RIDGEFIELD — After pushing his jogging stroller along an uphill stretch of Northeast 10th Avenue, Mike Ehredt paused at an intersection at the city limits of Ridgefield.

It was time to mark another milestone. Time to honor another American soldier.

Ehredt looked through dozens of American flags in the stroller and found one with a yellow tag bearing the name of Cpl. Ryan McGhee. He knelt down and placed it along the side of the road. Then Ehredt stood and saluted in memory of Cpl. McGhee, a 21-year-old Army Ranger from Fredericksburg, Va., who was killed a year ago in Iraq.

After checking the traffic along the country road, Ehredt stepped back onto the shoulder of the highway and continued his run. More than 4,000 miles …more than 4,000 flags to go.

Monday marked Ehredt’s third day of a cross-county challenge he’s calling Project America Run. The U.S. Army veteran and retired postal worker started his journey Saturday in Astoria, Ore.

The 49-year-old Idaho resident has charted a route that will take him about 4,500 miles to Rockland, Maine. He will mark every mile with a flag commemorating an American service member who has died in Iraq or Afghanistan.

“It’s 157 days, and if it all goes according to schedule, I’ll end it on Oct. 15,” Ehredt said Monday evening.

His route through Clark County will link Ehredt with the family of one of the soldiers killed in Iraq. Beth Johnson is hosting Ehredt during his stay in Vancouver. Her son, Cpl. Jeremiah Johnson, died Jan. 5, 2007, of massive brain injuries. The 23-year-old Prairie High School graduate was injured during fighting in Baghdad on the day after Christmas in 2006.

“They were looking for host families,” Beth Johnson said Monday. “He was relatively new into his adventure. I was one of the first to respond on this part of the route.”

Johnson prepared the bedroom where Jeremiah’s children — Isaiah, 8, and Rya, 5 — “sleep when they’re with us,” she said.

Johnson also had some shopping to do, stocking up for Monday’s dinner and this morning’s breakfast.

“He burns 8,000 calories a day,” she said.

Ehredt is an experienced marathoner and has competed in several endurance challenges and adventure events. But his daily mileage averages about 30 miles or so.

“That’s a marathon and a 5-kilometer every day,” Ehredt said. “I have the luxury of not having to worry about pressure of a time frame. This is not a competition.

“A lot of this is personal,” he said. “I have a real deep feeling for those who have been lost, even though I don’t know them.”

So if people see a flag, Ehredt says he hopes they pause and reflect: “Who we are and what we have is because of the sacrifice of our military.”

Near the Duluth crossroad, where 10th Avenue meets Northeast 219th Street, Battle Ground High School cross country coach Sheryl Piper was warming up for a run with Ehredt. Piper, a school secretary and another teacher were ready to accompany him on the final leg of Monday’s route to Battle Ground.

“His tribute to the troops, taking all that time out of his life, I thought that was inspiring,” Piper said.

While Ehredt will be running most of the way solo, he is staying in touch with the world through a couple of different links. A GPS tracker on the front of his stroller marks Ehredt’s location.

He’s using another navigation system to plot the location of each flag he places along the road. He started with the most recent war fatalities, as of the beginning of April, and is working back to the beginning of the conflict. Service personnel who died since April 1 will be commemorated at the end of his journey.

If things go according to schedule, the flag honoring Jeremiah Johnson will be placed on June 18. The mile-by-mile observance will link families across the country, something the mother of the Vancouver soldier appreciates.

“He’s helping us remember them all,” Beth Johnson said. “It’s for each individual family.”

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