It was really good, except when it wasn’t.
This is how Bruce Moores summarizes the past five years he’s spent as president of the Eagle Valley Snowmobile Club, and the last two as general manager of the Eagle Valley Grooming Society.
It could be argued Moores has played a prominent role in putting Sicamous on the map as a winter tourism destination. Under his leadership, the areas managed by the club and the grooming society – Owlhead, Blue Lake, Eagle Pass and Queest Mountain – have become a haven for snowmobile enthusiasts. A testament to this is how Sicamous has fared over the past four years in the annual SnoRiders West magazine Rider’s Choice Awards. For the 2009/10 season alone, Sicamous swept the awards for its amazing sledding, fine food and accommodation.
But the ride hasn’t been all accolades for Moores. His time as president has also been rife with challenge and controversy, from annual fundraising efforts, to dealing with the decline of local caribou herds, to having to answer for the few who take backcountry safety lightly. It’s been very consuming for Moores, who is now keen on stepping back and letting others take up the gauntlet.
“It’s just time,” says Moores. “My wife and my involvement has been going on five years now, and we really do believe that we have it in a very good position, certainly from a financial aspect, and I think in terms of promoting the area, of awareness, that we’re here and of what kind of product that we have to offer…,” says Moores. “We’re pretty well where we wanted to be since we started this.”
Moores described himself as an “old, retired guy” when he volunteered his name to take over as club president. At the time, he says, Sicamous was still a sleepy place in the winter. But there were people in the community such as Doreen Favel-Wilson, Brad Harris and Gord Bushell, to name a few, who saw a future in the marriage of Sicamous and sledding. Working with that vision, Moores, the club and the society have turned snowmobiling into an industry.
While Moores was making progress, a new challenge was unfolding. The B.C. government began to take declining mountain caribou herds seriously and, in 2007, announced the first draft of the Mountain Caribou Recovery Implementation Plan. The plan regarded sledders as a threat to the species’ survival and, subsequently, there was talk of closing popular snowmobiling areas throughout the province, including Queest. Thus began an arduous process of negotiation between snowmobile clubs and the province. Eventually, Moores and the club were able to keep about half of the Queest sledding area open to snowmobilers by entering into a management agreement.
“Unfortunately, there’s been no discussion with the caribou, as usual, and they seem to want to be over by our chalet with the sledders…” says Moores. “I think we might even be able to get a government biologist to agree that humans on snowmobiles are probably more of a deterrent to predators as they are to prey… I suspect there’s an element of safety up there, being around the cabin.”
Overall, Moores says he’s proud of what he’s been able to accomplish. And while Bushell has stepped up to take on the general manager position of the grooming society, friend and society president Tim Corless doubts Moores can be replaced.
“We’ll stumble along without him,” says Corless, adding it’s likely Moores will still be called upon from for the wealth of information he’s acquired.
Sicamous Mayor Malcolm MacLeod credits Moores for his promotion of sledding, safety and the community. Friend and fellow sledder Sheldon Sherman takes his helmet off to Moores for the tireless battles he’s fought for the betterment of Sicamous and the sport.
“Between sledding and getting the dream kitchen done in his house that he’s promised his wife Princealene for the last six years, he will no doubt be busy in his second retirement,” says Sherman.
And with the season for snowmobiling drawing to a close, Moores says his sites are now set on salmon fishing.
“We started fishing in the Gold River out there in Nootka Sound, but last year my wife and I and her little dog went everywhere,” says Moores, noting his wife is very pleased with his re-retirement.