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NEWS UPDATE #9
2012 GOLD RUSH TRAIL SLED DOG MAIL RUN
Final Wrap-Up
Quesnel B.C., January 23, 2012
It was a bit of a blur…the Mail Run weekend that is….for organizers, volunteers, participants and competitors it was four days of virtually non-stop activity. But it was activity of the good-natured variety and activity of lots and lots or variety.
For the week leading up to the Mail Run Event everyone watched the temperatures plunge, right down to that point where both the Fahrenheit and Celcius scales meet….the fabled -40. This didn’t deter anyone from attending. Slowly the temps. moderated but at the start line on Day 1 the thermometer read -25C….definitely felt packs, fur hat and balaclava weather….warmth was the priority, no-one was interested in making a fashion statement. On Day 2, the run started off with -16C temperatures, with snow….about 8 inches were to fall before skies cleared in the early afternoon as things kept getting warmer. Day 3 saw perfect mushing temperatures rising to about -10C as the day progressed, with clear skies making for panoramic views from the trail before a light snow started falling during the mid-afternoon awards ceremony.
There was a great turnout, 20 Mail Run participants, 4 Stage Racers and 7 participants in the Barkerville Dash, a total of 29 dog teams and two skijorers, just four dog teams short of the all-time high for this Mail Run Event, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2012. Both Mail Run teams and Stage Race teams carried the mail, over 3,000 envelopes destined for 51 different countries. A world-wide outreach from the three central British Columbia communities of Quesnel, Wells and Barkerville.
Organization for the Mail Run Event had been ongoing by members of the Gold Rush Trail Sled Dog Association for months. The organizing committee consists of 21 “Lead Dog” volunteers, each taking on a specific area of responsibility. They were supported by over 50 “Team Dog” volunteers who helped out during the Mail Run week itself. These volunteers included envelope sorters and stampers, trail groomers, timers, trail spotters, safety snowmobilers, dog handlers, traffic controllers as well as a few versatile and invaluable “utility” volunteers.
The Thursday Vet Check was chased indoors by the cold weather. Thanks to Bill Turner who offered his heated truck shop without hesitation, it proved to be a great spot for veterinarians Veronica Duvall and Bianca Scheidt to give the stage race dogs a once-over. Dr. Duvall volunteered her time and travelled all the way from Calgary to support this event. Veronica is a very experienced sled dog vet, having worked as part of the veterinary team at several major sled dog races, including the Iditarod, Yukon Quest and Wyoming Stage Stop. Local veterinarian “Dr. Bianca” not only offered her expertise to the dog owners, but stated that she was also eager to learn more about northern breeds and working sled dogs from her colleague. Organizers are pleased that one of the side benefits of having Dr. Duvall as an event veterinarian is that all local dog owners will benefit from the knowledge that she has left behind with Bianca. All of the dogs proved to be in excellent health, and all of the dogs involved in this year’s Mail Run Event made it safely through the weekend without injury.
The A&W in Quesnel was a buzzing place on Thursday evening as participants began to arrive for the Musher’s meeting. This is always a time of anticipation about the upcoming weekend mixed with the opportunity to re-establish old connections and to make new friends. Participants travelled from throughout western North America including Alberta, southern Oregon and from throughout central British Columbia. One musher flew from her home in Ottawa to Saskatchewan and travelled from there by vehicle along with a friend to be a participant in this year’s event. Before the evening ended, the four person crew responsible for setting up each of the venues – Gary and Eileen Seale, Bannock Bob Lebeck and Peter Walsh, were presented with special wool hats and given the label “The Four Mushketeers” for the weekend. Bannock Bob became the most-photographed personality throughout the whole event as his hat featured a dog with a rather large nose that developed a prominent “snotsicle” in the freezing weather.
Day 1 started with all mail carriers being sworn in by Canada Post Superintendent Ron Potter, with everyone receiving their mail bag, part of the precious mail cargo, under the Start banner. This is official Canada Post Mail, it had been hand cancelled in the Quesnel post office by Mail Run volunteers supervised by Canada Post staff. Each envelope carries the dated cancellation stamps from Quesnel, Wells and Barkerville, as well as a “Carried by Dog Sled” stamp. This year the Barkerville cancellation stamp featured the new 150 Year Anniversary logo. Many of this year’s envelopes carried the special Canada Post stamp that was issued in May 2011 to honour the history of the delivery of mail by dog team in Canada.
The trail was in excellent condition, hard packed at last 4 metres wide…everyone enjoyed their run. It is a looped trail which meant that there was a lot of head-on passing. This proved to be a non-issue as the dogs seemed to have no difficulty with head-on passes, and it offered a great opportunity for everyone to meet and “visit” along the trail. The relaxed non-competitive nature of an event like the Mail Run is something that most participants really appreciate. It is also an opportunity for young dog mushers to take part, often along with their “mentors”. Terry, Craig and Sean Houghton, three generations of dog mushers -- father, son and grandson were all out on the trail together. On Days 1 and 2, all Stage Race teams also participated in the Mail Run as only on Day 3 would the Stage Racers be running on their own much longer trail and this would be to be the timed “Race for the Gold”. Everyone survived the cold weather, all vehicles started and on Friday evening, participants gathered together in smaller groups to socialize.
The venue for Day 2 events was Troll Ski Resort, located 40 kilometers east of Quesnel on the highway to Wells and Barkerville, following the original Cariboo Waggoon Road . Again the trail was incredible but quite challenging with a lot of climbing [uphill both ways]. The trail had been groomed to a width of 8 metres using one of the groomers from the ski hill…sort of like a hard table-top disappearing into the distance…except on this day there was also an accumulation of fresh snow. It was tough going for the teams but another adventure, everyone finished in good spirits and with tired dogs.
Once the teams were taken care of it was time for the Fun One Dog Weight Pull, followed by the Musher’s Sports contest. Ten individual dogs took part in the weight pull, the owners were asked to talk about themselves and their dogs, and to tell the crowd why their dog was so special. Even though this was a demonstration, it became clear that there were favourites, and loud cheers resounded after each successful pull.
This year the Musher’s Sports were designed to both highlight and teach those skills that would support survival in the event of becoming stranded in the winter bush. Eileen and Gary Seale put together a fabulous display of life-saving plants and berries that are readily available in the winter forest in this area. As one example, the tea in this year’s competition was made from spruce tips gathered by Eileen at Bowron lake…a tea that is not only quite delicious, but also very rich in Vitamin “C”. The competition was quite spectacular. Five teams snowshoed, set traps, called moose, split wood and harnessed and unharnessed sled dogs before lighting a fire [using nothing but the wood products from their wood pile – the greatest number of matches used by any team was 3], bringing a billy can of melted snow water to a rolling boil, and making tea as well as bannock. The judging was very difficult, but the overall winners were an impressive team of five women from Prince George under the very capable leadership of sisters Sally Swan and Lori Bernhardt. These ladies were up against some extremely experienced competition, but they showed that they knew what they were doing. It was a fabulous event!
With darkness falling after a spectacular sunset, everyone made their way into the Troll Resort Lodge. About 125 people gathered for an absolutely outstanding meal featuring a delicious couscous salad, spinach salad with blueberries, lots of fresh veggies, spaghetti, ham, hot bread and rolls and a delightful dessert featuring blueberries and huckleberries hand-picked from the Troll Resort property. Thank you to Hildur and Len and all of your wonderful staff for this great feast. The annual awards were a highlight of the evening, with participants and volunteers voting for Kate and Warren Palfrey as winners of the Special Volunteer award. There were six under-sixteen year old participants who will all have their names engraved onto the Holger Bauer Award, the Hard Luck Award went to Terry Houghton who told a very entertaining story of being dragged under his dog sled but of being rescued by 13 year old Lee Verge who returned his lost glove to him. The Snowmobile Award went to Rick Broswyck who was there at key decision points along the trail to support the mushers, all the while travelling on his 1965 Bombardier Olympic Skidoo dressed in buckskins and smoking his pipe. A very special and much-appreciated award was made to Margaret and Jeff Dinsdale for their 20 year involvement with the Mail Run. Other events included the Musher’s Hat contest and the annual auction. Following the banquet everyone made their way home except for about 25 hardy souls who “camped over” in the lodge, in anticipation of another busy day on Sunday.
Day 3 was centred at Barkerville Historic Town, a very special fully-restored Gold Rush community of over 170 buildings dating back 150 years. This is a spectacular setting for an outdoor event in the winter. Doug Schmode of the Wells Snowmobile Club was up much of the night grooming the almost 50 miles of trail that were to be used by the Stage Racers, the Mail Runners and the Barkerville Dashers. The trail was again hard and wide, well marked and beautiful. The elevations changes allowed for spectacular panoramic vistas, the sun was shining throughout most of the run. The Stage Racers ran on the 33 mile Sugar Creek Loop, in this writer’s opinion, one of the most scenic and enjoyable sled dog trails anywhere.
There were four teams in the Stage Race, competing for $1500.00 in placer gold. The winner of the Cariboo gold was Craig Houghton followed by Sam Palfrey just over a minute behind Craig, then Jody Verge and Tyler Dinsdale, all teams finished the race within 20 minutes of each other. As Stage Racers and those in the Mail Run returned to Barkerville, they were directed down the back lane that runs along the bank of Williams Creek before turning onto the main street and travelling through this historic site and stopping in front of the Barkerville Post Office –the seventh oldest operating Post Office in B.C. There the mail was turned over to the Postal Superintendent for entry into the regular mail system and delivery throughout the world. There was a time when winter mail was routinely transported by dog sled throughout the northern parts of our country. This is the only remaining place in Canada and possibly the world, where regular government mail is still transported by dog team.
Teams then made it back to the starting point and the parked dog trucks, where hamburgers and hot chocolate, cooked and provided by the local scouting group were available for all participants and volunteers.
It was time for the awards presentations as everyone was thinking of the long drive home. Everyone in the Barkerville Dash donates a prize item and everyone gets to pick a prize from the table, starting with the fastest finisher right down to the last place finisher. The 36 year old trophy for the Stage Race was presented to Craig Houghton and it was fitting that it was presented to him by his father Terry, whose name appears on the trophy when he won it in 1995. Craig was also the winner of the “Best Conditioned Dog Team” award as judged by Dr. Duvall.
There is a Mail Run Facebook site titled Gold Rush Trail Dog Sled and anyone reading this who may have some photos of this year’s Mail Run are encouraged to post them onto this Facebook site for all to enjoy. Check the Mail Run website as well as there will be some photos posted within the next couple of days.
Jeffrey Dinsdale
