CARTWRIGHT, N.L. — Two fishermen from Southern Labrador are ready for what could possibly be their fastest snowmobile ride to date.
Calling themselve The Mighty Haulers, the rookie team consists of 44-year-old Darryl Burdett of Cartwright and 54-year-old Rod Pye of Lodge Bay.
They loaded up their snowmobiles on Friday, Feb. 28, in Cartright to head for Labrador West for Cain’s Quest — one of the most extreme winter endurance races on the planet.
Each bought new Ski Doo 2020 850 Backcountry sleds.
“We both have snowmachines that we would not ordinarily have only for this race,” Pye said. “Darryl is a trapper for years, and I’m a Canadian Ranger and I do a lot of hunting, fishing and going on snowmobile in the off-season."
Both are commercial fishermen.
"I always say we work hard all summer, we play hard all winter.”
But their usual winter play includes hard-working snowmobiles going through deep snow and breaking trails.
We are woodsmen,” Pye said. “We are not in race mode. We are not used to going around on a snowmachine that can go 150-160 km/h.”
Speed is going to be his biggest challenge, he said.
“My partner … he’s 10 years younger than me so he’s probably more adapted to the speed than I am,” Pye said. “That’s probably going to be my biggest obstacle is the speed.”
They've done a fair bit of scouting in the back country to prepare for the race. Pye clocked close to 1,000 kms on his sled as of Friday and Burdett had 1,300 km.
"We’ve been on the go for the last month,” Pye said. “Both our machines now are pretty well broken in.”
While they are rookies to the race, they have plenty of sled experience.
“We’re not rookies to travelling on a snowmachine and we are not rookies to Labrador, we’re just rookies to the racing. Cain’s Quest is called an endurance race.
"I’m pretty sure that we should be able to hold up to the endurance part of it. It's just we are not sure how we are going to be able to compete with the speed that it seems like it has been with the last couple of races.
"But this year, with not so much snow and harder to get around, then maybe it’s going to be more of an endurance race this time than a speed race. Hopefully that’ll play in our favour.”
Pye, who has been a Candian Ranger for 25 years, has travelled the Labrador coast quite often and is familiar with parts of the Cain's Quest route.
However, some of the route is new to him, including a lot of the Lab West route, and the interior to the north.
Pye said he had considered signing up for Cain's Quest a few times in the past, but couldn't find anyone in his hometown to make up a team.
“Last spring when the time came (to register fo 2020) we … decided to pull the trigger and go for it to see where we fit in against the professional racers,” Pye said.
Since neither are big fundraisers, Pye said they were lucky to have a woman from Pye’s hometown offer to take care of the fundraising for them.
“No doubt it’s going to be an interesting couple of weeks,” Pye said.
For more information on Cain’s Quest, visit https://cainsquest.com.
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