Day 10 Map

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: