The old motto says that come rain or sleet or snow, the mail will get through.
“Or lack of snow, that too,” said Ric Raynor, president of the organizing group for the 32nd Annual Gold Rush Trail Sled Dog Mail Run. It is perhaps the only mode of mail movement that needs the winter to actual do its thing, even if it is now purely for the sake of recreation and historical appreciation.
Raynor confirmed there were contingencies if the unseasonably warm, dry combination of weather persisted. There was still just enough where their participants - human and canine - were about to go.
This year’s event runs Friday through Sunday (Feb. 9-11). It starts at Troll Ski Resort with the swearing in ceremonies at 11:30 a.m. followed by the big push-off at 1 p.m. with the dogs and their mushers headed for the hills in the direction of Wells. Fourteen teams were registered as of Friday, with more expected.
Mushers have to register their dog teams online (do this at sleddogmailrun.ca) so why does anyone need to be sworn in? Because once they set off towards Barkerville and go back in time, they are carrying official mail and that can only be done by legally sanctioned mail carriers. These mushers all get deputized.
“This sled dog mail run is the only one we are aware of in the world where actual mail is delivered on the first leg of its journey by dogsled,” said Raynor. “These are not normally employees of Canada Post so they have to be officially sworn in as such. They are handed the responsibility of the mailbag, in the custody of those sworn mushers.”
The mail they are carrying is also special. They transport commemorative envelopes the public buys at sales points around the region. Those envelopes contain letters people write and tuck inside for people wherever they wish to dispatch it, with proper postage attached. Those letters are dropped into special wooden mailboxes, and the contents of those receptacles are bagged up and sent with the mushers from Troll Ski Resort to the officially sanctioned post office in Barkerville.
Each envelope is $3 or five for $12. They are available at:
• Canada Post downtown - Quesnel
• Shoppers Drug Mart - Quesnel
• Total Pet - Quesnel
• Bosleys - Quesnel
• Little Red Pony - Quesnel
• Four Rivers Co op - Quesnel
• Rocky’s - Bouchie Lake
• BNC Mercantile - Wells
• Jack O’ Clubs - Wells
• Books & Co. - Prince George
They must be bought, addressed, affixed with the correct stamps, and dropped in the wooden post boxes (if dropped in a standard Canada Post box, it will still be delivered, but not by the dog teams) before noon, Feb 7. The only exception is getting it into that special box at the main Quesnel post office downtown by noon Feb. 8.
There are three main ways you can take part. You can be a musher (skijoring is just as welcome as dog sleds), a letter mailer, and a cheerleader at any point on the three days of loops.
The Friday leg mushes off from Troll Ski Resort, goes through the forest to Hyde Lake where there is a loop around and back to Troll.
On Saturday, the mushers push off from the Jack o’ Clubs General Store and Pub at 11 a.m. for a long, mountainous Sugar Creek Loop trail, so viewers can help them get off to a great start.
Sunday is the day built especially for audiences. First, the mushers all crack the whip (it’s a figure of speech, these athlete dog are not harmed) at 10:30 a.m. for a rip around the short Cornish Mountain Loop just for a fun warmup. At 11 a.m. they hit the road from the Jack o’ Clubs aiming for Barkerville, and it’s a short road, so this is a heart-pounding mutt-bounding sprint the audiences at the finish line shriek and bellow about as the teams each come in. Viewers are urged to line Barkerville’s main street as close to 11 a.m. as possible, because the dogsleds rocket in quickly.
The mail is officially delivered, once the dog teams all arrive, but that is not the end of the fun. The Gold Rush Trail Sled Dog Mail Run is for camaraderie and history. Once that is done, and all those dog teams are there, already panting and eager to run, there is an encore event, but this time it is a race called The Barkerville Dash.
“Anybody on any means of pedestrian transportation can race between Wells and Barkerville. They’re not carrying the mail, but the mushers are already there, people come out to race by whatever non-motorized means they feel like, from on foot to on fatbikes,” said Raynor.
Each year, about 2,000 envelopes are delivered during this globally unique event.
“Let’s talk about traditions,” Raynor said. “Years ago, the only way that mail was delivered in the wintertime was by sled dogs, here and in a lot of places in Canada. This just honours that tradition of what they did around here 100 years ago. At that time there was no other way to get the mail to some remote communities in this area. This just reminds us all of those traditions.”
There is an awards ceremony at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Jack o’ Clubs.
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