Who wants to do the Alcan 5000 in Summer 2022?
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That fried pork sandwich looks small compared to what’s served in Indiana
Already over. I forgot this thread. Glad you had the experience. The winter trip sounds exciting
LONGJP2
TJ Expert
Winter doesn't sound as enjoyable to me.
I'll have to wait till 2026.
OP
Pretty uneventful and smooth cruising. Nice to be back in familiar territory with standardized bread.
@Mrs Tox wanted to drive the Jeep so I drove the truck. We had discussed swapping along the way but she had a head start while Granger was finishing things up and I never caught up even with her 3 gas stops (none in the truck).
Not to make this a truck review, but it is nice and comfortable. I could see spending many more hours in those seats. A shock tune might be in order though to make it as comfortable as the Jeeps (but it's not bad). Tons more power than I'm used to and likes breaking the wheels free if I'm not careful with the skinny peddle. It's so tall it makes the Jeeps look short. If I had the truck before the Alcan 5000 I still would have preferred driving the Jeep though — it's hard to compete with my love of Jeeps.
One more thing on the truck, see how it handles pulling that trailer before you worry too much about those shocks. It's meant to be loaded.
Trip Report/Notes on the Summer Alcan 2022:
I'm trying to strike on my field notes for the Alcan while the iron's still hot because I'm still percolating over the Alcan and what it meant to me. I thought it best to write my notes for those who would be sincerely interested in doing this someday themselves. If you're interested in doing the Alcan, this trip report is for you.
The camaraderie of the Alcan reminds me of the friendships you made during summer camp as a child but so much better. Everyone there is dedicated and committed to the adventure. Some people take the rallies more seriously and some are there just for the adventure and all of the above is okay. We approached it for the adventure first and wanted to do our best at the rally portion. I genuinely liked everyone except for one team who accelerated past us and another rallyist at the scene of a rollover where we were trying to figure out how to transport someone to the local hospital.
Cars with starting times just before us and after us became the people we got to know the most during our 5,000 miles together. But also, over 5,000 miles together, we started to know everyone travelling with us. At first we were constantly looking at the route book to learn the names of people in a particular number car but by the end, we all knew each other. We even got befriended by the sweep teams. Even bikers who were just there for the experience of it and not to compete at all. The Alcan is a very unifying experience.
I didn't realize how gruelling the Alcan would be until I did it. We drove on average at least 600 miles a day in transit time and that doesn't include the actual scored rally/TSD time. Sometimes we had one rally a day. Sometimes we had two. Depending on what class you're in (unlimited/SOP), there can be math you have to do on your own time which comes out of sleep time. It's common to wake up at 6 to start prepping for the first TSD of the day which often starts at 7 or 7:30 in the morning. After the TSD we went right into transit time and we still often didn't get to the hotel until around 10pm at night.
Outside of TSD's and transit times, there are "extreme controls" which are optional excursions, which for the most part, time willing, everyone does. Mr. Tox and I were fortunate that we were one of the fastest vehicles for the backroads. Along with the Ford Raptors, we were the only ones doing 70mph+ on backroads. There were some pretty adorable historic-class Minis with hardly any ground clearance and a Porsche 911 that could end up hours behind us during the gravel. On the flip side, our Jeep Wrangler sometimes made us slower on the pavement since we'd get caught behind slower semi trucks and not have the power to pass them.
Mr. Tox and I each had a backpack for the trip, food, a tote of tools and parts, and that was it. I regretted bringing my laptop. We only needed one laptop between the two of us to do the math for our TSDs. There is no free time. You rally. You transit. You hang out. You eat. You go on daily excursions whenever you can. You have no phone reception. But you see grizzlies. You find remote waterfalls in the remotest spots of Canada. You have the best fish you've ever eaten. And if you're in a Wrangler, you have to get gas all the time.
Every gas stop is remote and often at least 100-200 miles from the last gas station you stopped at. And most gas stations are the town. It's gas, laundry, a motel, and a restaurant. Expect bad coffee, mediocre food for the most part, coin laundry, really nice people, and lots of wildlife. One of the hotels didn't even have AC and you got a WiFi password for two devices and that was it. People were trying to load maps for the next day's rally in the morning and taking showers waiting for the next page to load.
One day we faced over 460 miles between gas stations and we all made our own makeshift buddy systems. Thankfully there was one station open halfway in Fort Liard but it was a few miles off our route so the entire rally ended up at a small gas station in Fort Liard with 2 gas pumps and we all visited in the rain while we all waited our turn to fill up our vehicles and all of our gas cans.
I wish everyone could do the Alcan 5000. It's exhausting but worth doing. I wish there had been more time in the day to explore more but the Alcan keeps you moving. I would've liked to have explored Dawson City more. We got in late at night to cringe at people doing sour toes and left early in the morning for a TSD. I would've liked to have hopped on the train in Skagway, Alaska and gone all the way up the summit of the White Pass. We want to do the Dempster which we were only able to drive 5 miles down with some other rallyists. And then there's the Dalton Highway too.
I previously mentioned the Richta scoring app not working for the Alcan 5000. Many TSDs were thrown out as a result. It was really frustrating for people who were taking the rally very seriously since it is advertised as a premier rallying event. For us as newbies, it was frustrating and hard to learn when we couldn't rely on our scores to use as feedback. It was the first year of the Alcan 5000 using the Richta app but it made the TSDs unreliable. There were a few other areas of the event overall that were mismanaged. But once we learned the ropes, decided to take things less seriously, and to just have fun regardless, we enjoyed ourselves. Because of the high entry fee expense it's hard to justify and recommend the Alcan 5000 for rally or adventure enthusiasts because of these shortcomings. Put another way, if you were able to get a group together outside of the rally I think it'd be just as fun for less money.
We were also told the Winter Alcan is harder because you're expected to drive the same miles as the summer Alcan but with worse road conditions and there's less visiting since nobody wants to stand out in the cold. Also, you will be driving in the dark for a portion of the day and it's more grueling to drive 600+ miles a day if you can't see much since the sights are a big part of what makes the long days of driving enjoyable. We're on the list for the Winter Alcan but are still thinking about it.
Please ask any questions you may have,
Mrs. Tox
I'm trying to strike on my field notes for the Alcan while the iron's still hot because I'm still percolating over the Alcan and what it meant to me. I thought it best to write my notes for those who would be sincerely interested in doing this someday themselves. If you're interested in doing the Alcan, this trip report is for you.
The camaraderie of the Alcan reminds me of the friendships you made during summer camp as a child but so much better. Everyone there is dedicated and committed to the adventure. Some people take the rallies more seriously and some are there just for the adventure and all of the above is okay. We approached it for the adventure first and wanted to do our best at the rally portion. I genuinely liked everyone except for one team who accelerated past us and another rallyist at the scene of a rollover where we were trying to figure out how to transport someone to the local hospital.
Cars with starting times just before us and after us became the people we got to know the most during our 5,000 miles together. But also, over 5,000 miles together, we started to know everyone travelling with us. At first we were constantly looking at the route book to learn the names of people in a particular number car but by the end, we all knew each other. We even got befriended by the sweep teams. Even bikers who were just there for the experience of it and not to compete at all. The Alcan is a very unifying experience.
I didn't realize how gruelling the Alcan would be until I did it. We drove on average at least 600 miles a day in transit time and that doesn't include the actual scored rally/TSD time. Sometimes we had one rally a day. Sometimes we had two. Depending on what class you're in (unlimited/SOP), there can be math you have to do on your own time which comes out of sleep time. It's common to wake up at 6 to start prepping for the first TSD of the day which often starts at 7 or 7:30 in the morning. After the TSD we went right into transit time and we still often didn't get to the hotel until around 10pm at night.
Outside of TSD's and transit times, there are "extreme controls" which are optional excursions, which for the most part, time willing, everyone does. Mr. Tox and I were fortunate that we were one of the fastest vehicles for the backroads. Along with the Ford Raptors, we were the only ones doing 70mph+ on backroads. There were some pretty adorable historic-class Minis with hardly any ground clearance and a Porsche 911 that could end up hours behind us during the gravel. On the flip side, our Jeep Wrangler sometimes made us slower on the pavement since we'd get caught behind slower semi trucks and not have the power to pass them.
Mr. Tox and I each had a backpack for the trip, food, a tote of tools and parts, and that was it. I regretted bringing my laptop. We only needed one laptop between the two of us to do the math for our TSDs. There is no free time. You rally. You transit. You hang out. You eat. You go on daily excursions whenever you can. You have no phone reception. But you see grizzlies. You find remote waterfalls in the remotest spots of Canada. You have the best fish you've ever eaten. And if you're in a Wrangler, you have to get gas all the time.
Every gas stop is remote and often at least 100-200 miles from the last gas station you stopped at. And most gas stations are the town. It's gas, laundry, a motel, and a restaurant. Expect bad coffee, mediocre food for the most part, coin laundry, really nice people, and lots of wildlife. One of the hotels didn't even have AC and you got a WiFi password for two devices and that was it. People were trying to load maps for the next day's rally in the morning and taking showers waiting for the next page to load.
One day we faced over 460 miles between gas stations and we all made our own makeshift buddy systems. Thankfully there was one station open halfway in Fort Liard but it was a few miles off our route so the entire rally ended up at a small gas station in Fort Liard with 2 gas pumps and we all visited in the rain while we all waited our turn to fill up our vehicles and all of our gas cans.
I wish everyone could do the Alcan 5000. It's exhausting but worth doing. I wish there had been more time in the day to explore more but the Alcan keeps you moving. I would've liked to have explored Dawson City more. We got in late at night to cringe at people doing sour toes and left early in the morning for a TSD. I would've liked to have hopped on the train in Skagway, Alaska and gone all the way up the summit of the White Pass. We want to do the Dempster which we were only able to drive 5 miles down with some other rallyists. And then there's the Dalton Highway too.
I previously mentioned the Richta scoring app not working for the Alcan 5000. Many TSDs were thrown out as a result. It was really frustrating for people who were taking the rally very seriously since it is advertised as a premier rallying event. For us as newbies, it was frustrating and hard to learn when we couldn't rely on our scores to use as feedback. It was the first year of the Alcan 5000 using the Richta app but it made the TSDs unreliable. There were a few other areas of the event overall that were mismanaged. But once we learned the ropes, decided to take things less seriously, and to just have fun regardless, we enjoyed ourselves. Because of the high entry fee expense it's hard to justify and recommend the Alcan 5000 for rally or adventure enthusiasts because of these shortcomings. Put another way, if you were able to get a group together outside of the rally I think it'd be just as fun for less money.
We were also told the Winter Alcan is harder because you're expected to drive the same miles as the summer Alcan but with worse road conditions and there's less visiting since nobody wants to stand out in the cold. Also, you will be driving in the dark for a portion of the day and it's more grueling to drive 600+ miles a day if you can't see much since the sights are a big part of what makes the long days of driving enjoyable. We're on the list for the Winter Alcan but are still thinking about it.
Please ask any questions you may have,
Mrs. Tox
OP
Needed 1 (5 gallons) multiple times. Needed 2 (10 gallons) to roll in on fumes a couple of times. Would have needed all 3 (15 gallons) if there had been more mountains in that 460 mile section, but wouldn't have made it regardless if that seasonal gas station hadn't been open 2 miles off the route.