Made it to THUNDERBIRD RALLY!

Well, this is EXACTLY WHY you do a thorough shakedown before a major rally. In preparing for Alcan, we have driven up here to Merritt, Brtish Columbia for the CLASSIC Thunderbird Rally (now its 51st year I think).

We ran out of gas. Like really, came to STOP on the highway about 1 mile after the car began to stutter. The gas light had just come on and I thought we could make Bellingham.... We didin't. Luckily, as Russ Kraushaar pointed out in our Alcan Seminar in Dec, you CAN RUN on HEET GAS DRYER. We were about 1200 yards from the exit and luckily a gas station and made it on gas dryer after Kala had started walking to buy some gas... Got that out of the way...

Then Highway 5 in BC to Merritt was CLOSED due to avalanche danger, so we had to go the LONG WAY up the Fraiser Highway (HWY 1) and go past Merritt, then back down on Highway 8. About an hour or so out of our way. The road was deserted and desolate and we got to try out our new LIGHTBAR loaded with PIAA and HELLA lights.

But we MADE it, got more gas (a big roof rack and spare tire up there gets you about 2-3MPG less), got registered and teched (did I say that big ass HID driving lights are VERY COOL for driving the canyons up here) and had a beer at the Middleboro Pub.

Ready for the rally to start in the morning...

Pe CAR #10 Eklund/Rounds Subaru Forester XT Calculator Class

Alcan is just around the corner!

The 2008 Alcan Rally demands a lot of preparation and honing of driving skills. The team will travel in our reliable Subaru Forester XT, properly equipped with Arctic survival, protection and navigational gear.
The route, traced in detail in this Alcan 5000 map, starts as usual in Kirkland, Washington and travels through Yukon territory to tiny Tuk (actually Tuktoyakluk) on the shore of the frozen Arctic ocean. The route south now terminates in Jasper, Alberta.

The team, to be composed of veterans Paul Eklund, RDale Kraushaar and Kala Rounds, will compete in Class 3 (Seat of the Pants -- no rally computer) event, but hope to win overall with the combined skills of these experts. Kala and Paul won in this class in 2004, bettering the scores of almost all of the competitors in any class (see Alcan 2004), using Paul's driving skills and Kala's mathematical wizardry. The Primitive Team's sponsor is the Subaru Northwest Region.