The Adventures of a Rally Roadie

It’s been a while, but I’m out again on another adventure and I’ve been out for nearly a week and a half without a post. I’ll catch up as the days go on and even finish up the Norman Wells trip and give the details on what happened to the truck after it was towed to the Ford dealer in Grande Prairie, Alberta.

But now I’m on another Alcan5000 Rally. This time it’s the summer version which means no ice roads but plenty of mosquitoes, rain and mud. And long, long days. Sun up in August is about  6AM and sunset is pushing 10PM and later as we go farther north.

The summer version of the Alcan includes motorcycles in addition to cars and trucks and this year’s version has only 10 cars and about 30 motorcycles. And, in another twist, I’m not competing. I’m driving the motorcycle sweep truck with my bud, Colin Stenhouse from Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Our job is to support the motorcycles with repairs and/or rescues. So far we’ve only had one motorcycle fail and another had a puncture during a long transit. The rider, Ethan, did all the work. We provided vociferous moral support. The motorcycle riders are a pretty self-sufficient lot so our job is usually recovering failed bikes. THe repairs are generally left to the riders. So far, so good.

Gotta go. We’re up early tomorrow and driving with only the cycles by 6AM. We’re in Watson Lake, Yukon and we’re headed about 300 miles up the Campbell Highway to Ross River and then another 150 miles to the practical end of the North Canol. We’ll camp for the night and then head back down to Dawson City to meet up with the cars.

Later,

Obi-wan