The North Thompson (NT) Chapter was formed in 2012 by Connie Falk, after she put an advertisement in the local newspaper calling for people interested in joining a new chapter of the Back Country Horsemen of BC. We now have 30 members comprised of people from Clearwater, Barriere and McLure.
The chapter meets on the third Wednesday every month. We spend our meeting time covering our usual business and planning rides, work bees and our yearly trail projects that we take on.
Since our inception in 2012, the NT Chapter has organized and put on Rendezvous 2013, 2016, and 2019 at the Barriere Fairgrounds, which was a lot of fun, hard work and a great way to meet the rest of the Back Country Horsemen throughout the province. A highlight for our chapter was the inter-chapter ride in July of 2018 held in Wells Gray Park, a huge success and a challenge for other chapters to continue with future inter-chapter events.
Every year we have applied for grants to improve our main network of trails on Skull Mountain and the Fishtrap Horse Camp. We have partnered with the Lower North Thompson Forestry Society, Horse Council BC, as well as local ranchers to build new trail, improve existing trails and develop the campsite even further.
We also maintain good relationships with the local logging companies who consult with us on areas they are going to log in order to try and preserve our trails. We believe in establishing good relationships in the community in order to promote our beautiful trails for the use of recreational riders and other outdoor enthusiasts.
A great deal of work has been put into mapping our trails, not only on Skull Mountain, but at Sun Peaks, Seven Sisters, Orchard Lake and Johnson Lake Trail Systems which resulted in the publishing of the North Thompson Valley Trail and Geo Caching Guide with our funding partners, Western Diversification and the Barriere and District Chamber of Commerce.
The NT chapter is proud of our beautiful resource we have here in the North Thompson Valley and are working every year to maintain and promote it.