SILVER SPUR CTR

Errington BC September 1, 2002

Submitted by Linda Warnock, Trail Manager

Hi from Silver Spurs.
We had our B.C.C.T.R.A. Sanctioned CTR on September 1st this year. Great weather for the day, it even cooled down a bit for us. We were so fortunate to get the go-ahead from Timberwest as we had been on Fire Alert for the previous 2 weeks leading up to the CTR.
Helen and I would like to thank all the riders that came, 32 in total this year.
We had great volunteers this year, Bill Dunlop’s wife Margaret came for the first time, we had her helping. Simone Bibby was timing In & Out. I think she had fun.
Todd Patola did the mileage for the level 2's and 3's first loop. He did it on his bike, it was a grinder.
Mike Hooper, who has been our parking man for both of our rides, out in the field at the last one and cooking at this ride, he should get volunteer of the year for SS. His wife did her first ride here in Level 1. Marilyn Hooper and Cameo Rose placed second in Level 1 LW.
Thanks to Linda Quesnel for taking on the selling of the tickets for the Silver Spur Riding Club this year.
Bruce Christison had some competition this year, as we had 7 level 3’s. But they couldn’t beat Jamil and Bruce. Those two make a good team! Bruce gave me a big hug afterwards, he loved the trails. We sent the Level 3’s up the mountain on a new loop one this year. A few riders had elk jumping out in front of them.
I only messed up on one section of trail, made everyone stop and think and then have me panic.
It was great to see new faces from Sooke and Victoria, we hope they will be putting on rides soon. New BCCTRA member Linda Perron has been up to both our rides this year to help, we are stroking her gently.
It was good to see Gord Ellis and Rick Danyluk come down from Courtenay to our ride. Gord was telling us about the endurance ride he and his wife Karen put on in July. He wants us all to get up there next year.
All in all it was a great day, but a very long one. It’s a good thing a person has a year to forget all the work it takes to put one of these on.
Happy trails to all, see you at the fall BCCTRA AGM meeting.

Helen Chapman, Ride Manager
Linda Warnock, Trails Manager

Trail Report submitted by Barbara Smith

The Ride site and Midway site are both spectacular farms with incredible vistas for the volunteers to enjoy (let alone the riders). The trails were very good, varied footing from blasted rock, to bare rock, to grassy lanes and soft mossy single track. The first and last mile was through lush hay fields. Level 2 and 3 riders experienced 3 kms of new trail from last year. There is no pavement road travel on this Ride as all the trails are behind locked gates. The route was in great shape as Linda had really groomed back the bushes.
The trail marking was meticulously thorough except for the 1000 feet I called the "Black Hole". The map was specific enough to get people through that problem. We forget that there is supposed to be some skill in the sport -- you should have at least a minimum of orientation skills for trail riding. Perhaps all rides should have an unmarked area just to keep people on their toes!