The saying is usually that neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet will prevent the mail from getting through, but this year it is the warm weather and a lack of snow that is presenting challenges for the mail run near Quesnel.
But Rick Raynor, the President of the Gold Rush Trail Sled Dog Association, says the 32nd annual event will go ahead on February 9th.
“Troll is undergoing some of the issues and challenges everywhere else is experiencing because of a lack of snow, but we have made contingencies with Troll Resort so that if we can’t use the Hyde Lake Trail like we had originally planned we do have some contingency plans in place, so that we will be able to make a mail run on the Friday at Troll Resort.”
Raynor says Wells also has less snow than normal.
“We have crews that are going up there this weekend to pack trails on the Sugar Creek Loop and the Cornish Mountain run as well, but the other challenge we’re faced with right now is that the Barkerville main street is a sheet of ice, so we need a little bit of a snowpack on top of that to make it safe for our mushers.”
Raynor says the weather hasn’t deterred the mushers.
“We are getting the average number of mushers. We are getting more mushers coming up from the states because of the warm weather down there. They haven’t had snowpack to be able to run their dogs on, so they’re looking forward to coming up here and hopefully having some snow to be able to run on up here.”
He says they will wait until the last minute to determine the exact course that they will use.
“February the 9th I think is going to be our final date to be able to make any decisions. We’ll decide on Friday morning with the mushers there, and using them as well with their expertise on what their dogs can and cannot do, and of course the reports that we get from our volunteer snowmobilers on the conditions that are on the trial, so it’s going to be some last minute decision making but the mail will go through.”
Raynor says there is still time to purchase an envelope.
“They’re all listed on our website at sleddogmailrun.ca You can buy an envelope up until next Wednesday at noon, and if you do want to procrastinate until the absolute last minute, then you can get it to the downtown post office by noon on February 8th.”
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