BARRIE ISLAND—The Tour de Barrie Island ‘In Search of Sandhill Cranes’ is one of the many long-standing traditional events that takes place on Manitoulin Island every summer.
This year’s event marked its 33rd anniversary and took place as it always does on the Saturday of the Civic Holiday weekend, August 5.
“There are so many new people this year and a lot of the people that started this event are now gone,” said Carolyn Lane-Rock, one of the main organizers of the event. She explained Jessica Lonsdale’s mom, Jean Hanson, had been to Barrie Island where my husband Bill and I had a cottage. “We were good friends with Jean and Bob.”
“A lot of Jean and our friends from Sudbury wanted to come to visit, but we felt it would make sense to have them all come at once for an event,” said Ms. Lane-Rock. “That is where the idea of this bicycle ride and supper afterwards originated.”
Ms. Hanson and Ms. Lane-Rock made the shirts for what became the annual event, and Bob Hanson drew a map of the routes that could be taken by everyone who wanted to take part in the event through Barrie Island by bicycle ride, walking or running.
“One year we had a writer from Cottage Life come out to cover our event,” said Ms. Lane-Rock. “The writer told us that we needed to have binoculars on hand the next year so could see the sandhill cranes. So we did, and we didn’t see any cranes that year,” she quipped.
“Jessica first took part in the event when she was eight years-old and her brother Russell was one,” said Ms. Lane-Rock.
There was a very good turnout for this year’s event, with Ms. Lane-Rock pointing out that Allison Godwin, one of the main organizers of the event encouraged many of her friends to come from Sudbury to take part.
This year’s Tour de Barrie Island drew a total of 21 bicyclists, four walkers and one runner. Participants saw a total of 32 sandhill cranes during the event. There was 31 people on hand for a dinner held after the tour event.
