Can you imagine covering 3,000 kilometres in less than five days on a snowmobile? Robert Newton and Joey Lukan certainly can. Newton and Lukan are cousins from Saskatchewan and in March 2012, they competed in Labrador’s notorious Cain’s Quest Snowmobile Endurance Race.
Hailed as the longest race of its kind in the country, Cain’s Quest begins and ends in Labrador City, Newfoundland, and it attracts competitors from Canada and the U.S.
Newton first learned about Cain’s Quest from a snowmobile magazine and from that moment on he wanted to try it. He convinced Lukan to join him and together the boys saved up their money and bought new sleds for the race. They also received donations and support from the Prince Albert Snow Runners snowmobile club and Pines Power Sports Marine in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, as well as from the Esker Bear Trails Inc. snowmobile club in Smeaton, Saskatchewan.
Coming out as winners
A total of 35 teams competed in Cain’s Quest this year, but only 14 actually finished the race. Newton and Lukan were among them. They placed ninth and were very pleased with their accomplishment. Crossing the finish line was a highlight for Lukan.
“Our goal all along was never to win or place in the money. Our goal was to finish,” he said. “And a rookie team like us finishing is an amazing accomplishment as it is. Finishing for sure was the best moment; it completed the trip.”
After the race, the boys were chosen by their competitors to receive an award for their sportsmanlike conduct during the 2012 Cain’s Quest.
“We never rode past a team that needed help,” said Lukan. “If there was a team that was broke down along the trail, we always stopped and asked if there was anything that they needed—and some teams would take the offer and others would say, ‘We have everything under control, carry on.’ ”
Newton was impressed with the support they received from spectators of the race. As the boys rode through certain communities along the race route, Newton said the locals were often waiting for them and he said that they clapped and cheered the racers on as they passed through—even if it was four o’clock in the morning.
“It was pretty awesome to see them coming out,” said Newton.
The ups and downs
Newton said that the hardest part of the race was riding for such long periods of time. The first day of competition consisted of 19 hours of riding and the team rode straight through the night. The shortest day for them was 16 hours. During the race, the boys encountered different snow conditions than what they were used to, and this presented another challenge.
“It’s really sugary snow but it’s hard on top and once you bust through that crust, that is when you really get stuck,” said Newton. “If you can get your sled back on top of the crust, you’re good, but it will just sink and your back end is so heavy because you have all that gear. There was three to four feet of snow in different places around there and in the next breath we were in stuff where there was no snow and it was all rocks and were bouncing off rocks.”
A broken rear shock on one of their sleds presented another challenge for Newton and Lukan to finish the final leg of the race.
“The shock broke and so we borrowed a replacement one, but it was too long and we ended up breaking that one because it was bottoming out on the shock body and eventually the bottom part of the suspension let go because it was pounding out on the suspension,” said Newton. “That was a problem on the way back, because we could only do about 30 miles per hour on the lakes and stuff, so we were really slow coming back from Kuujjuaq.”
Savouring the experience
Newton and Lukan both agreed that they would like to compete in Cain’s Quest again if the opportunity presented itself.
“I’d love to do it again,” said Newton. “I don’t know if I ever will be able to, just for the fact of the cost of it, but I’d love to. It was the biggest adventure I’ve probably ever been on and it’s not only the snowmobile race.”
Newton and Lukan drove from Saskatchewan to Labrador City and instead of going back the same way they drove across Newfoundland and Labrador to St. John’s, crossed the Atlantic Ocean to New Brunswick and went home from there.
Newton said, “All in all, it was a really awesome trip.”
