Over 300 recreation enthusiasts from around the country will descend on Elkader Saturday, Oct. 3, for the Wild Driftless Adventure Race.

Based at Elkader City Park, the race will take participants—teams of two to four people or solo racers—into some of the most scenic areas of Northeast Iowa for trekking, biking and paddling.

The Wild Driftless Adventure Race is organized by Ewalu Camp and Retreat Center Executive Director Frank Johnson, who first became involved in adventure racing while living in Northern Minnesota. He participated in a race called Swamp Donkey in Manitoba, Canada, and for several years directed a small Northern Minnesota race called the Lake Brunson Adventure Race.

“Just from racing it and doing it, I really think there’s nothing quite like this,” he said. “The premise of adventure racing is that it’s a secret course. There’s biking, there’s something on foot, there’s paddling. But, really, the crux of it is that it’s a map and compass navigation race—old school. Participants show up on race morning at the headquarters and they don’t know where they’re going until they get here. They don’t know where the start line is, and they don’t know where the finish line is. For the most part, they come ready for an adventure and the surprise is part of the fun.”

According to Johnson, one thing that separates adventure racing from triathlon and similar athletic pursuits is that most of the places participants are racing to are unmanned and optional checkpoints. Orienteering control flags—which are noted on participants’ maps—are placed on features around the course. Racers can prove they were there with an e-punch.

“Sometimes you really don’t know where you stand at all, because it’s not a set course. People can do whatever order they want for most of it, and they just kind of go out and get lost a lot,” Johnson remarked.

The Wild Driftless Adventure Race offers both nine- and five-hour time limits. The course is designed for all ability levels, with an eye toward serving as an entry-level event for first-timers, as well as challenging more seasoned adventure racers.

“When I first heard of adventure racing and saw the race up in Canada was nine hours, I thought, ‘That’s impossible. Nobody can do that.’ I was coming from a world of triathlon where it’s like an hour or two hours and that’s plenty,” Johnson said. “But the neat thing about the sport is a lot of people are just out there hiking all day. They’re not running necessarily. It encompasses a wide variety of ability levels. It’s not for everybody, but it’s for more people than think they can do this.”

Getting off the beaten path is the appeal, Johnson said.

“Crashing through swamps, and that somebody was giving me permission to just go there—which I’d never been given permission to leave the trail—was freeing,” he shared. “So I like to show off areas now where we can take people off the trail. Just start going through the woods and see what’s out there.”

The inaugural Wild Driftless Adventure Race was held last year, largely at Ewalu near Strawberry Point and Backbone State Park. The race is sanctioned as part of the USARA, the United States Adventure Racing Association, and is also part of the Wisconsin Adventure Racing series, which is a series of around 10 races.

Johnson said the intent is to change the event location each year, showcasing different spots in Iowa’s Driftless Area.

“This is untouched area in Iowa’s portion of the Driftless. Nobody has ever done adventure races over here,” he said. “There have been what we’d call adventure triathlons, which is basically a triathlon but with paddling or mountain biking. But that’s on a set course. This is completely different. And I pretty quickly realized there were so many places I wanted to do this race.”

In a way, “we have a very small feeling of what RAGBRAI is like, because you pick the new location and everybody gets excited,” Johnson quipped.

He is excited to feature Elkader, one of the communities that sold him and his family on moving to the area. Johnson has found strong partnerships in the community, from the city, Main Street Elkader, the Turkey River Recreational Corridor and other nonprofits.

“Elkader has opened my eyes to the fact we can partner with the community in a way that wasn’t really possible last year. As we’re designing the course and talking with people in town, they’re like, ‘Oh, it’d be neat if you tried this. It would be neat if you included this.’ That’s been fun,” Johnson said, “because we’ve designed the course to show off Elkader and the area around it.”

As of last week, there were 277 registrants for the Wild Driftless Adventure Race—surpassing the 186 total from a year ago. Johnson said a maximum 375 people can participate between the two races.

Word of mouth has grown interest. A Travel Iowa marketing grant was helpful too.

Johnson estimates over half the registrants are from around Iowa. Another significant chunk come from Wisconsin and Minnesota.

“Some of them are familiar with the sport from the Wisconsin Adventure Racing Series because there have been lots of races in Wisconsin, some in Minnesota, some in Illinois,” Johnson said.

Other racers are coming from as far away as Utah, Texas and Ohio. Even some of Johnson’s former Swamp Donkey participants are joining.

“People will travel for this kind of stuff because there aren’t that many,” he said.

Because a large number of entrants will be from out of town, they plan to stay in Elkader and the surrounding area, giving a boost to the local economy.

That weekend, the Wild Driftless Adventure Race is partnering with Art in the Park, which is being held in the fall for the first time this year, in hopes of drawing racers and their families to that event as well. Additionally, the race is partnering with Turkey River Arts and Music for a Friday night cabin concert.

“So it’s going to be this mesh of local nonprofit groups that are working together, which I think is really neat,” Johnson said. “We want to be a recreation-based tourism partner for the areas we’re going into. On one level, we hope to stimulate the economy for the weekend. The long term hope is that people see this area of Iowa that, frankly, a lot of people don’t know exists and are like, ‘That’s an interesting place to come back and play or live someday.’ I don’t think that’s unrealistic.”

To learn more, visit the “Wild Driftless Adventure Race” Facebook page. Even if people are interested in the sport, but not quite ready to give it a try, Johnson said volunteerism is a good alternative.

The event supports Ewalu, and each year a donation is also made to a local outdoors group. Last year that was the Backbone Friends Group, and this year it’s Clayton County Conservation and the Starmont cross country team, who is volunteering.