FInally an update!

Okay, so it has been a long time coming but we have had some computer issues, hence the lack of updating on the website itself as well, so please bear with us.

The race dates have been set – the dates are January 25th-27th, 2013. So please mark your calendars and if you are a musher, please put usn your race calendar!

We have also elected a new board of directors: Ruth Sims, Sue Ross and Bill Ross are all staying on for the second year of their term. The newly minted board members are Gillian James, Cher Wyers and Sharon Marshall. We have already had 2 board meetings since the AGM, and both have been productive in moving forward and getting the 2013 race up and running.

We are planning another Fowl Supper this fall. The date is going to be October 20th, so mark the date and bring your friends and family. We are holding it at the Senior’s Hall this year. We are also working on getting together a fundraising event at Owl Mountain Ranch in the summer. Stay tuned for more on that.

The race route is being reworked again to try and make the course a bit less strenuous for the teams and cutting down on the number of cattleguards needing attention. At this time the route will remain mostly unchanged from Grand Forks to Carmi where we cross under the highway on the river. From there, the 12-dog teams will be heading north towards Kelowna on the Kettle Valley Railroad to McCulloch Lake and then return to Beaverdell and finish in Westbridge. The 8-dog teams will finish in Beaverdell as usual.

We have thought long and hard on how to reroute the trail to get a more user friendly trail and at the same time maintain the interaction with the local communities. At this time we are putting the musher experience ahead of the local communities. We are aware that we need to improve our trail significantly if we want to keep this race a feasible entity. Therefor we have decided to forego coming down in to Greenwood and Fiva this year. This will eliminate a lot of climbing and descending for the teams and make for a much improved trail route. We are hoping lots of people will still come out and support us! Make it a road trip to Westbridge for the finish line or come to Beaverdell and watch the 8-dog teams roll in.

We will need help with checkpoints north of Beaverdell (ie McCulloch Lake and likely at Wilkinson FSR), so there is lots of room for people to help out still! Of course we are going to need help with the trail once the snow flies!

We are doing our best to get the website up and running better in the near future! In the meantime, we will keep the blog as our means of communication.

See you on the trail.

Ruth Sims, President

Upcoming AGM

Hi All;

First of all: The AGM is set for WEDNESDAY MARCH 28TH, 7 pm upstairs at the Station Pub in Grand Forks.

A huge THANK YOU to all the volunteers and sponsors for their support in 2012! We could not have done this without you!!!

I think everybody has had a chance to digest the 2012 race and we have had much discussion amongst the board members as to how to proceed from here. The biggest challenge we faced for the 2012 race was the rapidly dwindling number of board members and key volunteers as the race dates drew close. Consequently things were left to the last minute or simply did not get done, or not done well, whichever the case may be. The shortcomings of the race is a huge disappointment to us all, particularly for all the board members and volunteers that put such a tremendous amount of work in to making the race happen.

We have decided to forge ahead and start planning for the 2013 race. What we need are people who are willing to sit on the board of directors. It is no secret this is a tremendous amount of work for all involved, however as each race is executed the amount of leg work required gets a bit easier as contacts are established and we all gain knowledge as to what is expected for each race.

So if you are interested in seeing the Rail Trail 2013 become a reality and of course a success PLEASE come to the AGM and get involved! Bring a friend or two or five, come out and support us and we can make next year’s race a resounding success.

Hope to see you at the AGM

Ruth Sims

President, The Boundary Dog Sled Association

What it’s like in the area of the race

For those of you who were following the race but couldn’t be here … a little video of what the weather conditions are like in this area. I don’t have a sled or team so I did the next best thing – I went for a drive.

Enjoy

Awards Banquet video

The awards were given out at the banquet this evening at the Royal Canadian Legion. Here it is …

Awards Banquet still on

To those who are wondering ….

The Awards Banquet is still on.
7 PM at the Legion Hall tonight (sunday)
come one – come all
Tickets $25

Clarification on race end – Race was called

I’d like to set the record straight.

In the last post I said that Steve Mullen withdrew from the race. That was going from information in the website standings where it said ‘scratched’ for everyone at Fiva.

Well Steve Mullen did not pull out.
The race was called by the Race Marshall.

Not having talked with him I cannot give you his reasons.

My apologies for the earlier misinformation.

and then there were none

Steve Mullen of the leading, and only remaining, team has withdrawn.

The race is over for 2012.

What can I say? I have little information so all I can give at this point is feelings.

Being human (and canine) not everything is within our control but we do the best we can with the weather and the terrain. From my warm indoor setting I can only dimly imagine what it was like for those who were actually out there on the course – the mushers; the dogs. And the volunteers and race staff. Call me crazy but I do feel a bit of envy. It is unfortunate that the race was not completed but I have to hand it to you, all of you – you really tried.

Thank you for that.

And after the feeling has returned and you’ve had some rest … please consider coming back and doing it again …

And then there was one

The weather dumped a lot of snow in the Beaverdell area over Friday and into Saturday. Efforts to repack the trail from Beaverdell onwards were only partially successful and the leg became particularly grueling for the teams. They slipped further and further back from their expected times – so much so that for a while there was some worry they had strayed off the course. Thanks to Neil Sieben for rushing all the way out there from Grand Forks with a snowmobile to run up the course and check.
But eventually they appeared – Steve Mullen’s team had been reduced to 11 dogs with one in the basket after problems on the trail.
The remaining two teams lagged farther behind and when they finally appeared they were travelling together.
At the Kettle River Park crossing a meeting was held … to continue the race or not. At that point the last two teams, Wannamaker and Walker, decided to leave the race.

As I write this (10:30 PM) the front runner, Steve Mullen, and his team are the only ones left on the course. He is headed to Checkpoint Fiva. It’s a tough leg … will he carry on from there? We won’t know until he gets there … stay tuned.

The life of a volunteer

It’s around 3PM on day 2 and the teams are on the toughest part of the race right now.

All the mushers thought it was great going over the top and down into Beaverdell. The dogs are doing great.

3 teams scratched (most recently bib#4, Randy MacKenzie) and the one team left in the 100 mile race is done – that leaves 3 teams still in the race.

Those 3 teams left are on the tough part of the race right now. Teams 1 and 3 left Beaverdell with 11 dogs each at 3:16PM.

They are running a bit late and expected in Fiva around 6:30PM

But what I really wanted to blog about here are the Volunteers:

An event like this can’t happen without the hard work and efforts of volunteers.  There are many … and we’d love to be able to tell you about all of them but that’s not possible during the race so here’s a few snapshots of what volunteering involves …

Ken Fehr and Darcy Lea, are two volunteers that were manning a road crossing in the Christian Valley. They got home around 2AM.
Darcy has also responded to the call and stepped up to join Bob McTavish at the Fiva checkpoint to be the Ham operator.

Pete Snidal got up around 3:30AM: shoveled his driveway, visited race central to pick up the food (Thanks to Jean Pinto and Liz for the chow for Fiva Checkpoint.

Terry Toderuk had helped pack the trail out of Beaverdell before the race. The first night’s snowfall had covered the trail again so it needed repacking. He dutifully responded to the call when Bruce asked and headed up to repack the trail … only to find it was too late when he arrived. Ah … but he went, he tried.

Thanks Ken, Darcy and Terry.

If you’re volunteering and have a story or two to tell we’d love to hear it. You can leave your stories in the comments.

new pics page added

For those who wanted to see pics we’ve created a page just for that.

If you check out the top menu in the blog web page you will see a new button ‘Race Pics’ … click on that and you can see the pics we have addded.

Or simply click here: Race Pics