Mike Earley can check “cross-country bicycle ride” off his retirement to-do list. Earley returned to Des Moines on Aug. 6 after completing a 4,124-mile two-wheeled odyssey that began on June 5.

“It was fun, but I wouldn’t do it again,” the 66-year-old said with a grin. “It was more physically challenging than I thought it would be, and more dangerous.”

Though he finished the trip without taking any spills or sustaining any injuries, there were many unexpected hazards, like the humongous logging trucks that would take up nearly both lanes as they passed. But then again, the northern Rockies were “simply spectacular.”

Earley, who retired as CEO of Bankers Trust Co. at the end of 2008, last year ran the New York City Marathon and hiked the Grand Canyon as part of his retirement wish list.

In June, he was among a group of about 20 bicyclists who started out from Neah Bay, Wash., on a trip organized by Dick Gottsegen, a Denver man Earley met while hiking the Grand Canyon last year. The route, which Gottsegen had ridden alone some 20 years earlier, crossed the northernmost tier of states along the Canadian border to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, traversed into Canada to Montreal, dipped back down to New York and ended on the coast of Maine.

“It was a sentimental journey for him and a physical challenge for me,” said Earley, who was among nine cyclists who rode every mile. He was the only Iowan in the group, which included folks from a number of states. These weren’t spring chickens on the trip, either. The average age of the group was 64.

Rather than camp, the travelers stayed in hotels along the route. “I wouldn’t have done it if I had to camp,” Earley said. “My camping days are behind me.”

Earley’s wife, Mary, met him at several points along the way, including Glacier National Park in Montana and at the ride’s end at Acadia National Park in Maine, where they spent time hiking.

The first 10 days of the bike trip were cold and rainy as the group began ascending to the Continental Divide, where they rode through passes still covered with snow.

One particularly memorable stop for the group was in Idaho, where the cyclists pulled over at a biker bar.

“They turned out to be as interested in our mode of transportation as we were in theirs,” Earley said.