Alberta Beach SnoMo Days Rally - Feb 15

[whoDEANie]

Saturday February 15th, 2014
Registration: Agliplex from 9 am to 11 am
Event: Designated Trail Route from 9 am to 5 pm
Cost is $20.00 for the first hand and $5.00 for each additional hand

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The Poker Rally has become one of the most popular events held on this Family Day Long weekend and The Alberta Beach Snowmobile Club is inviting you, your family and friends to come out for a great ride on a terrific trail.
The Rally is approximately 100 kms long and winds its way along the fabulous groomed snowmobile trail heading west of Alberta Beach. The rally is open to people of all ages and there is ample time to finish the route by the 5:00pm deadline. At checkpoint 3 you will find a nice fire to warm up by and as part of your entry fee there will be a hot dog to roast and a nice cup of hot chocolate to sip on. After you have completed the course and stopped at the 5 checkpoints your card will be tallied and you have a chance to share in over $1,000.00 in cash and prizes. There are also many door prizes that are given away via a random draw of the entry cards.
If you love to get out and ride with your friends and family be sure to come out on Feb 15th and join in the fun. Registration is from 9:00 am to 11:00 am at the Alberta Beach Agliplex. You can begin your ride as soon as you register but everyone must be on the trail by 11:00 and back to the hall at 5:00 pm. An A.S.A. Trail Pass is required to participate in the Rally. If you do not already have your A.S.A. trail pass there is a day pass available for $20.00.The trail pass fees help to keep the trails groomed all season long for your riding enjoyment. The entry fee for the rally is $20.00 and all the proceeds from the Poker Rally go to trail maintenance.
The Alberta Beach Snowmobile Club has been active in the community since 1970 and it is with your support that we will continue to make snowmobiling a safe family sport. See you on the trail!
[h=4]general inquiries: 780-967-3091[/h][h=4]email us -

info@absnowmobileclub.com

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.[/h][h=4]www.absnowmobileclub.com[/h]

 

[Bogger]

At checkpoint 3 you will also find Bogger & his wife.......

 

[Bogger]

Trails are in great shape and with a little fresh snow and a sunny high of -2C it should be a great day for a ride.

 

[Altapeet]

Rode the rally today .The trails were reasonable but lots of lake and ditch riding . The police were there in force, I think it is a little cash cow for them. How many guys got nicked for being on a roadway trying to find their way from the Staging area to the check in at the Arena ,or from the Arena to the start line . Poorly marked and the cops knew it. (no I did not get a ticket ). I would not attend that rally again just the same though as the risks are too great.

 

[Bogger]

Rode the rally today .The trails were reasonable but lots of lake and ditch riding . The police were there in force, I think it is a little cash cow for them. How many guys got nicked for being on a roadway trying to find their way from the Staging area to the check in at the Arena ,or from the Arena to the start line . Poorly marked and the cops knew it. (no I did not get a ticket ). I would not attend that rally again just the same though as the risks are too great.

I'm sorry to hear you feel that way.... Each rider is provided with a map showing the exact route to take as well our trail is well marked throughout town....much like any town alley's are fair game and roads can be crossed perpendicular. with 100's of sleds running around town I think it is diligent to ensure that azzhats aren't ripping around town and down roadways. I spoke with hundreds of riders at the checkpoint today and did not hear one complaint with regards to enforcement.

I appreciate that you are entitled to your opinion but as a volunteer who knows how much planning, effort and work is required to pull off an event such as this all I can think to say is "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all" it's not like we are a for profit vendor who did you wrong...

As for the rally itself it was a HUGE success, the weather was awesome, food was kick azz and we sold over 650 hands to over 200 riders.

Thanks to all who came out.

 

[whoDEANie]

It's unfortunate that you didn't enjoy the experience Altapeet. I can assure you that the cops are not their for our money. As for the route, or confusion when finding the arena, I'm sure the club will take your concerns to heart and consider them when planning the next rally.

 

[DDrake]

We rode the rally today and we thought the trails were great considering the weather we had lateiy. Today was beautiful and we had no issues with the cops. The dogs and chili at checkpoint #5 were great as was the hospitality shown by everyone at the checkpoints. Glad that everything with the weather and snow conditions worked out for the club. Great job done by everyone involved. Thanks for all your hard work. We enjoy the trails on a regular basis and everyone's hard work is appreciated by our family. And because we ride these trails most often we always buy our trail passes from the clubs booth at the sled show. Thanks again for the great job by the club.

 

[Altapeet]

I'm sorry to hear you feel that way.... Each rider is provided with a map showing the exact route to take as well our trail is well marked throughout town....much like any town alley's are fair game and roads can be crossed perpendicular. with 100's of sleds running around town I think it is diligent to ensure that azzhats aren't ripping around town and down roadways. I spoke with hundreds of riders at the checkpoint today and did not hear one complaint with regards to enforcement.

I appreciate that you are entitled to your opinion but as a volunteer who knows how much planning, effort and work is required to pull off an event such as this all I can think to say is "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all" it's not like we are a for profit vendor who did you wrong...

As for the rally itself it was a HUGE success, the weather was awesome, food was kick azz and we sold over 650 hands to over 200 riders.

Thanks to all who came out.

Sorry if I upset you Bogger ,but the bottom line is that ,as someone who has not attended your rally before , it was a tad confusing getting from the parking area on the lake to the registration. I and my wife and several others i saw and followed took the wrong way . We were pulled over buy the nice officer demanding licences etc . We were not being azzhats we were riding down the side of the road with a mostly confused look on our faces wondering where to go. managed to avoid a ticket ..barely . and got to the arena where more police awaited to make sure we had all the insurance licenses etc. Once we got the map and found the trails then all good and had a good ride. The start to the day though left a bit of a sour taste.
Don't take it personal , I was just relaying my personal experience.

 

[kbrunlees]

I just finished talking with SZProd and Mad Mike and they went through twice, sounds like it was a great day. Even though I am unable to attend, at least my sled did. It is too bad that some people have no idea how much work goes into this things and despite your best efforts, they complain causing people to not want to be part of this. If you really want to be a help, figure out what really happened to you to get lost . Last time I had looked there was plenty of signage pointing to the in town trail system. Alberta Beach has tried very hard to work with the Snowmobilers to keep them coming back. Try and offer positive advice instead bad mouthing a great weekend. We are losing too many events, be it to lousy attitudes or people not caring about how much work and volunteer hours goes into this. One day, you find yourself without playgrounds because all you did was bitch. I wish I could out there but circumstances prevent me from playing again, enjoy what you have and thank all the volunteers for their hard work.

 

[Altapeet]

UMMM Ok I take it all back . It was a perfect day . Don't change a thing. Signage was perfect.

 

[Bogger]

Sorry if I upset you Bogger ,but the bottom line is that ,as someone who has not attended your rally before , it was a tad confusing getting from the parking area on the lake to the registration. I and my wife and several others i saw and followed took the wrong way . We were pulled over buy the nice officer demanding licences etc . We were not being azzhats we were riding down the side of the road with a mostly confused look on our faces wondering where to go. managed to avoid a ticket ..barely . and got to the arena where more police awaited to make sure we had all the insurance licenses etc. Once we got the map and found the trails then all good and had a good ride. The start to the day though left a bit of a sour taste.
Don't take it personal , I was just relaying my personal experience.

UMMM Ok I take it all back . It was a perfect day . Don't change a thing. Signage was perfect.

I get it and your experience is yours. I didn't mean to come across like "one of those guys". we will look at the signage and I will bring your feedback to the club. it was just the "I will not be attending again that got me.... I had just gotten home from a 12 hour day outdoors and seeing as this was our most successful rally to date I was tired and easily irked, I apologize if I came off brash. My experience with the AB beach peace officers has been great, many times they could have ticketed me but chose to educate instead.

Cheers..... off to the drags

 

[imdoo'n]

been there done that, it can be quite confusing for someone having never been there, i have been in the same situation, for those that live there or have riddin there no problem, new people are confused to say the least, and i think altapeet is giving good feed back for all those who put on events. heck i missed a sign on a rally east of red deer, just kept following the road ditch tracks, about 5 miles later i had no idea where i was, backtracked and found a broken lath laying in the ditch and the trail over a snowbank. had a good tale to tell. i am betting it was a good rally, sorry i missed it.

 

[Summiteer]

Bogger, one idea is to get someone unfamiliar with the trail system to lead a couple of club members around the trails one day. Really easy to see where any signage might be lacking. Complaints are part of the deal. I've never seen an event where everyone is completely satisfied all you can do is make note of the issue and try to correct it for next time. I'm guessing if you talked to the cops, no-one got a ticket unless they were being a tool. Doesn't do the town or county any good to have a bunch of pissed off sledders that won't come back next year and that's who the bylaw guys and county mounties work for. Glad to hear you had a good rally Ian beautiful day yesterday.

 

[Mad Mike]

I can see both side of the story, my first ride from AB Beach I was a little upset due to the fact that we missed riding with the club back in Jan when we did the club ride. We ended up meeting up with a few other riders that were also a little late getting going, or were a little slower, it turned out to be a great day. I helped out at the rally yesterday by doing my little part for my home club by riding with the guys that did the morning trail check to make sure that the signs were still up, and no trees down or other issues with the route. Rode the course a second time, I was going to help out with removing rally signs, but ended up doing an emergency repair to a friends sled, then just after we got back on the trail saw a sledder walking back through his tracks looking for something. Stopped to see if there was anything that I could help out with, turned out that the bolt that attaches the ski to the sled came out, did a quick Macgyver repair(a socket extension and a hose clamp) that allowed him to get back to town. We ended up taking the rest of the group through the rally, I thing that we had a super successful day all around. A big hats off to all the people that work hard behind the scenes, I know that there were 2 13 hour days with 2 guys in the groomer this week getting ready for the rally.

 

[DDrake]

Just got home from the drags and having my 10 yr old take part in the novelty challenge. Weather was beautiful and we had a blast. Good job done by everyone.

 

[whoDEANie]

Just got home from the drags and having my 10 yr old take part in the novelty challenge. Weather was beautiful and we had a blast. Good job done by everyone.

Yeah, the novelty challenge is such a hoot! We had a great turnout this year with close to 50 participants.

 

[whoDEANie]

As for the signage, Marvin Eckert heard all the complaints and was already on top of it by today when we had the ATV rally. He made sure the parking attendants actively routed everyone in a single direction - the right direction. As far as I know, this cleared up all the confusion.

 

[Mountain Max600]

We attended both the snowmobile rally and the drags and I have to say it was very well done with a unbelievable amount of volunteer hours. A job very well done!!