The 22nd Annual Arcola Snowmobile Rally was a success before it started.
Although the over 100 kilometres of scenic snowmobile trails winding through the Moose Mountains and Moose Mountain Provincial Park had minimal snow cover this year, Optimist Club secretary-treasurer Glen Lawson of Arcola, says, “We know where we are (financially) before the day starts.”
“The key is our sponsorship. That allows us to do this risk-free.”
“We also have a lot of community organizations, such as the High School, the Arcola Firefighters, the (Moose Mountain) 4-H, and the figure-skating club that work the event and benefit from it, too.”
This year the snowmobile rally hosted riders from: Arcola, Alida, Carnduff, Grenfell, Kenosee Lake, Langham, Manor, Melfort, Melville, Norquay, Outlook, Regina, Saskatoon, Storthoaks, and Birtle, Manitoba.
Previously, as many as 500 riders have participated in the day-long event, and one year, says Lawson, there was almost no snow.
“That year, we just opened it up,” he says. “We awarded all the rider prizes anyway, and it turned out to be a great day. It's always scheduled for the last Saturday in January, and we always are able to make it work.”
“It's really a community fundraiser,” he says. “This year, the bulk of the Optimists' share (of the proceeds) will go to the (MacMurray) theatre. We also partner with Prairie Place, the Arcola Curling Club, the (Arcola) daycare, and the Moose Mountain Wildlife Fund, along with the groups who work the rally with us.”
Most of this year's participants started their rides in the Prairie Place parking lot. However, due to the light snow cover, many riders hauled their trailers and machines to the nearby trails in search of more snow, and rode from there.
Volunteers from the Moose Mountain Snowmobile Club, provincial park staff, and members of the Optimist Club usually mark and groom trails for the event. This year, each rider received a map of the area and chose their own routes.
“With the (lack of) snow in places, the trails would be trashed pretty quickly if a couple of hundred sleds went over them all at once,” said one rider. “There's just not enough snow for that this year.”
Brandon Englot of Manor has participated in the Arcola rally, “For years, for sure. It's always a good ride.”
Englot's cousin, Tim Englot, and Kourtlin Hodgson, both of Manor, along with Travis Benner and Taylor Hoey of Arcola, attracted attention with their entry-an ATV (all-terrain vehicle) pulling a couch.
“We came up with (the idea) pretty quickly, and spent all day yesterday putting it together,” laughed Englot.
Another rider, Eileen Corrigan of Arcola, says,” It was surprisingly good. The trails were actually pretty good, once you got going.”
Mechanic Osama Amin of Arcola, who hails from Giza, Egypt, declared his first-ever snowmobile ride as, “Awesome.”
Snowmobilers weren't the only people who enjoyed the event. From the early-morning pancake breakfast until the finale, Prairie Place Hall hosted hundreds, many of whom held tickets for the draw of 65 prizes.
“This year, we sold out of our (2,500) tickets on the sleds,” said Optimist Club president, Blake Brownridge. “We sold tickets from Vancouver Island to Nova Scotia.”
The winner of the grand prize draw was Kevin Freitag of Arcola, who claimed a Polaris side by sise as his prize. As holder of the winning ticket, Freitag could choose between a Polaris 800 Switchback Pro-S snowmobile, a Polaris Scrambler 1000EPS 4X4 quad, or a Polaris RZR 8001e EPS side by side. The winner of a covered trailer was Damon Sutherland of Lampman, while Paul Coombs of Carlyle and Jordan Carter of Toronto each won $1,000.
However, the rally's perennial winners are always the community organizations that the Optimists support, according to Brownridge.
“In the over 20 years we've been doing this, we've contributed close to $850,000 to community projects,” Brownridge told the crowd. “That's pretty cool.”
