Father & Son bike nearly 900 miles from Denver to Cooperstown, ND

Tom and Jared Ullrich completed a nearly 900-mile bike ride from Denver to Cooperstown, North Dakota in 10 days.

COOPERSTOWN, N.D., (KVRR) — A father and son complete a long bike trek that took nearly 900 miles.

“Hallelujah. Oh yeah,” Tom and Jared Ullrich said.

They completed a nearly 900 mile bike ride from Denver to Cooperstown, North Dakota in 10 days. With Father’s Day around the corner, Tom says he did this for someone special.

“I always told Jerry one of these days look out of your window because we’re going to be out there on our bikes. He said yeah, yeah yeah. That would be the day right?” Tom said.

Born and raised in North Dakota, Tom planned this journey in one week. Tom and Jared haven’t had any training or experience of taking a ride like this one.

“How long his ride was before this?” Jared asked his father.

“About 31 miles,” Tom said.

With averaging about 90 to 100 miles a day, they faced the only major obstacle: the wind.

“Nebraska for instance. So, we were going straight into the wind. 25 miles per hour. It was non-stop. We had to go 40 miles to the next town and it took us about seven hours to get there in 40 miles,” Jared said.

Every night they stayed in a motel. One thing they saw from each place was how kind everyone was to them. Particularly a man who helped them fix a flat tire.

“He went home. It must have been a 300 pound air compressor in the back of his pickup. This guy is probably 85-years-old. Came back out there. It took him about 45 minutes and he came out to help us. That was a miracle. We would have been stranded. We would have to walk our bikes 15 miles. That would have taken forever,” Tom said.

Through ups and downs throughout their journey, they say it was worth it. Tom encourages everyone to follow their dreams as he did.

“If you have something you want to do, no matter how difficult… My wife and everybody has been trying to talk me out of it, my kids. Hey, go for it. Don’t let anyone talk you out of your dreams,” Tom said.

Tom says he is shocked by the amount of food he ate on the trip. He believes instead of losing weight, he gained some.