The Amazing Race 2024
With 28 teams competing it was our largest race to date. All afternoon our racers tested their skills and knowledge throughout the Beaches of 59 area as they competed against one another. It came down to the last challenge to determine a winner, to say it was close is an understatement!
Below you can view our gallery of images from this years event.
Thank you to all our great sponsors and volunteers, this event would not be possible without your support. We can’t wait to see what the 2025 Amazing Beaches of 59 Race brings!
144 Racers Compete Throughout the Beaches of 59 Area for the ‘CHAMPION’ Title
The excitement rose as team after team pulled up at registration at the Gull Lake Park. Each team dressed in unique team costumes from homemade creations, store bought items, to special printed team t-shirts! The field was filled with a rainbow of colours. Event volunteers were each given the signature, Beaches of 59 navy t-shirts.
The weather for our race was “amazing”, sunny sky’s and light wind.
This year’s race was a coordinated effort by our new Marketing Coordinator, Aurora Debreuil, our two summer students Lexi Verras and Andrew Kaul, and all the volunteer committee members from Beaches of 59 with Laura Kemp and Lise Bourassa specifically taking the lead on this event. On the day of the event many community volunteers and employees at stops stepped up to help and manage the challenges. Many stops were chaotic at times as teams struggled to complete them and new teams kept arriving.
At noon, teams lined up at the start and listened as Lexi Verras read the Treaty Land Acknowledgment and learned their first challenge ‘What’s Missing’ clue read by Andrew Kaul. The first challenge sponsored by Brokenhead Ojibway Nation was to run around the park and find 10 words hanging in trees. No phones or notepads could be used, which was common in at least half the challenges. The team needed to determine what letters of the alphabet were not used in any of the 10 words and what word those missing letters spelled. Once they determined the secret word “SKY” they ran to the volunteers wearing Brain or Brawn boards for their choice of their next clue.
The teams split for the next two challenges on either a mentally challenging adventure or physically challenging route. “Brain 1” was sponsored by and located at Glamping In Stead. Teams ran past the unique dome shaped accommodations surrounded by forest to find a deathly difficult word math problem that needed a triple venn diagram to solve. From here they travelled to “Brain 2” at Stead Community Centre sponsored by Red River North Tourism where 10 letters to Santa were posted. Each letter was from a different child with different wishes. Teams had to memorize each child’s wishes and appear before Santa and his Elf who came down from the North Pole for the race. Santa asked the team to repeat one child’s wish. My favourite was Victoria who asked for a “new hamster” as one of her items, what happened to her last one? If they got it wrong, teams had to run back, look over the letters, and try again.
From here they travelled to Putters Dream our local 18-hole mini golf course, who sponsored “Viral Putt”. The challenge was to sink a hole in one and record a video of their accomplishment and the celebration.
Across the street the next challenge was “Jump On It” at and sponsored by The Birchwood Motor Hotel. Teams had to skip rope with everyone participating. There were two jumpers and two rope turners and they had to sing “Cinderella dressed in yellow went upstairs to kiss her fella…” keeping with Amazing Race challenges of course, each person had a specific line to recite. “Make a mistake…” no problem, start over.
Next, all teams converged at Island Beach sponsored by Village Green Bakery where 200 island names on sticks lined the area. Each team had to “Find Your Island” with a different island on each team’s clue card.
From here they were off to Grand Beach Provincial Park Campground Store who sponsored “Price is Right.”A chosen team member headed into the store to find and memorize the price of five items. Once the items were found they returned to their team where they had to convert the currency of each item and match each item to a foreign country's price on the picnic table. Thank you to Trainor Water who provided cold water for each racer to grab as they took off on foot to the Amphitheater.
At the Amphitheater they listened to “Charlie Chaplin’s Speech from The Last Great Dictator” and had to determine which quotes posted along the walls were correct. Congestion of teams added to the “What’s the Line” challenge sponsored by Grand Palms RV Resort! As more and more teams arrived it got harder to hear the speech and check the quotes. Each quote had a letter which then spelled the word “BENCH”.
Each of the 28 teams who showed up on race day had one vehicle. No speeding was allowed and the RCMP happily accepted the race route and timing to make sure.
Next the teams drove over to West Grand Beach and parked in parking lot 2 to find a set of four mannequins dressed in outfits from our four sponsors: Endless Summer, Hippie Trail Beach Co., Spirit Rock Cafe and Inn and Carol’s on Leon. The teams had to compete in our version of “Where’s Waldo” to find our models on the beach in the demonstrated outfit amongst the Saturday Beach crowd and sandcastle competition contestants. One team took nearly 2 hours to find the models who were happily lazing on the beach, reading a book, relaxing in the dunes, or strolling on the boardwalk. Each model gave them a ticket which they exchanged all four tickets for their next clue.
Arriving next at the Heritage Museum at Grand Marais Community Central the teams had to answer five questions in “Museum Master”, a flashback from Season 1 of the Amazing Beaches of 59 Race. The Museum is a great place to explore on not so great beach days.
Next was a sprint to four popular Grand Marais businesses who sponsored the race, Bacon Me Crazy, Pete’s Grand Putt, Sum Stuf, and the XTR. At each stop in the “Grand Marais Sprint” they received a piece of a emoji puzzle. Each emoji stood for a letter and the clue could be solved once they had all four pieces.
The clue took them next to Walter Whyte School field for the roadblock. Each team member had to do one challenge alone. The “Olympic Roadblock” challenges were golf, football, track and basketball sponsored by Grand Pines Golf Course, Freestyle Landscaping, Nicola Guttormson of RE/MAX Executives Realty, and Ateah Realty and Beaches Sugar Shack. The most difficult was track where the participants had to run around the track and memorize a poster of the dates and places each Summer Olympics had been held. The volunteer then asked them what city was the Olympics in 1912? Stockholm, Sweden was the answer. If they got it wrong, they had to run the track again and then they may be asked now 1976? Or 1996? After four tries the volunteer would give pity and ask them 2024? At each Olympic Roadblock they received a piece of a sunset puzzle, when put together, it gave them coordinates to the next spot in the race.
If the team missed the minus sign in the coordinates, they were sent to Russia. Eventually all teams arrived at the Traverse Bay Sand pits on highway #11 where the teams competed in the “Pit Stop” sponsored by ViBE Stay and Play. Matching counties in a mini–Amazing Race to the correct pit stop.
Next up was “Woodstock”, at and sponsored by Base Camp 59, the new RV Park next to the Birchwood. Each team had to locate a specific weight of wood from the pile and weigh it using a fish scale.
Lastly most of the teams made their way to the final challenge “Who Can Sink It?” sponsored by GB Electric and Kemp Appraisal Ltd. Teams had to get the pong balls into cups and determine from a list of challenge names which ones were not names of a challenge in the race. Of course, nothing is easy, and many teams got the two incorrect challenges wrong again and again. That happens when both “Woodstock” and “Wood Weigh In” were choices and “Museum Mayhem” was there and not “Museum Master”.
This final challenge at Charlie Wall Park in Hillside Beach was so difficult that the first team to arrive at it, The Krusty Crew and the second team to arrive Neon Navigators finished 3rd and 2nd respectively. Passing them by was the winning team RCMG – Pink and Blues who finished at 3:10 pm
The top six teams to finish received prizes:
1 RCMG – 3:10 pm
Prize: Stay and Play Packages (South Beach Casino), Duffle Bags (RM Alexander), Free Entry into Next Year’s Race (Beaches of 59)
2 Neon Navigators - Check time
Prize: Rounds of Golf (Grand Pines Golf Course), Camping Chairs (RM Alexander), $10 Gift Certificates to Beaches Sugar Shack (Ateah Realty)
3 The Krusty Crew - check photo
Prize: $50 Gift Cards (Endless Summer), Golf Umbrellas (RM St Clements), $10 Gift Certificates to Beaches Sugar Shack (Ateah Realty)
4 Le Gouter Dish Pit -check photo
Prize: $50 Gift Cards (Glamping in Stead), Mugs (Glamping in Stead)
5 Lester Beach Club - 3:47 pm
Prize: $25 Gift Cards (Hippie Trail Beach Co.), Blankets (RM St Clements)
6 The Dream Team - 3:51 pm
$20 Gift Cards (Village Green Bakery), Free Ice Cream (Moonlight Inn)
1 Disco Divas
Prize: Bucket Hats (Village Green Bakery), Refillable Insulated Drink Containers (RM Alexander)
2 The Krusty Crew
Prize: Rounds of Mini-Golf (Putters Dream), Bag of Popcorn (Beaches Sugar Shack & Ateah Realty)
3 Beach Babes
Prize: Large Wall Clocks (Carol’s on Leon), Bag of Popcorn (Beaches Sugar Shack & Ateah Realty)
Meanwhile the brawn teams were faced at “Brawn 1” with balancing a tennis ball on a board with each team member holding a different length string attached to the boards corner. The teams then had to travel down the field at Stony Point Community Club without dropping the tennis ball. If the ball fell, they had to start again. This frustrating but exciting challenge was sponsored by Ideal POS. If the ball fell off the board, they started over. “Brawn 2” was on the beautiful sandy Patricia Beach beside Sandy’s Chip Stand (the sponsor). What better place to have a potato toss where teams had to catch the potato with a towel.
Click on this link to see all the teams from the race.
At the finale Lise Bourassa Bar-B-Qued hot dogs and served chips, cookies, watermelon and cold drinks to our racers and volunteers thanks to our sponsors Saffies General Store, Hillside Beach Cottage Owner Association (HBCA), Old Dutch, and Dunn’s Bakery. Each racer received the new Annual Amazing Beaches of 59 t-shirt to be worn for years to come to celebrate their accomplishment in this challenging event.
Thank you to all our teams, volunteers, sponsors, prize donors, the RM of St Clements, RM of Alexander and Brokenhead Ojibway Nation, for supporting Beaches of 59! We are a non-profit tourism organization promoting sustainable and responsible tourism growth in the Eastern Beaches of Lake Winnipeg.
Photo Gallery of images from the event.