Haliburton Track

Haliburton Saturday~contributed by Ken Davis

Hello Danny....We both had good solid runs. Robb is 4th out of 18 in the 6-Dog Pro and I'm 4th out 22 in the 4-Dog Pro. Since the weather was so warm and raining on Thursday it is amazing that there is such a nice trial. Fast but very nice. It is a very hilly and curvy trail so both dog and driver need to be in their game. There has been quite a turn-out and all seem to be happy. Heard that Newton had a good start and is already doing well. The JDT is making its mark on both ends of Canada. Fantastic! Ken

Yukon Quest Update-contributed by Danny Melville

Guys,

The ‘meet the mushers’ event in Whitehorse saw hundreds of people lining up to have the mushers autograph their Quest posters. It was so cool to see Newton among some of the best in the world; he even signed a poster for me….. J

Photos show Newton signing and me chilling a bottle of wine for laterJ

See link below for a report in the Fairbanks Newsminer today…… several comments at the end…

Be sure to click on the photos to enlarge them and read the captions.

http://www.newsminer.com/news/2009/feb/12/jamaican-musher-prepares-yukon-quest/

Mush Mon
Danny

Kearney 4-Dog 3rd Place Trophy-contributed by Ken

Big Thanks from Kearney~contributed by Lisa Houliston, Kearney Dog Sled Committee

Hi guys,
First I would like to say Danny you have one heck of a team representing Jamaica. Ken and Robb are incrediable and the the town of Kearney welcomes them with open arms. I am sure there heads were swellling as the compliments about these two guys were constant all weekend!!!!
Thank You for putting Kearney on your schedule again!!! They are always welcome and I hope to see them next year!!!! Hey Danny maybe you could come too??????????? This little town may surprise you!!!
.........................................
Again thank you and I wish you all the very best in all your adventures.
Lisa
Kearney Dog Sled Committee

Let me know if it comes through.

Kearney Winterfest Feb 6-8, 2009 contributed by KEN!

Hello....We had another great racing weekend. There was a full crowd there both days. This is a race that the whole community and more comes out to support. We met people from all over Ontario that came just for the dog sled races and some just to see the JDT. Robb is a big attraction and a lot of people really want to spend time and take pictures of the 'Jamaican Musher'. Everybody loved the coffee and the Jamaican caps and bandannas...there are a lot of people coming to JA!!! In the 6-Dog Pro Robb and his team had some interesting runs. Saturday it was +9C and raining...not great conditions for racing sled dogs. Robb came in 5th the first day at 21:33:02, with a good chance to move up. Sunday the trail froze and the trail was dangerously fast. It is a very hard and technical trail to start with and this didn't make it better. Even though Robb 'crashed & burned' a couple of times he stayed with the team and had a blazing time of 18:06:99. He moved up to 4th place out of 14 teams. While he didn't get a trophy this time he did get $189.75...you get paid in the Pro class. We did get to take home a trophy though since I ran the 4-Dog Pro and finished 3rd out of 19...we had the 2nd fastest time on Sunday, 8 seconds from 1st, so the team seems to be running fast again. BTW one of Robb's wheel dogs, Vandal, got under the truck and ripped out a 2 foot section of the main electric lines for the whole truck. The guys from Kearney got the local mechanic to rewire all 40+ wires...in the rain, at +2C, at 8 PM. Wow what a town. Ken

Third place trophies for the marmora 4 dog and 6 dog pro.

Marmora Training

Robb training for the marmora sno-fest

Ice formation close by the training area

Marmora Cup-contributed by Ken

Ambassador Robb at the JDT truck with some kids who couldn't wait to take a picture of him.

Hello....sorry about the slow reporting but my email dilemma may be over forever now. We had a wonderful time at the Marmora Sno-Fest. The whole town was behind the event and there were quite a few spectators both days despite some very nasty weather. Robb and his teams were in racing mode and he came in 3rd in the 4-Dog Pro Saturday and held that position through Sunday with times of 13:23 Saturday and 14:45 Sunday, he missed being 2nd in total time by only 32 seconds! In the 6-Dog it was a different story. Both races have passing and head-on passing. Head-on passing takes very good leaders and a team and driver that are working as a unit. Robb had to pass and head-on pass numerous teams but one team had some trouble and Robb had 3 tangles on Saturday, having to hook down. He finished 5th for the day. Sunday he went out with a good attitude and the team had a very fast and solid run. The trail conditions had worsened on Sunday so every body's time was slower except Robb's. Saturday's was 21:02 and Sunday was 20:10. In the end he moved up to 3rd place. Fantastic. The team received 2 beautiful trophy's and money. I am very proud of Robb and his team as this race was his first head-on race and it is also a very technical trail. On Saturday evening the race had a spaghetti dinner where over 300 people turned out. At the end of the dinner there was supposed to be a panel discussion with some mushers including Robb and myself. It ended up be only Robb and me and we spoke and answered questions for about a 1/2 hour. Apparently it went well as a gentleman named Don McCoen, who has the Guinness World Record for the most dogs hooked to a sled (76), told both of us that he really enjoyed it and learned from us. We actually got a standing ovation afterwards. Wow. We like Marmora and will be back. Ken -- Ken Davis

Elfstone Kennel

Saginaw, MN USA

'Jamaica Dogsled Team'

A few pictures from IFFS 2009

Danny, Robb, and Ken all suited up to enjoy the cold weather and warm company!

Robb concentrating and mushing hard - and probably dreaming about a beach in Jamaica!

(Look at the snow on the dogs' faces!)

STOP in the name of insane amounts of snow!

Quotes from Newton and Hans after the Copper Basin

Newton:
"The people at the checkpoints were very, very nice. Sometimes on the trail I didn't know where I was going, I didn't know if I was still on the trail and it was very cold. But we find the trail again and get to the checkpoint. One man leave his house and let us take it over for a checkpoint. There was two bedroom upstairs and the downstairs for everybody to use. Everybody was very encouraging and it was a good race but it was hard. At the end people was laughin' a lot. Lance Mackey shake my hand a lot and ask me how many in my family mush. I tell him, "No one! They think I am a mad man!". People was real nice and it was cold but it was a very good race. I feel good that I did it." "The open water was the worst thing on the trail. I was really scared when I saw that. We had to go so close to it. It was cold, cold, and there was black water open in the ice running under the ice. Would we go too close and would the ice break? I had to not think and I had to get by it."

Hans:
"As usual with the Copper Basin it was the worst trail and the toughest conditions imaginable for a 300 mile race. There is nothing on the Quest trail that is worse than some of the things Newton saw in the Copper Basin. It was at least minus 40 at the start line. There were sections 10 miles long of deep sugar snow with no trail. Chad Lindner had to walk his dogs 20 miles into the finish line after they quit on him. He had camped 6 hours but they would not get started again. He had run out of food and people were giving him things, but finally he said it's time to go and he walked that team 20 miles to the finish line, holding the neck line of the leaders. It took him 17 hours to walk that 20 miles. That tells you about the trail." "Newton did a great job. To do a 300 mile run is one thing, but this 300 miles is something else. It is not flat, it is 300 miles of mountains, open water, deep snow at temperatures ranging down to minus 50. Normand Cassavant from Quebec, who has been running dogs for 20 years but this is his first race in the north, said this is the hardest thing he has ever done. Not just dog racing, but anything he has ever done. He just did not expect it. The Copper Basin is the toughest 300 mile race period, and this year was no different."

Newton has his qualifying races for the Quest-contributed by Susie

TUESDAY JANUARY 13, 2009

In case anyone has not yet already heard, Newton did make it to the finish line in 13th place. He now has his qualifiers to do the Yukon Quest. Susie

Brent Sass is now the competition for second-contributed by Susie

MONDAY JANUARY 12, 2009 1:39

Taking a closer look I see that Brent Sass left the checkpoint 5 minutes ahead of Hans, AND he's travelling faster than Hans as per their times from Chisto! Wow, this is going to be an exciting finish. Congrats to Brent if he pulls it off! However, Hans's dogs have just had a big snack and a 2 hour break. Brent is runnin' on empty and will have to stop somewhere unless he figures he can run 120 miles straight through (he hasn't stopped since Chisto). I place my bet on Hans. Still, good for Brent for making it exciting and who the heck knows, eh? Susie

Hans in Sourdough-contributed by Susie

MONDAY JANUARY 12, 2009 1:34PM

Hans is into the last checkpoint tied for second place with Sven Haltman. Hans is only one minute ahead of Sven. However, Hans is allowed to leave the checkpoint after 2 hours, Sven has to stay 3.5. It looks to me that Hans has no intention of chasing Lance down to the finish line. He has already been in the checkpoint for over two hours. He gained quite a bit against Lance's 47 minute trail lead, (reduced it to WHOOOPS!! This just in, they updated the site and Hans DID charge down the trail after Lance. He is 31 minutes behind Lance right now, made up 16 minutes in the last run/checkpoint. The chance of him making up another 31 minutes is very slim, but he's racing to win now! Yee haw! Susie

Can i swear yet? (2) contributed by Susie

MONDAY JANUARY 12, 2009 10:41PM

Josh Cadzow won the Quest 300 last year, absolutely blew away everybody else. When he finished, he was 17 hours ahead of second place, and had made up the 5 hours between the Quest 1000 and the 300 start and was ahead of every single Yukon Quest musher as well! In other words, my guess is that Josh scratched due to the fact that they forgot to put in the next 60 miles of trail. He does not see the point in risking his dogs. Tom Lesatz did what I was talking about with people who short their dogs too much on rest. He ran the first 120 miles with only 30 minutes of rest, tried to make it up by stopping 8 hours, (not nearly enough though he had probably already cooked his team anyway), and then went on to Paxon where he scratched. That's called, "Blowing up your team." Newton is doing the race plan he was given. The trail is a little slower than we expected but other wise he is right on time. Looking at that 14.5 hour supposed run to Paxson, I knew there was something dramatically wrong. I thought he had broken his sled or a dog had died, no kidding. There is just no way otherwise that it would have taken him so long, then when they said he came into the checkpoint one dog short... Susie

Can i swear yet? contributed by Susie

MONDAY JANUARY 12, 2009

Now they have Newton as having arrived in Paxon at 7:19 p.m. last night!! And they say he's already left for Sourdough??!! My god, this is every bit as bad as some of the 'updates' on the Quest and Iditarod. Waiting details... Susie

Monday Morning updates-contributed by Susie

MONDAY JANUARY 12, 2009 10:04AM

According to the latest update, it took Newton 14 1/2 hours to do what should have been a 9 hour run. That doesn't make any sense at all unless something went wrong. Danny pointed out to me on the phone that he came in within one minute of two other mushers. Often in these races, when people are struggling they band together at the back of the pack. I see that all the time with the Quest. The two mushers Newton was travelling with are Martin Jahr and Mark Sleightholme. Martin is from Switzerland but has lived in Haines Junction, Yukon for a couple of years now. He just had his 40th birthday and we were invited but didn't make the drive out there (2 hours away from here). Mark is from England and is leasing a team from Sebastian Schnuelle. His team is very slow. We passed them on a training run last month and talked with him when he finally got to Quiet Lake on the South Canol Road. That was back when we took 2 hour breaks in the middle of a 90 mile run. Now we run 90 miles straight through. Which brings me back to, what could have taken Newton so long to do a 60 mile run? My mind is on a hampster wheel on this one. I do not agree with calling the race headquarters except in real emergencies but I did try to call just to ask if they had any news. The line was busy. Hopefully John Firth who is up there with Hans and Newton will call one of us. I'm going to try his wife Dawn next! Take care all, Susie

Hans into Paxon

SUNDAY JANUARY 11, 2009 10:25PM

Hans is in the next checkpoint with the fastest travel time. However, he is 2:47 behind Lance. Lance has to rest 2 hours longer than Hans at the last checkpoint so Hans could make up some time there. That extra two hours will do Lance's team some good though and will still leave him 47 minutes ahead of Hans unless Hans really makes better time over the next 60 miles than Lance does. So far Lance has been faster in each leg except for the most recent run, and even then he was only 1 minute slower! So from here it looks like the race will go to Lance Mackey. Now everybody who is a contender for the top spots is stuck in Paxon taking their 8 hour layovers. Some slower teams stopped for 8 hours earlier so they will be free to leave sooner but I can't see that it will help them enough to put them back at the front. Hans and Newton being bibs 4 and 1, will have to wait longer before being allowed to leave. That puts a number of other people ahead of Hans as follows: Sven Haltman 29 minutes ahead leaving Paxon, but he has to stop 1.5 hours longer at Sourdough, the last checkpoint Brent Sass 3 minutes ahead leaving Paxon. Has to stop 30 minutes longer at Sourdough.Braxton Peterson 4 minutes ahead leaving Paxon. Has to stop 2 hours longer at Sourdough. So these three are people Hans could fairly easily get ahead of again, assuming he does not stay longer than 2.5 hours in Sourdough, the next checkpoint. The big problem is that there is still a 60 mile run to Sourdough, then a 59 mile run to the finish line. That's 119 miles, much farther than any of our training runs. I'm not sure Hans will risk his dogs by running them through with only 2.5 hours in Sourdough to rest. Hans may have hooped himself by resting those extra 2 hours on the trail earlier in the game. That's how the strategy of these races goes! We'll see who's works best. Newton should be in Paxon right about now if he is on schedule. Not sure when they will be updating next. Susie

Newton Chistochina right on time-contributed by Susie

SUNDAY JANUARY 11, 2009 3:53PM
Newton left Chistochina at 10:44 a.m. Alaska time after exactly 6 hours in the checkpoint. He is following his race plan precisely. 108 miles down, 192 miles to go. Susie

Hans out of Christo-contributed by Susie

SUNDAY JANUARY 11, 2009 3:12PM
Newton is posted as being still in the check point but I would imagine he's out or will be soon and it just hasn't been updated. Here is some race analysis so you can start to understand how the mid-distance races are run. This could be valuable for the people filming the race so you know what you are hearing and talking about come Quest time. Mid-distance is similar to long distance stratedgy, at least 'mid-distance' in the North which tends to be 200 to 400 mile races vs. in the south where mid-distance can be anything down to 30 miles. However, you can get away with less rest in a mid-distance race. In long distance, the people who cheat their dogs in rest do great for about 500 miles, then they start to crash. Many people have leap frogged past Hans by cutting rest. We'll see if this stratedgy holds up on the 72 mile run to Paxon. This is the hardest part of the trail plus the longest between checkpoints. Generally you want to rest as many minutes/hours as you run. Lance has so far cheated his dogs 2 hours and forty minutes with time on the trail of only 10:40, so that's a pretty big percentage 'cheat'. Hans has 1 hour and 10 minutes owing to his dogs, so he has also been cutting rest. His dogs have two hours more rest on them than Lance's do though, so we'll see if that means something good for Hans's team in this 72 mile run. Lance's team is not suffering so far from being shorted on rest, and his time on the trail is a full half hour less than Hans. Hans had planned to rest 6 hours in Chisto and cut it short to 5, so he's decided to race. If he didn't care about his standing, he'd have stayed another hour. Newton will stay the 6 hours as per the race plan. Maybe longer if he feels it's best for him or the dogs. There are lots of other mushers ripping their dogs off on rest so it should be really interesting to see what happens in Paxon in about 8 hours! Susie

Newton in Christo-Contributed by Susie

SATURDAY JANUARY 11, 2009 12:27PM

Newton is in Chistochina checkpoint. His pace was just over 10 mph which is very good. What I read from that is that the dogs are doing very well and the weather has warmed up. Hans had the second fastest pace from GA to Chisto, Lance was a half mile an hour faster. Hans rested in GA an hour longer than Lance, but they all have to put in at least 20 hours in checkpoints so he used up some of that time like they will all have to. Hans said he would run the first 100 miles easy and see where that puts him. he thought the weather was going to improve so the people who preserved their teams to do faster runs in the second half would benefit from that. He said he would also keep an eye on what Newton is doing and if Newton looked good half way, he would feel okay about taking off if it looked like he could win. Nevertheless, Mackey knows what he's doing and obviously has a very strong team again this year. I've never seen him 'blow up his team' as many do when they take off fast at the start. Lance has this race in the bag already unless something dramatic happens. He's far enough ahead that he has a safe lead on all of them. Allen Moore specializes in these shorter races and beat Hans by 2 minutes in the Sheep Mountain 150. Allen does not run the thousand mile races and trains his dogs to go a little faster. He's another one Hans will have a hard time catching. I suspect Brent Sass is overdoing it and will crash. We'll see. He is very ambitious, has made statements that he intends to WIN the Quest and the Iditarod. You have to start with the intention, but I wouldn't think he has the team to back that up. Nevertheless, so far he is doing great. There are just so many good teams within reach of Hans that I will stop commenting there. They are so close together that really the first 12 teams are all in contention. Newton is the 15th team in, and started first so he is probably in about 17th place. But his run time was very fast and he rested at least an hour longer in the last checkpoint than all the others except for Allen Moore and Hans. He's not up front but he's doing great. Newton still has all 12 dogs, Hans dropped a dog in GA. Newton's team has been very injury free this year. Hans has Two dogs with leg gators on due to the fur on their legs being rubbed off by cold snow in a recent training run. They are susceptible to frost bite. Another dog has a cut in his ear that requires him to wear a head band. These are articles that need to be adjusted on a regular basis and it would not surprise me if Hans just dropped the dog with the head band. They slip off every hour or so and you have to stop the whole team... Things are looking good. Susie

A lot slower than expected-contributed by Susie

SATURDAY JANUARY 10, 2009 10:30PM
I just checked the race plan and they are all moving a lot slower than expected. We thought Newton would be in Glen Allen in 5 hours. Lance took 5:45 and Hans took 6:03, Newton is at 6:54. At extremely cold temperatures the snow is like sand paper. That slows things down. Also they try to keep the teams slow to avoid frost bite. So you can adjust the finish time already from 5 p.m. Monday to 7 p.m. Monday, and it will probably go a lot later than that as they lose time throughout the weekend against the race plan. Susie

Newyon Update at the CB300-Contributed by Susie

SATURDAY JANUARY 10, 2009 8PM
It's 8 p.m. Yukon time. Newton is into Glen Allen, the second check point and is holding his own in the middle of the pack. Hans has left him behind and is closer to the front. Another musher scratched so the field is down to 21 from 35 sign ups, and 32 registered (ie, 32 showed up to start the race). Eight mushers are still on the trail from Tolsona, on their way to Glen Allen, and nobody has left the Glen Allen checkpoint there. The temperature is -24 F, which is pretty good. About -32 C. Susie

Newton and Hans at the CB 300-contributed by Susie

SATURDAY JANUARY 10, 2009 5:20PM
Hans and Newton are in Glen Allen eating dinner right now, the night before the Copper Basin 300. It's -48F there. The musher meeting was this afternoon and guess who drew bib #1? ... Newton! He pulled the number out of the hat at the front of the room, looked at it and said, "Oh shit." Before he even said what number he pulled the whole room was laughing, including him. Hans said it was really funny. Anyway, obviously they are hoping for better weather tommorrow. It's kind of bad when you are HOPING for nothing colder than 40 below. Hans has his brand new Northern Outfitter clothes on, he was hand sewing the ruff on the night before he left. (Yes, I offered but was not allowed to touch it!) Hans and Newton are talking with Sebastian Schnuelle, Lance Mackey and a bunch of other hard core mushers about the race. There are 35 sign ups and almost all are very accomplished and experienced mushers. Hans said people are interested in Newton because he's a relative newcomer, but mainly because he is a Jamaican in "interior" Alaska, in January, at minus 48, ready to run what is arguably the toughest 300 mile dog sled race in the world. (NOBODY in their right mind goes to interior Alaska in January! They don't call it, 'The interior of' Alaska, it's just 'interior Alaska' or 'the interior', and the direct translation is: COLD!) I could hear lots of voices in the background while I was talking to Newton and Hans. Lots of buzz. I told Newton not to go out there and kill himself. If it gets too bad, tell somebody. Newton said, "I'm going to finish this race.", and sounded very serious and calm about it. Hans got back on the phone and was laughing saying he can't wait to see Newton take off across the lake tommorrow in the ice fog at -40, first guy out, nobody to follow. He says he can't wait to see the look on Newton's face. Nice guy, eh? Hans is bib 4, only 8 minutes behind Newton by the way. That's it for now, Susie

Heading for the Copper Basin

Newton poses by the JDT truck as he gets ready for the BIG race. Who would have thought his teeth and eyelashes would ever have the same colour?
Good Luck Newton!