A note from the organizers of the Nemadji Trail Winter Rally 2020:
Nemadji Trail Winter Rally 2020
We have been trying very hard to put on the Nemadji Trail rally this year. After last year’s freak blizzard we have been looking forward to a big come back! We have been particularly excited to see our biggest field for the winter version of Nemadji. We arranged to use EZTrak to enhance our event’s safety!
Unfortunately, the season of COVID-19 is not on our side.
The spike has tightened restrictions in MN. The DNR hasn’t cancelled our permit but their communication is less than enthusiastic. Cell coverage is still not good in Duquette so an online notice board and online inquiries are impractical. We have been working on a pre-COVID solution including a notice board inside the community center, but with the spike we have real concerns about proper social distancing and use of masks indoors around that board.
We have to manage the total group of well over 125, so we have looked into splitting up the volunteers from the competitors by moving the volunteers to Kerrick and having them just sit in their cars for several hours until they go out in the woods. Kerrick has no store, no gas station, and one small bar that may or may not be open. We’re not sure that’s the fun day with their rally friends the volunteers had in mind and have concerns about how it could impact their enthusiasm for the future. There are clearly logistical challenges to this, but we have been working through all the details.
While we have a great field of competitors; we have less than 2/3 of the volunteers we need to safely conduct the event. We believe this is due to the COVID-19 spike. People have been slower than normal to volunteer. While we plan to follow up with volunteers over the next couple weeks we are concerned that at least some, and maybe more will cancel. What is more concerning is those who cancel at the last minute and we find ourselves unable to safely conduct the rally.
We have reluctantly decided that we need to cancel Nemadji. We don’t see how it can be a fun day for our great volunteers. We really don’t want to be the source of an outbreak. And, we really don’t want to cancel the day of the event because we simply don’t have enough volunteers to safely conduct the event.
We hope you’ll understand and we look forward to seeing you in 2021!
J. B. Niday, Clerk of the Course
Nemadji Trail Winter Rally
As a FYI, the 2021 American Rally Association schedule has been released.