Leftover pic from yesterday:


Yes, it is hard to drive with that banner across the windshield.....

Today's Update

We left Valdez on a very cool, crisp morning and ran a TSD right out of Valdez. A course measuring error caused the the section to be thrown but not before all of the navigators had their blood pressure raised a bit!

We then went to Glennallen, where we ran the 2nd last TSD.

We knew we didn't have much time for lunch, so I picked a roadside cafe at random (now called the Eureka Cafe by Jenne!) which made us the best BLTs!! This saved us a bunch of time and so we weren't stressed when we arrived in Palmer (next to Wasilla) for the final TSD, a tricky run through country roads.

Driving down the aptly named Glenn Highway, we stopped at the Subaru dealer for an air filter element (the Forester was not so crazy about being clogged up) and then to the hotel.

No scenery pictures today, sorry. Too busy!! Amazing scenery, with glaciers BELOW us on some of the roads. Alaska has taken my breath away. I will be back.

We got to watch the bikes get packed and loaded for transport, and then headed out to the awards dinner.

I'll end the suspense now and tell you we won!! Both we and the Damms scored 2 for the day, dropping 1, and we wound up with a grand total of 42. We are happy, but exhausted....

Team Arctic Challengers also won the team prize (3rd time in a row!) aided by 1st in Class wins by Chuck and J, and Mark our biker.

The Team presented Kit Toevs with an award for being the first person to complete the Alcan in a sidecar. So great to watch her and her dad Roger having fun together. I'm inspired.

Full scores haven't yet been updated on the Alcan5000.net site. I will post a deep link when they have been updated.

Here is what I learned on this Alcan:

1. I mistakenly considered the summer Alcan a poor cousin the winter event, not any more. The summer Alcan is NOT a doddle or a tour. You have to work. I thought we'd take scenery pictures and do a few TSDs, but we pushed ourselves the entire way (having the Damm's right behind us helped....).

2. Precise communications are essential. Even things as simple as who is doing what at the gas stop. This concept is reinforced to me every Alcan (this was my third).

3. You work as a team in the car, and work with your team buddies, but the entire event (workers, competitors) works as a team to move from point A to B and keep everyone safe, help fix broken cars, bikes, people, call out dangerous pieces of road.... and that's a pretty neat thing to see.


What Next?
A few of us are heading home the same route - it will take about 3.5 days. Jenne and I are going to hit the road early so we can take lots of photos. R.Dale and his lovely wife Francesca are heading out from Anchorage for a cruise. I will update the blog from the road as time permits if I have forgotten anything or get some pictures from today.

Thank you for reading!

Day 9 Map

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