ON THE ROAD AGAIN

2006 Alcan5000:
Your mileage may varyThis isn’t a road hazard you’ll see on a typical Washington highway. Alaska moose scatter for Alcan rallyists.

STORY AND PHOTOSBY RON SOREM
Contributing editor
SOMEWHERE BETWEEN KIRKLAND AND ANCHORAGE — Rainier
Auto Sports Club and rallymaster Jerry
Hines presented the 2006 Alcan5000
Rally. Quoting Hines, “The official routeis 4,400 miles but could be as short as
3,200 or as long as 5,000.” Your mileage
may vary.
Alcan5000 began in 1984 as a summer
event and presented the first winter version in 1988. The series now alternates
every two years as Alcan5000 and Alcan
Winter Rally. Alcan may be the only
TSD rally in North America that offers
both car and motorcycle competition ina single venue.
Day One began with nine cars, 22
dual-sport motorcycles, and eight fulltime staff vehicles hitting the freeway
for a long odo calculation run, north toward the Canadian border. First on the
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road were Revere Jones (Altadena,Calif.), Brian Deno (Arden, N.C.) andTom Gould (Manhattan Beach, Calif.).
All three are rally veterans, with Revereon his fourth Alcan.
Second on the road were the Novice
team of Jasper Long and Brian Burk up
from Portland, Ore., for only their second rally. Quite a range of experience.
Car-guy sentimental favorites at thestart were Kevin Kittle and Tyler Irwinof Albuquerque, N.M., in a restored
1960 Morris Minor. Their rally was cut
short by a head gasket in Hope (ironic,don’t you think?), B.C., a second headgasket in Watson Lake, and eventually arebuild in Whitehorse before continuing
into Anchorage.
Other car-team members came fromNew Mexico, Arizona, Georgia, South
Carolina and one co-driver from Kapaa,Hawaii.
On the cycle side, joining in the fun
were iron butt candidates from all corners of the country: Florida, Vermont,
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New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio,Tennessee, Mississippi, Nevada, California, Oregon and British Columbia.
The trip moved from the brisk freeway to the back roads at Alger. Last
year, RASC’s Nor’Wester staff developed this “shortcut” course to the border, but on rally day a key bridge wasclosed for repair. This year, Mosquito
Lake TSD went as planned and the rally
bypassed Bellingham on smooth andscenic roads to the Sumas-Huntingdon
Customs.
Once in Canada, teams made their
way to north of Williams Lake. TheSoda Creek TSD followed the plateau
above the Fraser River, and dropped
into hayfields on twisting narrow gravel
before climbing back to Highway 97 andnorth to Quesnel. Soda Creek claimed
one cycle, due to the very loose surface
on an uphill corner. By Day Four, therider was ready to take on rest of therally.
November 2006Car 1 joined about half the Alcan entrants in a 220-mile detour to Skagway on Day Four.

Day Two began as Mile 483, on the22-mile Blackwater TSD, followed by another 125 miles of gravel and pavement
through beautiful forest and lake country to Fort Fraser. Fraser Lake TSD
claimed our second bike, to an oil leak.
Colin Stenhouse (North Vancouver,B.C.) would continue as an addition tothe Range Rover team of Robert Lee
and Bill Savage, up from New Mexico.
Some 175 miles north of Fraser Lake,
Kispiox Valley TSD was the third timed
section of the day at ‘Ksan Village. The
47-mile TSD began on pavement but 9miles in, turned to gravel. A “critical leftturn” at mile 869.958, onto Mitten Forest Service Road, was overlooked by
one cycle. RASC’s radio net relayed map
info and verified “last point seen,” while
one of the staff vehicles explored possible off-course choices, finding the rider.
The staff “radio relay” was 17 miles westof the rider and his sweep. We now rejoined the chase, 265 miles along theCassiar Highway to Dease Lake.
November 2006

Wildlife included a wolf, several blackbear, including twin cubs, and one adult
black bear sprinting across the road infront of four cycles and two cars just outof Bell 2. The Northway Inn at Dease
Lake stayed open late to accommodate
the pack of hungry and thirsty rallyists,and staff, at Mile 1,151.
Day Three began with an optional
140-mile trip to Telegraph Creek. Theroute included 20-percent drops into
canyons with tight hairpins, and the occasional opposing big-rig! The village of
Telegraph Creek has been a trading
post since before the Cassiar Gold Rush
(1872), and 20-odd years before theKlondike Rush in Dawson. This was akey supply point for the Alcan Highwayin 1942. Telegraph Creek teams returned to Dease Lake, and began the394-mile transit to Whitehorse’s Yukon
Inn, Mile 1,694, our home for twonights.
Day Four brought more options: No.
1, North Canol overnight for the cycles
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and 3 support staff vehicles. “Canol” isshort for Canadian Oil, the pipeline built
during World War II between the Northwest Territories and Whitehorse. Theoption included camping and a spaghetti feed and Day Five to Dawson. No. 2,South Canol Loop, returning to Whitehorse. No. 3, a 220-mile tour to Skagway,chosen by about half the teams and several staff. Option no. 4 took a small
penalty for playing tourist in Whitehorse.
Those who went to Skagway joined
four cruise-ships of tourists. The routeparallels the White Pass and Yukon Railroad. Dropping into Skagway, the “Welcome to Alaska” sign was obscured bycold dense fog. Skagway was cloaked bylow clouds, but the tourists were unruffled.
Day Five began with seven of the cars
and nine of the bikes leaving Whitehorse for Dawson City via Long Lake
Continued on next page
Northwest Sports Car News 15

Telegraph
Creek offeredlots ofexposure to gowith thecurves.

Continued from previous page
TSD. This would be a relatively short
343-mile day. The Morris finally caught
up with the rally, under tow, but would
spend two more days re-powering their
car from local parts, compliments of the
only Morris owner in the Yukon. Our
Georgia-South Carolina entry elected todo South Canol on the way to Dawson,
with one staff car attending. Their longday included a cold dip in a clear lake
along the way. The rest of the fieldbroke camp on the North Canol andheaded for Dawson.
As you can see, this begins theYMMV of Alcan ‘06. Unofficial mileageto Whitehorse was 1,695, including
Telegraph Creek. North Canol added
868 before Dawson, South Canol added
462 and Skagway added 220. So, unofficially the direct no-option route logged
in at 1,818; the high mileage folks rightat 2,563. Your mileage may vary.
Dawson City was another two-nightstay. Arriving late afternoon, mostteams had time to tour the town and settle in at the Sluice Box Bar in the headquarters El Dorado Hotel. Stories andphotos of the “overnight” kept everyone
entertained.
Day Six saw only four teams elect the16 Northwest Sports Car News

Midnight Dome TSD for a relaxing 10.5mile day and a chance to take in Dawson“Discovery Days.” The remaining crews
chose the 560-mile loop to the Arctic
Circle on the Dempster Highway.
Day Seven brought the warning“Don’t miss the ferry” crossing theYukon River. Top of the World TSD
began less than a mile from the hotel,
passed six checkpoints in 9 miles andtransited 56 miles along the Yukon’s
paved Top of the World Highway toAlaska, USA and gravel.
Poker Creek, Alaska, population two,
took an amused stance as the rally presented a steady stream of cars, bikes,
vans and pickups with Alcan5000 signage. Alaska’s dirt road presented spectacular scenery, and surprises, as wewould meet full-sized tour coaches atspeed in the occasional hairpin. Our
Alcan radios were put to good use again,
relaying the positions of oncoming
buses.
Our route dropped steadily, from4,500 feet to 2,000 feet, then climbed
again, into dense fog, and with a few
hairpins reached mile 3,177 and beautiful “downtown Chicken, Alaska,” temperature 34 degrees. Two miles later wereturned to pavement for the 74-mile
run to lunch and a regroup before thewww.nwr-scca.org

13-mile Tok TSD. One cycle missed aninstruction and three checkpoints,
prompting a search of the area before
word came that the rider just hit thehighway and headed for Fairbanks. Rainwas now nearing epic volumes.
At the headquarters hotel in Fairbanks, the main attraction was the inbar computer, tuned to Alaska DOT andthe Weather Channel sites. Rains had
washed out several sections of the Parks
Highway, connecting Fairbanks and Anchorage, and the Denali Highway — ourroute for Day Eight. Time to punt!
Day Eight opened with the 11-mile
Chena Ridge TSD, followed by an emergency route change: “Proceed east on
the freeway to Delta Junction and south
to Paxson, for a look at the Denali, orcontinue south to Glenallen.” So, in a
pouring rain everyone retraced the previous afternoon’s wet gray run, to DeltaJunction. Not as much traffic as a weekend, but the moose don’t care!
South from Delta Junction the routeparalleled the Alaska Pipeline. Approaching Summit Lake, in the worst of
the rain, dark figures appeared in theroad — not cycles, more moose! At Paxson several bikes went as far as thewashout and took photos; before returning to pavement and south to Glenallen
November 2006

Wrangell-St. Elias glowed in the Alaskan summer sunset.

and sunshine and warmth.
The Valdez option should be required
for all. The weather was clear and warm
(even at Worthington Glacier) and thescenery was awesome. Valdez was spectacular, with several groups of competitors and staff walking the waterfront,
taking pictures of the marina with snowcapped peaks as a backdrop, checking
out the salmon derby, and having dinner
at a great little restaurant. The return toGlenallen featured sunset-lit mountains
and Mount Wrangell in shades of pinkand orange. I’ve seen that poster on salein Seattle.
Day Nine began cold and clear, west
from the Caribou Lodge parking lot on
the 14.7-mile Talsona Creek TSD, before a 134-mile transit to Palmer. Hatcher Pass TSD north of Palmer was saved,
according to Anchorage newspapers, byan alert parks employee who noticed
the erosion on the paved hill climb
November 2006

along Little Susitna River. A call to thehighways department started reinforcement with truckloads of rock. Our long
Hatcher Pass route had to be detoured
however, since the gravel road west of
the summit had washed away.
The rally was regrouped at Gold Mint
Trailhead and a new transit written for
62 miles into Anchorage. As cold as all
the riders were, Anchorage wouldn’t
come soon enough. Total mileage to Anchorage: 2,684 to 4,217, before heading
home. Your mileage may vary.
Dinner and awards (and an occasionalroast) were held at the Sourdough Mining Co.; shuttle provided from the hotel,complete with a six-gun totin’ “sourdough” driver. Winner of the 2006
Alcan5000 was the Subaru Outback
team of Revere Jones, Brian Deno andTom Gould. Winner of the Unlimited
Cycles (third overall) was Jim Robertson on a BMW F650GS Dakar, fromwww.nwr-scca.org

Aptos, Calif. First Cycle2 (fifth overall)
was Dean Scheel on the sweet Suzuki
DL-1000 V-Strom. First SOP (sixth overall) was Doug Martin with son Brantley,and navigator Will Amthor, in another
Subaru Outback. First SUV (ninth overall) to Phil Stonich, John Stonich andMichelle Henrie in a GMC Envoy. First
Cycle1 (10th overall) to Jay Ritchie fromStarkville, Miss. First Team went toCars 1, 2 and 9 as Impromptu Subaru.
Ironman was shared by 13 who completed all the options and collected the mostmiles.

Full results, photos and links,
archives on previous events, and morestories can be found atwww.alcan5000.com.
For more rally stories, search links
and schedules, see
www.tsdroadrally.com.
Northwest Sports Car News 17