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Day 2 |
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Greetings from the sleepy final minutes of the second day of the 2000 Alcan 5000 Winter Rally. Today saw our first ice slalom which was a blast. The ice slalom was on a frozen oval track with nice soft two foot high snow banks. My specialty was taking one end of the track (the non-spectator end) too fast and widening the track by about half a car width. The big Chinook RV's were a great sight to see slinging it around the track. For those of you with your maps out here's the place's we've been today. This morning we rose in Quesnel, BC. and had the ice slalom. After a TSD we continued heading up 97 through Prince George, Chetwyn, and the dregs of the Canadian Rockies (we went from about 2800ft to 4500ft and that was the Rockies). An evening TSD started between Dawson Creek and Ft. St. John and tonight's hotel is in Ft. St. John. Lots of towns with economies based on the harnessing of natural resources like timber and fossil fuels. Rally vehicles damaged to date are a cracked windshield (that happened on the way to the beginning of the rally) and one car that lost most of its driving lights to a deer (it's not clear what the deer lost). Where is the tow strap? Out of the car, to save weight. that was the story out on the ice slalom when it was needed to pull of the car out of the snow bank. The course workers let us use theirs and were so impressed with some of our other recovery gear (stuff to help pull your car out of whereever your navigator stuffed it) provided by a sponsor for whom we might have actually made a sale. The scores from yesterday showed us in 7th place overall, at the front of the 'B' group (those of us without professional drivers or factory support). That was at the beginning of the day and the next time we see the scores we don't expect to hold such a favorable position. Today's two TSDs and the ice slalom didn't go tremendously well for us but we had fun. We checked wolves and deer off our wildlife checklist today. Luckily the deer that was standing in the middle of the highway was wearing a bring orange vest and hat so we were able to see it well in advance and slow down enough to not hit it. The current temp here in Ft St John at midnight pacific time is -22C (not F, you do the math). The rally mileage at the end of today is 919.15 and the mileage tomorrow night will be 1770. So, it's off to bed with an early wake-up call tomorrow morning. Having a great time, |
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