A head-on collision on the first day nearly derailed their quest, but a Weare father and son captured third place in a four-day endurance snowmobile ride across Labrador, Canada. Bill Boisvert, 62, and his son Bunk Boisvert, 40, finished Cain’s Quest Snowmobile Endurance race Thursday, March 14.

“It’s unlike anything I’ve ever done before. There aren’t any words to describe what the riding is like; my body is just destroyed,” Bunk said hours after he and his father crossed the finish line.

There were 29 teams competing for the $50,000 prize, traveling 2,000 kilometers -- more than 1,200 miles -- through deep snow, thick woods and snowdrifts. With no trails and only GPS to guide them, the teams raced day and night, stopping at checkpoints and two mandatory layovers.

The Boisverts, who run a local excavating business, almost didn’t finish this year’s race. Teams began leaving at 20-minute intervals Sunday morning. Five miles out and traveling at least 65 mph, Bunk Boisvert rounded a corner and collided head-on with a snowmobile that was not part of the race.

Bunk’s sled was totaled, and he spent three hours in the hospital, getting stitches for a cut on his eyelid. Bill Boisvert told his son he could fix the snowmobile if Bunk was up to continuing the race.

By the time the two got going again, they were seven hours behind their starting time and 12 hours behind the lead team. “I have no idea how we did it, I really don’t,” said Bunk. “I’m riding with my father, who’s 62 years old, and he’s one tough man. He just doesn’t give up.”

This was Bill Boisvert’s second year attempting the race. Last year, he and a friend tried, but mechanical problems forced them to drop out about a third of the way through.

Bunk learned to snowmobile from his father at age 3 and says he rides with his dad every chance he gets. Bill takes the winter off and snowmobiles. Still, nothing could prepare them for the frigid 40-below temperatures of Labrador.

“It’s the coldest weather I’ve ever been in,” said Bunk. They rode across mountains and flat lands and through woods where there was barely enough room for the snowmobiles to fit. They traveled along the edge of rivers and along snow bridges, which would give out as they drove across.

Four days later and with an average of about five hours’ sleep a night, father and son made it to the finish line with a huge crowd of well-wishers. Bunk says he’s tired, but his father’s already thinking about next year.

“He’s already asking me to come back,” Bunk said.