When the chainsaws were silenced, the lumberjacks weren't the only ones left tired by the end of Squamish Days Loggers Sports.
Members of Squamish's Rotary Club had served up approximately 3,000 beef sandwiches. Over two days, 1,500 pounds of Alberta meat was slow roasted on open flames at the Rotary Shack, said Brian Finley, the Rotary's director of community services.
We start the fire at 5 a.m., he noted.
The meat goes on at around 7:30 a.m. with the volunteers cooking two batches of approximately 32 beef roasts each a day.
My favourite part is organizing it and then eating one, Finley said, while looking over the long lineup of people hungry for their beef bun on Saturday (Aug. 4).
The now-famous part of the Loggers Sports weekend was started 55 years ago by forestry pioneer John Drenka, who died in March at the age of 95. Drenka helped establish many of the community's amenities, including the Squamish Valley Golf Club. He also owned and managed Squamish Mills.
Rotary members built the giant rotisserie with old parts from B.C. Rail. The motor is created from an old speedometer from a locomotive.
Finley moved from the United Kingdom to Squamish in the summer of 2008. When he saw the beef-on-a-bun operation, one word came to mind: wow.
It's not just this, he said, pointing to the rotisserie and fire pit. It's all the help from the volunteers.
Each day, approximately 34 people donate their time to sell the sandwiches. Without them, the lunchtime treat wouldn't exist, Finley said.
It is a real production line, he said.
