the week (somewhere between 20,000 and 50,000 riders), but this would be a first for me and Larry. This year’s route ended up being one of the longer and hillier ones than many years past being a little over 500 miles and with just over 16,000 feet of hill climbing.
This year, and historically speaking, the crux of the ride is the logistics. Since the route is one-way, Sioux City to Davenport Eastbound (varies every year), each rider or group must plan how to get themselves and their gear to the start, to the finish, and then back to wherever the next stop is (you don’t need to go home but you shouldn’t stay in Davenport…unless you live there or close by). Somehow I convinced Larry to join me in this semi-impromptu trip (can’t say it was last minute because we committed to the ride back in January), but many of the logistics were setup in June.
Charter companies, Driver support, and a mixing of any or other options are among the several methods people use to handle the logistics. More details can be found depending on the Charter, but most people who have a group like a cycling club will go with this option as the Charter can handle almost everything outside of the riding itself. Driver support would be the ‘level’ down as it’s still a DIY option but whomever is driving can obviously do the other things like getting resupplies and handling luggage, camp setup/breakdown, etc.
Larry and I fell into the none of the above category, which seemed to be in the minority. Opting to leverage the included baggage service provided by the ride organizers, we chose to use the single bag up to 50lbs bag drop-off into a luggage semi-truck having done the similar option for our previous long ride, Seattle to Portland in 2022 (remains unwritten in this Trip Report section since it was only a 2 day ride). With the alternative self-supported option being touring with all the gear on the bike, we were glad to at least have chosen the bag drop option as conditions proved very tough for many later in the week. Note: many riders are local to various regions of Iowa and would join for the day or a few days to ride home (or nearby enough for a ride home) I’ll get to the camping details later as we came to understand how essential it was to the experience.
Now I mentioned that the crux is the logistics, but the inferred crux is the camping in the main campground with the variable weather conditions. Iowa is not in the mountains, nor the foothills, but is the corn production center of the United States because of its weather. The humidity, moisture, and ground water is consistently plentiful enough that irrigation wasn’t utilized by many Iowan farmers until recent decades. That being stated, the sun combined with the high humidity created for some of the most intense heat I’ve ever experienced in all my time in the mountains. This resulted in very tough camping weather as it would be too hot to stay in camp to recover for the next day, but camp would be soaked from dew and condensation by the morning. I can understand how bike and gear maintenance is tough for mid-westerners when everything is perpetually wet in the summer.
The main campground is the place where the route proper would generally start and end each day, being where the luggage pick-up and drop-off was. The ride organizers did have seemingly enough space allocated to fit the estimated campers in and around the main campground which ended up being in something like a baseball field, local park, or school. All that being said, many riders got on just fine (while many didn’t). We heard many riders went home by day 3 near Ames with the temps being so hot this year.
Unfortunately or fortunately, Larry and I managed, using some outside help by booking 3 nights away from the campgrounds to assist in recovery, one of them being with a friend just outside Des Moines. The other 2 nights were in hotels, which we still rode from the campground to the hotels with our bags on our backs.
Achieving a successful camp hinges on two key factors. First, the locals are very welcoming and will almost certainly be happy to have you setup camp in their yards, which can provide some privacy and space from the tent cities of the main campground as well as shade. Second, if packed correctly and/or if packed up for touring, finding a secluded camp spot (again with shade) can be much easier. These two factors can boost recovery as we were often woken up by the earliest of starters (3am) and had many groups socializing until 11pm.
Highlights for me were most obviously the people of Iowa, who are the most generous and welcoming bunch I’ve ever had the pleasure at waving at as they sprayed you with their hose to cool you off and offered shade in the middle of farm country. Next up was the gravel variation on Day 2 which featured some amazing class 2 gravel over the rolling farm hills which seemed to go on forever where it was never too scary loose with my slick 700x30c Specialized Roubaix tires.
I won’t mention gear choices much in this report since I think I packed very poorly for nearly all aspects of the camping, but if I were to repeat this ride with a similar experience, things I would keep on the packlist are the thermarest cot, solar panels, camping chair, and shammy towel. Other things I wish I brought would be a battery operated fan, more portable batteries, and maybe a portable stove. I could definitely go with less around town clothing and more riding clothing, but maybe next time I would just tour with all my gear on the bike. Veterans often recommended eye masks and ear plugs to get to sleep more easily.
The last few notes on the ride logistics were that the largest Charter, Pork Belly Ventures (PBV), allows for purchasing services à la carte, such as a shuttle service to the start from Omaha, Des Moines, and Davenport and a return shuttle to those major cities so that you could leave the car in long term parking. I shipped my bike to the start with PBV (in association with BikeFlights) since I didn’t drive to Iowa, and had the bike shipped home from Davenport just basically in reverse and PBV transported my bike bag to the end city as part of that service (bike bags were not allowed on the overnight bag trucks). From Denver, I flew into Omaha due to a last minute flight cancellation to Sioux City and fortunately got a taxi to the start, and I flew out of Quad City back to Denver. Finding a taxi can be very tough as of 2023 on either end of Iowa, so without a support driver or car, I think I’d fly in and out of Des Moines using a shuttle service of some kind. Basically all veterans of the ride told us that going with a Charter is the best way to experience RAGBRAI and tallying up the costs, it ends up being pretty close per person when factoring in everything.
Celebratory Tire Dip in the Mississippi River and bike huzzah
Were I to do this again, I would definitely make a few changes on the logistical side, but the community, camaraderie, parties, and ride itself made it an excellent time for anyone who wants to ride bikes.
