Fairbanks, AK – August 27, 2018
Sep 5th, 2018 by rallyadmin
We’re up and out of the hotel by 8. We have a checkpoint in the Valdez TSD, another Alcan5000 fixture. In the winter when Valdez some years gets enormous amounts of snow, this TSD can be very tricky. There are some years where the huge amount of snow that Valdez gets is plowed into banks that completely hide street signs and intersections. It’s not uncommon to see two rally cars going both ways on a TSD section. One of them is wrong.
The tsd finishes and we head back over the Thompson Pass with Andy Newell’s motorcyle support trailer behind of truck and the U-Haul behind Andy’s now ailing truck. He’s had an overheating problem and he has yet to find the cause of the overheating. We collectively think that his truck has a blown head gasket. He hopes not.
In any event, he doesn’t think that his truck will make it to the Thompson Pass summit so we’ve swapped trailers. We’ll meet up again at the Princess Lodge in Copper River and swap the trailers back again. Andy thinks that he can make Fairbanks with his trailer attached and we’re going over the Denali and really, really don’t want to haul his trailer over the 150 miles of the Denali.
Swap done we head out and catch up with Ron and David and Steve and Katherine on the way to the Denali Highway turn-off. We and they had stopped to get fuel (Ron’s Subie couldn’t make it without tapping his reserve jugs of fuel and then that would have been too close for comfort.
The Denali is one of the great scenic roads in Alaska. It connects the Richardson Highway above GlenAllen to the Parks Highway just below the entrance Denali Park and Preserve. It’s almost 100% gravel and usually in pretty good shape.
The views are fabulous as the road climbs ridgelines with the mountains of lower central Alaska as a backdrop. Today, there are low clouds running across the peaks with occasional rain/snow showers. And the occasional full rainbow.
We stop once for some photos and hear some jets somewhere out of sight in the mountains. We’re pretty sure that they are some US Air Force jets practicing their low level terrain following skills. The jet noise suddenly gets louder and the jets pop up out a nearby valley and scream nearly straight up in a paired spiraling climb. They are a couple of F-22’s, probably from Eielson Air Force Base. They circle each other in this high altitude pirouette appearing to have the jet pilot’s very of play time. And then suddenly they’re gone with a faint roar, out of sight.
We stop at McClaren Summit for more photos and a more important task. There is a rather large sign proclaiming the name of the summit which now adorns a decal from OUCH, the Organized Union of Cat Herders. It’s among a lot of other decals but you can find it you search, bottom center.
We stop at Clearwater Lake Lodge for a bio-break and some snacks. It’s an odd but very friendly place that has a collection of abandoned cars that notably insludes a 1960 Cadillac Coupe de Ville. The Caddy had died trying to cross the Denali and left here. The cost of towing to somewhere that could repair it was obviously more than the car is worth so here it sits in the tangled overgrowth with its signature tail fins pointing to the mountains across the vally.
Not much farther the Denali ends in Cantwell at the junction of the Parks Highway. We stop for fuel and then head on towards Healy and then Fairbanks. Just north of Healy we find a brewery/restaurant and stop for a pretty good dinner. My how Healy has changed in the recent years.
Back on the road for the final push to Fairbanks. We’re treated toan almost continuous rainbow to the east of the road. It’s raining to the east and the sun has peaked out from under the cload layer to create a perfect low altitude rainbow. Just another Alaskan treat for the eyes. It’s hard to believe that it’ll be snowing here in a couple of weeks.
Into Fairbanks and follow the GPS to the Baer Lake Lodge where we are staying for the next couple of nights. We’ll do tomorrows TSD here and maybe a run to Coldfoot for the car/bikes that didn’t do the Arctic Circle run up the Dempster. I’m thinking that if I’m not needed for sweep, we’ll probably pass on the Coldfoot run. The truck needs an oil change before we leave for Seattle and I need some down time.
Check into the hotel. Try to avoid meeting up in the bar by checking email, etc. Fail at avoiding the bar. Have a few beers and the slink out to the room and bed. I’m totally pooped.
Tomorrow the rally ends. Wednesday a flight to Tampa to meet Ken and John for a six hour enduro at Sebring. That should be different.
Obi-wan