ATHABASCA, BARRHEAD, WESTLOCK – In an effort to promote local tourism, help support small towns and provide motorcyclists with an opportunity to have some fun and support a non-profit at the same time, the Canadian Motorcycle Tourism Association and Impact Tourism are encouraging riders to hit the open road.
CMTA has partnered with Impact Tourism to organize Rumble Alberta North, a six-day poker rally starting Aug. 16, that will have participants riding or driving up to nine different routes across northern Alberta, culminating in Grande Prairie at the Veteran’s Memorial Gardens and Interpretive Centre Aug. 22.
“There's a lot of people that normally this time of the year they'd be heading down to Sturgis (North Dakota) if they like motorcycles. There's a lot of people with hot rods looking for things to do, and we're trying to stay in our own backyard and help our own small businesses a lot. So, we got this idea that if we designed this poker run in the right way, we could make it so everybody could have little staycations and do three or four routes,” said CMTA executive director Renee Charbonneau.
The routes vary and some places are in more than one route, but they are designed so participants can travel most of them in either direction. For example, Route 1 is listed as Edson-Whitecourt-Swan Hills-Slave Lake, but you can start in Slave Lake and work your way to Edson. The goal is to collect poker cards in each town, not the direction you take to get there.
“You have to get into those communities and prove you were there either by getting your poker run card stamped and pulling your poker card or having a selfie and then drawing your card in Slave Lake,” she said.
Other prizes are for worst hand, farthest-away rider, most poker run routes completed, most selfies uploaded to the History Check app, most Indigenous name places entrants stopped at and more.
“It’s a $2,000 guaranteed poker run and you get rewarded for going on a vacation and learning about your own back yard and helping out a non-profit. It’s a win-win-win because then every little business wins too,” Charbonneau said.
Slave Lake is the hub for all of the spokes, or routes, and participants will be encouraged to use the History Check app as they pass through Edmonton, Westlock, Smith, Nisku, Redwater, Athabasca, Cold Lake, Manning and more with the final celebration taking place in Grande Prairie.
Sheila Willis, the creator and project manager of the History Check app and CMTA vice president, provided a list of places along each route with Indigenous names and if you use the History Check app it will give information as well as directions on how to enter for a prize donated by the Alberta Native Friendship Centres Association.
“I became involved with CMTA as they combine heritage, tourism and history in their projects just as Impact Tourism does. Impact Tourism is excited to be a part of this initiative. As vice president of CMTA and project manager of the History Check app, this is a perfect blending of resources to promote travel in northern Alberta and across the province as we move forward,” Willis said.
A fun side event is a bug target for $20 available in Slave Lake; put it on the front of a motorcycle or vehicle and whomever has a bug closest to the bullseye by the end of the event will win $500.
The money raised from the poker rally will go towards a carving by British Columbia artist Randy Gauthier of a replica of the National Aboriginal Veterans Monument in Ottawa.
“One of the things we're raising money for at Veteran’s Memorial Gardens and Interpretive Center is a carving by Randy Gauthier that will be a replica – with his own flavor put in it because he's an artist – of the National Aboriginal Veterans Monument. It'll be a miniature made out of old ghost cedar that he's going to carve for us,” Charbonneau said.
The group is hoping excitement keeps building for this new twist on a poker rally and Charbonneau said if it goes as well as they have planned, it will get bigger and bigger every year.
“If you like the idea of what we're doing and you want to support Veteran’s Gardens and you see the value in supporting all these little businesses along these routes then you’re the kind of person we're hoping to have,” Charbonneau said.
To sponsor, have your business included as a stop, or to find out more information go to the CMTA website: https://motorcycletourism.ca/rumbleabnorth
