LOCAL

Ipswich native who biked from Pierre to Alaska writes book about 3,000-mile trip

Trevor J. Mitchell
Sioux Falls Argus Leader

When Gary Wietgrefe finally set out to bike from Pierre to Alaska in 2018, he was making good on a trip he’d been thinking about for nearly a decade.

It started in 2010, when he spoke with a 70-year-old man who biked with his brothers to Alaska. The idea stuck with Wietgrefe, and in 2011 he planned to take leave from his job and make the trip.

But his employer wasn’t on board, and he decided that continuing to have a job was more important.

When he retired the next year, he and his wife Patricia traveled constantly — to places like Australia, Mexico and New Zealand — but the trip to Alaska was always on Wietgrefe’s mind.

And in 2018, at age 65, the Ipswich native decided it was going to be now or never — and two years later, he’s written a book about the adventure, entitled “Destination North Pole.”

Gary Wietgrefe, after arriving in North Pole, Alaska.

“It’s written for someone that sits in their armchair and wants to take an adventure,” said Wietgrefe, who finished the book while he and his wife quarantined after returning from Mexico earlier this year.

That’s North Pole, Alaska, to be specific, a ride Wietgrefe expected would take two months when he set out from Pierre on May 20. He thought he’d bike 50-60 miles a day before finding somewhere to spend the night.

As it turned out, he wasn’t even close. He made it to his destination on June 30, nearly three weeks early.

“Rather than taking extra days, I ended up skipping days,” he said. On one day, he rode 166 miles.

In all, he biked 2,998 miles over a total of 42 days — time he used to reflect, he said.

Gary Wietgrefe’s shadow stretches out in front of him as he rides down a highway as he heads for Alaska. (Photo: Gary Wietgrefe)

He’d purchased a portable radio to listen to weather reports, but immediately realized it was distracting him from his surroundings. So he put in some soft earplugs to eliminate wind noise, and listened.

“It was just me and nature, by myself,” Wietgrefe said.

Patricia, who stayed back for the beginning of the trip, caught up with him in western Saskatchewan, driving along with tires, supplies and bike parts in case something went wrong. While he biked, she found her own adventures driving through Canada.

He blogged nightly about his experiences, ranging from staring down a moose in the middle of a Canadian highway to crowding into the car of a Coast Guardsman after a tire blowout (although entries from May 20-June 2 were accidentally deleted).

A bear encountered by Gary Wietgrefe as he biked from Pierre to Alaska (Photo: Gary Wietgrefe)

It’s those blog posts that form the beginning of each chapter in the book, which went on sale last month, nearly two years after Wietgrefe arrived in North Pole.

“Age is not the limiting factor,” he wrote that day. “It is personal willingness to take on, and accomplish something that you have been delaying for too long. Now it is your turn.”

Gary Wietgrefe rides down a highway as he heads for Alaska.
One of many photos taken by Gary Wietgrefe as he biked from Pierre to Alaska (Photo: Gary Wietgrefe)