Susie from the finish line in Dawson

Hi Danny and all,

The race was FANTASTIC! Hans said the Americans in Eagle loved Newton. They were so into having a Jamaican there as a dog musher! Of course Newton read the food board and asked for the Curried Chicken.

Newton gave lots of interviews on the trail, well lot's for up here on a dog race anyway, so I can tell you some of the things I heard him say to the people. First, he said he sings to the dogs to get them moving faster. They asked what he sings and he started singing a reggae song right there in the check point, dance moves and all. It was just great. He was there in his big parka with his dog team behind him. They asked if he could sing as he left the checkpoint but I don't know if he did or not.

Newton said that the race was very tough but enjoyable. He said the glaciation was the worst part, having the dogs skidding all over the place and his sled fish tailing downward toward the jumble ice, (which is brutal by the way - you have no idea. It's like four foot chunks of steel sticking out of the river at all angles.) But he said he made it and liked it.

Hans was debating whether to wait for Newton at that particular point because even in his opinion, it was really bad. Then he thought no, Newton's on his own and this will really test his skills and his ability to keep going. It was dark at the time as well by the way, making it just that much scarier and worse. Also, Newton lost the trail on the river at one point. That might sound like no big deal because after all, you are on a river. But this river is a km wide at points and that is not even the big deal at all. The problem is that at some places in the center or even close to shore, it is open water. You fall in that and you are dead. Next worse thing to the open water is the jumble ice as I described above. It can ruin the team, the sled, and the musher. You tend to bounce over the first two or three chunks then you smash into one.

There was very little rest. Newton ran a hundred miles straight, then spent 6 mandatory hours in Eagle, Alaska, during which time he had to feed the dogs twice, massage injured shoulders, take care of feet, put out straw etc. plus eat himself and then get the whole outfit set up to take off again which takes about 45 minutes if you really know what your doing, just on its own. As a result, Newton had about 2 hours to himself over 2 one-hundred mile runs. He said he slept about 1 h 45 minutes, then was up looking after the dogs again. Welcome to the Yukon Quest.

Anyway, Newton wasn't even tired when he got into Dawson. We think he's going to make it on the Quest.

Newton came into Dawson with Eastwood in the sled bag, that being his largest dog. Eastwood looked a little too comfortable in that sled bag! There were lots of good pictures.

John Stewart had a great run too, and most importantly they are both qualified for their 200 mile race for the Yukon Quest now. They came in far ahead of the required time limitation behind first place so they made it easily into qualifying. In fact, out of 16 mushers, Newton came in 7th, meaning he did very, very well especially for a FIRST serious race. Most would have rested a lot longer in Eagle, waited for daylight and so on, but he took off right on time.

That's all for now.

Take care all, it was a great race and there is a lot more to tell, lots of laughs and so on.

Susie