In 1992, after I moved to Dawson City from Faro, Yukon, I helped a friend of mine to videotape the Yukon Quest during the 36 hour layover here. Although I had lived in Yukon for several years, I had not seen large dog teams before. As I filmed the first dog team leaving the Dawson checkpoint, I stopped filming and looked at my friend Joe Magee and said "I want to do that." I had never been so sure of anything in my life that quickly before. I worked a six week contract as a geologist here in the Klondike, which turned into six months. I also met Ann Doyle, my partner on that contract. She was my boss. Then I worked a nine month contract in Africa and she came over to work. Now I was her boss! The whole time since that filming episode, I was saving my money so that I could come back to Dawson and get started with my dream. Ann and I came back to Dawson and we're still arguing over who's the boss! We got our first four dogs in the fall of 1994 from local musher Peter Dunbar and Marion Dejean. In the early spring, I started to train the four pups and they started to train me. Later that spring, we got a two year old bitch with six puppies from local musher and Iditarod and Yukon Quest legend, Larry "Cowboy Smith." We then bought three pups from four time Iditarod champion, Susan Butcher. Since then we have been breeding between those lines to come up with the kind of dog that we want.

Racing History The first race I ran was the Percy Dewolfe Memorial Race which is a 210 mile race from Dawson City, Yukon to Eagle, Alaska and back. The entire race is on the frozen Yukon River. I first ran this in 1997, less than two years after I started mushing. I got the red lantern award which is given to the last musher to finish. I have since run that race four times and have come in 7th place the last three times. My wife Ann has ran it in 2002 and 2003 and come in top ten both times.

The Yukon Quest is a 1000mile race from Whitehorse, Yukon to Fairbanks, Alaska, through some of the harshest terrain in the Yukon and Alaska. It is the same length as the Iditarod but has ten checkpoints, compared to the Iditarod's twenty seven, making it a more extreme race from the survival and dog care aspects. I first ran the Yukon Quest in 1999 just three years after I started mushing. I received the red lantern award and was thrilled to finish. (One third of entrants do not finish most years.) I finished in just under 15 days. In 2003 I ran my fourth Yukon Quest and finished 9th. It took me 12 days, 2 hours and 23 minutes. In 2004 I placed fourth in a time of 11 days, 17 hours and 51 minutes

I am signed up for the 2005 race and am hoping for a strong finish.