Another voice offering greetings from the bar in Whitehorse. Wireless and beer are a winning combination. So, here are some loosly connected Alcan ramblings.
After a 6am TSD section littered with lumber trucks crawling-up hairpins were on the road to Whitehorse. Starting in Ft. St. John's Wort the mileage alone would make this a long day. But a simply long day isn't enough for Alcan Rally standards. We need, we crave extreme days. We need to add 3 TSD sections and a nice dip at Liard Hot Springs to correctly shape an 18hour driving day.
Competition wise there are ups and downs. We seem to be swapping first place in class I with another car. At breakfast we were ahead but we'll see how it looks the next time scores are posted. When we fall behind it just makes us focus harder on what needs to be done. We were the only car to ace the first DIY section yesterday and that feels good. We hav two more DIY sections today so hopefully we'll do as well on them too.
After a too long stop at Pink Eye Mountain for gas and caf we're back on the road with me at the wheel. So far my fits on the throttle hav been limited to the run up the Fraser River Canyon and smashing the car around on the oval at Quesnel. But today it was a few hundred miles of new-era Alcan Highway. Straight straights and smooth curves. We fell in with the BMW X3 team who were making a casual pace. This was fine with me since unlike the modern X3's our bimmer doesn't hav good cup holders and I didn't want my mocha frapichino to spill.
Since this is my first bought of keyboard time that wasn't committed to calculating times I'll retrace some of our steps and tell my side of story. First of all, she said she was 19, how was I supposed to know? And that smashing the car around in Quesnel? Yeah, that was me. Someone said to use the snow banks and I used them to remove the trim from the car. Didn't make me any faster. The ice racing is fun, I like the sliding around and stuff but the going fast part still eludes me. I keep thinking the going fast part will fall in with driving clean lines but maybe you need to leave all four tires inflated to get a good time.
Some of my transit duties included driving up the Fraser River Canyon. It's a trip we've made many times now on the way to various BC rallys. Typically at night. On Wednesday we got partial sun and rain. Someday I plan to look up the drainage geology that forms the Fraser River Canyon but there is a lot of water that spills out of the high desert cutting it's way to Vancouver. Whether due to it's wide-spread population or the lack of the Highway Building administrations that the US has had Canada retains much of it's rail infrastructure. Ride lines hug both sides of the Fraser canyon. It's also not atypical to see both in use. The east bound trains carrying forest products the west bound carrying forest products converted into hockey sticks.
Our team mates Rob and Nick handed us a little treat this morning of two bags marked .50$ from the Petro-Canada. Turns-out the Petro isn't for petroleum or petrified fossil fuels but for petrified candy. Thanks Rob and Nick, next time we hav some pocket lint (canadian coins smallar then loonies or toonies) we know who to spend it on.
Past Ft. St. Lord Nelson we've found some old-style Alcan Higway. Tight, bendy, and much more authenitic feeling than the super-highway parts. This is the Alcan of Alcan lore. Now much of the highway has been straighten, widened and ensafened. The newer parts are nice (and nice and fast) but not the iconic ribbon of tramac linking places previously unlinked.
In the running tally of things stolen on the 2004 Alcan Rally we're up to one room key, one hotel towel and one tank of gas. I won't say who forgot to pay for their gas but I know they intend to repay their debt to society.
Here are some quotes from the day:
"The sound of the wind in the tree tops and the tinkle on the snow makes me yearn for the northlands"
-anonymous
"I am the calculator"
-K. Rounds
I'm tired, more rally tomorrow.
Enjoy the pictures.
Cheers,
Steve