Under sunny skies and clouds of dust the Ninth Annual Xeni Gwet’in Youth Wagon trip rode through the Highway 20 washout site Thursday morning.
Following the horse and wagon accident on the Farwell Canyon Road that initially sent four women to hospital and saw one horse put down, Xeni Gwet’in Chief Roger William said the ride continued early Wednesday morning.
“I think people were a bit nervous at first, but after the first hour it was back to the usual,” William said on the east side of the Sheep Creek Bridge where Esk’et First Nation met the group with lunch, prayers and songs for healing and a safe last leg of the journey into Williams Lake.
On Wednesday evening the group camped at the Meldrum Creek recreation site where they were joined by a live band and enjoyed an evening of dancing.
The group should be top of the hill at the Welcome to Williams Lake sign about 4:30 p.m. and pulling down into town sometime after 5:30 p.m. today.
Today they have approximately 30 riders as some of the horses got hauled in for tonight’s Mountain Race at the Stampede.
Here the group rides through the construction zone, followed by comments from Jimmy Lulua, a traditional wellness co-ordinator with the Tsilhqot’in National Government, discussing why he started the wagon trip nine years ago, and Xeni Gwet’in Chief Roger William with an update about Tuesday’s accident.