Hands in the air
and toes in the sand, for Beach, Bike & Blues in Waldport
By Gretchen Ammerman
Oregon Coast TODAY
Let’s face it, the number of people who are willing to ride a bike for a minimum of 37 miles on a grueling course that’s a mix of pavement, gravel roads and trails is pretty small. But that circle widens considerably for those that enjoy good music, tasty food and sipping beer by the beach.
Enter the inaugural Beach, Bike and Blues event, happening at Waldport’s Alsea Bay Bridge Interpretive Center this Saturday, April 30, planned as a companion event to the Oregon Coast Gravel Epic.
“This is the 10th year of the bike race,” said Tom Fullmer, executive director of the Waldport Chamber of Commerce and organizer of the new event. “I met the organizer of the gravel bike ride, Mike Ripley, when I’d been the chamber director for about a month. I went to check it out and I was like, ‘Holy cow.’”
Fullmer soon found out that the community of Waldport knew very little about the annual race in their backyard, which in some years has drawn close to 500 riders.
“There were some core volunteers that helped out with it every year,” he said. “But in general, it wasn’t very well known.”
So Fullmer and Ripley started throwing some ideas around.
“There has been a lot of planning going on,” Fullmer said. “Once we came up with the name, Mike asked his go-to graphic designer to create our logo — it’s really been a hit.”
The logo will be on hoodies, t-shirts and stickers on sale during the event.
“The interpretive center will be the merchandise headquarters,” Fullmer said. “It’s going to be open for extended hours. People can take a break from the outside festivities and come see some of the really amazing displays we have in there that tell the history of the area.”
Outside the interpretive center, on the south side of Waldport’s iconic bridge, will be live music, food vendors and a beer garden.
When it came to music, the theme was serendipitous.
"Paul Schuytema is the director of the Economic Development Alliance of Lincoln County and we were just chatting at a meeting one day,” Fullmer said. “I told him I wanted to bring music festivals to Waldport and he said he played the blues. He had even put on a big-time blues festival when he still lived in Illinois. He said he would play a set of acoustic old-time style blues, so I started to build the line up with him in mind.”
Closing out the lineup is the Thunder & Lightness World Beat Ensemble, and a set from Steve Cook, Curtis Colt, Jim Hobbs and Neal Staufenbeil. The music will pause for the race awards ceremony.
People who want to mix it up with the racers will find them trickling in throughout the afternoon.
“The first racers will finish at about one o’clock, the last ones at about four,” Fullmer said.
Ripley chose Waldport to stage the race both because of the miles of local trails and gravel roads in the area, and also because he has long been a fan.
“The key thing for me is to create more opportunities for cyclists to go, ‘Wow, Waldport’s cool’’” he said. “Plus, it’s a benefit for me to tell people that might be coming alone that there is something for them to do after the race instead of just finishing up and going home. Family members and friends also might be more likely to come along if they know there will be this fun event going on.”
Many local businesses will stay open later, so people can enjoy exploring the town.
There is one other way locals can help support the riders and have fun at the same time.
“People from the community might want to be out on Cedar Street cheering the riders on and ringing cowbells,” Ripley said. “Roughly 400 riders will be going by and if you’ve never experienced that before, it’s actually a pretty cool thing. Plus, the riders really appreciate it.”
Beach, Bike & Blues starts at 1 pm this Saturday, April 30, at the Alsea Bay Bridge Interpretive Center/Waldport Heritage Museum on the south side of the Alsea Bay Bridge. For more information, go to findyourselfinwaldport.com.
Entertainment line-up
1:30 – Thunder & Lightness World Beat Ensemble
3:30 – Old-time blues with Paul Schuytema
5:30 – Steve Cook, Curtis Colt, Jim Hobbs & Notary Sojack