‘The Gravel is Worth the Travel’

Riders will be getting hungry as they pedal into Colfax for RAGBRAI 2023 and the Spring City is ready feed and entertain while the bikers are in town. Colfax was selected as a pass thru town for the 50th RAGBRAI ride July 27.

“Ragbrai is a huge, nationally famous activity for the state of Iowa, and its mind-boggling that there will be around 15,000-20,000 riders coming through downtown Colfax in about a four-hour period of time,” Colfax Main Street Director Stuart Patterson said. “We think it’s a good time to help showcase the positive changes that have been happening in Downtown Colfax over the last decade through the efforts of volunteers, business owners and the City of Colfax.”

Starting at 9 a.m., Traffic Jam, a rock and roll jam band featuring local drummer Dave Wolf, will hit the stage. Entertainment, food and drinks will be set up from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the parking lot on West Howard Street and West Division Street between Colfax City Hall and the Colfax Public Library. Riders will be able to pick from the Colfax Main Street/Quarry Springs Park Beer and Beverage Tent, Lucky Wife Wine Slushies, El Meson Taco Shack, Solar Smoothies, Sheepgate Catering and homemade pies from the Howard Street Christian Church.

“I personally have never been in Colfax when RAGBRAI has gone through before, so I’m pretty excited to see what it looks like,” Patterson said. “We are a bit worried that the riders have to travel on gravel roads for two miles due to construction on Old Highway 6 so we’re trying to make lemonade out of lemons and hopefully providing fun entertainment and a drinking stop after the woes of cycling on gravel for a few miles. Our volunteer T-shirts say ‘The Gravel is Worth the Travel.’”

The entertainment continues from 10 a.m. to noon with Tropical Steel Iowa, a steel pan ensemble playing Caribbean music featuring Colfax natives Erin and Megan Hilker Langstraat, and Richard Arndt: Live, Loud and Acoustic rounds out the day from noon to 2 p.m. with his selection of original and classic hits.

A fun contest for the day,the Colfax RAGBRAI committee is gathering entries for a Port-a-Potty decorating contest. For $40, people can sponsor and decorate one of 30 porta potties that will be in Colfax for the event.

Decorating starts at 6 a.m. the day of the ride and must be completed by 9 a.m. All decorations must be removed by 5 p.m.

“RAGBRAI has brought different local volunteers out of the woodwork to help the city with different aspects of providing hospitality to the cyclists,” Patterson said. “Volunteers are bringing in flatbed trucks to make stages, and a lot of enthusiastic volunteers are going to work the beer tent. The Colfax-Mingo High School football team will be manning three different free watering stations on the route in town, the PEO ladies are providing a free phone charging station on the Colfax Public Library lawn and the Howard Street Christian Church is going to open up their building for an air conditioned space and refreshments. Some local businesses along the route are going to be open or providing hospitality, as well.”

New for RAGBRAI, signs will be added about the history of Leo Welker, a young Black champion cyclist who lived in Colfax and Grinnell at the turn-of-the-last century. The signs will be displayed near Coburn Funeral Homes on West Howard Street, the site of his home that also happens to be part of the bike route.

“That project was fun to research and brought to light an aspect of forgotten history about Colfax’s once large Black community at the turn of the last century and early 20th Century,” Patterson said.