Participants from all over B.C. came to the 100 Mile Moto Rodeo, held at the 99 Mile Motorcycle Trails, despite the rain that drenched them.
The 100 Mile Moto Rodeo, which was held at the 99 Mile Motocross Trails, contained a night scramble, as well as a poker run, barrel racing, demo rides, moto rodeo events and a wheelie contest with a $1,000 cash prize. In addition, burgers were served as well as there being a concession during the event.
The wheelie contest in particular was a big highlight as it is one of the only ones in B.C. which has a cash prize.
"It's gonna be on a 120-foot course, which isn't super long, but it's gonna be the slowest time, so the most skilled and balanced rider will win that cash prize," said Tyler Glover, the president of the South Cariboo Track and Trail Dirtbike Association, who organized the event.
The association was a follow-up to a moto rodeo and poker run held last fall.
"We did one last fall for the first time - kind of a poker ride, and then integrated the track into it, and we had a huge turnout. And so we figured we should do one in the spring here, get everybody ready for the season, show off the changes we made to the track, and raise some money for the club," said Glover.
He added the planning for the event takes around two months, and usually consists of putting out posters, as well as trying to obtain prizes and getting trails marked and fixed up.
Craig Elkins, who is the main event organizer of the 100 Mile Moto Rodeo, said the moto rodeo is becoming a year-round event in the South Cariboo that helps support the club.
"Right now, it's more of a fundraiser so we can grow the club - bring more people here. And the whole idea behind it is that eventually we're going to start holding provincial races on this track," Elkins said.
Last year, the event raised $5,000.
"All those funds are going to be going towards us, improving the track, improving the trail systems and things like that," explained Elkins.
Some of the proposed new trails the South Cariboo Track and Trail Dirtbike Association is planning to open up include a trail out to Horse Lake, which would be around 37 kilometres long. Elkins said they are still registering the trail before they can officially open it.
"The trail network already exists there. We're just in the process of having it registered with the B.C. government. So the trails are on as being registered," said Elkins.
Glover has said the Horse Lake trail network is already connected to the clubhouse at 99 Mile.
"You can ride right from here, from the clubhouse, all the way out down to Horse Lake and back. So it makes a pretty big loop," said Glover, who added that the loop was around 80 kilometres in length.
The trails are not merely supported by financial donations, but also donations of time and equipment. Club members will frequently use their own equipment to do maintenance on the trails free of charge
"We basically rebuilt most of the track - we took a lot of the sand off - it was pretty deep in sections, and then, we changed a bunch of the corners around," Glover explained. "We added a rhythm section, fixed up all the jumps. The tracks hadn't had a groom in quite a while, so we went round - groomed the whole track and got it all set up for the weekend."
Glover said the local community had responded positively to the event and called it supportive.
"We had McNeil & Sons Logging donate their CAT for the weekend. We had a couple of skid steers donated by Nathan Horton and Ryan Jansen brought up his - did a bunch of track work and just going around the community, handing out posters, looking for prizes," Glover explained. "Everybody's been super, super helpful."
