The Growling Beaver Brevet

LOCATION Collingwood, Ont. DISTANCES 40, 100 or 200 km DATE Sept. 30 growlingbeaver.com

Garnet Pratt Siddall, president and ceo of the Side Launch Brewing Company, and her husband Evan Siddall are key players in the creation of the Growling Beaver Brevet, a charity ride that supports the Davis Phinney Foundation and the Parkingo Wellness Society. In 2015, Evan was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. A few months later, the couple, with the help of others, had an event featuring many kilometres on asphalt and gravel roads. “We had talked about organizing a gravel ride, loosely,” Pratt Siddall said. “When Evan got his diagnosis, the whole thing gelled really quickly.”

The first two editions of the Growling Beaver have been successes. “We worked really hard to make sure the experience of the day was fun, enjoyable and in concert with the whole concept of ‘living well today,’ which is the tagline of the Davis Phinney Foundation and part of its ethos of helping people with Parkinson’s,” Pratt Siddall said.

The Side Launch brewery in Collingwood, Ont., is the home base for the Growling Beaver. Registration is held there the night before the event and the morning of. All the 40-, 100- and 200-km routes start and finish there. And, the after-party is, appropriately, held in the facility.— Cherylmadliger