The planning for this cross Canada contest actually started around December of 2023 with initial intent to have it happen during the 2024 winter but the team quickly realized this was a potential beast and it needed proper planning and all the moving parts required ample runway to actually pull this off. Leap frog ahead to now mid-March 2025, post actual contest ride and everyone is still full of smiles. But the journey wasn’t necessarily a straight line…kind of like that hill climb that sometimes throughs you a surprise and kicks you to the side…you handle it, rebound and continue to the top. In this recap piece, we’ll take you on a journey of how an e-commerce webstore like DRIVEN pulled off a contest that caught the attention of the country, turned the heads of many big competitors but most importantly, showcased Newfoundland & Labrador as a top winter destination, positioned CKX as a quality supplier of riding gear and introduced folks to The Chalet at Cormack. And also introduced you to our augural contest winners; Joey & Lacy White. Both of whom happened to be incredible riders.
To create a winning contest offer, we had to first assemble a prize package that would get folks to notice. Since becoming a CKX dealer in 2024, DRIVEN has risen to be one of the top volume CKX dealers in all of Atlantic Canada, if not Canada. So, it was a no brainer to align this Ultimate Winter Contest with CKX. The winners would be decked out with CKX gear as part of the top prize. The destination prize for most of the customers of DRIVEN was somewhat of an unknown, “The Rockies of the East” …. really. Newfoundland and Labrador is most certainly one of the best kept secrets in this beautiful country…it has a well-rounded balance of everything. When we started planning this, we wanted a drive-up destination and one of our favourite staging areas is Cormack (NL). As a result, The Chalet at Cormack was an obvious top choice. The owners; Andrew Power and Pete LeDrew were onside and were stoked from when the concept was pitched, to the point when all guest departed. Hats off to the tech team behind the scenes at DRIVEN as there were many moving parts to this unique cross-Canada contest. There was an open option to enter the contest but then a bunch of bonus options. Of course, anyone that did purchase something from the DRIVEN webstore, they got a bunch of additional entries…let’s just say, there was a ton of interest in this contest and managing all the entries became a task to itself. When the official draw date came, the team was really excited and nervous because this was our first time doing a contest of this size. The official winner was randomly selected and Joey White was the winner. Now, we had the job of reaching out to Joey about this Ultimate Winter Getaway.
“Joey…that’s a scam!” were the actual words out of Lacy’s mouth, Lacy the partner of Joey, the Ultimate Winter Getaway winner and soon to be the tagalong buddy that the winner got to take. But this was no scam…as the reality of winning this prize became true when Joey and Lacy picked up their CKX gear to try for fit prior to the March 6th trip to the Chalet At Cormack. This first meet up set the stage for what was about to come…as laughs and smiles filled the room and everyone was beyond excited for the actual ride with Joey and Lacy. The plan for all, Thursday (March 6th) was a travel day to get across the island of Newfoundland with the goal of everyone meeting up for wings/moose nachos and some beverages the first night at the Chalet. An awesome opportunity to get to know all, as for most of us, this was going to be the first time riding together.
Day 1 was planned to be a day in the valleys in the upper section of Angus Lake, where there’s tons of sidehills and the terrain typically caters to everyone in the group. The forecast was calling for rain and nonseasonal temps, this would be a great test for our CKX gear. The forecast was correct…it was wet. The snow was like mashed potatoes but we still made the most of it. We held up in the warm up shelter on White River Road (WWR) for about an hour plus, had tons of rib busting conversations with the folks coming and going. As the day went on, the rain did slack and we did manage to get some riding in…enough to have some fun, test some new learned skills and build a bond that would certainly be tested throughout the weekend. It was dark when we got back to the Chalet, as we were able to arrive right to the door. All hands gassed up before calling it a day. That evening, the group had an awesome BBQ supper where we got to relive the mashed potatoes (conditions) from that day and we had lots of laughs. The conclusions from day one, our riding group were all having a blast…no matter what kind of terrain we challenged them with and Joey most certainly was up for any challenge, as both him and Lacy are very capable riders. The only concern we had for the next day was that the temps would drop and everything would freeze up. Before we called it a night, Pete LeDrew from the Chalet had said that the forecast was calling for 10 CM of snow…if that came before it cooled down, our day two riding would be safe as we’re planning to do the Big Loop which is normally a 250+ KM backcountry day.
Day 2 delivered the 10+ CM of snow, this was evident around the Chalet but the forecast was calling for higher winds that would be a concern in the higher open country and this would be exactly where the Big Loop route would be taking us. As we all ate breakfast, there was a childish enthusiasm as everyone knew the 10+ CM at the Chalet would be much more in some of the Valleys in the higher country. Post breakfast, we eagerly hit the route to get us over to Whites River Road (WRR), our main trail to get us into the country and access our key route, the Big Loop. Turning off WRR, things looked great…as the snow on the trail in places was 20-30 cm deep and this was what we were looking for. The winds were gusting on all the open country but we had good knowledge of the backcountry routes, along with the occasional reference to the GPS, the route was secure. From WRR, we took a route towards Silver Mountain that saw us head towards Burnt Hill Lake and we ended up on Taylor’s Brook Road (TBR). We stopped at the warm up shelter on the 26 KM point for a warm up and debrief on what the rest of our day might look like as the winds were only getting worst. The goal was to travel as far north to hit Parsons Pond Gorge as some of the group hadn’t been there. It was becoming clear that we wouldn’t make the end destination because visibility was near zero on the larger ponds and open bogs. As a result, we decided to switch to plan B which would still bring us some serious fun and even a reunion of old friends.
We decided the best route would be to push in as far as Eagle Mountain Lodge (44 KM on TBR) and then pick across the ponds over to the Goose Hole Lodge where old friends of ours were renovating this long-time destination which had a special spot in the hearts of many well-seasoned snowmobilers from this province (NL)…as for years it operated as Main River Safari and Adrian & Marg Walsh were super host well before it become an AirBnB thing. We popped into the Goose Hole to see who was around…and was it a surprise to run into an old friend that we hadn’t seen in years. After a cup of coffee and chat, we were back on the sleds. The route out of the country would involve going through Moose Valley. We didn’t really follow a track but picked our way through the valley and were we ever glad we did. Finding cache and cache of nice snow pockets. The entire crew got their fill of pow turns and yes, spills. It was well after dark by the time we got back and the shorten route still saw us almost hitting 200+ KM. Supper at the Chalet filled our bellies but all hands went to bed with big smiles from a great day.
Day 3 for us meant we had a smaller group, five riders and everyone on the same page. There was no set destination…but head in the general direction that would see us border the Eastern boundary of Gros Morne National Park. Our entry route was similar to our exit route from Day one. However, unlike the mash potatoes we had on Friday, we now had some fresh with some hard patches…which made for an interesting day and a few surprises along the way. At one point, we had four sleds stuck on one hillside and Lacy wanting no part of the chaos as she captured video safely from below. For anyone that enjoys backcountry riding, it was a success…no wait, it was a blast. And hats off to the Junction Trail Blazers, as the previous couple of days were challenging for grooming, it was nice to get back to the main feeder trail (WRR) and have it groomed for the ride back to the Chalet.
In conclusion…this contest and adventure was a success beyond what we had originally envisioned. Conducting a Canada wide contest tied to Canada’s Powersports Webstore, partnering up with a top snowmobiling brand like CKX and hosting the event at The Chalet At Cormack was no small feat. However, the memories and relationships that resulted from this trip will now last a lifetime.
