By BREEANA LAUGHLIN/YachatsNews.com
WALDPORT — A new festival in Waldport will bring adventure bicyclists together with community members for a day full of “Beach, Bike and Blues” on Saturday.
While bicyclists competing in the Oregon Coast Gravel Epic ascend steep unpaved logging roads just outside of town, their friends and families can join with locals for music, a vendor fair, food and craft beer. The free event will take place from 1 to 7 p.m. at the Alsea Bay Interpretive Center parking lot. It will end with bicycle racers joining in the celebration with an award ceremony at 6 p.m.
“We are starting something that will become a tradition people put on their calendar,” said Tom Fullmer, director of the Waldport Chamber of Commerce which is organizing the party.
Mike Ripley is the head of Mudslinger Events and the coordinator for the Oregon Coast Gravel Epic and West Coast Gravel bicycle races coming to Waldport and Yachats on Saturday and Sunday. He’s looking forward to introducing race participants to all of what the area has to offer through the Beach, Bike and Blues festival.
“We are going to have more and more people making this their Spring destination event and expose them to the Oregon coast,” Ripley said. “There’s so many neat things in this area and adding blues into the mix is really cool.”
Musical acts will take place throughout the day Saturday.
The Thunder & Lightness World Beat Ensemble will take the stage at 1 p.m. followed at 3:30 p.m. by Old Time Blues with Paul Schuytema. The final musical act starts at 5:30 p.m. Bringin’ It Home Blues with Steve Cook, Curtis Colt, Jim Hobbs and Notary Sojack.
“Steve promised everyone will be up and moving and shaking,” Fullmer said.
The festival will also feature food from JoElle’s Fish & Chips and Lazy Dayz Café, which plans to smoke 100 of their “dinosaur eggs” for the event. Julie and Mike Grigsby will be joining the festivities cooking their unique Meatloaf Burger along with traditional burgers and fries.
Buoy Beer Co. of Astoria will be pouring beer and Bigfoot Beverages has donated water and soda. Proceeds from beverage sales will help defray costs for the event, Fullmer said.
The Waldport Chamber is also encouraging local businesses to open early and remain open until at least 8 p.m. to capture the many people coming to eat, shop and celebrate Waldport.
“It’s a way to showcase everything we have here,” Fullmer said.
It can also be a fun way for locals to “play visitor” and come out and rediscover shops, food offerings and music from local artists, he said.
10th Gravel Epic event
The first Beach, Bike and Blues festival will be taking place alongside the 10th anniversary of the Oregon Coast Gravel Epic.
The adventure cycle race takes about 500 riders through the raw beauty of the Siuslaw National Forest. It is an endurance event that pushes participants up and down steep logging roads in the 60-mile Abomination or 37-mile Son of Abomination routes.
The course requires skill, dedication and proper gear, but racers don’t tend to be uber-competitive, said Ripley.
“It’s like a half marathon – you have your front runners, the mid pack and people who are looking to finish,” he said. “In all of our events, we treat everyone like family.”
The racers leave Waldport at 8 a.m. and are immediately hit with a 12-mile hill climb and will ascend a total of 6,000 feet throughout the 60-mile course. Participants are supported with radio-communicators, aid stations and food along the way.
The following day, about 250 racers will compete in a 57- or 38-mile gravel cycling course near Yachats called the West Coast Gravel Epic. This course requires less hill climbing, according to Ripley, but includes a steep descent back to the coast at the end of the race.
The Waldport and Yachats events are two of 12 Mudslinger events held annually across Oregon. Ripley runs the family business out of his hometown of Monroe. The bicycle enthusiast said the adventure of bicycle racing pairs well with the beauty of the Pacific Northwest.
“There’s a symbiotic relationship between recreation and this whole vibe of what makes the Northwest awesome,” Ripley said. “It’s adventure and exploration.”
- Breeana Laughlin is a Waldport-area freelance writer who can be reached at Breeana4@Yahoo.com