Bill and Doug's Alcan 5000

Dawson Creek to Jasper, and then Home

2008-03-02T10:06:00.001-08:00

We spent the night at the George Dawson Inn in Dawson Creek. Doug's face was really starting to feel itchy and he wanted to shave, so he had me preserve his mountain man looks for posterity.

The next day we headed east. We were definitely back in civilization: lots of cars, trucks and radio stations to be found. I had no idea that the oil industry was so big in Alberta. There were wide loads constantly moving up and down the highways there, every one with one-ton pickups as lead and trail cars.

We all stopped in Grand Cache for the start of the Alcan's last TSD section. There is a great visitor information center there.

After a tricky (12 speed changes, including a 4 mph one!) TSD, we started our final transit into Jasper National Park. The park is beautiful, and reminds me in many ways of Yellowstone.

At one point, a trucker was not satisfied with our 10 over the limit speed and passed four of us in a row!

We arrived at the Jasper Inn about 3 in the afternoon, and after some souvenir shopping, retired to the Inn's hot-tub, (hot!) and then the steam room, (even hotter!) After an impromptu champagne spray, courtesy of the Sirius Rally Team, we all headed to the awards banquet.

As a precautionary measure, the organizers had arranged a no-host, cash bar for our celebratory needs. Dinner was included with the entry fee, and was one of the nicer meals we had along the way, I especially dug the salmon!

Team D handed out some special awards to various teams, including one to Doug and I for pulling one of there comrades out of a snow bank. We are now the proud owners of a dash-to hula girl, and two "Team D" stickers.

After the banquet, we stayed up until midnight swapping .jpg and .avi files, which made the morning seem earlier than normal when it came. Doug had filled up the night before, so after planting some carrots and oranges on one of the Mitsu vehicles to aid them in crossing the border, we were on the road.

Doug drove us to Kamloops, and I took us across the border to Sumas, where we got (relatively,) cheap diesel. I drove us through Seattle, and thank god for HOV lanes. Doug took over south of Tacoma and brought us home.

750 miles, 13 hours, including 1 fuel and 2 food stops. I don't want to do that every day. But it got us home in time to read to our kids before bed!

Thank you all for your support and encouragement. I really appreciate it. It was nice to wake up in the morning to all of your nice comments!

I especially want to thank Kricket and Joy for letting us go, and Frank and Delphine for the mode of transport! We were probably the most comfortable competitors on the Alcan. Thank you Dad, Aunt Kelly and Uncle Bob, Papa Art and Clare, and Mom and Peter! Thank you Abby for the "I love you so much Daddy!" when I got home.

I'll leave you with a couple pictures, compliments of the Sirius Rally Team, that I really liked, but didn't post up earlier.

Some Subaru owner, who shall remain nameless (though we have him on video!) modified our "Subaru Recovery Vehicle" sticker.

Doug and I parked above the frozen MacKenzie

-Bill

Results

2008-02-27T11:13:00.000-08:00

We're on our way home now... About 150 miles north of Seattle.

We finished 2nd in our class, and 12th overall out of 24 entries.

Looking forward to being home!

Doug

Beers

2008-02-26T20:49:00.001-08:00

It may be a little while before updates. We enjoyed the hot tub and needed a beer to cool off. At the finish banquet now.

Doug

Finish

2008-02-26T15:51:00.001-08:00

We have reached the finish in Jasper!! It has been an incredible trip. More later.

Doug

Liard Hotsprings to Dawson Creek

2008-02-25T21:53:00.000-08:00

When I signed on for this adventure, I didn't think that I'd end up sleeping in a for-real log cabin. Overall, it wasn't so bad. The worst part was smacking my head on the loft beam a few times. I finished loading up the truck while Doug went to order us some food in the Lodge.

After a quick breakfast we got out on the road headed east: Destination, Ft. Nelson, 190 miles away. When we passed by Muncho Lake, it seemed very familiar to me, and it took me a few miles to figure out why: Dad and I got stopped there for some road construction for the better part of an hour in August of 2000.

While on the drive, some eagle-eyed, (or should I say wolf-eyed,) Alcan competitor spotted a wolf walking along the frozen river, some ways off. About five cars, ours included, pulled off to look. Doug had a pair of binoculars, which was nice! I've never seen a wolf in the wild before.

We arrived in Ft. Nelson about an hour and a half before our TSD, and were able to get diesel at the pump, and a root beer float at the A & W. Stevan and Kristin found an open wireless connection that allowed Doug to get a quick blog off, and allow us to get some Doo Wops updates off of Special Stage.

Our TSD went pretty well. We were a little rushed at the start, but only picked up 14 points on the whole leg.

From Ft. Nelson to Dawson Creek, traffic got heavier and heavier. Many, many wide-loads of oilfield equipment moving up and down the highway. Just east of Dawson Creek, we had our 2nd to last TSD of the event. We're starting to get this down, only 6 points over 4 controls, giving us 20 points for the day. I think we've fallen to 12th place over all, and hopefully we'll hang on to finish in the top half.

We drove the last 15 or so miles into town with a RCMP following us. We were obeying the speed limit, but it is always unnerving to have a cop follow you. We reached the start of the Alaska Highway, and Keltie, from the Dawson Creek Visitor's Center took our picture, and gave us congratulatory letter from the mayor and an Alaska Highway pin.

Tomorrow: The last TSD, and Jasper, AB.

P.S.

2008-02-25T11:52:00.000-08:00

Last night, we stayed in Liard River Lodge. When we walked in, all of the receipts for all Alcaners were on the desk. I noticed that they all cost $140 per night... except for ours which was $81. I thought something seemed funny- especially when the girl at the desk had to ask someone else where the "P.S. Cabin" was?? That's funny... everyone else was staying in this nice lodge, like with shower and bathrooms and stuff.

We learned later that P.S. may stand for "Picatosica Succumbo".... latin for "No Plumbing". Yeah, we were in some backwoods cabin with a wood stove and plywood floor. More later.

Can anyone else figure out what P.S. might have stood for?

Photo: I liked this bumper sticker.

Photo: Inside of the P.S. cabin.

Photo: Liard hot spring. Bill, two "Team Bubba" guys, and Jeff Zurschmeide

Dan's Internet

2008-02-25T11:49:00.000-08:00

24 Feb Blog - I wrote this last night on the way to Liard Hot Springs, but we never found internet. Now, I'm sitting next to some guy's house in Fort Nelson, BC to send this before the next TSD.

Day's summary
Today started with a TSD. The Long Lake TSD was actually a repeat from the last time we were in Whitehorse. We should have had it nailed, but something weird was going on either with our ODO or the stopwatch. We never did diagnose what it was. BIll would say "You're 8 second late", so I'd floor it for a few seconds to keep up. .2 miles later he'd say "You're 11 seconds early"... I'd stand on the brakes and .2 miles later, he'd tell me I was late again. My response each time "Impossible!!" No way were we getting that far off in such a short distance. So, something was goofy. We'll wait for the scores to see how badly we did. It was cold this morning, around -4F, so my theory is that our cheapy stopwatches weren't working very well due to the cold.

The Ice Race was also on the same course as last time on Schwatka lake. I ran the first two runs- the hope was that the ice would be in better shape for the first two runs and I could turn in a more competitive time. Bill also ran one run and then decided we'd rather head back to the hotel than make another run on the deteriorating (traction-wise) ice. It was still a blast! I took some video and caught two cars with "interesting" lines through the finish. See videos. We haven't seen any times for the ice race so we have no idea how we did.

Photo: Bill's feet on the ice course. Looks like it's cracking!

As I write this, we're transiting about 400 miles to Liard River Hot Springs, where we will stay for the night. We're hoping to arrive early enough to spend a little time in the actual hot springs. We're also hoping to have internet access. You'll be the first to know if we do.

Photo: Sign forest we past on the way. This place had thousands of signs!
Chicanery

Last night, BIll caught Stevan Arychuk redhanded as he defaced our "Subaru Recovery Vehicle" decal, making it look like "Subary Wannabe Vehicle". Ha! In response, both Arychuk's and the Team Sirius WRX found a string of Kokannee cans tied to their cars in the morning (though not before driving for a while with them attached!). Yes, we've degenerated to high school pranks. Don't worry. There's an 11pm reading of "War and Peace" later tonight after the math quiz bowl to brighten things up a bit. We've also been playing "Guess the element" over the radio for hours. Did you know that the symbol for Tungsten is "W"? Which seems like a good time to mention that Bill actually said "I sure would like a periodic table of the elements for my wall!". Really. I couldn't make something like that up. So, add it to your shopping list for next year.

Heading to Liard River Hot Springs

2008-02-24T11:28:00.000-08:00

The TSD and ice racing are over for the day and we're getting ready to transit to the next hotel, about 400 miles away.

It's 5 degrees F. The ice race was fun, but it was slipperier than last time. Still fun and we got some good photos and video to share later.

Photo: Bill's beard shows how cold it was this morning.

More later.

Doug

Transiting back to Whitehorse - Day 8!

2008-02-23T23:37:00.000-08:00

Today, we made the 530 mile transit from Eagle Plains to Whitehorse. This drive included about 250 miles on the Dempster "Highway" and another 250+ miles on Hwy 2. The Dempster is really just a gravel road just barely wide enough for two vehicles in most places. Right now, there's enough ice and snow to make it "exciting" as Bill likes to say. Hwy 2 is pretty much paved, but I use "paved" loosely- especially compared to I-5 or something. And it's still just two lanes.

We did the Dempster in 4-wheel drive and then switch to 2-wheel drive to save gas on Hwy 2. We noticed that using 4-wheel drive reduces gas mileage by 1-2 MPG.

In general, the drive was beautiful through the tundra, although there were also some long stretches of road that had been victim to recent forest fires, too. We did see our coldest temps yet on this transit- -13F!! But it warmed up to around 0F before we had to get out of the truck for anything.

In Whitehorse, we're staying in the same hotel - The Yukon Inn - that we stayed in a few days ago. When we arrived, Bill snapped a shot of this dogsled team truck. The sleds are on top and there are dogs in the kennels. Pretty cool!

In honor of seeing the dogs (and because I was thirsty), I drank this beer.

So, we've been having a lot of fun but now it's time for the serious stuff. This is a competition after all! There are three cars in our class, which is a class for SUV's with some advanced calculation equipment but no fancy real rally computer. In our case, we simply use a laptop to do our Time-Speed-Distance math. In our class, we are currently in second place. First place, Josh and Evans Keatley (in a Subaru Forester), have 125 points. We have 168 points, and the Alkemas in a Chevy pickup have 435 points. Remember, lower is better. So, we are in striking distance of 1st place in our class! The bad news? The Keatley's have years of experience in TSD rallies and are unlikely to make any major errors. We will do our best to overtake them, though! They may be the one team that we would not stop to help on stage! (Just kidding about that last part!).

Overall, we are in 11th place out of 24 entrants. We hope to break into the top 10. It will be difficult, though- There are some great competitors here.

The group running the Alcan is really fun loving! There has been some chicanery in the parking lot tonight. Maybe some photos will surface of this tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Tomorrow, we start the day with a 8 mile TSD, and the some more Ice Racing. Whoo hoo! After the competitive stuff, we head to Liard River Hot Springs for the night. Liard is about 400 miles from Whitehorse and there are some Hot Springs that we plan to go enjoy.

So far, we have not seen one drop of precipitation. The temperature has only dropped below zero once (today), and roads and skies have been clear. Crazy. Definitely not what we were expecting. Tomorrow's forecast includes some snow. So we will see how that goes. Actually, we're looking forward to a little falling snow!

Highlighting (or lowlighting?) the warm weather, don't miss the Primitive blog page from yesterday: Click here

Hopefully, we will have internet tomorrow, but we're not sure yet.

Thanks for all of your comments and encouragement (even yours, Becker!)

Doug

ps for Becker: I haven't noticed any Ice Worms yet, but you would have gotten a real kick out of the three locals who visited with us last night. Crazy guys!! They claimed that they could fit 30 Caribou into their pickup truck. They asked if I knew you. You have some reputation up here as a Caribou lover!

Up to Tuktoyaktuk and back to Eagle Plains

2008-02-23T18:13:00.000-08:00

After our Thursday night video capturing/blogging geek-out, we started out Friday morning by leaving the hotel, and driving down to the boat ramp and onto the frozen MacKenzie, north to Tuktoyaktuk. The first 40 or so miles of the ice road north of Inuvik are very smooth and wide, in some places I'd estimate at least eight lanes wide.

With the sun coming up so late, you can see the moon quite well at 8 a.m.

Wide and smooth.

The second half of the ice road is narrower, bumpier, and can catch you out if you are careless or unlucky. At the mouth of the MacKenzie, the ice road turns east, onto the saltwater, and continues to Tuktoyaktuk. Stevan and Kristin we're about 5 miles ahead of us when they called back reporting a right rear flatted tire. Stevan had come around a corner, saw the pothole, (big!) and managed to avoid the worst of it, hitting only the rear wheel. That was enough though: The wheel hit edge of the ice hard enough to bend the rim, gashing open the sidewall of the tire.

We were on the scene within a few minutes, and rather than unstrap his roof spare, and dig out his jack, Stevan used ours, and I fished out the spare tire we were carrying for him. We were back on the road in about 10 minutes, this time with our Dodge in the lead, calling out the rough spots.

The Car 14 team of Perret/Hansen was not so lucky. In the same section their Impreza suffered damage to both front and rear struts on the right side, in addtion to holing one of their right side tires.

We arrived at the monument at the end of the road, and checked in with the time control. I walked around the town for a little bit, but it was cold enough that frost was forminig on my moustache.

We stopped by the general store before we headed back south for some hot chocolate. When I say "general store," I mean they sell everything: furniture, food, diapers, bras, flat screen tvs, etc. We saw the same phenomenon at the North Market in Inuvik, with the notable additions of Pizza Hut, KFC, and Polaris snowmachines all in the department store.

Weight limit on the ice road. That's amost 70,000 pounds.

Hot cocoa in hand, we headed back to Inuvik.

It was a good thing that we left when we did, as a hell of a fog had come in, and chased us over 45 miles of the 109 back to Inuvik.

We stopped to switch drivers at one point and noticed that the fog had left a 1/4 of ice on every leading edge of the truck.

About 40 miles outside of Inuvik, the weather was again beautiful and clear. We were able to pull up alongside Stevan and Kristin on the wide section and shoot some neat photos:

The Team D Saab entered a tighter right hander just a little too quickly and ended up in a snowbank. A local good samaritan gave them a tug out, and they were soon on their way.

After some quick souvenier shopping and some pizza, we loaded back up in the Dodge and headed South for Eagle Plains.

Leaving the Northwest Territories.

Doug had picked up sandwich fixings in Inuvik, so we were not able to sample the $25/plate buffet in the dining room. We did partake in a few Eagle Claws and rounds of pool in the bar. After retiring to our room with Team Sirius to polish off the last of our Kokanees, a few local fellows came in to hang out. As it turns out, they were hunters from Ft. MacPherson, on their way south of Engineer Creek to find some caribou. One of the hunters described the oldest of the three as having "caribou eyes," which I took as having the knack for finding them.

Next: Back to Whitehorse.

Arctic Birthday

2008-02-21T23:55:00.000-08:00

Feb 21st was my birthday.

My fellow Alcan-ers made it really memorable!!

This morning, I awoke to find the truck totally decorated with shaving cream, inflated rubber gloves, shaving cream, zip ties, straws, and toilet paper. Apparently, a crew of 10+ worked for over an hour late at night to give me a proper happy birthday. The truck was right in front of our room and neither Bill nor I heard a thing. Fun stuff! Be sure to check out Matt Tabor's documentation of the feat here: Tabor's Blog

At breakfast, a group of 20 or so sang happy birthday to me.

And then at dinner, Team Sirius -Jen, Gord, August, Josh and Evans along with Stevan and Kristin presented me with a couple of hand-made birthday cards that were signed by dozens (if not all) Alcan competitors.

Huge thank you to everyone for all of the nice birthday wishes (also from you blog commenters!!). You are all awesome!

Inuvik

2008-02-21T23:00:00.000-08:00

We rolled out of Dawson around 0800 and headed for "The Corner," where we filled up. One nice thing about being the only diesel on the event: not a lot of wating at the pumps.

After topping off, our caravan of four, (our truck, two WRXs and a Forester,) headed North toward Eagle Plains, 256 miles away. I hear they're changing the name of that gas station to "We've got you over a barrel gas."

The Dempster is a beautiful road, and we had great weather for our drive: Highs of 39, lows of 11. When out of the car, we only needed jackets when the wind was blowing. Apparently, it was -40 or so a week ago.

Here's a picture of our main competition, the Keatleys, and Olgivie Ridge.

Cars lined up at Eagle Plains, the halfway point between Dawson and Inuvik.

Some miles north of the Eagle Plains, we crossed the Arctic Circle and stopped for the photo moment.

Getting closer to Inuvik.

We're staying at the Capital Suites in Inuvik, and apart from being like an oven in the hallways, the hotel is really nice. I was able to clean all of our clothes in the hotel's laundry room. While I was doing laundry, I ran into a fellow Oregonian who is up in Inuvik filming the Ice Road Truckers show for the History Channel.

Tomorrow: Driving on the MacKenzie and the Beaufort Sea to Tuk! No web access tomorrow, but never fear, we'll be back up the day after next.

Snowballs for the officials

2008-02-21T22:47:00.000-08:00

Ok, so this may not have been our brightest idea, but on Tuesday, we ambushed some of the Alcan officials. Here's the video. At the end, you hear the officials over the radio say "That's 20 points for all of you"... meaning that they were going to penalize us some how. I think they really enjoyed it, though, and we haven't noticed any penalties.

Enjoy!

Doug

We're in Inuvik

2008-02-21T18:27:00.000-08:00

We've made it to Inuvik after a 500 mile drive from Dawson. The room/hotel here is really nice and modern- All suites. We're connected to Marinus and Renee Damm (although I don't think they know how lucky they are yet to have us).

We skipped lunch so now it's time to find something. We have some neat pictures from the drive through the tundra along the Dempster highway. More later.

Doug

Damned Vandals!

2008-02-21T06:29:00.001-08:00

This is what the truck looked like this morning.

Subaru Recovery Vehicle

2008-02-20T23:58:00.001-08:00

Some new vinyl was added to the car today. This will seem funny until we need to get towed out by someone. :)

11% Grade Photo

2008-02-20T23:39:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Ron Sorem for this great photo from Monday's "11% Grade TSD". This photo was taken right after Bill said something like "You're 20 seconds late" followed by "I see a control"...

We were moving pretty good up this hill to make up the time.

Day 4 TSD Hell, well, Heck anyway.

2008-02-20T22:42:00.000-08:00

I had a good breakfast of brown toast, eggs and sausage this morning at the Yukon Inn in Whitehorse. Class act that they are, the Keatleys picked up the tab for both Doug and I this morning. I think that was so when they thouroughly trounced us at both the days TSD and at the Ice Race, that we'd still have to be nice to them! Also, they are truly two great guys.

The entire rally was granted a late checkout from the Yukon Inn, which allowed the uber-competitive teams to leave all of their excess gear in the hotel so it wouldn't weigh them down for the ice race. In contrast, we pulled out our cooler, so it wouldn't slide back and forth.

The TSD today was a dead-turn around. Early on the first half, we missed a turn, and Doug had to scramble to get the car back on course. I estimated that we'd been off course for .2 miles, and had to add that to all of the subsequent time hacks in the excel sheet. Doug's spirited driving got us back on course, though our scores on the way end suffered from the odo being off to our time, giving us 42 points on the first half. After the turn around, and re-zeroing our odometer, we only picked up 5 points on the way out, including our first zero!!! Letting the wind out of our sails was car #26, Keatley/Keatly, who netted 5 zeros, and only picked up 5 points total on the remaining 3 controls!

After the TSD, we transited to the Ice Race, which Doug will post about. I will however, insert this gratuitous picture of yours truly going for the gold. Many thanks to Jeff Z. of Team Mitsubishi for taking some absolutely kick-ass photos of us at the Ice Race!!!!1

After leaving the Ice Race, we headed back to the hotel to pick up the rest of our gear and check out. We hit the car wash, (though you can hardly tell now!) We picked up some food to go and headed out on the Alcan Highway. Soon we turned onto the Klondike Highway, and headed for Dawson City.

We stopped at the Pelly River Bridge so Stevan and Kristin could refuel, but there was no premium available for their WRX, so we pressed on to Stewart Crossing. I was convinced we'd seen the last of premium until we got back to Whitehorse. I was wrong, and the gas station was damn proud of their premium gas: $5.70 a gallon. While they were fueling up, I noticed something familiar in the snow by the pumps...

Lots of Western Star, Sterlings and Freightliners running around up here. I've even run across a couple Trimac Trans trucks. Didn't get a chance to see if they had a 478 module or not.

Tomorrow, from South to North on the Dempster Highway: Eagle Plains (mile 256,) The Arctic Circle (mile 280,) and Inuvik (mile 486,) the largest Canadian town above the Arctic Circle at 3500. No TSDs or Ice Races, just an easy 500 miles...

-Bill

Ice Racing!

2008-02-20T22:40:00.000-08:00

We finally made it to our first Ice Race today. This was held on Lake Schwatka in Whitehorse. This lake is used as a float plane base in the summer and a ski-plane base in the winter. A course was carved into 18" of snow using plows down to bare ice. Looking down into the ice was kind of eerie- You could see that it was VERY thick (48"?), but you could also see cracks going all over the place. Still, the lake was obviously very frozen and the ice very strong. There were no concerns at all of breaking through the ice.

Each driver is allowed to drive the course up to two times. So Bill and I each got to drive the course twice. The first runs are the most competitive as the ice becomes very polished and much more slippery with more runs.

Bill took the first run and turned in a very good 1:32.8. Doug's run came next and was a 1:32.0. Bill then fired off a 1:37.7, and Doug's second run was a 1:34.0.

The fastest run put down by Gord Ryall was a 1:19.0 in a WRX. Paul Eklund was next with a 1:19.1 in his Forester.

We felt really good about our scores on the ice! More importantly, we entertained the crowd and we DID NOT finish last.

Most cars could go a little off course and would either bounce off the snow banks or get stuck. The truck made short order of the meager 18" of snow and literally blew right through it. This made for some incredible visuals.

Photos courtesy of Jeff Zurschmeide. Thanks, Jeff!

Photo: Doug... just a little off course

Photo: Bill leaving a con-trail.

Video! This is video of Doug's second run on the ice course.

Video! This is in-car of Bill's second run on the ice course. Make sure you watch it to the end!!! :)

Dawson City

2008-02-20T20:09:00.000-08:00

We've made it to Dawson City. Here's a picture of our fridge with proper Canadian beer in it.

We're going to dinner. More later. Today was a fun day!

Doug

Hankook picks up BAD

2008-02-20T19:55:00.000-08:00

After seeing our performance at the ice racing today, Hankook has decided to pick up Bill and Doug.

The package includes:
A house in the Hamptons
Full scholarships to Harvard for Michael and Abby
Two Jaguars rollin' on double dubs
Two bottles of Wild Turkey
Maybe some tires, if we're lucky.

Fact is, we outperformed all other 7000 pound vehicles while managing to avoid falling through the 48" ice in Whitehorse. The team also demonstrated proficiency in storing carrots.

Reminders of my trip up here with my Pop.

2008-02-20T19:49:00.000-08:00

The Cassiar highway brought back some memories for me of the trip Dad and I took to Alaska. Granted, we did it at a different time of year! We stopped for food and diesel in Dease Lake, headed north to Whitehorse. It is the same restaurant (with at least one change of ownership,) that Dad and I ate at in Septembeer, 2000 while headed south.

My memory is coming back to me more now though. At the Cassiar/Alcan intersection, I asked Stevan is he was good on gas to Teslin, 140 miles away, and he said yes. As we passed my one, then two, then more gas stations closed for the season, I started to get a little worried. I had told Doug that we'd be crossing over a looong perforated steel bridge, and there would be gas immediately on the right.

I was happy that I'd remembered correctly: Stevan's gas light came on 20 miles outside of Teslin!

I'm writing this from the road. I know the RAM Mount would come in handy, but I really had no idea! This is a very useful item, definitely in the top ten most useful things we've brought along. I'll have to make a list of those!

The Beastie Boy's Paul's Boutique is on loud, and we're cruising at 64 mph up the Klondike Highway headed to Dawson City. The weather here has been nice recently: the road is mostly clear pavement, with sections of ice/snow from time to time. It is a lot better than the Cassiar was.

One of the two sweep Dodges, and a co-member of the informal Team Cummins had his front diff take a crap on him yesterday. Reports vary: pinion bearing went out, diff lost fluid, etc. The only thing we know for sure is that the problem was front end, he dropped the front drive shaft, and is driving back to Seattle in rear-wheel drive.

We'll give you all a report on the day events later tonight, including the first of the Alcan Rally Ice Races!!!

Moose!

2008-02-20T06:51:00.000-08:00

No, we didn't see any, but Team Mitsubishi did. Check out Jeff Zurschmeide's blog here:

Moose!

We're not looking forward to seeing moose.. at least not with the "Ram Mounting Systems" decals all over the truck. But what am I thinking? Moose can't read... they're dumb! If we run into a Grizzly, however, we should be worried.

Doug

Today's Top Three

2008-02-20T06:46:00.000-08:00

Top Three Reasons that Doug Showered Today:

1. Yesterday, Bill said "My new name for you shall be Stinky".
2. I woke up with enough time to do it.
3. We had hot water.

On a related note... Yesterday morning Bill was commenting about how good his shower in New Hazelton was: "That was an awesome shower! It was one of those shower heads that doesn't limit the flow at all".

Simultaneously, screams were heard throughout the hotel as other Alcaners tried to shower but got no hot water. We asked at least 5 others but none had any hot water. Bill used it all. He didn't brag to them about it, which I thought was smart.

We estimated that the hotel had one 40 gallon (er 160 liter) hot water heater tank for the 30 rooms.

Doug

Long day, fun day!

2008-02-19T23:20:00.001-08:00

Today started early from New Hazelton. We were on the road from 6:40am- for me, that was without a shower and without breakfast. I had one of Bill's yummy oranges and some of Bill's jerky in the car. I'm lucky that Bill's family set him up with some good food!

We drove around 2 hours, where we hooked up with the Team Sirius cars near Medzian junction. We then took the optional 16 mile sidetrip to see the Bear Glacier. There was a beautiful view of the glacier over a snow covered lake. Although we started out the morning ahead of most of the competitors, this sidetrip put us near the back of the pack. We still had plenty of time, and the organizers allowed us (by plan) to start the TSD section either on time, or 30 minutes late.

Photo: Following Team Sirius WRX to Bear Glacier

Photo: Doug and Bill at Bear Glacier

We stopped at Mama Z's restaurant in Dease Lake before starting the 10 mile TSD section. While at Mama Z's, we met a typically friendly black labrador. Being in Dease Lake started to bring back good memories for Bill of his year 2000 trip up this way on his motorcycle, with his Dad.
Photo: Friendly Doggy.

We scored 15 points on the TSD over three controls. I think we should have done better, but I'll blame Bill. Ok, not really. I'll blame my spreadsheet, or my driving too. Heck... 15 points is pretty good, so I guess I'll shut up now.

Right after the TSD, we came upon the Team Sirius cars at the side of the road. They were waiting for us and the Arychuk's behind us so that we could transit together. After a short snowball fight, where I successfully avoided a well thrown snowball by jumping waist deep into a snow bank (like a complete idiot), we came up with a fun plan: Wait for the scoring officials to come along and ambush them with snowballs. I'd like it to be clear (to the officials who regularly read our blog), that this plan came from Car 17's Jennifer. In fact, Bill and I only eventually succombed to peer pressure and threw a few snowballs so that it looked good on video. Oh yeah- There's video of the fun ambush. Maybe that will get posted tomorrow because it's not on my camera. Hey, maybe THAT's why we "scored" 15 points on the TSD. :)

A little later on the transit, Bill and I both noticed movement on the road about .5 miles ahead. We initially thought it was people, then dogs, then maybe... Caribou!!! Bill snapped a picture just as they scrambled into the snow on the side of the road. Very cool siting. Bill wanted me to write "Doug whacked the little one with the truck and now we're eating Caribou. No damage to the truck." Ok, but that didn't happen, so I'm not going to write that.
Photo: Caribou! (We think)

Bill and I lead the parade for a while. If you're not the lead dog, the view never changes!

A bit later on the transit (hey, this was a LONG transit!), we reached a place called "Bell 2". This very cool place is a base for Helicopter skiiers. There are some beautiful mountains and if I was a skiier, this would be the place that I'd want to be dropped from a helicopter. Of course, with my current skill level, you might as well drop me from the helicopter on one of those round plastic sledding discs buttered up with Pam cooking spray. Either way, I'm tumbling down the hill in an ugly way. But, I digress. Fun thing about Bell 2 was this: They were supposed to have gas. Most of the cars on the Alcan carry around 16 gallon gas tanks. With all the gear folks are carrying and roof racks, gas mileage suffers. But, the gas pumps at Bell 2 were frozen. So, there was a LOT of trepidation amongst our competitors about running out of gas. Most emptied their spare gas into the tank and continued from there.

Overall, the roads today were in good shape. A good snow pack covering was there for most of the day. Toward the evening it warmed up a bit and the roads were nearly clear. We kept the truck in 2WD all day and only had a small amount of minor sliding in the snowpack.
Photo: Typical transit road today.

This seems like a good place to note that we filled our truck just once in 760 miles. This meant that we had more time to use the toilet and giggle at everyone else filling up in the cold. For those interested, we averaged 16.4 MPG today, which is great- We budgeted for an average of 12 MPG overall.

We averaged 52.2 MPH total and 60 MPH moving average. Bill said that I'm not allowed to publish our maximum speed.

Tomorrow looks to be really fun. We start with a 8 mile TSD, and then go to our first ice slalom. We're both really looking forward to the ice slalom. This should be a great photo/video opportunity. It will be tough to be competitive in the truck, but we hope to surprise a few people!

Day 3, Early - What's a TSD

2008-02-19T05:59:00.001-08:00

So, I wrote a long blog entry last night only to run into internet problems that prevented me from publishing it. I fell asleep and have just read Bill's entry and I can safely say that he totally plagiarized my work. Which is cool. We're a team after all.

I woke up 10 minutes ago and have 30 minutes to eat breakfast, pack, and be sitting in the truck ready to go. But, I wanted to answer this most commonly asked question: "What the heck is a TSD?"

TSD stands for "Time-Speed-Distance" and its basically a moving math problem. The simplest one is this: Start from a dead stop and drive for 120 miles at 60 miles per hour. So, you're supposed to average 60 miles per hour for 120 miles. Imagine that someone is standing at the 120 mile mark (at the "control") with a stopwatch. You're "perfect" time is 120 minutes (simple math- 60 miles per hour, 120 miles - perfect time is just 2 hours or 120 minutes). If you arrive early or late, you take "points". Points are measured in seconds.

So that sounds easy, right? Imagine this simple modification: It's that same 120 mile stretch, same 60 MPH average, but now there's a stop sign at the 60 mile mark. No problem, right- You just stop at the stop sign and continue... but you still need to be averaging 60 MPH over the distance, so you have to adjust your speed by going faster than 60 MPH at some point to hit that overall average. Making it more interesting, the controls could be anywhere- not just at the 120 mile mark. And you don't know where they are. Oh, and the surface could be covered with snow and filled with switchbacks. Good luck maintaining 60 MPH! :)

To keep on "perfect" time, I have pre-calculated what our "perfect" time should be every .5 miles of the TSD sections. So, we have had 5 TSD's so far. When we aren't doing TSD's, we are just "transiting"... There are no controls at all and we're free to do what we want, but we do need to get to the next hotel in time for a driver's meeting each night.

OK, so that's TSD 101 from a guy who has a cold and is in a hurry. Let me know what questions you may have.

:)

Doug

Day 2!

2008-02-18T23:23:00.000-08:00

I had the Grand Slam at Denny's this morning: pretty good, but their pancakes need work. I did like the two sausage links I had, they were like mini-kielbasas. Doug had the Grand Slam as well, and was quite pleased that grape jelly was available.

Team Mitsubishi says: "We love Denny's so much, we park there at night!"

Since the ice-slalom was cancelled, Jerry added another TSD to the days events. This one was entitled, "11% Grade" and was pretty hairy at times, lots of switch backs and required average speeds that were virtually unachievable. The TSD started in the parking lot of a local elementary school. The kids all came out to look at the rally cars.

We picked up 47 points over 7 controls. Car #10 (McMillen/Crippen) were the best on this one with 10 points. At least 4 cars took the 200 point max for the leg.

We headed back to Quesnel, stopped by the Tim Horton's for some Timbits, and, with just a little looking, found the start of the Black water TSD. Again, this route had lots of snow, hell, it was completely covered with snow! As it turns out, there were only two controls on the TSD, who awarded us a total of 11 points. At least 7 teams earned 0 or 1, while we were one of 6 teams to score double digits.

The end of this TSD left us on Blackwater road, and was the high point of the adventure so far! The road was close to 100 miles long, covered with snow and traversing some of the prettiest country I've ever seen. I mean covered: we didn't see gravel, (except crossroads,) or pavement for almost 100 miles. The truck worked like a dream, and had no problem keeping up with the BMWs and Subarus.

Here we are as part of a train of sportscars. We have both the TomTom and the Garmin GPSs going, and Doug's laptop with the TSD data on our RAM Mount.

We were even able to help a fellow in a Subaru un-stuff himself after he cooked it into a 90 degree left a little fast.

We followed the number 20 car of Marinus and Renee Damm for quite a while. The Damms have some friends with a restaurant in Burns Lake, and provided a late lunch for the entire rally! That's a class act that will be tough to follow.

We were almost late to the final TSD of the day, Fraser Lake, arriving at the start just two minutes before our scheduled out time. Doug did a great job keeping on pace, and we only really flubbed on of the 5 controls, picking up 31 more points for the TSD.

Our Day Two total was 89 points. The most recent scores, (which are not yet on the official Alcan site as of 2310 on 2/18,) have us in 9th overall with a score of 115, two points back from Car #14, Hansen/Perret. From there though, it is almost a 50 point jump to the next competitor.

Doug is asleep, and I will be soon. We're out of here, (The Robber's Roost in New Hazelton,) at 0630 tomorrow. The plan is to make the Dease Lake TSD by 1330. It is 330 mile from here, north up the Cassiar Highway, which is only paved for the first 100 miles or so. We'll need to average 47 mph to make it on time. Stevan and Kristin would like to visit Bear Glacier, which will tack on another 32 miles, plus whatever time spent there. We'll have to see how thing are going before we know if that is viable or not.

The Dease Lake TSD is short, only 10 miles. That's good, because then we go to Whitehorse, which is 400 miles from Dease Lake.

I think Doug has a bit he'll post up tomorrow morning early. Be sure to check out the other teams sites in our links, there is some good stuff out there!

-Bill

finished fifth TSD. next stop,

2008-02-18T16:00:00.001-08:00

finished fifth TSD. next stop, burns lake for food, then on to new Hazelton. -bill

4th TSD done

2008-02-18T14:50:00.001-08:00

We have finished the 4th TSD. We think we did well. The TSD was followed by 100+ miles of INCREDIBLE transit... Fast and twisty. We also scored our first recovery when we towed the #10 WRX out of a shallow snowbank. Now we're off to the 5th TSD. More later.

Doug

3rd TSD Done

2008-02-18T10:56:00.001-08:00

Here's a pic of Bill attaching the tow rope before the "11 percent grade" TSD. We didn't need the rope! Doug drove while Bill tried navigating... He did a great job! There were some fast average speeds on a mostly snowy surface. This truck is awesome! And I didn't have any trouble getting it sideways, either. Thanks again, Frank.

All for now. We're in line waiting to start the "Blackwater Road" TSD which is supposed to be pretty hairy.

Doug

12 degrees F.

2008-02-18T07:23:00.000-08:00

Doug was up late last night setting up our Excel sheet. I tried to stay up, but the recreational beverages I'd consumed conspired against me, and despite my best efforts, (laying down on my bed,) I fell asleep.

This morning though, I let Doug sleep in while I went out and scraped our windshield and took the
Dodge out for a few miles of warm up. 12 degrees F, let the grid heater (you were right Frank, no glow plugs,) cycle once, and she fired right up. I haven't put the cold front on yet, maybe tomorrow.

I have to run, Doug just found a 15% off discount coupon to Dennys, and he says the "Moons over My Hammie" are calling him.

-Bill

Day 1 results and what not.

2008-02-17T23:01:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a day! It is hard to belive we were in Seattle this morning! We started the day out with brekkie at Shari's, pancakes, eggs scrambled, sausage and milk.

We're teamed up with Car #16, Kealty/Kealty (Forester,) and Car #17, Daly/Ryall/Ustare (WRX,) who make up team Sirius, for the Alcan team competition, which requires at least one novice competitor. We are all novice competitors!

The first transit was around 60 miles, taking us to Mosquito Lake. The Mosquito lake TSD was a little more than 40 miles long, with 5 controls, (the location of which is unkown,) that we were never more than 3 seconds early or late for, giving us a leg score of 11 and putting us in 8th place. In contrast, the #1 car scored a 1.

After that rather spirited driving by yours truly, Doug needed some fresh air, and we switched places in Sumas, WA. Going through the border was ok for us: we were forewarned that the Canadian customs dude in the left lane was in a bad mood, so we took the right. Given the no-nonsense attitude of the right-lane guy, I'm really glad we didn't choose the left! Car 23, Dick and Marie, were held up for 25 minutes before they were allowed through.

Here is a shot of Doug, driving us through the Fraser Canyon.

We came upon a stranded motorist who had broken his wheel on a rock, and had a malfunctioning jack. We let him borrow our jack, and we were both on our way in short order!

Following Ohio Knox and Ken Adams on highway 97.

The second TSD was Soda Creek, in the dark, and on mixed surfaces. Mixed between rough pavement/gravel and snow/ice. 600 ft/lbs of torque enables us to break the tires loose almost at will, so we have to be careful! Here is a picture of us waiting for the TSD to start.

The PIAA lights worked great, and I'm glad I took the time to clean them before starting the TSD. About 2 miles into the 17 mile long stage, I pulled the transfer case shifter into 4-Hi. This was a good time to engage 4wd as we started exceeding the limits of our traction shortly thereafter.

At one point we made a wrong turn, but corrected it within .2 miles, but at that point were a minute off the pace. Making up that minute was exciting! Frank, imagine riding with me in Delphine's Mustang on North Bay Drive! We were late to check points 2 and 3, but made 5 and 6 within 5 seconds of perfect time.

Stevan and Kristin went off sometime after checkpoint 3, but were subsequently rescued by Mitsubishi Car #1, Zursch/Tabor/Bockman.

We got into Quesnel, (pronounced Quinnell,) filled up on diesel, and checked into the Sandman Inn. Dinner at the Shark's something: I ordered the soup of the day, but the waitress didn't know what it was and said she'd be back to let me know. I said don't worry, I'll have what ever it is. It turned out to be pretty good tomato bisque.

Some bad news: the slalom tomorrow is canceled because they can't get the track plowed. Which means that we'll have three TSDs tomorrow instead. Doug will be at the helm tomorrow.

Provisional scores were posted late tonight, and I found a flaw, now corrected by the officials, with ours. Checkpoints 4 & 5 had our times and Stevan and Kristen's times mixed up. We're currently tied for 12th overall, and 1st, (of two!) in class IIE. The official website has us listed as 19th, but they'll get that patched up soon.

Okay, time for bed.

-Bill

2nd TSD Complete

2008-02-17T19:26:00.001-08:00

We finished the 2nd TSD and are on our way to tonights hotel in Quesnel. Bill drove great despite a navi error by me. We mostly made up for it. Road surface was pretty slick. Our buddies, the Arychuks, stuffed it into a snow bank... All is well. Full report after dinner and beers.

Hope you're all staying warm.

Doug

Oh Canada

2008-02-17T17:52:00.001-08:00

We've made it to Williams Lake and are about to start the 2nd timed TSD section. Doug's spreadsheet worked well on the first TSD. Looking forward to the next one. Its 28 degrees here with snow on the ground.

Doug

Made it through the first

2008-02-17T11:48:00.001-08:00

Made it through the first TSD And into Canada. things are going great!

Math

2008-02-16T22:37:00.001-08:00

Matt Tabor took this photo of us just after we got the last of the vinyl installed on the truck. In the background is the blue WRX of Stevan and Kristin Arychuk. We're "buddied" up with them- We travel together at all times in case one of us has a problem.

We spent the night at dinner and a short reception (read: free beer and snacks).

We hooked up with Team Sirius today. Team Sirius is two other cars (A Subaru WRX and Forester) from Canada. They invited us to join them for scoring purposes, since the Alcan presents awards to teams based on some complicated formula. We couldn't figure out the formula, but it sounded cool be on on a team so we went for it. :) Team Sirius includes Gord, who is Pat Richard's service chief, Jennifer, and August in a WRX. In the Forester is the father and son team of Josh and Evans.

We met lots of other interesting Alcan personalities- Some of whom have been doing this event for 25 years. Really looking forward to getting to know them all better over the next several days.

At the moment, Bill is burning CD's from his laptop so we have music.

I'm finishing the Excel spreadsheet that will guide us on the TSD tomorrow. This spreadsheet calculates our "perfect time" every .5 miles during the two TSD sections tomorrow. There are two TSD's tomorrow- One for 40 miles, and one for 17 miles.

Bill said today that he thought we had a chance of finishing in the top 10. I think we're doomed. The day's total mileage is 483 miles, ending in Quesnel.

All for now! Time to sleep.

Doug

Kirkland

2008-02-16T16:39:00.001-08:00

We've made it through tech inspection. Here's a photo at the hotel with the Team Mitsubishi cars in the foreground.

The truck is loaded!

2008-02-15T23:16:00.001-08:00

Because the truck is so huge, it doesn't look like we've got much in there. But in fact we packed heavy. Why bring one wrench when two would work just as well? A little extra weight in the back will just equate to traction during the ice racing, right?

Now we really are ready. Less than 8 hours before we depart for the Seattle area.

We couldn't do this without support! We owe the most thanks to Joy and Kricket, our lovely wives. They have been very supportive of this crazy adventure and we couldn't do it without that. THANK YOU JOY AND KRICKET!!

And thanks to Michael and Abby, who have agreed to be extra good while we are away so that Joy and Kricket don't hate us when we return. :)

The next post will come from the road! Stay tuned.

Ram Mount!

2008-02-15T23:10:00.001-08:00

Something very cool arrived at Bill's doorstep late this week: A Ram Mounting Systems laptop mount. We are running in a class that allows us to use any calculating device as long as it isn't GPS, or hooked up to the truck's drivetrain. So, we will be using the laptop a lot to calculate our perfect arrival times during the rally.

The original plan was to hold the laptop on top of the lap. But, Ram came through with this very cool laptop mount. This thing is rock solid and easy to install. It's also very adjustable allowing us to put the laptop wherever we want.

Here, Bill demonstrates how the Ram Mount can also accommodate the truck's second steering wheel.

OK OK! That steering wheel isn't really hooked up. But, I bet we'd get some funny looks if we left it there!

Are we ready?

2008-02-14T13:23:00.000-08:00

So, it's less than 48 hours before we hit the road (Saturday Morning) to head up to Kirkland for a day of technical inspections and Alcan meetings. The real event begins on Sunday morning. Not much time. Are we ready?

Well, both Bill and I are sick. I've had a cold that I just can't beat. I feel fine if I can get 10 hours of sleep. Bill broke an eardrum or something and isn't allowed to be horizontal. They're filling him with antibiotics.

I haven't packed one bit of personal stuff. I've made a mental note of where everything is and I have a decent checklist. But I haven't gathered anything.

Bill and I are meeting tonight to install the late-arriving battery blankets.

We've been focused on truck prep and neglecting people prep.

Still.. are we ready!?

Hell yes! :) Are you EVER really ready to buy a house or have a child or take a Physics Final Exam? Nope. I think we're in the same boat. We've done our planning and collected our stuff. Now we just need to make sure that everything makes it into the truck, even if in somewhat disarray. If we forget something, there's always a Walmart somewhere, right?

And since Bill needs to stay vertical, and I need to sleep, I think we have our roles for the first few days figured out.

Truck now fully upgraded

2008-02-13T11:34:00.000-08:00

Well, the Viper didn't work out. Turns out that nobody makes snow tires that will fit. That, and Bill was complaining about having to constantly row through 6 gears. Oh well.

So, we've spent a bunch of time and the truck is fully upgraded. We gave it a 10" lift, 44" snow tires, and a paint job. We're going to be unstoppable!

See photo:

Mom: Remember, the word "Gullible" is not in the dictionary!! :)

Odds and ends from Saturday.

2008-02-10T09:40:00.000-08:00

Just a few odds and ends from Saturday:

Mounted up the super-cool PIAA silicone wipers.
Cut some surplus carpet from Doug's attic to provide a little extra insulation between the floor and our feet!
Mounted our vehicle plug-in (for our 110V heaters,) up front on the light bar for when we hitch the vehicle up to power every night.
Un-loop the previously looped HAM antenna wire.
Get home in time to read Abby Tikki Tikki Tembo!

Loading and Storing

2008-02-09T21:16:00.001-08:00

Like I said, we got a LOT done today. The back of the truck is cavernous. Still, gear is like a fluid- It will fill any space. So, we are trying to plan to pack smart. We started by locating our spare tires in a place where they can be secured. Then, we picked a place for the heavy toolbox.

With the help of visiting friend Pat, a nice shelf was built that will strap down the tires and serve as a flat place to store some bins. There's also plenty of room for other gear.

Then, it was time to wrap up for the night. Bill headed home to tell Abby the story of "Princess Abby and Prince Michael" for the 157th time.

Adding some character

2008-02-09T21:01:00.000-08:00

The truck looks great with the new lightbar and PIAA lights! But, we're going to a rally. And rally cars have stickers.

Before adding any stickers, the truck needed a good washing and waxing. I'm pretty sure it had never been waxed before.

Then, we added some vinyl lettering. Paul and Ben at Primitive Racing worked hard to get our big vinyl order cut at the last minute. Thanks, guys!

Bill took on the really hard task- Adding the "Thank you"'s to the topper window.

He did a great job! It all looks even and well aligned.

Doug took the easy stuff- The decals on the rockers and the names on the window. All of this stuff is optional. The Alcan organizers have some required signage for us to run, too. But we wanted to look sharp and thank all of our supporters.

Lightbar Installed!

2008-02-09T20:55:00.001-08:00

While we had the bumper off, we installed the light bar. This light bar came from 4 Wheel Parts. Again, the installation was straightforward and easy.

The lightbar attached directly to the bumper using four screws. We had to drill 4 holes in the bumper.

It took a little light "jiggling" to get all the holes to line up at the same time.

But in the end, it was an easy job.

Lights on.

Tow Hooks installed

2008-02-09T20:35:00.000-08:00

While Doug installed the radio, Bill worked on the tow hooks. We hope to never need the tow hooks, but it seemed like a bad idea to go on this trip without them. Maybe we'll use them to tow out others?

These are Mopar tow hooks, so the install was easy. The first step was to remove the front bumper.

Then, a backing plate was installed behind the stock bumper bracket.

The Mopar "M" shaped tow hook is then bolted on the bracket.

The whole assembly is then bolted back to the frame rails, waiting for the bumper to be re-installed.

Radios Done

2008-02-09T20:29:00.000-08:00

Today was a busy day.

We got the radios installed. We're using a Yaesu HAM radio and a Motorola VHF radio lent to us from Event Rental Communications . This will allow us to constantly monitor the Alcan channel and be able to use the HAM for chat.

Our original plan was to use a Midland VHF radio purchased from Ebay. This started off as a good plan. But these radios need to be programmed to have the right frequencies. We bought the software, but could not find a computer slow enough to do it. The software requires a computer running at 100MHZ or less. This is a 15-20 year old radio, so this shouldn't be surprising. Anyway, we'll get the Midland programmed some day. In the meantime, we owe thanks to the guys at Event Rental Communications.

Replacing wrenches, picking up our radio!

2008-02-06T18:57:00.000-08:00

Our light-bar made it to Portland, and I picked it up from FedEx will call on Monday. Thank you 4-Wheel Parts!!! It is the N-Fab unit pictured here. The light bar came without any of those pesky instructions to get in the way, so I called them today, and soon had a set of instruction in my inbox. We'll get the light-bar and lights on by this Saturday.

I had some good news from Verizon on Tuesday: Judy in customer service is adding Canada to my friends and family plan for the duration of the Alcan, and waiving the upcharge. I had planned to rely on a prepaid phone card, so this is quite a surprise! Thank you Judy!

The picture below is of my 'new' 3/8" and 1/2" drive, Craftsmen ratchet-wrenches, artfully posed on my grandfather's old air-force mittens, and my new Cabelas parka. I hope never to have to use them all together, (or the wrenches at all,) while on the Alcan.

I brought my old 3/8" and 1/2" into Sears tonight, because the ratcheting action on each was wonky. I have literally been putting this off for years. My friend Nicole, (who used to work for Sears,) repeatedly told me that all I had to do was bring them in, and they would replace them no questions asked. She was absolutely correct. The guy at the counter had a drawer full of refurbs that a guy on site rebuilds. He didn't have the right 1/2" drive, so he pulled a new one off the shelf and gave it to me. I should have done this a long time ago.

Also on Monday, I stopped by Event Rental Communications to pick our radio from Jay Pomeroy, their special projects manager. Jay is loaning us a Motorola VHF mobile radio to use for the Alcan. When I got it home that night, I did a radio check and all was well. When I install this antenna, I'll keep loops out of the wire, (Thanks August!)

Next: Light-bar/light install, VHF install, finalize load plan!

Nice Alcan Website - Tres Hermanos

2008-02-04T16:22:00.000-08:00

Be sure to check out this website:

http://www.teamhightower.com/alcan08/MapIt08.php

These guys have separated the route by day, and there's a nice detailed map and weather forecast for each day of the rally.

It looks pretty cold up there.

Doug

Dirty Differentials and Radiator Blockers

2008-02-02T21:35:00.000-08:00

Knowing that I had the simpler, (compared to wiring,) if messier task of doing the fluid changes on the Dodge, I did a little research this week. Changing the engine oil would be a cake walk, as I'd done it before for Frank. The hardest part about changing the crankcase oil was finding a drain pan large enough to hold the three gallons of used oil. As it turned out, I used two smaller, (that is, normal-sized,) drain pans on top of one of those large metal trays that allowed me to shift from one pan to the other, mid-drain.

The tough part would be the diffs. Unlike the axles on the Landcruiser, with nice, magnetic drain plugs in the bottom of each pumpkin, the Dodge axles have bolted on covers, with no drain plug. After doing some reading on the Diesel Truck Resource forums, I learned a few of things: the pan has a reusable rubber gasket, so no RVT, torque spec on the bolts is 30 ft/lbs, and that about 2 of every 5 guys had at least one bolt break prior to reaching the torque spec. After talking this over with Frank, he suggested a drill-driven, fluid transfer pump. Not only would I be able to pump the old fluid out, but I could also use it to fill the diffs, instead of the manual, (i.e. wear out your arm,) pump. I stopped by West Marine on the way over to Doug's, ten minutes (literally,) later, I was on my way with a new pump, some additional hose, a few hose clamps, and .546 less boat dollars than I had to start with.

Here it is in action, pumping the nasty, smelly, dark old stuff out. Also note how close that brake caliper is to the inside of the wheel. I had thought about downsizing to 16"s to make it easier to find tires, but there is no way that would work.

That pump worked like a champ! I'm sorry I didn't have it in December when I did the diffs and transfer case on the Landcruiser.

Next on the list was the radiator block. It gets so cold up north, (or even Wyoming and the Dakotas,) that vehicles, (diesels in particular,) can't get warmed up without restricting the flow of air across the radiator. Our idea was to sandwich some vinyl upholster-type material between two pieces of angle aluminum, riveted together to make a 'U'.

After putting all the rivets in, (I'm guilty of overkill here. Hell, five would probably be overkill and I put in a dozen,) I put down a layer of weather stripping, so the rivet head wouldn't be resting on the radiator fins. We'll be able to furl it if we need less radiator blockage.

The last item on the day's agenda was to put together our tool kit. We pared down my tool set to one box, with a few additions from Doug, (like a BFH.)

Next: Light bar, VHF radio, develop/finalize load plan.

Wiring Stuff Up.

2008-02-02T20:55:00.001-08:00

Last week, Doug ran power into the cab, along with a ground from the battery. The plan was to make this our common accessory power, hooking up each of the radios and a two-outlet 12-volt, cigarette lighter-style plug-in.

Doug used a couple terminal blocks that I found on eBay a while back, (8 for $10 shipped!)

Now, some of you may be asking yourselves, "Isn't that Yaesu mounted higher than it was last week?" And the answer is yes, because although yours truly allotted enough space between the back of the radio and the mount for the power, I didn't account for the antenna plug in, and Doug had to raise the radio 1.625" or so. Power runs out to the terminal blocks, while the antenna cable routes behind the seat...

...through some loops, (held in place by a space-age adhesive-bonded fabric,) up the B-pillar and out onto the roof.

We added a little flap of left over radiator block material to cover the terminal blocks.

Next, Doug installed some 50W reverse lights, courtesy of Safe Drives. While the back light housings out of the truck, he decided is was a good time to hook up the third brake light on the canopy, (or topper if you're from the South or Midwest.)

The third brake light is currently wired to be constantly on, (a low-vis, blizzard kind of anti-collision provision.) We'll change it back to lighting with the lower brake lights before we give it back.

Doug wired up a nifty plug the harness can now be unplugged when the canopy is removed, and the cord be tucked in behind the bed cleat.

We had planned to install our light bar, but Fedex reports that it was held up in Medford due to inclement weather and should be in Monday.

Next: Out with the stinky old gear oil, and in with the stinky new gear oil!

Thank You Dodge!

2008-01-31T23:28:00.001-08:00

Well, after reading our blog, the powers-that-be at Dodge decided to step up and offer us a vehicle with a little more power.

We just need to find some 335mm wide low profile snow tires and we're good to go. If we can't find the tires, then we'll just have to stick with the Ram pickup. :)

More packages arrived.

2008-01-31T17:10:00.000-08:00

Boxes from PIAA and ARB came this week! When I picked up the lights at PIAA's HQ in December, we forgot wiper blades. The pair that came in the mail are their Super Sporza silicone blades, which will do an great job, (we have some on Eric's rally car.)

ARB sent us a vehicle recovery strap, their largest, rated at 15,000 kg and 30' long. Ideally, this will only be used to haul Subarus and Mistubishis from the ditch. Knock on wood!

Thank You Safe Drives!

2008-01-30T23:05:00.001-08:00

Thank you to Safe Drives for the generous donation of safety gear! Emergency Triangles, a re-usable flare, and an extra bright reverse light came along with some brackets for securing things in the truck (like our shovel, hoe, or AR-15).

The coolest part of the package is the first-aid kit. This "rally" kit meets requirements of rally sanctioning bodies in the U.S. It is packed with everything that we hope we don't need! It has a nifty handle to secure it to a roll bar. I really like it!

Thank you Ross and Tammy Jo!!!

2008-01-29T19:04:00.000-08:00

I got home from work to a big care package from Ross and Tammy Jo H. today! Frank told me there was a package on the way, but I had no idea! Thank you!

In addition to head-lights and flashlights, we now have a nice extension cord good down to -40C, a splitter that will allow us to plug in both battery blankets and the block heater, and an AC circuit tester, to make sure whatever outlet we find has juice! We also received six bottles of Power Service Diesel Fuel supplement.

Here's one of Abby checking out the new circuit tester:

A skunk in the truck.

2008-01-28T19:34:00.000-08:00

After clearing the snow off the truck this morning, I got in and fired it up. Then I noticed a smell, later localized to our new floor mats.

You know when you're in a car and smell a roadkill skunk, kind of faint, but still bad? That is what these smell like.

Some google searches for "hexomat smell", "hexomat stink", and "hexomat skunk", all turn up results similar to those I'm experiencing.

I'm going to through them in the back of the truck tomorrow and see if just being exposed to the air will make the skunk smell go away. I don't really want to return them, so I hope that works.

THANK YOU TEC TRUCKS!

2008-01-27T16:57:00.000-08:00

This week we received a HUGE donation of oil and supplies from TEC Trucks. There's enough oil here to give the truck an oil change before and after the Alcan.

We're really lucky to have their support and owe a big thank you to Tim for bringing this stuff over!

Wrenching, Day 2

2008-01-27T16:36:00.000-08:00

Bill and I got together on Saturday to get some more done on the truck. We started the morning with a trip to Andy and Bax military surplus store to look for some warm clothes. Most everything they sell is camouflage, but we still came home with some warm sock liners. Andy and Bax also sells wrestling masks and sailor caps, but we passed.

We got our new tires mounted today, thanks to Scott Huhn of Black Sun racing services.

Next, Doug finished up the light wiring, and ran power into the cab for the radios.

Speaking of radios, Bill got those mounted. We're taking two radios- A Yaesu HAM radio, and a Midland VHF radio. The Midland radio will be our main radio, operating on the same frequency as every other Alcan competitor. The HAM radio will serve as a backup to Midland and also let us chat with others who are using HAMs. We'll also bring Motorola FRS radios, and for a last resort, a long string connecting two soup cans.

Our new floor mats also arrived. Since Frank has been so kind as to loan us his truck, we're going out of our way to take care of it. If the floor ever thaws out after the event, we don't want the carpet to be soaked!

And here's a photo of the whole truck!

Got a new goody today!!

2008-01-24T19:10:00.000-08:00

When I dropped off Abby at Mom and Peter's this morning, Peter gave me a new headlight. It's a Petzl TACTIKKA Plus. It is a 4 LED light with three brightness levels and a flash. But he really cool feature is a red lens that flips over the LEDs.

It's nice and light, and the band will fit around my big head!

With red filter:

Without:

Testing it out it's map-illuminating capabilities in the dark:

We've got a lot of work to do this weekend, so stay tuned!

First day of wrench turning.

2008-01-20T09:30:00.001-08:00

After months of planning, we finally started turning wrenches on the Dodge. I met up with Doug at 10:00 Saturday morning and we planned our course of attack: a trip to GI Joes for parts/accessories, look at some tires Doug found on craigslist, pick up an order of vinyl decals from Paul, install fog lights/wiring, install driving lights/wiring, install block heater cord, and try to sort out some radio programming demons.

Our trip to GI Joes netted us one more fuel filter, an air filter, some ice scrapers, and spare headlight bulbs. It should have provided us with a 5 gallon diesel fuel can, but I left it on a shelf in the store and forgot all about it.

Next stop, tires. They looked a lot better in person than they did on the craigslist ad, (or probably in the pictures below. We bought the set, and now just need to find two more.

After we got back to Doug's, we pulled the truck most of the way into the garage, (it's too long for the whole truck to fit in,) and started working on the lights. Doug volunteered for the unenviable job of wiring, while I mounted the brackets and the lights. Since we haven't sourced our lighbar yet, (maybe today?) we only installed the driving light harness.

Fog lamps mounted and with bezel.

After mounting up the fogs, I installed the block heater cord. Apparently, all Dodge Rams w/the Cummins diesel engine come with a block heater, but not all have the cord. Thanks to Cummins NW for the cord ($13.62,) and more importantly, its location! The plug is under the exhaust manifold, forward of the turbo, aft of the oil filter. I tried getting to it from the top, but eventually was successful from the bottom.

Top view:

Bottom view:

Installed, picture taken from the top facing forward, turbo inlet hose in the foreground:

In the meantime, Doug had managed to sort out this mess...

and route it through the firewall, to the lights.

We used Doug's heat gun to warm up our lens protectors, (thick 3M vinyl,) to make them easier to mount to our lights.

After dinner, we hooked up our surplus Midland VHF radio, and tried to get it to send/recieve on 151.625. We still have to make it work on that freq, but have confirmed that it will send and recieve on the HAM bands.

We still have lots left to do: lightbar, radio mounting, find two more tires, change the oil in the diffs, ditto t-case and engine, etc, etc. It's starting to come together nicely though!

-Bill

Brought the truck home today.

2008-01-13T19:42:00.001-08:00

We went down to visit Frank and Delphine this weekend and to bring the truck back to Portland. We left the Nissan down in North Bend, where it will undergo some minor cosmetic surgery. We had a good time in North Bend.

Abby was a little confused as to why we were going in "Grandpa's truck."

We stopped in Eugene to visit my Pop, and raid the collective stash of cold weather gear there. My best find was a pair of mukluks that my brother had when he used to live in Denali.

I also found my old cold-weather combat boots that I had while I was in Germany. I was beginning to think that maybe I'd Goodwilled them, so it was a relief to find them.

Traffic was nice and light today until north of Woodburn.

Early Alcan planning.

2008-01-03T18:36:00.000-08:00

As I remember it, and Doug can correct me if I get this backward, I first approached him with the idea of doing the Alcan in late summer of 2006. Looking back through old emails though, it looks like Doug’s idea!

Email from Doug on 9/6/06:

“…Alcan Winter. Want to do it in 2008? Let's start planning.

DH “

We both thought it would be fun, and at that point, it seemed a loooong way away.

With a little encouragement from Paul Eklund, we got our deposits in to Jerry Hines, the Alcan Rallymaster by the end of the year. We asked Paul enough questions that he decided to host an Alcan informational meeting at Primitive Racing World Headquarters in Tigard, OR.

We kicked the idea of a Subaru around for a while. I used that as an excused to put the snow tires on my GTI and headed over the mountain to talk to Barrett at All Wheels Driven. Barrett said an Outback Sport 2.2 would be just the thing, only neither Doug or I had one. Still, it was a fun trip, minus the one snowbank at Timberline.

Jeff Zurschmeide gave us a killer leg-up on creating a sponsorship proposal. First we would try to find someone (company) to let us drive one of their vehicles, then maybe tires, lights, etc. Any cost we could defray would be great.

Not to say we didn't have some second thoughts:

Email from Doug on 4/13/07:

“Hey Bill-

Are you still hot on the Alcan? We need to decide sometime soon if we want our deposit back.

Doug”

Email from Bill on 8/25/07

“Hey Doug,

Are you still interested in pursuing it?

-Bill”

Email back from Doug on 8/25/07

"Hi Bill,

Do you think they, (Sterling...more on that later,) could get us the dump truck version? Send it. If they give us a truck, I'll find a way to do it.

Doug"

Bill Beers and Doug Heredos take on Alcan 5000

2008-01-02T21:58:00.000-08:00

The 2008 Alcan 5000 Winter Rally runs from February 17th to February 27th.

With generous support from our employers (in the form of paychecks every two weeks), and with wild support from our spouses, Bill Beers and Doug Heredos will be there.

The rally starts in Kirkland, Washington and travels through Canada and Alaska North of the Arctic circle.

It's cold up there.

Bill and Doug have secured a 2004 Dodge Ram 2500 Turbo Diesel from Bill's father-in-law, Frank. This truck will serve as an ideal platform to plow through snow, tow out our competitors, keep us warm, and show off our real sponsors wares.

The truck will be generously outfitted with lighting, wipers, and protective films from PIAA.

Keep an eye on this blog for more information about the preparation of the truck with all the cold weather gear that is needed to survive in -40 degree weather, as well as photos and video of trip.

Bill and Doug's Alcan 5000

Dawson Creek to Jasper, and then Home

Results

Beers

Finish

Liard Hotsprings to Dawson Creek

P.S.

Dan's Internet

Heading to Liard River Hot Springs

Transiting back to Whitehorse - Day 8!

Up to Tuktoyaktuk and back to Eagle Plains

Arctic Birthday

Inuvik

Snowballs for the officials

We're in Inuvik

Damned Vandals!

Subaru Recovery Vehicle

11% Grade Photo

Day 4 TSD Hell, well, Heck anyway.

Ice Racing!

Dawson City

Hankook picks up BAD

Reminders of my trip up here with my Pop.

Moose!

Today's Top Three

Long day, fun day!

Day 3, Early - What's a TSD

Day 2!

finished fifth TSD. next stop,

4th TSD done

3rd TSD Done

12 degrees F.

Day 1 results and what not.

2nd TSD Complete

Oh Canada

Made it through the first

Math

Kirkland

The truck is loaded!

Ram Mount!

Are we ready?

Truck now fully upgraded

Odds and ends from Saturday.

Loading and Storing

Adding some character

Lightbar Installed!

Tow Hooks installed

Radios Done

Replacing wrenches, picking up our radio!

Nice Alcan Website - Tres Hermanos

Dirty Differentials and Radiator Blockers

Wiring Stuff Up.

Thank You Dodge!

More packages arrived.

Thank You Safe Drives!

Thank you Ross and Tammy Jo!!!

A skunk in the truck.

THANK YOU TEC TRUCKS!

Wrenching, Day 2

Got a new goody today!!

First day of wrench turning.

Brought the truck home today.

Sponsors

Early Alcan planning.

Bill Beers and Doug Heredos take on Alcan 5000