Submitted by: Rose Kovachik |
With pictures from ValleyBiz and Penny Boychuk

The annual Cowan Trail Celebration once again occurred on the fourth Saturday of August (being August 25, 2018) this year and marking it the 20th. The event began on Friday night, as usual, with the Cowan Hall parking lot slowly being filled with trailers, horses, ATVs and their human counterparts.

By Saturday morning, a flurry of activity began as participants quickly ate pancakes, sausages, hashrowns, eggs, etc at the breakfast before they began dispersing to their activity of choice for the day.

First, after horse registration, the horse ride entourage began on the journey beneath partly cloudy skies for a 20 km ride across the Cowan bridge, first heading East and then swinging around to the West side of Cowan. Included in the mix were lots of new faces and first time young riders.

Even with the dreary skies, the back-wood areas, bubbling creeks and grassy meadows were a delight to the horse and riders alike. In fact, the dreary weather was considered a bonus as it provided a more comfortable temperature and bug free surrounding for horse and rider.

The recently cleaned trails were a breeze for the multiple wagons that joined. The hotdog lunch on the trail provided a good opportunity for everyone to gather together for a quick story or two, before moving on to finish the trail ride in the afternoon.

Once the horse riders had cleared the area, ATV registration began, causing a large line-up for the registration volunteers. Then the ATV participants embarked on their adventures turning their heads south and swinging around back to Cowan from the North. While enjoying the wind in their hair, they would see a little bit of every kind of terrain in Cowan country. It is great to see that participants are very respectful of the trails which allows the trails to
remain in good condition for much more enjoyment in the future.

There were door prizes for both horse trail and ATV derby participants. These items were made available by many local business sponsors. Those that won these event prizes, probably had a little wider smile on their face that day.

Upon return, for those that wished and any others that cared to join, there was a hearty beef supper waiting which included perogies and cabbage rolls
prepared by the Cowan Community Ladies Group. The supper that started at 5pm wound up at approximately 7pm.

After supper, with the help from visitors, the hall was quickly prepped for the dance that began thereafter. With Pure Country (Kenny Thompson and Brittney Moore) playing, the dance floor was full most of the night. Many shouts and hollers could be heard as their dance of choice was played. Then when there was a bit of a break, a full lunch was served which was followed by the announcements of the silent auction winners. Some more smiles appeared during this part of the evening. However, the break was short and once again the dance floor was filled as Kenny and Brittney played into the early hours.

We hope all that attended enjoyed their day in whatever activity they did and will be enticed to return again. It was wonderful to see some new faces with
comments of their wishing to return next year.

A very big thank you to:

• the many volunteers that put ample hours into prepping, organizing, cleaning and working at this event;
• the many, many local and distant sponsors that provide all of the silent auction, door prizes, event prizes and
• the participants for their interest and loyalty to this event.

All of the above are a requirement to make such an event successful and available for years to come. See ya all next year.