1,000 Christian motorcyclists thunder into town

They roared into the Sault on Harleys, Gold Wings, Beemers, Yamahas and Suzukis. They've come from as far away as British Columbia, Florida and Texas. They pack Bibles in their tank bags. They have really bad helmut hair.

They roared into the Sault on Harleys, Gold Wings, Beemers, Yamahas and Suzukis.

They've come from as far away as British Columbia, Florida and Texas.

They pack Bibles in their tank bags. They have really bad helmut hair.

They're the Christian Motorcyclists and they took the city by storm on Thursday night.

The Christian Motorcyclists Association of Canada is holding its 10th anniversary national rally here this weekend.

1,000 showed up last night at an opening concert at Memorial Gardens featuring Christian recording artists John Starnes and Brenda Geneau.

We spot plates from 24 states and provinces

During a quick scan of the Memorial Gardens parking lot last night, we found bikes from five Canadian provinces and 19 U.S. states.

Here are the plates we spotted: Alberta, Arkansas, British Columbia, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Manitoba, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nova Scotia, Ontario, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Wisconsin.

Tent City at White Pines

Many of the visitors are camping in a Tent City set up at White Pines Collegiate.

In his instructions delivered at the close of last night's concert, Paul Miller, president of the Christian Motorcyclists Association of Canada, warned the White Pines campers to avoid leaving food outside their tents because of the City's bear problems.

Predictions

Miller told SooToday.com that it's too early to predict attendance for this weekend's event, but he feels it will be at least 1,500 to 1,800.

SooToday's parking-lot survey was far from being scientific, but we'd estimate the U.S. plates outnumbered Canadian plates by something like four to one, a ratio that Miller confirmed is probably not far from the truth.

To see our photo coverage of the Thursday night concert, please click on the links below:

CMA concert attracts 1,000 Country artist Brenda Geneau entertains CMA merchandise sells briskly Photo essay: The Art of the (Christian) Motorcycle

The bikers were really, really interested in why we were recording information from their licence plates

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