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TRADING PLACES: CBC host George Stroumboulopoulos captures Kyle MacDonald's trade with SnoRiders West on The Hour’s February 9th live broadcast from Yahk, B.C. From left to right are: Kyle MacDonald, George Stroumboulopoulos, Jeff Cooper and Kerry Shellborn.

YAHKING IT UP: Twenty-five snowmobilers log more than 100 kilometres from Cranbrook to Yahk, B.C.

How do you go from one red paperclip to a snowmobile trip in Yahk, B.C. and then owning your own cubed van?

Well, nobody really knows that answer except Montreal’s Kyle MacDonald—the website guru who turned into an instant celebrity by trading up one red paperclip on his website to a pen, a funny doorknob, a Coleman stove, a generator, a beer keg and a snowmobile.

The creator of www.oneredpaperclip.com traded that snowmobile—a 1992 Ski-Doo Mach 1 once owned by a famous radio host in Quebec—with SnoRiders West for the trip to Yahk, which took place February 9. The trip was then traded for a cubed van which brought the snowmobile across Canada to Yahk.

From all accounts, the trip was not only fun, but it was a great day for sledding a trip, as there wan’t even a cloud in the sky.

The trip started in the Gold Creek area, which is about 20 kilometres south of Cranbrook. From there 25 snowmobilers, which included members of the Cranbrook Snowmobile Club, the Kimberley Powder Hounds, WOW Relay rider Cora Tschetters, a few people from SnoRiders West and MacDonald, inched their way to Yahk logging on more than 100 kilometres.

After the long snowmobile trip, sledders rushed to the Yahk-Kingsgate Community Hall where CBC Newsworld’s The Hour broadcast live and the event was attended by more than 300 people. More on that in another story in www.snoriderwest.com.

Other than a few tumbles and a broken digital camera, every snowmobiler had fun exploring the backcountry in this interesting part of the Kootenays.

And as far a MacDonald is concerned, he said he was thrilled about meeting everyone involved in this exciting snowmobile trip.

“This is probably the longest snowmobile trip that I have ever done,” said MacDonald who has only snowmobiled a few times in his lifetime. “I have never done anything quite like this.”

Before trading up the snowmobile for the trip, MacDonald had a beer keg in his possession—something that interested a Quebec radio station.

“I received an e-mail from this Quebec radio station and they wanted to give me a snowmobile in exchange for this Budweiser Beer Keg, that actually had an IOU to fill it with beer,” said MacDonald. “It was really cool that I made a trade for the snowmobile because I got to speak on the radio in French.”

When MacDonald made the trade for the snowmobile, that is when things seemed to snowball for MacDonald as he had requests for interviews from media outlets from all over the world.

“Between the time that I got the snowmobile and the offer from SnoRiders West, I had CBC and Global TV for interviews on national television in my apartment at the same time,” said MacDonald. “Then I had to leave early to do an interview with CNN, which is weird because I haven’t done anything to promote my website. I have just been saying yes to interviews all the time.”

During a brief break in the snowmobile trip, MacDonald said in an interview with SnoRiders West that he never thought this website would create so much attention, especially after only starting his site last summer.

Be sure to pick up RidersWest magazine this spring to find out more about the trip to Yahk and MacDonald.

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