Tonight is the premiere of Ice Road Truckers - Season Two.

This season they are based in Inuvik and heading up north right up near Tuktoyaktuk where we drove in 2008 and 2004. Some of the entrants in the 2008 Alcan ran into Hugh (one of the drivers) while we were in Inuvik.

It is pretty funny listening to the truckers say how the McKenzie Highway is much more dangerous than the road from Yellowknife!!

Check it out on the History Channel: http://www.history.com/minisites/iceroadtruckers/

Day 10 Map

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Today’s Temperatures
32F at Dawson City, mid 40’s in Jasper during the day

How many navigators does it take to set a clock?


The sting in the tail
If you watch the coverage of the famous Dakar Rally, the British TV announcer always finds a moment to say “and now the rally delivers THE STING IN THE TAIL”, and I’ve always wanted to say that!

So today’s sting was the Bighorn Highway TSD, which featured two snowy loops off the highway, the second containing a railway crossing which we visited from both directions and a 4 MPH free-zone turnaround which confused a lot of teams. Overall the stage kept the navigator busy and the driver happy, and it is now one of my favourites on the event.

We kept the pressure up on Car 1 and scored a 1 over 8 controls in this complicated stage, and they scored a 2.

Jerry Hines, rallymaster, announces the final scores:


And the winners are…
Congratulations to Greg, Russ and Gary in Car 1!!! While we took back another point today, it wasn’t enough and they finished 3.5 points ahead of us, a pretty thin margin over 10 days but we all agreed it was fun and we like to think we kept them working hard knowing we were right behind them.

Russ, Greg, Gary (L-R) say nice things about us, really:


The best part of each day was gently teasing each other in the bar over drinks, "Greg, your tires looked a little overinflated so I let them down" or "Glenn, your clock looked a little off so I reset it for you"; we have a few hundred of these we recycle.

Team Arctic Challengers did not go home empty handed:
Car 2 - Glenn/R.Dale: 1st in Class II, 2nd overall
Car 3 – Paul/Kala: 1st in Class III
Car 14 – Steve/Kathryn: 2nd in Class III
And the Arctic Challengers took home the coveted Alcan team championship!!!!!

Full scores at Challenge Driving and click on "Final Alcan results".

Many thanks to our sponsors Cooper Tires and Subaru Northwest, your help made our success possible!

Final Thoughts
Three thoughts that came to me during this trip.

1. Watching the father/mother/daughter/son teams made me realize that I got my spirit of adventure from my mother. She grew up in the Australian outback and my childhood always involved trips out “rock hunting” and I will never forget those trips with her and dad. We now chat on the phone about relic hunting, metal detectors, ghost towns and other adventures.

2. I had viewed rallying as an exact science and something that could be computed and solved. I now understand (after 10 years) that there are so many variables that all work together in a complex manner, and that understanding the ecosystem of variables is the key to unlocking it. Luck also helps.

3. The Alcan isn’t about the rally, it is really an excuse to share an adventure with old friends and new friends. Some of the old friends I’ve been rallying with for 10 years and the new friends I look forward to rallying with again.

When I spoke to my daughter Clara tonight she said “well second place is good, it is better than last!” which echoes what her older sister said a few rallies ago. But I told Clara that “it is more important to do your best and have fun”.

And we certainly did both.

Thanks for travelling with me and I would love to hear your comments either through the blog or through email.

Glenn

PS Yes I know some pictures from the Dempster and Ice Road are missing in action and I will post them as soon as I free up some hard disk space.

Jasper national park:

Day 9 Map

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Today’s Temperatures
23F at Liard, 32-41F once we were down out of the Rockies

Penultimato
Car 2 rolled out from Liard Lodge early, not waiting for breakfast as the restaurant started to fill up. We stopped to pick up the rest of the rally cars at the Northern Rockies Lodge, and then moved down the road for several long transits.

Two TSDs were run today, Airport Road and Tower Lake.

Airport Road was a fun jaunt out to the Fort Nelson airport and a loop around the passenger pickup area at 10MPH.

There was more amazing scenery to take in on the way:

Tower Lake was a run down several country roads, across a bridge, and included a portion of the Old Alaska Highway.

We then drove to Dawson Creek where we were met at the “Alcan Mile 0” sign by a representative of the visitor’s bureau and given a letter from the mayor and souvenir pins.

Scores
(update - note that these are not official scores but we are calculating what the total scores would be with the best drop for days 8,9 and the 2nd ice racing included)

We didn't move that much closer after the drop is applied but it means that we still have a buffer if we make a big mistake where car 1 would take a 3 if they make a single mistake bigger than 3. Bottom line, still too close to tell, all we can do is stay right behind them, nipping at their heels, waiting for them to make mistakes. Also, spiking their drinks tonight may have helped.

Pablo has slipped to 7th overall but still looking good in class. April & co in Team Mitsubishi have moved up, and put on some great times at the ice racing yesterday (nice job!)

Car 1	Hightower/R.Kraushaar/Webb	37.1	1st in Class I
Car 2	Wallace/R.D.Kraushaar	41.6	1st in Class II
Car 10	McMillen/Crippen	49.6
Car 24	Smith/Song/Poirier	65.3
Car 3	Horst/Willey	71.5
Car 8	Comden/Adomeit	74	2WD!
Car 3	Eklund/Rounds	74.9	1st in Class III

Glenn

Day 8 Map

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Today’s Temperatures
0F at Whitehorse and on Schwatka lake, and then around 32F up at Liard.

Into the wild
Sunday: another early morning, out on the road for an 8AM TSD up Long Lake in Whitehorse. This is the 2nd time we’ve run Long Lake on this rally and R.Dale and I were at “maximum attack”. The stage is very slippery with icy and snowy corners but relatively slow speeds. The challenge is keeping the car exactly on time at, for example, 20 MPH. It turns out we finished the day ahead of all the other cars with only a 1 second penalty point (which depending on what we score on the following 2 days could be dropped).

The ice race was out at Schwatka Lake with brutally cold conditions (0F or below, snowing lightly). The track had been used by the motorcycle ice racing club so the ice surface was very polished and slick. We knew we had to set two good times and couldn’t afford any snowbank excursions – R.Dale set the fastest and slowest times for our car, while my times were right in between his times.

R.Dale on the ice:

From Whitehorse we had a long transit to Liard Hot Springs, where we are staying in a rustic but comfortable lodge at the hot springs, with no internet; therefore you are reading this Monday night or later. Their dinner service was great and good humoured and all the rallyists appreciated it. The other half of the cars are bunking about 30 miles down the road.

We really hadn’t seen a lot of wild life so far but today made up for that in spades. We saw at least 30 buffalo, including two that were lying down and dozing in the snow, as well as a frisky cow moose that galloped across the road in front of us and then loped off into the trees. There was also a buffalo that was right at R.Dale’s window looking in.

The new highlight of the trip, which I now rank above Eagle Plains and the ice road to Tuk, was swimming in Liard Hot Springs at night. I had been to the springs in 2004 but didn’t get in (I think I was worried about getting sick due to the temperature differential), but this time I made up for that and after dinner we ventured down to the springs at about 8:00PM.

It is about a ½ mile walk in the dark from the lodge to the springs. R.Dale and I walked down the wooden snow covered walkway in the park, when my headlamp lit up two yellow eyes right in front of us. A large dog/wolf growled and barked at us. We couldn’t see anyone else. We stood our ground, but we were both thinking “do wolves bark?” This animal was large enough to be a very serious threat, but we knew turning and running would be a signal that we were dinner.

The dog kept barking until we finally saw a flashlight beam, and a local man came up and said “the dog doesn’t like flashlights” and then the dog (a husky mix) came up and visited us and was pretty friendly. Why he didn’t call the dog off earlier we don’t know but we were somewhere between concerned and petrified until he showed up!

The hot springs were fantastic! The pools are about 3 ft deep with cold water running into them but at least as warm as a hot tub and possibly hotter in places. We quickly got used to the sulphur smell – a lot like the tepid baths in New Zealand. Benches are placed in the water at various locations in the pools. With the night sky above us, trees and snow around us and gathered with friends from Team Mitsubishi Alcan, Sirius Rally Team and our fellow Arctic Challenger crew, it was a magic and relaxing location we will never forget.

Scores
We are closing in on Car 1, though not as fast as we hoped. We made up 2 points today on the Long Lake TSDs. But even though we put 4.6 seconds on them at the ice race, we both got “maxed” by Gordo in Car 17, meaning we instead took 10 points each.

However, we did draw 5 points ahead of Car 10, helping us keep hold of 2nd place overall.

Here are the top 4 overall:

Car 1	Webb/Hightower/R.Kraushaar	35.1	1st in Class I
Car 2	Wallace/R.D.Kraushaar	39.6	1st in Class II
Car 10	McMillen/Crippen	47.6
Car 3	Eklund/Rounds	59.9	1st in Class III

A very close rally, stay tuned!

Glenn

Day 7 Map

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Today’s Temperatures
-14F as we went through Engineer Creek on the Dempster, mostly 6-14F everywhere else.

Return to Whitehorse
After a filling buffet breakfast, we left Eagle Plains (my own favourite stop on this rally) bound for Whitehorse.

With temperatures mostly below 10F, everyone’s gas mileage suffered terribly and many teams had to top up from their spare gas on the side of the road. The trip was generally uneventful. We stopped for photos a few times and I kept my eye on the wonderful yellow ice creeks which are fed from hot springs, with a pungent sulfur odor. You don’t expect to see these at -14F at the top of a mountain pass!! I wish there was a good spot to have stopped for pictures of these springs but it just didn’t work out.

With our gas light on and our fuel gauge well below E as we arrived, we were able to gas up at the Dempster Corner, eat a quick lunch and then head down the scenic Klondike Highway for Whitehorse.

Pictures
Sorry, still behind on these. I will update this post as soon as I upload them and make a new entry so you know to come back and look.

Day 8 preview
Two TSDs (Long Lake) in Whitehorse and then the Whitehorse ice race course again.
Then we’re off to Liard Hot Springs and staying at the lodge there. Rustic!!

We probably won’t be able to report Sunday night as I don’t think we’ll have any connectivity from the lodge.

Scores
It looks like we are still in 2nd place overall (1st in class II) but the first several cars are very close together, and tomorrow’s ice races should bring them all closer.

Here are the top 5 overall:

Car 1	Webb/Hightower/R.Kraushaar	23.1	1st in Class I
Car 2	Wallace/R.D.Kraushaar	29.6	1st in Class II
Car 10	McMillen/Crippen	32.6
Car 4	Horst/Wiley	43.5
Car 3	Eklund/Rounds	45.1	1st in Class III

See you at the hot springs!

Glenn

Day 6 Map 


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Today’s Temperatures
14F in Inuvik, 6F on the ice road

The end of the road
While the ascent of Everest is challenging, the return journey is just as critical. This is also true with the ice road trip to Tuktoyaktuk.

We set out from Inuvik at 7AM local (6AM Pacific) and drove down the boat ramp onto the Mackenzie River portion of the ice road. The road seemed smoother than in 2004, with some well signed rough sections and a few large ice-potholes.

After about 2 hour drive, which included seeing the sun rise over the Beaufort Sea, we arrived in Tuk. There is a monument which marks the northernmost place you can drive in Canada, though this year’s ice road comes around the northern tip of Tuk making the marker temporarily wrong by 100ft.

We took some photos at the marker, called Ann with the sat phone, then drove to the General Store, which opens at 10AM. It did not have the usual assortment of Tuk souvenirs, unfortunately. We didn’t wait for the other shop to open (noon) and decided to head for Inuvik.

Driving on the ice road is straightforward, and really isn’t slippery except in some of the corners “polished” by all the traffic. These corners caught out a few of the rally cars who wound up in the snow banks.

On one of the long straights we stopped for a stretch and photos and resumed with the customary “donut” competition. Car 1 did some nice pirouettes and I was finally able to do the perfect pirouette in place for almost a minute. I could see the circular grooves in the ice around us and not wanting to end up like Wile. E. Coyote and falling through the ice, we ended our fun and resumed course for Inuvik.

end of a few pirouettes on the ice road (video by Steve and Kathryn, Car 14)


About half way down the ice road the visibility started to get much worse, fog and frost descended over a large group of cars. We didn’t gas up at Tuk because the road was so clear on the way up and we had over half a tank remaining. Yet another lesson of being up north, never pass gas as I noted before but also that conditions can change quickly and this is why staying on top of the gas situation is important.

We slowed down to almost 20MPH for quite a while, with frost forming on the windshield and requiring an almost constant spray of washer fluid to remove it, even though the defroster and wiper heaters were on full blast. We were even losing sight of cars 3-4 car lengths in front of us and more importantly, not easily being able to see where the road was going. There was a lot of radio chatter with people trying to work their way through it.

(One little trick I have is to follow the grooves in the road left by the ploughs, which works about 90% of the time.)

We eventually emerged from the fog and had a clear run back to Inuvik with gas to spare.

We shopped in Inuvik for local crafts and had lunch and then began the long drive down the Dempster to Eagle Plains, with a brief sightseeing detour to the Inuvik Airport.

The mountain weather was very clearly moving in to the passes and we experienced one brief white out (not a total white out but very close). We filled up again at Fort McPherson and made it in to Eagle Plains in time for a nice buffet dinner.

Eagle Plains Lodge is a very remote, rustic location, complete with photos of such interesting items as the face of the Mad Trapper after he had been shot by the RCMP.

My plans to observe the arctic night sky from Eagle Plains with my small telescope were scuttled due to the heavy cloud. After a few drinks we hit the sack, though I think some of the other teams may have stayed up for a few more drinks (ahem).

Pictures
Sorry, still behind on these. I will update this post as I am able to upload them.
More stunning scenery, trust me!

Glenn

Map

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Today's Temperature Range
2F (some spots on Dempster), 36F (also on Dempster), 14F in Inuvik right now

An Inconvenient Truthiness
The experience of the 2004 trip up the Demspter changed me, but this trip changed me in a way I didn't expect.

Two things are vastly different since the 2008 event.

1. Al Gore invented the Internet, so we could all blog from the road. In 2004 we were using modems and waiting hours to upload one picture. The connectivity now is pretty ubiquitous.

2. Al Gore invented global warming. I mean, he discovered it, or pointed it out. But really, very dry up here and not much snow. Huge mountains, valleys and plains we saw completely snow covered in 2004 are now bare. A Dutch TV crew is here filming a documentary on climate change. The locals said it has been too cold to snow but it hasn't been -60F for the last few months. So right now it is unseasonably warm here (in 2004 it was -something, now it is 14F) and also very very lacking in snow cover. It isn't a very scientific conclusion based on two observations, and maybe this is just one of those temperature/precipitation swings that happen, BUT what has happened is that seeing a large area like this look completely different is making me ask myself "what are the impacts to the planet of decisions I make every day?". We all should be asking ourselves this every day. Maybe I should be driving a Prius instead of a Maserati that gets 12.7MPG on a good day? Maybe those flourescent bulbs don't suck so badly? Maybe I should figure out other ways to use less non-renewable energy? Maybe those carbon offset companies aren't really a big shell game? Ok, let's not go that far (sorry Erik).

Pictures
You know you want them. Small problem: I am out of hard disk and CF space. This is a bit of an issue. I am shooting RAW mode (and small JPG) with my honking great big Canon 1D Mk III DSLR, and I'm just plum out of space. So while I go deleting 10 years of work emails and baby pictures of the kids (just kidding honey) I won't have many to post.

But just for you, here's a few random samples in glorius stupid-blog-software-ready 500 x 332 pixel colour:













Thought for the day
"Do you believe that stuff the old man was saying the other night at the Oso Negro about gold changin' a man's soul so's he ain't the same sort of man as he was before findin' it?"
           - Fred C. Dobbs


Day 6, 7 preview
NO UPDATES on Friday night (we're at Eagle Plains), you'll have to wait until Saturday.

Ice road next, need sleep now.

Glenn

Map (new)

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Today's temperature range
31F (Whitehorse, morning), 46F (Klondike Highway!), currently 20F in Dawson City

Mission Accomplished!
We have scores from today but without the adjustments from yesterday and the drops for Day 2-4, not really sure what the net effect is. I expect the first 4-5 cars to bunch up even closer - anyone could win!

We did quite well in the ice race, we think we put 0.6 seconds on Car 1, pulling us a little closer.

Today's ice race was at Schwatka (sp?) Lake --- plowed by the local snowmobile club. Looks like a home to many seaplanes during summer, they are all up on the shore now it is frozen. A nice big open track, about .76 of a mile.
Loads of fun!

My first run was quite fast but needed a little tidy up, I think about 1:21 - Paul's time was 1:19 for the first run so we were easily inside the 5 second zone (which I didn't know for my second run).

My second run was very fast, a bit too fast, listening to some Queen and the "red mist" descended and I went off into a bank, which slowed me for 4-5 seconds easily while the car dragged its way back out (full throttle in 2nd gear). It came in at 1:25 vs a 1:20 for Paul so we maxed that one, but so did Car 1. I will try and post full scores, as others did a lot better than I did.

R.Dale's first run was absolutely fantastic, very clean and lovely cornering lines and very quick, right up into he went deep into the bank before the finish line with a major "stuff" that required "extraction" by a sweep vehicle.

R.Dale's second run was nice and clean at 1:28. Each run group went slower and slower as the ice got more polished.

Drive Slower and Be Quicker!
Our strategy for the next ice race is to not try to go quite so fast (no listening to Queen, my daughter always says I drive too fast when I listen to music in the car). We know it is easy on this track to stay within 5 seconds of Paul on this track by taking a clean line, so the most important thing is to beat the times of Cars 1, 4, 10, 24.....

Greg (Car 1): (pic by R.Dale)


Glenn (Car 2): (pic by R.Dale)


Steve (Car 4) - yes folks, he kept going:


Big truck going deep - I think Doug Heredos driving (Car 18):


Looks like a Mitsubishi in a snow bank - he kept going too, Gary Bockman Car 21, I think:


Dawson City
We're here in Dawson City and we love it. It is still set up like a frontier town (popular with tourists, more so in summer....). I was hoping to get some shots of the lunar eclipse but clouds/mountains got in the way, so it was a bust.

This is our hotel, the Eldorado (quaint!):


Here's a picture "Dusk in Dawson":


Greg (Car 1) in the saloon. Or is it salon?


Day 5-7 preview
We are officially "off the clock" for three days while we start our adventures up the Dempster Highway to Inuvik and the Mackenzie River/Highway to Tuktoyaktuk. No TSDs or racing, but if you fail to reach Inuvik, a 200 point penalty, and a 20 point penalty if you fail to reach Tuk. We're going to both, of course.

Next few days not sure of what our connectivity will be, here is the rough itinerary:
Day 5 - Dawson City, to lunch at Eagle Plains, then to Inuvik overnight.
Day 6 - Inuvik to Tuk, then back to Eagle Plains overnight.
Day 7 - Eagle Plains to Whitehorse.

The Dempster is (I think) one of the most dangerous roads on the planet, more so than the ice road. Of course we will take utmost caution and travel in a group.

See you in Inuvik,

Glenn

(update 5:30AM: we're up getting ready for the Dempster Highway.... the sub-arctic bugs have caught up with Car 1, Gary has been fighting it for a while, but Russ is staying in Dawson to rest and recover. As long as two occupants and the vehicle make it to Inuvik Tuk, they can still be considered to have reached the controls. We hope Russ (and Gary who is making the trip) feel better soon.)

Thoughts and thanks from the road
I wouldn't be able to do this if it wasn't for Ann's love and support. She's holding down the fort back in Redmond with the girls, and put up with my endless trips into the garage to prepare the car. So thank you Ann, I owe you  big time (yet again).

Miss you all!!! (and Collin the dog!)
xoxox

Scores
Looks like car 1 put a point on us, but we put a point on 3rd and 4th place. No real big changes here.

Today's Temperature Range
7F (low on Cassiar Highway) to 36F (coming into Whitehorse) - balmy!! (recall it was -40F here a few days ago)

Day 3 Map

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O, Canada!
It was a long day today, with an ~800 mile transit; up the scenic Cassiar Highway, then up the Alcan highway to Whitehorse, in Yukon Territory. We left the hotel at 6:30 for a breakfast at a truck stop that took forever, but the scenery on the Cassiar more than made up for it. We only saw one moose, but two arctic foxes!


It was great to see Kathryn and Steve's reaction to the scenery. "Pictures can't capture it and words can't describe it" I said in 2004. Well, I took a few pictures but honestly they don't do it justice. I am humbled.


Don't Pass Gas
Two planned gas stops didn't quite work out. One was closed and the second gas station's pumps had failed.
This left most of the teams very short on gas --- we had to use our 2.5 gallon reserve tank on the roof, as well as borrowing a gallon from our fantastic team mates (did we mention good looking?) Steve and Kathryn. Paul and Kala also had to splash gas twice, and we all barely made it into the next open gas station.

We didn't top up at breakfast, which was only 27 miles from our hotel (where we filled up) but that extra 27 miles would have been some extra insurance. As they say up here "don't pass gas"; well actually they say "never pass gas" I think.


Day 4 Preview
We have two short back to back TSDs in Whitehorse, then our first ice race! After that, we drive up to Dawson City.

Yee-haw! There's gold in them thar' hills!

Glenn

Favourite Picture of the Day



Day 2 Map (again no pinpoints, sorry, too busy in car to press the button on the GPS)

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Today's Temperature Range
14F up to 38F

And the results are in...
This must be what it is like being a politician waiting for election results: you're sitting in the bar, drinking a beer with your friends, and then the results come in.... you pick up the piece of paper and...

Team Arctic Challengers had a banner day!

R.Dale and I (car 2) moved up to 2nd overall and 1st in class II.
Paul and Kala (car 3) held on to 1st in class III (calc) with 51 points.
Steven and Kathryn (Car 14) are 2nd in class III with 113 points.

Overall scores for the top 4 cars look something like this:

(1) Gary/Greg/Russ	19 points
(2) Glenn/R.Dale	21 points
(24) April/Marcus/Kevin Team Mitsubishi	27 points
(4) Eric/Steve TeamD	29 points

These scores will change slightly as we drop our worst control score from days 2 and 3. Right now those drops aren't terribly material but who knows what will happen on Day 3!

Not planning on driving here:


Because the ice racing at the Gold Pan Speedway was cancelled, we ran the "11% Grade TSD" (the little loop north of Quesnel on the map) which featured some challenging uphill icy and snowy sections.

Before the start we visited a school as we did in 2004, with the kids getting a chance to look at rally cars and ask us questions:


Greg Hightower and I had odometer input problems here in 2004 so it was nice to run it and do well.

We also ran Blackwater Road TSD (which featured the most awesome road to transit out of it, driver is still smiling...) and Fraser Lake TSD which had an a 12 MPH section which caught many teams out - it is actually easier to average a faster speed than a slower speed.



Back to my election analogy, while it might look like we did pretty well today, the smallest slip up could cost us (or any other team) the rally, so it isn't over until the end of the rally (or the electoral college votes, or the supreme court rules, or whatever).

However, it looks like the ice racing could be a deciding factor. It works like this: you get the score of your time less the fastest time in your class, capped at a maximum of 5 points. Ice racing classes are different (2WD, 4WD stud, 4WD studless) than the TSD classes. Now what happened last year at the final ice race was a certain driver who shall remain nameless (Paul) cleaned everyone's clocks and gave everyone 5 points.

The interesting point here is, you could be the worst driver and still "only" take the 5 points, where maybe we were 6 seconds slower than Paul and also take 5 points, not altering our relative positions (except of course for Paul who gained 5 points on everyone).

So the trick is, be within 5 seconds of Paul's time and hopefully you can put some points on the other competition.
Or better yet, beat Paul. Good luck with that.

Another big plug for the Cooper WeatherMaster tires, we drove on some very slippy roads and the car is just so predictable and easy to drive.



Day 3 preview
A short ten mile TSD, and then 800+ mile transit to Whitehorse.

Yes, we are getting up early.



See you down the road...

Glenn