By Gailene William
Special to the Tribune
Participants in the 10th Annual Xeni Gwet’in Youth Wagon Trip are heading into day five as they make their way to Williams Lake for the grand entry of the Friday evening performance of the Williams Lake Stampede.
The riders and wagons are currently making their way from the Big Creek Hall to Sugarcane Jacks, where an evening ceremony will take place at the top of Farwell Canyon.
The rest of the schedule is as follows:
• June 27, 2018 – Sugarcane Jacks to Farwell Canyon
• June 28, 2018 – Farwell Canyon to Meldrum Creek
• June 29, 2018 – Meldrum Creek to Williams Lake arriving approximately 6 p.m. at Williams Lake Stampede Grounds for evening grand entry/evening performance.
Chief Jimmy Lulua will be driving his own wagon from Nemiah Valley all the way to Williams Lake thanks to Roy and Gwen Mulvahill for dedicating one wagon for his family. Roy and Gwen Mulvahill will have three wagons on the start of the trip and possibly add more wagons along the way throughout the trip.
The wagon committee strongly encouraged more youth and participants to ride saddle horse throughout the trip. The days do get long, so youth are always able to ride half a day then pass on their horse to another youth to ride the second half of the day.
READ MORE: 10th Annual Xeni Gwet’in Youth Wagon trip begins June 22
In 2017 my twin boys Jacob and Zack William (six years old at the time) rode their Uncle Jimmy Lulua’s horses for the first time on the wagon trip and fell in love with horse back riding thanks to their uncle Jimmy and cousin Kaitlyn for giving them riding lessons and tips.
This year they asked their uncle well in advance to save them one horse each so that they can ride from Nemiah all the way to Williams Lake.
Ulkatcho has approximately 14 participants joining the wagon trip this year. Trevor Mack will be along for the ride as well filming a documentary of Xeni’s annual wagon trip.
The Xeni Gwet’in Wagon trip committee and participants thank all local traffic and logging truck drivers for kindly slowing their vehicles and logging trucks down as they safely pass the group.
@geesabby
sports@wltribune.com
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