Stokely Creek Lodge and its surrounding area\u00a0has a full slate of events planned for this fall and winter.<\/p>\n
The Lodge, in partnership with the Sault Cycling Club, is offering a fun cyclocross event for cyclists on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Cyclocross involves racing bicycles on short courses featuring paved roads, grass, wooded trails and hills.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll be a nice community event for all ages,” said Joel Wenham, Stokely Creek Lodge outdoor adventure tourism coordinator.<\/p>\n
“There are\u00a0a few different distances for the cyclocross race but it\u2019s non-competitive. The Cycling Club has done cyclocross in years past but this is the first time\u00a0we’ve done it out at Stokely,\u201d<\/p>\n
Registration for Sunday\u2019s event begins at 10 a.m. and the first race starts at 11 a.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a cool cyclocross racing format. The course I’ve designed is around two km long and it features all the different aspects around the lodge,\u201d Wenham said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou’ll go into the forest, ride some of the trails, ride by the waterfalls, you have to climb a set of stairs. There are barriers to jump over. It’s an obstacle course race where there are barriers that you need to jump over or straddle over.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s a whole bunch of fun with different kinds of twisty turns.\u201d<\/p>\n
The course actually goes through one of the chalets.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s where I’m trying to make it interesting so it’s not just riding around in the grass. I want to make this a memorable event. It isn\u2019t every day you get to ride through a building,\u201d Wenham said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
The cyclocross event will include a \u2018B Race\u2019 starting at 11 a.m., followed by a Kiddo Race for children at 11:45 a.m. and an \u2018A Race\u2019 for more seasoned cyclists at 12:20 p.m.<\/p>\n
Prizes will be given out and a barbecue and bonfire will be held from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m.<\/p>\n
Registration and fees information can be found on the Stokely Creek website<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Stokely is also hosting a two-day Wilderness First Aid Certification Course with Ryan Walker of Forest the Canoe on Nov. 14 and 15.<\/p>\n Students can choose to stay overnight at Stokely if desired.<\/p>\n Stokely Creek Lodge is co-owned by locals Josh and Deanna Plath and Americans\u00a0Andy Levin and Mary Freeman.<\/p>\n A winter full of activities\u00a0is planned for Stokely.<\/p>\n \u201cStokely is celebrating its 50th anniversary year, and we are planning a week-long celebration, starting Jan. 2 and ending with a big party on Jan. 9. The details are being finalized, but the week leading up to the big party will feature different activities and promotions each day,\u201d Wenham said.<\/p>\n The Stokely Loppet, a non-competitive ski adventure through the trails of Stokely, will be held Jan. 30.<\/p>\n A snowshoe festival event, going through Stokely\u2019s trails, will be held Feb. 6.<\/p>\n A Valentine\u2019s Wine Night, including dinner and wine, takes place Feb. 13.<\/p>\n The Stokely Classic ski race, including half marathon and full marathon distance ski races, will be held Feb. 27.<\/p>\n \u201cOn top of that, during the winter we will have our \u2018six hut challenge,\u2019 where we encourage skiers to try to ski to all six warming huts on the property in one day,\u201d Wenham said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis usually entails skiing 40 to 50 kms to get to all six huts in one day. Skiers that accomplish that will receive a hut challenge T-shirt and be inducted into\u00a0our ski hall of fame.\u201d<\/p>\n Wenham said Stokely is also renovating and updating its rooms.<\/p>\n Wenham is no stranger to bold outdoor adventures.<\/p>\n He cycled The Tour Divide from Banff, Alberta to the U.S. – Mexico border in Antelope Wells, New Mexico in 2023<\/a> and the 2026 Hellenic Mountain Race in Greece in May of this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n As Stokely Creek Lodge outdoor adventure tourism coordinator, Wenham said he\u2019s living the dream.<\/p>\n \u201cI first moved up here to the Sault from southern Ontario to study tourism and outdoor adventure. I took the Adventure Recreation and Parks Technician program at Sault College. That’s what brought me to the Sault.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw the potential in the Sault and area. It\u2019s really exciting for me to be in this position to help bring Stokeley to the forefront. It’s a pretty beautiful spot out here,\u201d Wenham said.<\/p>\n He said sports tourism is a growing source of economic benefit for the Sault and area.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s definitely a growing sector in our area. People want to travel to the Sault and area, and the more events that happen here are more reasons for people to travel here. That\u2019s really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stokely Creek Lodge and its surrounding area\u00a0has a full slate of events planned for this fall and winter.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":935881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,320711,635,82],"class_list":["post-935880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-columnsboldjoel-wenhamstokely-creekstokely-creek-cyclocross","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=935880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/935881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=935880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=935880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=935880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}