The Canadian Birkie – A Waskahegan History

The Waskahegan Trail Association has been providing refreshments at the Canadian Birkie (formerly the Canadian Birkebeiner) since the festival began in 1985. The event attracts both serious competitors and recreational skiers.

Gene Miskiw, one of the earliest volunteers, describes the work that was involved in keeping the participants safe and fueled up. He also describes some deathly-dangerous moments and some of the interesting personalities that stopped at our food station.

Setting up the station

The first Birkebeiner was held in Devon. The route took the participants to the Edmonton river valley. But after a few years of dealing with minimal snow conditions it was moved to Strathcona County and held in what was then the Blackfoot Grazing Lease. Here there was plenty of space and ideal conditions in the forested area for good skiing.

The Waskahegan Trail Association operated one of the refreshment and First Aid stations from day one. I provided snowmobile support for the event and our station. The snowmobiles were very useful in ferrying supplies to our station and ferrying people in and out, especially people who had to drop out at our station and be taken to the road where they would be picked up and driven to the finish line.

Gene Miskiw and snowmobile (1990 Birkie)

In the first few years, we accessed our station from Wanisan Lake, which was a long drive. Many of our volunteers chose to ski out to it, and others caught a ride in or out on the snowmobiles. In every case someone had to unlock a gate for us to access the grazing lease. When we went out to our station in the morning, we had to break the trail with our loaded sleds, which was often very difficult considering we were hauling in all our supplies.

The Birkie people would deliver tents, firewood, and a picnic table or two for our station, but we had to bring in everything else. And then take out everything we brought in except the water.

The biggest challenge was getting enough water to the site. Oscar Zawalsky built a great sled for the purpose of handling and containing the water in plastic jugs. That made that part of the job immensely easier, although we still had to contend with the deep soft snow.

Oscar Zawalsky with water tanks (1988)

Besides the water, we had to bring in the camp stoves and propane tanks, cases of Gatorade and boxes of fresh fruit and muffins plus serving trays and cooking pots. All this had to come in with us because it would freeze if delivered early.

“Something’s amiss”

One year at our station east of Wanisan, we expected to be done early in the afternoon according to the schedule. When we were quite sure that we were done and the last skiers had passed through, we started packing up and dumping our water when to our great surprise a group of professional skiers swept in. The international pros were always the first through our station so we knew that this was an anomaly. They and we were not sure what went wrong but we knew that something had gone amiss.

I drove up the trail to check it out and found that at a point where the 55k trails and the 30k trails adjoined, someone had crossed and knocked down the barriers between them. This created a great deal of confusion for any skiers coming later, many of whom took the trail they had not intended.

Snowmobile to the rescue

Another year, as we were starting to load up at Wanisan Lake after the event, we were joined by a number of Provincial Parks people also coming out. We learned, in talking to them, that one of their large twin track snowmobiles had broken down somewhere back in the grazing lease. We were just starting to load my heavy duty sled so we pulled it off again and offered to go back with them to pick it up. They led me in to where it had broken down, loaded it, and we brought it out for them.

We always had excellent relations with the Parks people and I think the Birkie became sort of an annual reunion for them as they came from various parks across the province where many of them had worked together in previous years.

Last Chance Station

After a few years we were assigned to a site called Last Chance, and we have kept that station ever since. It was 7km before the finish line. The first year it did not have a shelter. And that year was one of the coldest years we ever experienced for the Birkie. We had tents with feeble, smoky heaters for shelter and warmth but they were totally inadequate for the temperature.

Last Chance Food Station Tent (1991)

We had many evacuees that year, one of which I picked up off the trail after we had reports that she was off her skis. I bundled her up in a sleeping bag and first aid blankets on my rescue sled and tied her skis on top of her to bring her to our station. She was under-dressed and hypothermic and the First Aid people were unable to warm her up in the poorly heated tents.

The medical team arranged for STARS to pick her up off Wanisan Lake. She was bundled up again in blankets on my rescue sled and I ferried her out to the lake where the STARS helicopter met us as scheduled.

We were joined by another, less serious hypothermic from Islet Lake, who was ferried out from the road by another snowmobile team.

On that day there were a few other snowmobile teams in the area. Whenever we met another on the trail we would stop to exchange information and check each other’s faces for signs of frostbite.

I came prepared with extra scarves and gave them, and sometimes my helmet with a visor, to my passengers for the trip out if they could use them. They were, after all, dressed for skiing and not for riding. My sled was a Santa-type of sled that was most useful for hauling passengers. Evacuees were usually bundled up in First Aid blankets to keep them warm.

Provincial Parks and Meadow Shelter

Around this time, Provincial Parks was getting involved in the operation of the grazing lease as a recreational area. They built a lovely shelter (Meadow Shelter) at the Last Chance location and we used it in the Birkie.

David Mutch with First Aid volunteers at Meadow Shelter (1998)

What a luxury that was for our volunteers and for the participants who were able, if they wished, to take a long leisurely break in the toasty interior of the shelter and enjoy hot chocolate and snacks.

Provincial Parks Support

Provincial Parks started providing more support for the Birkie. One year they delivered a tank of water to the Last Chance site. This made our lives immediately much easier as that was the heaviest and most challenging item for us to bring in.

There was a year they must have delivered the water very early in the morning because we found, when we got there, that the spigot had frozen up. We boiled up some water that we were able to scoop out of the top of the tank and poured it over the spigot, which released right away.

Every year Provincial Parks provided more and more support. After a few years they provided all the transportation we required for the Birkie, thereby gradually rendering our snowmobiles unnecessary, if not unwelcome. We all had the pleasure of riding to our site and back in comfortable Government trucks. From then on, no private vehicles were permitted beyond the staging area.

Skiers we have met

There were hundreds of stories that came out of the Birkie events. I recall one fellow who stopped briefly at Last Chance and asked me to get a screwdriver out of his pack and tighten the screws on his bindings. The screws were pretty well stripped and could not be tightened but he was determined to finish. He asked me to get some black tape out of his pack to wrap around the ski to help support the bindings but it snapped as soon as he flexed. We tried some light copper wire that he had but then he had no glide at all with that, so when we assured him that we would deliver his faulty ski to the Waskahegan Staging area for him, he left on one ski, determined to finish the last 7km.

We frequently would have a blind skier participating with a companion in one of the shorter events.

Birkie skiers, traditional (1991) and modern (1998)

One year we were getting reports of three women in trouble on the 15k route but we left them alone until we heard that one of them was off her skis about 3k back. I left with my snowmobile to pick them up and found them just around the corner less than 1k back. One of the ladies had pulled her hamstrings and very gingerly got on my machine behind me and one of her companions rode in the sled with both pairs of skis while the other skied out on her own. They sat around in the shelter for hours socializing, drinking coffee and hot chocolate and smoking.

Later in the afternoon we encouraged them to let me take them out to the road where they could get a ride to Waskahegan Staging area because very soon we would have to ferry out any others who were getting off the trail, along with the First Aid team, the communications guy, our own volunteers, and all our stuff as we cleared out after the race ended.

Lloyd McCaffrey was our sweep on the 55km route. He would be the last off the trail to ensure that no-one was left out there. These ladies finally got their stuff together and we loaded up as we did when they arrived. The one lady was setting out to ski out to the finish line and the other two rode as before but the one riding in the sled had her cup of coffee and a cigarette as she boarded. They were really having a great time despite the pain that the one was suffering. They posed for photos before we left amid much merriment. All of our volunteers taking a break or cutting up fruit in the shelter got a chuckle out of their presence that day.

Lloyd McCaffrey (centre) with Rob Faulds and Helen Whitson (pink headband) on his left (1998)

Yardley Jones [Edmonton Journal political cartoonist] and Nick Lees [Edmonton Journal columnist] would ski the Birkie every year and they always stopped to socialize with us. Nick Lees, who was younger, would come by before Yardley did. Nick would inevitably advise us, upon leaving, to be sure to tell Yardley that when he came through that he was among the highly competitive group of international frontrunners, when in fact that group came through much earlier.

Yardley Jones, thank-you card to volunteers (1992)

The Waskahegan Trail Association continues to volunteer at each Birkie Event. If you are interested in helping out at the next Birkie, contact us at info@waskahegantrail.ca

Photos are courtesy of Gene Miskiw. For more photos, visit the album on Flickr.

Al Oeming’s Cats

One of the legendary places in the Ministik area was Al Oeming’s Alberta Game Farm. It operated from 1959 to 1980 (when it was rebranded “Polar Park”). The 1,400-acre facility started at Highway 14 and Range Road 223 and grew to house hundreds of exotic species. The most famous of his animals were the cheetahs.

Al Oeming visited Kathy Kerr’s grade 6 class with his cheetah after Miss Kerr wrote him asking him questions on wolves in 1971. (Credit: Edmonton Journal)

Fun with the Cheetahs

When Al Oeming first brought cheetahs to his Game Farm, he had them in a large enclosure and wanted to give them some stimulation and exercise. So, he rigged up a long clothesline arrangement on two bicycle wheels across the enclosure and suspended a broom from it at one point. The setup was powered by an electric motor with stops at each end to make the broom go back and forth.

The cats enjoyed chasing the broom and swatting at it much like tetherball. They were thus conditioned to play with brooms and he had that arrangement in their enclosure for as long as he had the Game Farm.

Al had one older, well trained, cheetah that he used to take out in public for demonstration and public relations purposes. He used to take her to schools. When I was teaching, he brought her into my classroom to show the class and tell them about cheetahs. At one point he had me get down on all fours beside my desk to allow the cheetah to step on my back to get on top of my desk. It was a delightful stunt and the children loved it but the cheetah certainly did not require me as a stepping stone as they can jump many times higher than my desk.

Al would typically show his cheetah in schools during the last period of the day, then take it to the staff room to show the teachers and have a visit while the children left for home. Then, when everyone was gone, he would take the animal to his car and go home.

One time, a few years later, he took his cheetah to Ministik School and showed it there. After the showing, he took the cheetah to the staff room as was his routine, while all the children boarded their buses and left the school yard.

As Al was walking his cheetah off leash and at heel to his station wagon, the school caretaker, unaware of the presence of the cat on the premises, opened the back door of the gym and proceeded to shake out his dust mop. Upon seeing this, the cheetah, thinking it was play time, broke heel and headed for the attractive dust mop at high speed. The caretaker spotted the cheetah at the last minute, dropped the mop and slammed the door to save himself, getting the fright of his life.

The Cougars

The Game Farm had a large enclosure of cougars with many vertical trees and numerous horizontal ones secured among them at about ten or twelve feet in the air for the cougars to lounge on. On one visit, there was a family group with an infant in a stroller viewing the cougars through the double fence and from behind a low rail barrier outside that. Because it was such a large enclosure and there were many cougars there lounging in various poses, it was very interesting and it took some time for people to pass this area.

At one point, a young cougar left his lounging spot and was soon stalking the family group, with his tail twitching. When the family group moved over, he also changed his course. Soon, an older cougar slipped down from her perch in a horizontal tree and positioned herself, nonchalantly, between Junior and the family. As Junior crept by she gave him a stiff cuff sending him rolling and looking very indignant and self-righteous.

Once again the family moved over and soon Junior was again stalking, but with one eye cautiously on Mama and one eye on the intended prey, trying to appear innocent. Someone suspected that the cougar was eyeing the tender infant in the stroller and when they moved over about eight feet more, they left the stroller where it was and, sure enough, the cougar was focused directly on the tender morsel behind the fences and did not even miss the presence of the rest of the family.

This family shall remain nameless to protect the innocent and the reputation of the father for using his child as “cougar bait” in the name of research.

Visit the Edmonton Journal’s photo gallery for more photos from the Game Farm

The One about the Compass

There was a story about a man, nearing retirement, who was casting about for ideas regarding what he might do after his retirement. He read about a man named Tates who had developed a new compass and was wanting to sell the rights to it to someone who was interested in marketing it.

He managed to get the rights to it and was marketing it when he went out on a hike one day and failed to return. His wife reported him missing and lost, so Search and Rescue went out in search of him.

They were soon able to find him and the ranger told the wife that he had been found in good health and that they were bringing him out.

His wife said that she couldn’t understand how he could get lost as she knew that he always had a compass with him. The ranger said that the husband should get rid of that Tates compass.

So the wife asked how he knew that her husband had a Tates. The ranger told her that it was common knowledge among the rangers and Search and Rescue people that “He who has a Tates is lost.”