A unique, long-running event that allows you to send mail carried by dog team to anywhere in the world is coming up at the end of January.
This year will mark the 28th Annual Gold Rush Trail Sled Dog Mail Run, a Cariboo tradition in which mushers, sworn in as official Canada Post mail carriers for the three-day event, carry mail from Quesnel to Barkerville. The Mail Run started in 1993, the year Quesnel hosted the Northern B.C. Winter Games.
“We wanted to do something special for the Northern B.C. Winter Games, and so we got the idea of having what’s called a mid-distance run with dogs, from Quesnel to Wells-Barkerville, and to carry the mail,” said Jeff Dinsdale, an organizer and participant who has taken part in every single Gold Rush Trail Sled Dog Mail Run.
Mail Run participants carry special Mail Run envelopes that feature different artwork each year and are stamped “Carried by dog team.”
That first envelope from 1993 features a photograph from the movie Call of the Wild, which was being filmed in Barkerville. Every year since then, there’s been a distinctive envelope, often adorned with artwork by a local artist.
Every year, the envelope is cancelled in Quesnel, Wells and Barkerville because there are functioning post offices in those three communities.
“What’s really distinctive about the mail run in Quesnel is that it’s real Canada Post mail,” said Dinsdale. “People are writing a note to whomever, and it goes in the mail with a real stamp, it’s carried by dog team from Quesnel to Barkerville, and then when it gets to Barkerville, it goes into the regular mail system and gets delivered throughout the world. It’s not uncommon for mail from the mail run to end up in over 50 countries. That’s what makes it really quite unique and special.”
The Gold Rush Trail Sled Dog Mail Run started off in 1993 as a race. It was a timed event, and there was prize money. The route was much longer than it is now, 200 miles, because it was a qualifying race for the Iditarod. Now, the Mail Run is not timed, and there are no prizes.
“It’s a participation event, but it’s also a living history event,” said Dinsdale. “People who are taking part are re-living a significant part of our Cariboo Gold Rush history.”
READ MORE: Sled Dog Mail Run delivers a good time
As far as Dinsdale knows, the Gold Rush Trail Sled Dog Mail Run is the only mail run using real mail that is still running in the world.
This year’s unique mail run envelope features artwork by Christine Yaffe of Quesnel, who also produced the artwork for last year’s mail run envelopes and for the 2018 envelopes.
Envelopes can be purchased online or at the Quesnel Post Office on Reid Street, Total Pet in Quesnel, Shopper’s Drug Mart in Quesnel, Rocky’s in Bouchie Lake, Jack O’ Clubs General Store and Post Office in Wells, at Barkerville Historic Town and Park and at Four Rivers Co-op in Three Mile Flat. Once you purchase your envelope, address it to anywhere in the world, put on the proper Canada Post postage and place your envelope in the special Dog Sled Mail Run mailbox at one of the outlets before noon on Jan. 22. The deadline to mail an envelope through the Quesnel Post Office is noon on Jan. 23.
The 28th Annual Gold Rush Trail Sled Dog Mail Run takes place Jan. 23-26.
The event begins with a participant and volunteer meeting Thursday, Jan. 23 at 5 p.m. at A&W at Three Mile Flat.
Participants will be sworn in as official mail carriers Friday, Jan. 24 at 9 a.m. in front of the Quesnel Post Office on Reid Street, and then the first stage of the mail run begins at 11 a.m. at Umiti Pit, 17 kilometres north of Quesnel.
The second stage of the mail run begins at 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 25 at Troll Ski Resort, and there will be Musher’s Sports and other activities that afternoon, starting at 2 p.m.
The Gold Rush Sled Dog Trail Run social, dinner, awards, and silent and live auctions will take place at 5 p.m. in the main lodge at Troll Resort. Contact Cathy@dogsledmailrun.ca for tickets or order them online at sleddogmailrun.ca.
The third stage of the mail run takes place Sunday, Jan. 26, and Jan. 26 is also the Barkerville Dash, a fun race in which the mail carriers are joined by many other participants to end the mail run.
“Those people who are in the Dash, a lot of them will be skiers,” said Dinsdale. “Some are snowshoers; we’ve had people ride those big fat-tire bikes; we’ve had people with kick sleds; there’s been people running — they travel from Wells to Barkerville, along with all of the mail carriers as well. It all finishes in front of the post office in Barkerville. It’s always been a really, really neat experience to do that last leg. The distance from Wells to Barkerville is about 10 kilometres, so most people, they just have fun doing it. That is a race, but it is with kind of a smile, because everybody is timed, and the whole intent is you’re supposed to be racing to Barkerville so you can stake your gold claim.”
On-site registration and check-in for Dash-only participants is at 10:30 a.m. at the Jack O’ Clubs General Store in Wells.
Stage three begins at 11 a.m. in Barkerville, and mushers will carry the mail to Jack O’ Clubs General Store, where the Barkerville Dash will start at noon.
All participants will race through the meadow from Wells to Barkerville, and they are expected to arrive at the finish in front of the Post Office on Barkerville’s main street starting around 12:15 p.m.
There will be an awards and wind-up at 2 p.m. at the Jack O’ Clubs, and at 3 p.m., there will be a special screening of the short film Shadow Trap, which was shot on location last year in Barkerville. This film introduces audiences to the story of Simon Gunanoot, a well-respected Gitxsan hunter and merchant, who spent 13 years on the run after being accused of a double murder in 1906.
For more information about the mail run, visit sleddogmailrun.ca.
Watch for more information about the history of sled dogs and mail delivery and about the film Shadow Trap, plus pick up your special mail run supplement in the Friday, Jan. 17 Observer.
editor@quesnelobserver.com
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