A bacon-filled bike ride will make its way through eastern Dallas County and parts of Guthrie County for its 9 annual year. 

The BACooN Ride 9 Classic is a 71 mile bike trip along the Raccoon River Valley Trail on Saturday with the theme of bacon and golf this year. Each stop the riders will make will be considered a golf hole and riders will try and eat as much bacon as possible. 

The bacon ride will start at the Kinship Brewing Company in Waukee at 7am and then they go counter-clock wise along the trail with stops in Minburn, Perry, Dawson, Yale, Panora, Redfield and Adel among others. Iowa Bicycle Coalition Executive Director Mark Wyatt tells Raccoon Valley Radio how this event got started. 

“You know, several years ago, my friends that run the Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival and I got together and said, ‘You know, we should do a bacon themed bike ride and put this together. And it sounded like a lot of fun. And it sure as heck was. So we got about 1,400 or 1,500 people coming out to enjoy bicycling and the Raccoon River Valley Trail.”

Wyatt notes that registration has already closed for this event, but people are free to watch as the many bikers go by on the trail. He says that all the money that was raised in the event will benefit the Iowa Bicycle Coalition which is a non-profit bike advocacy group. For a full schedule of events you can find it here. Motorists are encouraged to use precaution if they cross over the trail during the event.