That’s it, the Poker Ride is a wrap for 2025. From all accounts, it was enjoyed by nearly 300 people, when you include those that just came as day riders. Some of the highlights were:
Over 280 people registered, with most of them coming in on the Monday, June 30th. Over 70 rigs came in that day alone!
We ended up with more than 125 RV units and over 180 ATVs and SXSs on site!! It was amazing to see. Watch for the drone footage, which we will post on Facebook shortly. Thanks to Gerry Dimsdale for the aerial views.
Our ability to ride into the town of Logan Lake was well received, and we had no incidents at all. Even the RCMP were impressed by the courteousness of the riders who did go into town. While the Ice Cream ride was a little disorganised, it did not stop people from going for ice cream, and we heard no complaints about what was available.
Daily rides were a big hit, with at least four guided rides going out each day. Friday, we added two additional rides to accommodate the large number of riders we had. There were some groups that went out on their own, so in actual fact we had seven different groups out at the same time!
Saturday was the actual Poker Ride on a trail of 78 kilometres. Best guess was that there were over 200 machines out on the ride. We expected that it would take roughly 3 – 4 hours to complete, given that there was a fair amount of trail riding, and 4 of the stations were out in the bush. Amazingly, we actually had people back in 2 hours. Blows me away trying to figure out how they managed that. here were a few people who said that they missed some of the ribbons marking the route, but after what I saw from the state of some of the ribbons that came back, it was clear that the ribbons were a big hit with the cows and some of them may have gotten eaten.
Winners of the event were Sean Reade, first prize of $1,000 for 4 queens, second prize of $500 went to Steve Betts for 4 sevens, and third prize of $250 went to Kathy Trenholme for 4 fives. Congratulations to you all!!!
There was a lot going on at the event, and we could not have done it without all of our volunteers. My sincerest thanks to all of you that chipped in to make this event successful.
And lastly to all of our sponsors and contributors that also helped make this a great event, particularly those who were on site, many thanks for your donations.
One other hot button issue that has been raised this month, and that ATVBC, along with others have responded to, is the Columbia Western Rail Trail (CWRT), and the apparent abandonment, by the government, of this popular recreation trail. The call of interested and affected parties is for this to be duly restored as a core part of BC’s shared tourism and recreation landscape. Check out the posting on Facebook for more information.
If you have any questions, or information you wish to share with ATVBC, please feel free to reach out to us at anytime.
Respectfully submitted,
Chris D’Silva
