TeamD Adventures

This morning Jim and I piled into the red Sweep truck for the trip back to Dawson City. They would drop us and the alternator loaned by the Challenge Driving Subaru team to see if we could get our act back on the road. Ohio and Ken did a great job piloting the big ol’ Dodge through the snow, ruts and morning flat light. A diversion near the end of the road — we rounded a corner to find car #13, Paul and Paul’s Mitsubishi Montero on its side in the right hand ditch. We quickly piled out of the car to find navigator Paul’s head pop out of the right hand door.

They were unharmed and had wisely taken time to don their cold weather gear and figure out how to unstrap without landing on each other before exiting the vehicle. A couple of tugs with Ohio’s pickup and they were going again. Seemingly unharmed except for a dented driver’s door, the hardy Montero unfortunately gave up its automotive ghost another 250 miles down the road — an oil problem, sounded like.. Looks like they will finish out the rally riding with a sweep vehicle. Great competitors, the both of them and we’re quite sorry to see them unable to drive to the finish.

But I get ahead of the story, don’t I? Ohio and Ken dropped us in Dawson City at the same shop that helped the BMW team switch tie rods on their cars two days ago. Though the loaned alternator had a dented pulley, the great folks at Northern Superior Mechanical had us charging normally and bolting down the highway, only a couple of hours behind the rest of the rally. This is a long day for most of the teams — close to 700 miles, I think, but we’re a bit fresher than most because we didn’t have to pilot the first 230 mile stretch out of Eagle Plains. When I say “fresh” I mean only our level of fatigue. After three days in the same clothing, there’s no way I can use that word in any other sense. As I type this, we are 11 miles from the one and only DIY TSD for the day. I’ll end this for now and hopefully get a chance to post later tonight in Destruction Bay.

Oh — about car #12 (the third BMW). When we were getting the alternator replaced/fixed in Dawson, the owner of the shop asked us to take a couple of pieces of the BMW that had been cannibalized down to Whitehorse. We dropped the tie rod cap and bolt at the shop in a nice used Beef Jerky bag with a kind note from Car #11.

Rolling in to Destruction Bay. Photos cropped & sized. Should be online soon.