Cross America runner makes pit stop at Tribal Vet Center

By B.L. Azure

Mike Ehredt (left), retired U.S. Postal Service clerk and Army veteran, receives a Flathead Nation Flag from Mission Valley Honor Guard member Elden White at a stop at the Mission Veterans Center Wednesday. (B.L. Azure photo)

ST. IGNATIUS — As of April 1, 2010 there were 4,514 men and women killed in the war in Iraq. On May 1, 49-year-old Mike Ehredt, an Army veteran and retired U.S. Post Office clerk took the first physical step in his 4,514-mile cross America journey that is his personal silent homage to the American military men and women killed in that war.

Ehredt of Hope, Idaho will place an American flag at every mile marker along his route between Astoria, Oregon and Rockland, Maine. He started May 1 and plans to be in Rockland in mid-October.

The U.S. flags have a yellow ribbon attached that contains the name of military personnel killed while serving in Iraq. The ribbons also list the rank, branch of service, age and hometown of the fallen. As of April 1 that number was 4,514. That forced him to put some twists and turns in his cross-America run. The flags will be placed in the reverse order of the day when the person was killed in action. The last flag will be placed in Rockland, Maine, the hometown of the first soldier killed in Iraq.

On Wednesday, May 26, Ehredt, who served from 1979-1983, arrived on the Flathead Indian Reservation via Montana 200. That evening he dined, potluck style, with area veterans and wives at the Veterans Center here.

“This isn’t political. I have a connection because of my military service in the Army. This is strictly to honor and remember the military people killed in the war in Iraq and to give my personal thanks,” Ehredt said of his Project America Run. “The flags create a visible symbolic linking of the hands of the fallen across America.”

You don’t just lace up the running/hiking shoes and hit the pavement on a cross America run. It requires a lot of planning, nearly three years in Ehredt’s case. The last 18 months of the planning was to set up his route, make contacts with veteran groups and media as well as arranging host houses with alternates approximately every 30 miles along the route.

“There isn’t any book that tells you how to run across the country. I just did a couple extra four-hour training runs to get a bit of a feel of this,” Ehredt said. He has always been a runner but didn’t do any special physical training or dietary alterations for the deeply personal and spiritual cross America sojourn. “I just use common sense and let my body adjust as I go. I don’t think too far ahead. I deal with this one day at a time with my attention focus on the next mile marker.”

Ehredt doesn’t have any high tech running gear, preferring lightweight but durable hiking/trail shoes that he replaces every 15 days or 450 miles. They provide more cushion with ankle support and allow for the swelling of his feet. His gate is the gear between a fast walk and paced long distance running.

He pushes a durable three-wheel jogging baby stroller containing his supplies that he replenishes daily along the route. He carries water, fruit, snacks, juices and the like. Every 10 days along the route he picks up his re-supply of 300 flags, shoes and other necessities sent to predetermined destinations via the mail.

Ehredt carries a cell phone and a GPS device to monitor his progress and to mark the exact location of each of the 4,514 flags he places along the 4,514-mile route.

“I’m not sure I would or could do this without a purpose,” he said. “It is turning out to be a great experience and I am meeting a lot of great people doing this.”

In Battleground, Washington all of the town’s school children lined his path through town to cheer him on. While passing through Sandpoint, Idaho a man accompanied him for a few miles and engaged him in pleasant conversation. He encountered a bear upon entering Montana and had to do some fancy dancing to avoid a rattlesnake near Ravalli.

Ehredt will eat most anything the potluck gatherings and/or host serves. “I eat whatever the host serves,” he said, adding that he needs 6,000 to 8,000 calories a day to fuel his 30 miles and relies on meat, vegetables and fruits. The only request he somewhat reluctantly made was for a quart of chocolate milk at the end of the day.

The 30 miles a day takes him an average of six and a half hours if he doesn’t stop to engage in friendly conversation with folks he meets along the route. He ends the day at a host house where he updates his website. He begins next morning making phone contacts with people down the line and home.

After breakfast each day Ehredt hits the road where he left off the night prior with a bundle of 30 flags to place at each of the 30 mile-markers he encounters along his daily route.

Wednesday afternoon Ehredt made it to Ravalli. He was picked up by members of the Mission Valley Honor Guard who ferried him to the home of MVHG member Elden White where he stayed overnight.

Ehredt freshened up and took a break before White and he motored to the Mission Veterans Center for a potluck dinner with area veterans and wives as well as meeting with members of the local press.

Ehredt won’t run along the Interstate highways preferring the two-lane roadways. He came into the state from Idaho on Montana 200 and will exit it into Idaho on U.S. Highway 93. He will be in Salmon on Memorial Day and plans on being in Crested Butte, Colorado on the Fourth of July.

Mike Ehredt places American flags with the name of military personnel killed in the war in Iraq on every mile market on his west coast to east coast run. (B.L. Azure photo)

“I stay off the Interstates. I avoid large towns by taking the secondary roads,” he said. However the secondary roads do have some inherent problems along stretches such as narrow to next to non-existent shoulders. “The worst stretch so far was through the Perma curves there wasn’t much room. But I don’t worry, I just go with the flow of traffic.”

Ehredt said he knows the value of precipitation but he would like to see his shadow a little more.

“It rained in Oregon, it rained in Washington, it rained in Idaho and now it’s raining in Montana,” Ehredt said, adding that it could rain along his entire route and it wouldn’t dampen his spirit. He will be looking at the rainbows and counting his blessings as he treks across America the beautiful. “Every day is different. Sometimes they seem to go by in a blur. The weather can change in a minute. I haven’t had any bad days but I do want to spend at least on night under the stars.”