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Snakes, horses and sun; Adventures during the Burton City Daze

It has been four years of rain and change for the Burton City Daze, but the core vision of its organizers has remained consistent.

The clouds down the valley towards Burton looked like someone forgot to make the right sacrifice to the weather gods, and it was going to be another year of rain for the Burton Daze festival. The situation became even more worrisome, as those Nakusp residents who decided to travel Friday night would have found themselves driving through a torrential rainstorm that would have planted seeds of doubt for the success of the beach based event.

Nevertheless, someone somewhere must have done something right, because almost on cue for the advertised 4:30 p.m. Friday night start, the clouds lacked the last of the earth’s thirst then commenced their progressive breakup. Those brave souls who decided to ignore the urge to abandon the Burton experience and weather the storm in their warm, dry houses were rewarded with a pleasantly drizzled Friday and a balmy Saturday of fun filled events at the Burton campground.

It has been four years of rain and change for the Burton City Daze, but the core vision of its organizers has remained consistent.

“We wanted to promote community within Burton” explains Linda Harrop, president of the Burton Community Hall Association.  “Burton is a very busy place with all of the different groups and we wanted to make sure that the whole community can be celebrated.”

The event was made possible by coordinating efforts between the Burton Community Hall Association and the various local organizations and clubs. It was a truly community event, from the volunteers representing the Burton Learning Centre who made sure that the participants were well fed during the weekend, to the Arrow Lakes Grape Growers Society, who greased the wheels of spirited competition with their musical beer gardens.

Friday night was the kick-off for the infamous horseshoe tournament, which was organized as a double knock out competition. Chris Powley made a show of bringing in last years’ tournament bracket detailing the road to victory for him and his teammate Rocky Parton. Impromptu teams were organized, with a good deal of feigned discussion around seeding and draw order before the first shoe was thrown.

The two day competition whittled down the teams to a final match that sorted out Brian Harrop and Terry Story as the ‘shoes winners.

A sunny Saturday provided ideal conditions for the relay races and the gymkhana competitions. The relay was a tense battle between the three eager groups, The Queens, the Married Couple and Dazed and Confused, and included a canoe, bike and run relay through the town and the campground. In unique Burton fashion, the start of the competition had to be delayed as there was a snake found in one of the canoes, but once the animal was sorted the race was underway.

Dazed and Confused had a strong lead, but struggled when a paddle was broken in half during the enthusiastic stroke of Shane Alaric. Hunched over the front of the canoe, Alaric did his best to help his teammate Powley reach the buoy destination, and returned back onto the beach with the ladies of the Queen team close behind. Joanne Alaric managed to pass Dazed and Confused during the bike circuit and pushed her team to first place at the start of running leg of the race. Passing off the relay lei to teammate Rene Goodman, the Queens were off to a good start for the final 2.5 kilometer run to the finish. However, an unexpected cramp slowed Goodman’s pace and Dazed and Confused managed to regain the lead and take first place for the relay.

Later that afternoon the horses were in full stride out on the local rodeo grounds for the gymkhana. The equestrian competition was a display of speed pattern racing and timed games that display the tight cooperation between horse and rider. Gymkhana’s are held once a month from spring to fall and participants earn points which are added up at the end of the season. Two patter races; a Big M and the Figure 8 Cowhorse were run by seven participants.