When Gina Anderson and her husband, Gary, first met and started dating many years ago, he introduced her to a spot west of their homes in Big River, Saskatchewan, that had great meaning to his family.
The site of his parents’ first homestead back in the early ’30s is known as The Block. While the homesteads in the area were all but abandoned by the late ’50s, the roads they left behind are still frequented by the Andersons and many others, not only for sentimental reasons, but also for the great off-road experience the region offers.
“After we were married, and our three boys were still quite small,” said Gina, “we would often head out on our old quad, pulling the boys behind in a small trailer. My husband Gary’s uncle had a cabin out there, and although he’s since passed, the cabin is still a big part of our family.”
Taking the kids out to visit their great-uncle, who lived there nearly year round, hunting and trapping, Gina said the boys soon grew to love the off-road experience and quickly graduated from their little trailer to their own dirt bikes. This resulted in them continuously speeding away from their parents until four years ago, when Gina and Gary upgraded their Suzuki 350 King Quad to a 700 model, and the boys themselves got their own quads. Now the riding field is even once more, and they’re back to riding together as a family.
Quadding is such a big part of the total Anderson family experience that each spring and fall is filled with family get-togethers and outings on The Block as they camp, hold weiner roasts, and just enjoy one another’s company. Even the younger generation keeps coming back year after year, long after they’ve grown and moved away, just as the Andersons’ three sons have done.
“All the boys now live in Saskatoon, so now going out quadding is a tradition that keeps them coming home,” Gina said. “Most of our nieces and nephews also have quads. There’s about 25 of them, so it’s a really big family thing that we all do together.”
While Gina is currently content to ride along the back of her husband’s quad, something she’s been doing since her boys were small, she sees herself someday getting behind the wheel of a side-by-side. All she needs is for her boys to get on board with her plans.
“I’m just waiting for grandkids before I get one, and my boys all know it,” Gina said.
Aside from allowing her to spend quality time with her family, Gina also likes the opportunity quadding gives her and husband Gary to go fishing on lakes that otherwise would be inaccessible.
“There’s lots of fun mud to go through and stuff around here,” she said. “But there’s a lot of nice quadding areas to go through too, where you can pull a boat behind you and head off to one of the lakes (where) you wouldn’t otherwise be able to take a truck.”
“Last weekend,” Gina added, “we took the quads and went ice-fishing on a lake that you otherwise would never have been able to get to.”
Carrying on this family tradition of quadding in and around Big River is something that brings great meaning to Gina’s life, to the lives of her children, and hopefully one day soon to the lives of her future grandchildren.
“My kids have always enjoyed it out here. It really means a lot to them,” she said.
A Small Club Doing Big Things
It was a year of challenging snow conditions, but Big River’s Annual Poker Rally on February 11th went off with plenty of snow and several hundred machines, netting between $2,000 and $3,000 for the area’s Timber Trails Sno Riders club.
The winter season and the sledding that follows soon after its arrival usually brings with it large groups of sledders from clear across the country and with them, a big economic spinoff for the area. But this year Big River didn’t see its typical perfect conditions till early in the New Year.
But a shorter than average season didn’t stop the club from continuing to do what it does best—support its club, its community and its next generation of riders.
Funds from this year’s rally went towards a number of initiatives: payments on the new groomer’s $26,000 price tag; support of the recently built community hall, where the club holds its rally each year; and a safety course for kids, to ensure that a younger generation of riders learns the proper and safe way to ride right from the start. An area of particular concern this year with the late freeze on area waterways.
Add in the cost and manpower of simply maintaining signage and trail conditions, and considering the club’s membership sits at a mere 25, you can see the power of a few individuals can work to do big things in Big River.
Comments