Ice Road Trek - Alcan Winter Rally 2008

Ice Road Truckers Season Two

2008-06-09T02:35:00Z

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 - The sting in the tail; And the winners are...

2008-02-27T07:17:00Z

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 - Penultimato

2008-02-26T02:58:00Z

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 - Into the wild

2008-02-26T02:49:00Z

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 - Return to Whitehorse

2008-02-24T08:21:00Z

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 - The end of the road

2008-02-24T08:06:00Z

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)
http://iceroadtrek.com/2008/02/24/day-6--the-end-of-the-road.aspx

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

Day 5 - An Inconvenient Truthiness

2008-02-22T06:55:00Z

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

Day 4 - Mission Accomplished!

2008-02-21T05:58:00Z

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.)

Day 3 - Don't pass gas

2008-02-20T06:28:00Z

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

Day 2 - And the results are in...

2008-02-19T06:25:00Z

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

Day 1 - Cold Start, Elvis Rocks the Canyon, What Deer?

2008-02-18T06:02:00Z

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.

Day 0 - Tech, registration and punch lists

2008-02-17T03:41:00Z

Well, we are all set to go. We wrestled the checklist to the ground, and everything on the car is good. Of course, I should be packing my clothes, but writing this seemed like more fun!

We are "tech-ed" which means the officials have looked at the car and we have the required equipment and all of our lights are ok.

The Arctic Challengers had a fun "farewell" dinner at Cafe Veloce, which was certainly popular with the rally crowd tonight. It was good to catch up with many old friends, from the 2004 event and before.

Our official "out time" at Rally HQ (Baymont Inn, Kirkland) is 8:01AM Sunday, which means we'll leave the house at around 6:30AM, just to make sure we have enough time at the HQ to see if there have been any last minute changes, get official rally time etc.

See you down the road...

Glenn

We're going to need a bigger boat...

2008-02-12T06:37:00Z

(The title is of course a nod to the recently deceased actor Roy Scheider.)

The famous last words (before your car, snowmobile, or best friend falls through the ice) are usually:
"well the ice looked thick enough to support us....."

Barnes Lake

This morning we drove from Merritt to Barnes Lake (near Ashcroft BC) to give R.Dale a little seat time in the Forester on the ice. Building some muscle memory around how the car/tire combination responds on ice is pretty important, and the more that is pre-wired in to your brain, the less dial-in time you'll need at the actual event.

We knew the lake had been used for an ice race on Sunday and clearly so because the course was plowed, and very, very dark and shiny from the cars "polishing" it. The real ice race cars use spiked tires and really rip up the surface.

Dark means slippery
(yes the cracks are normal, and quite safe)

So we parked the car and gingerly walked out on the ice by ourselves to check everything out. It looked pretty normal. I joked a little about how I was not crazy about being down there without another car in case something went wrong. We had our sat phone and PLB in the trunk but who needs that when you are driving around the lake?

We decided to do a SLOW lap around the "long" oval (the shorter circuit has a turn halfway down the main straight which shortcuts the course) to check the surface out.

Start of the main straight (rest of it is out of sight to the top left)

Now, bear in mind I have been to this lake at least 4 times and am very familiar with a) driving a car on ice, b) how things are done at this particular lake.

We get about 3/4 of the way down the main straight, and I see I am on line for a long patch of "different" ice, about 150 ft long and about 10 ft wide. Generally speaking the lighter color the surface the more grip you will have (e.g. covered with snow or chewed up ice) and the polished ice (the slippery stuff) looks very dark and wet. The polished line to the right looked very dark and wet and I figured this was a pretty decent line to stay on the lighter stuff.

Then the car starts falling through the ice, the back end first. Luckily our speed is just keeping the front wheels above the ice as the back wheels drag down through the water and ice slush!! Thoughts about life insurance payments block my brain a little. If I move the car to the right, is that even wetter, because it is darker? Finally the light bulb goes off in my head (about 30 secs later than it should have) and I start to nudge the car to the right and we once again are on firm ice.

What happened?

Answer: when the cars race, they chew the ice so badly that ruts form. While they thin the surface "a bit" the ruts are just annoying to drive on, so at the end of the race day, Sunday, Fred Robertson (he plows the track) would have bored a hole through the ice to let the lake water up to fill the rutted areas, which then freeze flat. (almost) Instant road repair!!! (They do this on the ice roads up north too.)

Now, I have had Fred tell me in past years (he looks a bit like Chuck Yeager, who I've met, but that is another story), "just stay off those sections I've repaired until they freeze, ok?"

The only real danger to us was of being embarrassed and having our car stuck in a little lake on TOP of the ice about 4-8" deep. There was plenty of solid ice under that "repair" puddle.

Was it a bad choice to make? Yes.

This incident illustrates a really subtle point, that my brain's interpretation of the surface had been wired to use of the track when it had a light covering of snow (like 2 weeks ago) and when the repaired areas looked darker. With the recently polished dark "hard" surface, the repaired areas looked lighter and safer but were in fact the opposite. In fact the still-wet repaired sections also have a green-ish tinge but I guess I was at the wrong angle to see that, it was really clear to see them as we drove away from the lake looking down from high up.

A lot of choices you make up north (and every day, truth be told) are based on what experiences you have and how your brain is wired to interpret the information.

I have a pair of special prescription sunglasses that are designed for giving me more contrast in snowy/icy conditions, where picking out each little piece of information can help you choose the right place to put your tires. As I write this, I just realized I also was not wearing them on the lake. That counts as my second mistake!

After that little scare we each took a few laps of the short course (away from the major ice repairs) and had some great fun. I felt instantly dialed in, having been up there a sort time ago, and R.Dale quickly got into the swing of it and we both agreed the combination of the Forester and the Cooper tires (plug plug) on the ice was very predictable and responsive.

R.Dale nicely sideways

"I'm not going to push it all that hard..."
(the grooves from the ice racers visible here)

We are now back at Casa del Wallace to finalize our Alcan preparations during the remainder of the week.

For more information about the people that really race fast on this lake and know what they are doing (unlike me), visit http://carsonice.ca/

PS Please don't tell Fred, ok? He'll be cranky that I drove through one of his repair sections...!

PPS Kala and Paul have a myspace page set up for our team, check it out!

So other than that, Mrs Lincoln, how was the play?

2008-02-11T05:33:00Z

Well another Thunderbird Rally is over!!! Great roads and good friends there as usual.

R.Dale and I placed 3rd overall (about 37 cars entered).
Paul and Kala took 2nd in Calc class, narrowly missing 1st by 2 points.

R.Dale and I will drive up to Barnes Lake (near Ashcroft BC) for some Ice Racing practice in the morning, and then back home to re-prep the car for Alcan.

We both feel good, all the mental cobwebs blown out and ready to rally through the Alcan. The Forester went very well, and the Cooper tires were stellar (plug plug). Paul and I tested radios so that is all good. The punch list got a little bigger, but should be no problem to sort out before next weekend.

Funniest moment of the weekend was R.Dale saying "and then at 32.08km we will hit the bridge" and I said "what do you mean HIT the bridge!?". So sure enough we come down an icy, snowy hill to try to turn right onto the bridge and while I am nicely on time, it isn't clear we'll make the bridge without hitting the scenery.

No matter which way I turn the wheel or tap the gas and brake we are heading for the guard rail. I almost closed my eyes waiting for the "crunch", but luckily we hit the soft snow bank and sort of ricocheted across the bridge, scoring a nice zero in the process, because we were being timed at the beginning of the bridge, which we "hit" right on time.

Maps! Maps!
Here is my first test using my WinTec WBT201 GPS logger (geek alert!!), to post our travels from Saturday and Sunday, if you click on the "view larger map" link you should be able to take a closer look with Google Maps.

Thunderbird 2008 Day 1 GPS Log:

View Larger Map

Thunderbird 2008 Day 2 GPS Log:

View Larger Map

Some Huge Photos
Some random pictures from the weekend.

Steven gets his Pacific Coast Challenge driver's award at the Thunderbird driver's meeting:

R.Dale and Gary Webb (Team Atlantic, who is in Car #1 on Alcan) share a story:

Cars line up for one of the night stages:

Beautiful British Columbia:

Greg Hightower (Car #1 on Alcan and also my co-driver on Alcan 2004) and his navigator Steve get ready for another stage:

I just liked this shot:

Glenn

Merritt, Kamloops, Merritt, Ashcroft, then home

2008-02-08T14:59:00Z

The team heads north today to Merritt, BC for the 2008 Thunderbird Rally. I've entered this rally every year since 1999 and won it twice, but it is a very challenging event so a good outcome for the weekend is getting warmed up (ha ha) for Alcan and keeping the car out of the snowbanks.

I pick up R.Dale at the airport this morning, and then head directly to BC. The FXT (that's Subaru-fan speak for the Forester XT) is "mostly" packed. I still have a punch list of a few things for Alcan I will take care of next week.

More later...

Greg Hightower and me on the way to winning the 2004 Thunderbird:

Glenn

So how do you prepare a car for -50F?

2008-02-06T04:48:00Z

WARNING - TECHNICAL CONTENT AHEAD!

Tires
The first question I usually get asked is "so do you have special tires?"

The answer here is no -- our tires must be street legal, and so most competitors use either a studded or studless winter tire.

Modern studless tires offer incredible ice grip (in my opinion better than studs), using advanced rubber compounds and many small sipes (cuts) in the tread, creating many edges that can grip the ice. However, in order to get maximum ice grip, most studless tires have a very closed tread pattern that maximizes the number of sipes, but is a compromise in terms of ability to clear snow from the tread.

For that reason, as we are driving on roads that are typically snow over ice over gravel, we need an aggressive and open tread pattern for snow traction, with studs that provide decent ice grip. If you are buying tires for winter in your city, either check your local tire use regulations or seriously consider studless tires, as they are much kinder to the road surfaces.

The tires we are running are 215/65 16 (on Foresters) and 195/65 15 (on Ashley the Impreza) Cooper Weather-Master S/T 2's, graciously provided by Cooper Tire to the Arctic Challengers team. (thanks!!!)

On the Forester we are running a slightly taller sidewall than the Subaru standard tire size to provide us with a little more protection from the rough roads, and also a little more ground clearance (about 8" on the Forester before we put the tall tires on!).

The Coopers have proven to be a great winter rally tire - I scored 3rd fastest time of the day (missed 1st by 2 secs) at the recent Ice-X at Barnes Lake. R.Dale and I also used them on Totem 2007 where we scored 2nd place overall, with the Coopers providing excellent grip in a variety of conditions (mud, snow, ice...)

Underbody Protection
As we are sometimes driving through logging roads, unpaved roads etc., we need to protect the underside of the engine/gearbox and rear differential with some large pieces of aluminum. Luckily Paul Eklund has been providing these to the rally community for many years, and I was his first customer way back in 1998 or so! Primitive's Underbody Armor range covers most Subarus from the late 90's to the current models.

Lights
It is dark in Canada, very dark. On my Forester we are running Hella Rallye 4000 Compact HIDs. They provide the same light output as the full size 4000 we used on my STi in 2004 (which are over 9" high!) Paul is running PIAA lights. In blizzard conditions and near white outs, a set of yellow fog lamps is also very important to be able to see the road.

Lubrication
When the temperature drops, many fluids turn to goop. Goop doesn't work so well when you want to drive your car. We typically replace all the oil (engine, transmission, rear diff) with synthetic oil which will keep the same viscocity and protection even at very cold temps. I am running Redline 75W90NS in the transmission, 75W90 in the rear diff, and synthetic 5W30 in the engine.

Staying Warm to Stay Cool
Of course, our engine coolant also needs to stay a liquid. I am using Genuine Subaru Engine Coolant, at a 70% concentration to provide protection from the bitter cold. A Subaru block heater (don't you love how you can get all this stuff for Subarus?) provided by Subaru Northwest Region helps keep things warm so the engine can stay cool. Got that? They also kicked in some Subaru battery warmers to make sure the cars start in the morning when it is -30 F outside.

Staying in Touch
For safety, all Alcan entrants are required to have a VHF radio to keep in contact with the organizers and other entrants. I am using an Icom IC-208H, which is a ham (amateur radio) rig. I have been a ham since 1978, and my Australian callsign is VK4KUX. As backup we also have a hand-held unit, an older Icom IC-T7H. Paul is using an Icom IC-F121 mobile unit.

Safety First
We also carry a variety of required safety equipment: warning triangles, fire extinguishers and first aid kits. I also carry an ACR 406MHz Personal Locator Beacon ( PLB ). It can pinpoint your location and transmit it to Search and Rescue organizations around the world.

These are the very basics of preparing a car for a journey like this, but you will notice no change has been necessary to improve the car's performance or design. Subaru routes their fuel and brake plumbing inside the car, so these lines are quite safe from damage off road, and the Forester has the perfect combination of ground clearance, comfort, performance and handling to be a serious contender in the Alcan rally.

Prior Articles
After the 2004 Alcan, I wrote two articles for Subaru:

300-Horsepower Snowmobile - WRX STi at the 2004 Alcan Winter Rally
(which includes a sidebar "Extreme Winter Conditions: Preparing the WRX STi", which is a condensed version of some of the information above)

The Top of the World - a little more prosaic; an article I am very proud of.

I also helped edit and fact check an article about Subaru's DCCD system.

Glenn

Welcome: who, what, when, where and why...

2008-02-05T20:24:00Z

Welcome to our blog about our adventures "up north"! I'm new at the blogging thing, so bear with me.

Who: The Arctic Challengers team

Car 2: Glenn Wallace and R.Dale Kraushaar, Subaru Forester XT (silver)

Car 3: Paul Eklund and Kala Rounds, Subaru Forester XT (gold)

Car 14: Steve Perret and Kathryn Hansen, Subaru Impreza RS wagon

What: The Alcan Winter Rally 2008

Every four years since 1988, a group of crazy people have been heading up into the frozen north of Canada and Alaska to compete in the Alcan Winter Rally, as well as share an incredible experience together in a very remote part of the continent.

The event consists of three driving activities:

Transit stage: getting from point A to point B, not scored. There are a lot of these miles on Alcan.
Regularity stage: given precise distance and average speed instructions, we are timed to the second early or late in a variety of challenging road conditions.
Ice racing: we compete in timed sections on a frozen lake or speedway (one car on course per run, no paint swapping).

When: February 17-26, 2008

Where: We depart from Kirkland on February 17 (Day 1), and finish on February 26 (Day 10) in Jasper, Alberta, a total distance of 4850 miles. Then of course we will have to drive back to Seattle.... (another 576 miles).

The full map is here.

Why: because it is there.

In future entries we will document our past adventures, our preparations, our sponsors, provide more info on our team, and some of the updates we plan to provide en route.

Glenn