Day 1 Map (sorry I only marked the start of the 2nd TSD)

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Cold Start
The rally got off to a good start. It was cool in Kirkland, about 32F and the car was all frosted up when we got in. Collin, our dog, was a bit sad to see us go. All the teams were at Rally HQ and ready to go.

Russ Kraushaar (R.Dale's son) getting ready to leave Rally HQ:


Jerry Hines the rallymaster flagged us out at our appointed time. The first TSD ("regularity") started from the Bow Hill rest area on I-5 and quickly moved off to some back roads, finishing up on Mosquito Lake road. R.Dale and I discussed how early we should be getting off the highway, with us going through a couple of stop signs. Luckily we were on time (or think we were) when we passed the first checkpoint which was immediately after the first stop.

Team D have some interesting mascots (Buzz was on the 2004 event!):



Elvis Rocks the Canyon
We were coming up TC-1 (Trans Canada 1) up the Fraser Canyon from Hope to Cache Creek and were looking for a rest stop and pulled into Elvis Rocks the Canyon, a little restaurant, not surprisingly Elvis themed. We had passed it twice last week at Thunderbird so it seemed like a good place to stop.  The team (and our buddy car, car #1 Greg, Gary and Russ) had lunch -- some very filling burgers. I don't think I've ever seen so much Elvis memorabilia in one place before; ... lunch with the King was ok by me.






What Deer?
We were surprised how warm it was (45F!) as we drove up Highway 97 (Caribou) to Williams Lake and the Soda Creek TSD, though it was a about 28F by the time we got to Williams Lake. This regularity was used in 2004 and has also been used in Rally BC events. The road started out as pavement and turned to slippy ice on packed snow (I think). We had no trouble staying on the road - the most complicated section was a left turn under a bridge with a speed change down to 20 MPH and then right and up a hill. We haven't seen scores yet but think we did "ok" for the day. What was interesting was one of the other cars mentioned seeing deer and cows, which we didn't see at all. Perhaps we woke them up?!

Day 2 preview: the Quesnel Speedway ice race has been cancelled as the track has not been cleared of snow. This track was very narrow and bumpy in 2004. Last time the snow banks had melted and refrozen and were very hard - I would up with a fog light cover shoved into my bumper, splitting it. The Forester would have been ok on this track. Instead we are doing the "11% Grade" TSD from 2004 which will be a challenge because it was not remeasured with the 2008 survey so getting the odometer factor right will be interesting. Jerry is sending crews down the Blackwater highway to check it is open, another possible change if it isn't.

See you down the road...

Glenn

PS scores are in, looks like we are in 4th overall, by 4 points (pretty low scores for the first 4 cars: 2,4,4,6). Not sure of our team mate's position in classes, as that wasn't on the scoring sheet.