2025 Wild Driftless Race Report

The 2025 Wild Driftless Adventure Race took place on October 4, 2025, headquartered at Camp Ewalu in Strawberry Point, IA.

186 participants, making up 83 teams took on the two courses in the inaugural year.

The Wild Driftless 9-hour

The 9-hour Wild Driftless included 57 teams, including several well-known Midwest adventure racing powerhouses.

Prologue

The course began with a ~1.3 mile "Rainb-O" prologue that involved picking out the best route to five uniquely colored checkpoints among the 12 available. The field began to string out with teams choosing one of the four or five best possible combinations, which were all similar in length but had varying levels of difficulty. After 15:55, Tim Buchholz, racing solo as Rib Mountain Racing, emerged with the early lead followed one minute later by Band of the Red Hand, Good Job, Mother Jugs and Speed, and Adventure Girls. The prologue proved very difficult for some with an average time of 31 minutes--not accounting for TrailBridge, who suffered from a demagnetized compass and got seriously lost, finishing the prologue in 3 hours and 43 minutes. To her credit, she continued and completed the course!

Leg 1: Orienteering Trek, 1-5 miles

From the Prologue, teams headed on foot to the southern boundary of Camp Ewalu with the option to collect up to 6 checkpoints on an orienteering leg. The catch? These points would also be available on Leg 6 when teams would have their bikes. This led to some really interesting strategic decisions, even amongst the top teams. Rib Mountain Racing elected to collect only CP3, while Good Job collected two CPs, and Mother Jugs and Speed elected to get 3 CPs. Still other teams, like Band of the Red Hand  elected to get 4 CPs! Suddenly, all the teams were separated and it was unclear who was actually ahead. Just how we drew it up!

Most teams discovered at this point that the navigation at Ewalu was very challenging. The undergrowth was relatively thick and the network of trails was confusing. Some teams got lost--some got very lost--one team failed to make it through Leg 1 at all. That's adventure racing!

Leg 2: Bike, 12 miles

Probably the most straightforward leg of the race was the 11 mile bike to the Backbone beach, which was broken up by a short trail trek at Morris Wildlife Area for CP7. The ride began with gravel before transitioning to pavement through the town of Dundee where teams collected CP8 at the Dundee Wildlife Area and then ascended Wolf Hill with pleasant views of the pastoral countryside. By now, some teams may well have been wondering if this race was really as wild as advertised. They would soon find out...

Coming off of Leg 2, Rib Mountain Racing  arrived at TA2 at the Backbone Beach with a 10 minute lead and one CP more than 180 Adventure,  while Good Job  arrived 17 minutes after Rib but with one more CP than Rib.

Leg 3: Paddle, 4.5 miles + A Treasure Hunt

The paddle on this year's course took participants up and down Backbone Lake. The area near the TA is pretty on shore but the water begins murky and brown but as teams made their way northward, the lake gradually--and then all at once--becomes more like the spring-fed Maquoketa River that it is. Teams got to enjoy the wide array of fish species cruising in the shallow water over the sandy bottom as they continued to an area just below the Backbone, collecting as many as 3 CPs along the way. Finally, they would have to get out and pull their boats the last 1/4 mile or so where the water was too shallow to paddle. Awaiting them at the end of the line was a special task where they would have to use a hand-drawn treasure map to find the CP located at the "X" at the south end of the Backbone.

Many teams elected to skip points on this paddle, but a surprising number of teams (30 in all!) completed the special task. At the Treasure Hunt, Rib Mountain Racing had his lead trimmed to 13 minutes over Good Job, who held one more CP.

Leg 4: Mountain Bike, 4 miles

Leg 4 was a quick mountain bike over some adventure-surfacy wide single track. I'm not sure what to call this surface, but it's roots and rocks and lots of short, steep climbs on a multi-use trail where biking is allowed but not exactly the most common mode of travel. Some teams screamed through this stage in less than a half hour--others were out there for 45 minutes or more. At the end of Leg 4, the standings looked like this:

Overall: Rib Mountain Racing, 14 minutes up but 1 point down on Good Job (Co-ed), who were 7 minutes up but 1 further point down on Mother Jugs and Speed (male).

Women: 180 Adventure was 1 hour, 2 minutes up on Adventure Girls, who held 2 extra points from the first stage.

Leg 5: Trek Nav, 7 miles

The queen stage of the race took teams into the northern half of Backbone State Park. This leg was set to make the one road through the middle of Backbone next to useless--you could take it, but it was rarely--if ever--the fast route. 13 CPs and a rappel special task took teams up and over countless limestone bluffs along the Maquoketa River and Fenchel Creek. The route choice here was important, but more important was strong navigation, as many spurs and re-entrants ran in parallel and attack points were relatively easy to misjudge. Still, the open forest provided for more straightforward navigating than at Ewalu with the caveat that there would be a lot more climbing!

Highlights of this leg included the Backbone--a 100 foot vertical ridge trail that falls away to the Maquoketa River on both sides--and the Backbone Cave, which held a checkpoint 200 feet back. The cave required a headlamp and those who entered would have to crawl through cave mud and slime to get to it. Thankfully, they were surrounded by beautiful, crystal clear trout streams to dip their hands, knees, and even heads in when they came back out. And, oh yeah, there was a rappel off a sheer vertical rock face, which one member of the team could complete for two points.

Rib Mountain Racing cleared Leg 5 in 2 hours, 36 minutes compared to Good Job in 2 hours, 47 minutes, and Mother Jugs and Speed in 3 hours, 6 minutes.

In the women's division, 180 Adventure extended their lead significantly in this section and were now an hour up as well as a couple points ahead of second place.

Leg 6: Bike and Bike/Trek, 14-17 miles

The final leg of the race took teams on bikes either along the east side of Backbone State Park if they intended to get the 3 extra bike CPs or directly back to Ewalu out the western gate. The teams that chose to ride more found themselves in the town of Strawberry Point with a checkpoint at the World's Largest Strawberry. Cruelly, the hardest gravel riding of the day was the last mile and a half from CP 28 onward where the road was washboard and loose. Then, all teams had left to do was collect whatever CPs they missed at Ewalu on Leg 1.

Some of the hardest points of the day were at Ewalu, which combined challenging orienteering, endless burrs, and a trail system that was more bikeable in some places than others. This was the conundrum facing everybody as they came back in to the finish.

In the end, three teams cleared the course, collecting all 35 points, including:

1. Rib Mountain Racing, 35 points in 8:30:28
2. Good Job (1st Co-ed), 35 points in 8:50:19
3. Mother Jugs and Speed (1st male), 35 points in 8:54:26

Other top 10 finishers included:

4. 180 Adventure (1st Female) with 30 points in 8:54:12

5. Wildcats (2nd Male) with 26 points in 8:43:02

6. Thunder Chicken (2nd Solo male) with 26 points in 8:43:39

7. Rage Against the Cutoff (3rd Solo male) with 26 points in 8:54:50

8. GearJunkie Youth (3rd male) with 25 points in 8:58:54

9. Adventure Girls (2nd female) with 24 points in 8:37:09

10. The Drifters (4th male) with 24 points in 8:46:25

Wild Driftless Lite

The inaugural Wild Driftless Lite was a 5 hour course encompassing many of the highlights of the 9-hour course. 26 teams made battle with this Lite course, which punched above its distance in difficulty!

Leg 1: Trek-Orienteering, 1-5 miles

The Lite course began with the same Leg 1 as the 9-hour course. Participants were warned at the race meeting that they should consider skipping many of the CPs and instead to see how much time they have on the way back. However, some teams elected to get 3 or even 4 (!) CPs on this stage, even with the warning.

The first team to TA1 Renegades (male) who elected to collect only 1 CP on Leg 1, while teams like Eye of the Biker (co-ed) and Just Joshin' Around (male) collected two points but were as much as 28 minutes behind.

Leg 2: Bike, 5.5 miles

A short gravel and pavement ride felt considerably longer with the strong headwind out of the south. Some teams struggled to find CP 7, which was located just off the road as they entered Backbone State Park. I have to admit this was a fairly cruel placement, because attacking this point directly meant crawling through a series of brambly bushes.

At TA2, the top tier of teams looked like this:

Renegades: 2 CPs in 52:49

Eye of the Biker: 3 CPs in 1:11:21

Just Joshin' Around: 3 CPs in 1:14:44

Sponsored by Duckies Refreshments (family): 2 CPs in 1:11:32

SauerKraus (family): 2 CPs in 1:11:48

Leg 3: Trek Nav, 3 miles

A critical stage for the race was this shorter version of the big trek nav at Backbone. The Lite course included the rappel point and the Backbone checkpoint as well as 3 other CPs in close proximity on the eastern edge of the park. In this leg, Eye of the Biker and Just Joshin' Around pulled away from Renegades, who had a significant bobble between CPs 8 and 9, spending 47 minutes on a section that took Eye of the Biker just 27, and, ironically, Is This the Right Way? (male) did it in 20 minutes!

Leg 4: Bike and Bike/Trek, 7-10 miles

The final leg took teams on bike back to Ewalu, but unlike the full course, participants could use the paved County W68 road that runs through the middle of the park. This allowed Lite teams to collect the cave CP along the bike route on their way back to Ewalu. At the cave, Eye of the Biker and Just Joshin' Around were within spitting distance, with only five minutes between them and plenty to play for. In the end, both teams elected to get the same CPs (6, 4, and 2) on the way to the finish, skipping CP 1. (Honorable mention to Team Steve (solo male), who was the only Lite course team to collect CP 1!

In the end, Eye of the Biker completed their CPs quicker, extending their lead and winning the first Wild Driftless Lite with 14 points in a time of 4:31:11.

Everybody at the finish was treated to Team Ohana finishing just 1 minute over the time limit, but who cares? They were pulling their 3-year-old and 6-year-old in a tow-behind over this course! What a great sight--and I guarantee everybody who was complaining about their day got real quiet after seeing that!

Top Ten Standings:

1. Eye of the Biker (1st co-ed), 14 points in 4:31:11
2. Just Joshin' Around (1st male), 14 points in 4:48:39
3. Team Steve (solo male), 13 points in 4:46:08
4. Sponsored by Duckies Refreshments (1st family), 12 points in 4:49:57
5. Is this the right way? (2nd male), 11 points in 4:41:54
6. Renegades (3rd male), 11 points in 4:51:02
7. Nature Ninjas (2nd family), 11 points in 4:51:06
8. Snap crackle pop (4th male), 11 points in 4:57:31
9. Turtles (5th male), 10 points in 4:37:47
10. Donkey Cart (2nd solo male), 10 points in 4:44:18