CHRIS LOWREY
Shawville Feb. 8, 2020
The trails around the Pontiac were buzzing with activity on Saturday as the Club Quad du Pontiac staged its annual poker run.
The more-than . . .
sixty people that registered ventured around a 110 km loop throughout the Pontiac, with several stops along the way for riders to warm up.
The event was organized by the club’s vice president, Yves Martineau, who painstakingly laid out all the markers along the route to keep riders on track.
Essentially an off-road car rally, the poker run featured participants travelling around the region being awarded points based on how they perform at each of the games along the way.
It also serves as a fundraiser and this year’s funds will be donated to the Shawville Lion’s Club elevator project.
The action kicked off at the Shawville Lion’s Club and proceeded to the first stop, where participants played a game of darts.
From there they headed to chemin Ragged Chute in Bristol for a game of horseshoes.
After the first two games, riders got a chance to get out of the cold for some warm food at the Ladysmith Hotel where the next game was a bean bag toss.
Once their games were finished, the riders mounted back up and headed out for the fourth stop at the Junction restaurant in Campbell’s Bay where they had to show off their frisbee abilities by knocking over bottles with the flying disc.
The final stop was just outside Shawville on chemin Cummings where basketball nets were set up for the last challenge.
This also gave all the participants to mingle with one another while they waited for the sun to go down so they could start their torchlight ride through the woods.
From the final stop on the poker run, riders each held a torch and proceeded along a trail through the woods to chemin Brulé, where they extinguished their torches and formed a convoy back to the Shawville Lion’s Club.
Rue Lang in Shawville looked more like the Queensway at rush hour as a steady line of headlights snaked out into the distance.
Martineau said that while a few people may have stayed home due to the low temperatures, he was glad to see so many faces braving the cold.
“The idea is for people to visit the area in a different way,” Martineau said. “Not just from the highway.”
