Sirius Rally Team

The first lull in the frenetic pace of the Alcan Winter Rally happened today, and things are quiet at our hotel in Whitehorse. We started the morning with a pre-dawn departure from Eagle Plains with the Keatleys who needed to get some photos of Dawson City in the daytime for Josh’s wife in Alberta. Gord and then August were at the wheel to take us down and off of the Dempster; I slept most of the way. We got our first bite of frigid Northern air in Dawson, and took only a quick walk down by the paddleboat before opting for an ‘in car’ tour.

Last night at Eagle Plains was a time warp, taking me back to the feeling of my Aunt’s ‘camp’ in Terrace Bay, ON, to being surrounded by overimbibers, like an undergraduate, and to a time way before my generation, which is documented in the photographs and artifacts that line the walls and ceilings of the Eagle Plains Hotel. Mining, hunting, trailblazing and manhunts were part of the history of the NWT, and a night here gives names, faces, and a powerful sense of being closer to that wilder time. It’s a great resting stop after driving the Dempster and the ice road like an outlaw, and after witnessing the austerity and hardship of Tuktoyaktuk. The dogs at Eagle Plains are as friendly and striking as the dogs I knew in Bella Coola. We spent the later part of the evening with three locals passing through on their way to hunt caribou. I enjoyed hearing what life in the North is like from people who have always lived there; at times visiting places for mere hours feels disconnected and artificial. They told us about a road that might someday be built from Yellowknife to Inuvik, a similar road to the one I assumed existed when I was pestering Jerry the Alcan Organizer to avoid backtracking from Inuvik to Whitehorse. I’m surprised and a bit humbled at how much 7 days of driving has changed my perspective on many things: from what qualifies as road food, to what living as an aboriginal youth in Northern Canada might be like, and even my thoughts on Americans.

We drove slowly but on track back to the hotel in Whitehorse, did some laundry, and had designs on bigger things, but the boys are asleep. I hope August doesn’t get worse with his virus and I’m so glad he was willing to write about our Tuktoyaktuk trip. Tomorrow we get another shot at full speed glory at the iceX, and then on to the Liard Hotsprings. The pace and energy of the Alcan seemed to fizzle out tonight as many nursed their Eagle Plains hangovers, but I think a new sort of character might emerge as we gear up again for the last few days. We’ve been plotting some more mischief, and I hope we’ll enjoy the fruits of it tomorrow.

JD

The Rom Comm tracker is working better than ever since we brought it in from the cold just before we hit the ice road. It will be amazing to see our route plotted along the Mackenzie Delta and the ocean in the years to come, but now we’re hoping to use it to keep in touch with our families and friends. To send a message directly and instantly, check the siriusrally box on the main menu, and hit the ’send email’ button. Popups MUST be enabled for this to work, as a text box will open for you to type your message. August has tested this and it works well, so feel free to send us greetings or scoldings or any notes from home. The tracker is in the rex, car 17, but we are in close contact with the Keatleys in car 16 as well as Bill & Doug, and Stevan and Kristin. We could probably send word along to any team on the rally, as long as we know who to look for, so please include names and car numbers.

Connect with the Sirius Rally Team via Rom Comminications HERE.

On Friday morning we embarked on the portion of the trip that I had been dreaming of driving since 1998 - The Mackenzie Ice Road. I first heard about the Ice Road from a friend of mine named Chris Donald. In 1986 he and a team took donated Jeeps from Chrysler to Tuktoyaktuk and back to Vancouver for Expo 86. It was Chris’ stories that got me interested in the trek which then led me on to the Alcan 5000.

Leaving from Inuvik well before dawn, we drove down the boat launch of the Mackenzie River and turned right towards the Arctic Ocean. Shortly after leaving town we passed large tug boats, supply ships and barges frozen in the very river that we were driving on. Our visibility was unlimited and we could see the riverbanks until we left the river delta and veered northwest on the Beaufort Sea along the northern shores of the Northwest Territories.

The ice road seemed to get rougher as we changed from fresh water ice to sea water ice. The cracking in the ice was more prominent. Unfortunately the ice claimed one tire on car 19 and one tire on car 14 who also sustained injury to two struts.

Just as we had left Inuvik, we drove up the boat launch in Tuktoyaktuk. The sun was just rising as we arrived, filling the horizon with soft orange light. We explored the Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk for about an hour, taking lots of photos and searching for a place to buy Tuktoyaktuk University t-shirts, or more commonly worded “Tuk U”. The only place that sold them in Tuktoyaktuk was the RCMP Detachment and apparently they weren’t open for a few more hours. Fortunately I was able to find some in Inuvik at the Inuvialuit Regional Office.

When we left Tuktoyaktuk, we were amazed to see how fast the weather conditions changed. The visibility changed from unlimited to less than 100 feet. Apparently Tuktoyaktuk was expecting blizzard conditions later that evening. By the time we got back on to the Mackenzie River, the visibility opened up all the way back to Inuvik. We got a short glimpse of just how arduous winter road travel can be and it gave us an appreciation of the people who live and work in these remote communities.

This 109 mile ice road is a vital link to Aklavik, Tuktoyaktuk and numerous oil and gas operations staging from Tuktoyaktuk. The ice road is open from mid December to late April on average with the record late opening on February 15 1988 and the record early closing on April 15, 1998. According to the Northwest Territories Transportation, the bearing capacity of the ice was posted as 64,000 kg which amounts to an ice thickness of 126 cm. By the same formula, our vehicle needed only 20 cm of ice thickness not including other factors such as ice types and cracking.

Our trip is now past the halfway point and we are southbound from here on in.

AU