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Good Evening Everyone,
As most everyone knows in Newfoundland and certainly Labrador, Cain's Quest 2012 got underway yesterday.
For those of you who live in the West (and by West I mean anyone who lives West of Labrador City!), you may not be aware of Cain's Quest. The web site is for this years Race is:
http://cainsquest.com/
This race is in its fifth year, and this year there are 4 Canadian Rangers participating as Racers, the most ever.
This Race is the longest in Canada and easily the toughest in the world (there is a longer race in Alaska, but it is mostly on groomed trails, a signed route with a mandatory daily rest period). Cain's Quest is 3000 kms long through barren and rugged terrain in central, eastern, northern Labrador and Quebec, with only three stops. Some of the course is on groomed trails (about 15%), the rest is rugged back country terrain that the race teams have to navigate through on their own, by day and night. The winner will do it in about 5 days and it is an absolute bag drive! Yesterday was 18 - 20 hours on the trace for most Teams. They are now moving Goose Bay to Nain, and that leg will stretch to 24 hours plus for most. I've ridden about 400 kms of the overland trail and it was very tough going. (see attached photo taken in February)
This race has a surprising large CF support team. A number of the organizers along the route are Canadian Rangers. Rangers from the Lab City CR Ptl conducted all the safety/equipment checks on all participants machines and also conducted the race start point. (see photo) Along the route the Cdn Rangers of 5 CRPG and 2 CRPG have well over 100 volunteer CRs on the trail who will spend the next few days staffing checkpoints, marshelling areas, fuel caches, emergency responder teams and stand by GSAR teams in case anyone strays too far off route. (See photos ) [/img]
As mentioned above there are 4 Cdn Rangers racing. They are:
CR John Lucy (CQ Team 26) from the Hopedale CR Ptl;
CR Craig Acreman (CQ Team 33) from the Goose Bay CR Ptl;
CR Simeonie Berthe (CQ Team 38) from the Kuujjuaq CR Ptl; and
Sgt Coreen Paul (CQ Team 39) from the Labrador City CR Ptl. Sgt Paul has just been appointed as their Patrol Commander and is also the first female participant in the Race's history. What a way to set the example, leading from the front!
The Race website has a good tracking page, so you can track all the participants by their Team number as they travel in real time (locations sent every 30 minutes by SPOT). At the time I posted this, all four Rangers were between Goose Bay and Makkovik, and their local time was 2100 hrs. It was -15C, snowing and winds gusting to 60 kph and they had at least a 20 hour ride ahead of them! That is a tough snowmobile jaunt!
The site also has a FB page to offer encouragement. Our four Rangers won't have any time to check FB while on the trail, but it would give each of them a bit of a pump post-race to know others in the CF were sending them encouragement.
The Prize Purse for the Race isn't huge, the winner will likely break even for costs. This Race is about pride, bragging rights and that good old Canadian winter spirit. Check it out and for those of you in southern Ontario experiencing golfing weather lately, it will provide a good reminder that some parts of Canada still manage to get winter!
Cheers!
Greybeard.
As most everyone knows in Newfoundland and certainly Labrador, Cain's Quest 2012 got underway yesterday.
For those of you who live in the West (and by West I mean anyone who lives West of Labrador City!), you may not be aware of Cain's Quest. The web site is for this years Race is:
http://cainsquest.com/
This race is in its fifth year, and this year there are 4 Canadian Rangers participating as Racers, the most ever.
This Race is the longest in Canada and easily the toughest in the world (there is a longer race in Alaska, but it is mostly on groomed trails, a signed route with a mandatory daily rest period). Cain's Quest is 3000 kms long through barren and rugged terrain in central, eastern, northern Labrador and Quebec, with only three stops. Some of the course is on groomed trails (about 15%), the rest is rugged back country terrain that the race teams have to navigate through on their own, by day and night. The winner will do it in about 5 days and it is an absolute bag drive! Yesterday was 18 - 20 hours on the trace for most Teams. They are now moving Goose Bay to Nain, and that leg will stretch to 24 hours plus for most. I've ridden about 400 kms of the overland trail and it was very tough going. (see attached photo taken in February)
This race has a surprising large CF support team. A number of the organizers along the route are Canadian Rangers. Rangers from the Lab City CR Ptl conducted all the safety/equipment checks on all participants machines and also conducted the race start point. (see photo) Along the route the Cdn Rangers of 5 CRPG and 2 CRPG have well over 100 volunteer CRs on the trail who will spend the next few days staffing checkpoints, marshelling areas, fuel caches, emergency responder teams and stand by GSAR teams in case anyone strays too far off route. (See photos ) [/img]
As mentioned above there are 4 Cdn Rangers racing. They are:
CR John Lucy (CQ Team 26) from the Hopedale CR Ptl;
CR Craig Acreman (CQ Team 33) from the Goose Bay CR Ptl;
CR Simeonie Berthe (CQ Team 38) from the Kuujjuaq CR Ptl; and
Sgt Coreen Paul (CQ Team 39) from the Labrador City CR Ptl. Sgt Paul has just been appointed as their Patrol Commander and is also the first female participant in the Race's history. What a way to set the example, leading from the front!
The Race website has a good tracking page, so you can track all the participants by their Team number as they travel in real time (locations sent every 30 minutes by SPOT). At the time I posted this, all four Rangers were between Goose Bay and Makkovik, and their local time was 2100 hrs. It was -15C, snowing and winds gusting to 60 kph and they had at least a 20 hour ride ahead of them! That is a tough snowmobile jaunt!
The site also has a FB page to offer encouragement. Our four Rangers won't have any time to check FB while on the trail, but it would give each of them a bit of a pump post-race to know others in the CF were sending them encouragement.
The Prize Purse for the Race isn't huge, the winner will likely break even for costs. This Race is about pride, bragging rights and that good old Canadian winter spirit. Check it out and for those of you in southern Ontario experiencing golfing weather lately, it will provide a good reminder that some parts of Canada still manage to get winter!
Cheers!
Greybeard.
