June cancels Winter Festival

The inaugural June Lake Winter Festival, including the Triple Threat Winter Triathlon, and the Snowmobile Rally were well-attended events in 2013. This year, however, the weather didn’t cooperate.

“The rain washed away all our snow,” said Sheila Thompson, events coordinator for the Chamber of Commerce.  “It’s just heartbreaking. We’ve had such a bad snow year and we were banking on these two events as our chance to really bring people into June Lake.”

Last winter, the June Lake Loop Chamber of Commerce hosted these events over two different winter weekends to boost tourism while June Mountain Ski Area was closed. The Winter Festival included a Family Fun Zone, snow sculpture contests and the Triple Threat Triathlon (snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and shooting.) The Snowmobile Rally included a community breakfast.

This year, the Winter Festival was scheduled in January but was moved to February 28th-March1st, the same weekend as the Snowmobile Rally, due to the lack of accumulated in snow in June Lake.

The previous storm brought in a few feet of snow, giving Thompson hope for the winter events. The rain that came with the weather this past weekend left only about an inch of slush, according to Thompson. “It’s such a disappointment,” she said.  “Instead of investing anymore time or money, the county’s money, I decided it was time to cut our losses.”

The June Chamber still plans on holding a community breakfast on Saturday March 1. “We want to try and get everyone together for a meal, as a community,” Thompson said.

“We’re hurting for certain in June Lake,” Thompson concluded.