Have bike, will travel
Roger and Kit Toevs wait to start the Blackwater TSD in the sidecar BMW.

Ron Sorem photos

2010 Alcan draws twice as many cycles as cars
BY RON SOREM
Contributing Editor

KIRKLAND — Seven cars and 14
motorcycles departed Kirkland, innear record high temperature weather, heading north to the border andbeyond. Jerry Hines and the Rainier
Auto Sports Club presented Alcan
5000.
For 2010, Steve Brown and I had
been paired in one of the Legacys, ascourse marshals. A late change
moved Steve to the front of the rallywith Jerry. I moved to Sweep 2 with
Joe Gardner. “Sweeps” on summer
October 2010

Alcan are the “backup plan” for the
motorcycles — alone, on a bike, in the
middle of nowhere, could be trouble
with just a minor repair.
The Mosquito Lake TSD was revised this year. The scenic, twisting,narrow drive was lost to easy meanderings to Sumas, then east on Highway 1 to Hope, B.C., and norththrough the Fraser Canyon. An easy
trip to Williams Lake, except for theconstruction. As Sweep, we didcheckpoints then followed the routenorth, watching every gas station
and restaurant for “our” bikes. It became clear with the last road closure
www.nwr-scca.org

for construction that we weren’t
going to make our checkpoint assignment. I called on the radio and had
another crew switch location with us.
From years of TSD rallies around
Williams Lake, I knew the back way
into the section and we were in place,with three minutes to spare before
first car. It was getting very smoky
from nearby forest fires, and by thetime we were ready to go, there wasash on the car and the sun was justan orange dot in the sky.
Day Two: Quesnel to Dawson
Creek, B.C. Early in the day thesmoke was so bad your eyes hurt andNorthwest Sports Car News 9

The Toyota FJ Cruiser crew of Texan Jessica Jenkins and Tennesseean Carolyn Garner stop at Worthington Glacier.
On their first rally, the “novice rallyists” were first in class.

visibility was about a quarter-mile.
Coming into Prince George, one bikedeveloped an oil leak and we stayedwith him, and two others, until adealership was located. The rider
elected to try for the dealer, we followed, then handed off to Sweep 1(with a bike carrier) to wait for repairs. The dealer fixed a cracked oilline with only about a two-hourdelay. Somewhere north of Prince
George, the skies became noticeably
less smoky — pale blue, with small
white clouds. Around Rally Mile 765
we crossed Pine Pass with views ofhuge formations of solid rock, folded
here and there by geologic forces,
then worn away by past glaciers.
Day Three: Dawson Creek, B.C.,
to Watson Lake, Yukon Territory —about 620 miles. “Old Alaska Highway” was the first TSD of the day atRM 918. Along the way we crossed
the only remaining wood trestle
bridge from 1942. A grading crew
was working in the TSD — verysmooth gravel, somewhat deep inspots — and then there was the grader! Then narrow 6 percent drop, hairpin and a slippery little hillclimb to a
10 Northwest Sports Car News

checkpoint. Car 4 was the only “0”.
Back to the “new” highway, into
Fort St. John (founded 1792). “Looks
like Kansas to me, Toto” was the next
TSD, and the rolling hills were a contrast to the previous days mountainous terrain. Onto the Alaska Highway again, more construction andlots of RCMP. North to Fort Nelson,and conversations with eastboundtravelers reported the “road covered
with hail, safe speed 20 mph,” and tothe bikes with us: “Lots of places
have closed, and the boys are having
a hard time finding gas.” The reply
from Tennessee’s Jeff Brisendine:“As long as we stay ahead of that big
blue Dodge, we’ll be OK.”At RM 1,254 we have a view of an
unusual rock outcropping, IndianHead Rock, resembling a chief in fullheaddress, hanging off a replica of
Yosemite’s Half Dome. At RM 1,283,
in Stone Mountain Park, we pass
Summit Lake and the highest pavement on the Alaska Highway, 4,247
feet elevation, with reports of caribou
here earlier in the day.
A favorite and sometimes necessary fuel stop is Toad River Lodge, atwww.nwr-scca.org

RM 1,315, with its collection of pastries and thousands of caps donatedby visitors. We are calculating fuelrange for the bikes. The KTM is safely 200 miles, the other two with us abit more. There will be fuel at Northern Rockies Lodge in 81 miles. Theremight be fuel at Liard River, CoalRiver and Contact Creek. Our destination of Watson Lake is 200 miles.
RM 1,338 finds a momma moose
and calf along the route. In Muncho
Lake Park, the bighorn stone sheep
are out for most of the rally — hiddenfrom us in the rain. Black bear, abison herd, with calves just slightly
smaller than the bear. Liard HotSprings is well populated as we resetodo at the start of a DIY section. Justup the road, bison have blocked thehighway, stopping the bikes and cars
(seems the pavement holds somedaytime heat into the evening).
The photo-op is interrupted by thebig highway rigs — exhaust brakes
rattling a low staccato, slowing, bigbison yielding to the bigger trucks —then all proceed, for now. We’ll havemore photo-ops, with solo bulls ignoring traffic, the cows and calves a bit
October 2010

more wary. At Contact Creek (wherenorthbound bulldozers met southbound, building the Al-Can) we find
our three bikes — station closed. “I’vegone 30 miles with the reserve lighton”... It’s 40 more to Watson Lake.
All three made it, all with reservelight on for most of the distance.
Day Four: The brief morning Watson Lake TSD, then options: straightto Whitehorse for R&R, with a time
penalty, or the Campbell Highway toRoss River, and the South Canol.
Nearly all chose the gravel. In Whitehorse, most wished they’d taken theshortcut — tire shops were busy.
Whitehorse brought more choices.
The bikes chose the overnight campon the North Canol to the NorthWest Territories. Bikes can only getto the NWT with the Sweeps for fuel.
Both trucks and one staff car madethe trek. Dan Watt’s big BMW ParisDakar lost its footing and caught arock with the valve cover. The bikewould get a ride on Sweep 1, for parking lot repairs in Whitehorse: A CocaCola can, cut to shape, lots of prep
work by John Isenburg, and several
layers of epoxy produced a new valve
cover. Some super glue rebuilt thetaillight lens, and Dan was ready tocontinue.
Cars, and six of the bikes, chose a
TSD in Whitehorse, then 340 miles toovernight in Dawson — a bit moreplush than Joe’s elegant elk camp on
the North Canol. A brief TSD up toMidnight Dome gave a great view ofDawson, the confluence of theKlondike and Yukon rivers, and theTop of the World Highway, which
was closed in Alaska, necessitating
our detour back to Whitehorse.
In the two days, the separate
routes brought ample wildlife sightings: North Canol — grouse, grizzly,
porcupine, wolf, wolverine and caribou; Dawson and sidetrips — bear,bobcat, silver fox and grouse or
ptarmigan, which prompted two simultaneous renditions of the originof Chicken Alaska — they couldn’t
spell “ptarmigan”...
Day Seven: Whitehorse to Fairbanks, Alaska, 392 miles to Tok
Junction and a 2 p.m. TSD. RM
2,950, electrical repair to one of thebikes, then as briskly as the frost
heaves would allow to U.S. Customs“Mile 1,222.8 on the Alaska Highway.” The line was just us, and theinterview was about 15 seconds.
October 2010

Sunbeams break through the Alaskan clouds.

The long waits and the pilot cars
for paving are cutting into our arrival
in Tok. Sweep 2 catches the lastbikes after the TSD, 195 miles toFairbanks. At Delta Junction fourbikes fuel up and stretch. Fatigueand boredom are setting in. This will
be eased by the gorgeous hotel anddining facilities tonight. West of
Delta we get our first view of theAlaska Pipeline, Prudhoe Bay toValdez.
Day Eight: South from Fairbanks,
the morning’s 12-mile TSD overlooks
the city before the 150-mile Parks
Highway run to Cantwell, passing
spectacular scenery, rushing rivercanyons, then placid pools. Near theDenali Park and Mount McKinleycenter, the long excursion trainclings to the opposite side of thecanyon and traverses long woodentrestles.
Alaska Highway 8, the Denali
Highway, is a 135-mile east-west
connector between Cantwell andPaxson, 110 miles of gravel. We saw
one caribou, numerous swans on thetiny reflection lakes along the way.
About 90 miles into the gravel, theMaclaren River Lodge, with fuel, foodand repairs, followed after a longclimb by Maclaren Summit at 4,086
feet, with a sweeping panorama. At
pavement we enter the Tangle Lakes
Archaeological District — 455,000
acres, covering 400 recorded sites, believed to have seen human occupation 12,000 to 15,000 years ago, supwww.nwr-scca.org

porting the Siberian Land Bridgetheory. Nearing Paxson we see a family picking berries — 15 minutes
later it is raining so hard I can’t readthe roadsigns for the DIY TSD. Further south, several crews take abreak at Worthington Glacier before
cresting Thompson Pass and great
glacial views dropping toward a
Valdez sunset, and the rally’s lastnight on the road.
Day Nine: Valdez sunrise, over thepeaks, slowly illuminating the harbor. Left out of the hotel, the first of
three TSDs for the day, with more
mountains and glaciers in much better weather. Glenallen TSD, thengrand views of Tazlina and Matanuska glaciers. The final TSD covered 6
miles through hayfields, gardens andorchards — temperature at ourcheckpoint was 66 degrees.
After 4,065 miles or more, the banquet honored all the winners, theworkers, and those who have passed.
Congratulations to the Arctic Challengers Team of Glenn WallaceR.Dale Kraushaar-Jenne Pierce forfirst overall in the Forester. Jeff
Brisendine rode his KTM 950 Adventure to first motorcycle and sixthoverall. A new first prize went to KitToevs, the first motorcycle sidecarrider to complete the Alcan 5000,
with her dad Roger. Alcan scored 87
checkpoints and 10 DIY checkpoints.
Results, photos, blogs and archives
found at www.alcan5000.com andnow www.alcan5000.net (beta).
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