Alaska Cruiser Trek 2010 (1 Viewer)

[Ratpuke]

Dates...

After spending hours pouring over copies of the Farmer's Almanac analyzing weather patterns and soliciting advice from the local fortune teller in an effort to determine exactly when next summer's weather will be the best, the mosquitos will be at an all-time low and the wildlife watching will be at its finest, we are pleased to announce that tentative dates for ACT 2010 have been set!

June 26-July 5, 2010.

The current plan aims to hit the trailhead early on the morning on the 26th, returning to civilization at a time, yet to be determined. The reason for the open ended return date is to accommodate the scheduling requirements for those individuals who will be joining us. Typically, the Trek takes place over a period of a week; however, next year's event will be running slightly longer. We may decide to come off the trail a bit early in order to do some extra runs for a day or two at a different location than the main Trek.

Hopefully, this information will help aid in your 2010 vacation planning!
Please note that the dates are still flexible at this point in time to a certain degree.



Charla

 

[D'Animal]

Approx 230 days till the Trec!

That is approx 100 saturdays and 100 sundays

49 weeks


I had better get wrenching.

 

[Randy88FJ62]

Approx 230 days till the Trec!

That is approx 100 saturdays and 100 sundays

49 weeks


I had better get wrenching.

Same here...

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Putting it like that makes it seem like next week!! Gotta go hit the grease...

 

[D'Animal]

Putting it like that makes it seem like next week!! Gotta go hit the grease...

Now subtract holidays such as Labor day, t-giving, x-mas, boxing day, Honey Do weekends, etc.

You will have about 1/2 of that in actual time to build your rig, test it, fix what you broke and beef it up, test it again.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Damn, right again! I gotta start looking at my calendar for next summer. My truck is pretty close to ready, new wheel bearings all around, fresh-ish springs yadda yadda yadda. I really need to build my trac-bar and fix my e-brake.

 

[Nemo]

OK. After speaking to the family and friends I am a go if you good folks will have me, my GF, and another friend. I can say without doubt other than "God's Will" I will not be backing out.

Leaving Denver for those who would like to carpool up...

 

[Mark W]

We may not see caribou like in the Rat's picture. Hopefully we will be that lucky. We actually saw thousands of them that day. Surrounding us and blocking the trail even. could hear them and even smell them all around us. It depends on which trails we wind up on and how the migration cycle matches our timing. If it does happen that our paths cross, it is memorable to say the least.


This pic is not mine, but was taken by one of our participants in 2003. Not sure who right at the moment, hopefully they will not mind my posting it here

 

[PabloCruise]

Leaving Denver for those who would like to carpool up...

Oh man...

 

[Mark W]

Glacier 13... beautiful and vengefully evil

Mark...

 

[D'Animal]

Glaciers = Evil


Would tire chains be a good thing to pack?

 

[Mark W]

The only need for chains would be if we were to drive up #13 there. We have done that in the past. It can be more difficult than you might think... it is tremendously larger than it may look in that shot. A line of Cruiser going up would be barely descernable dots in that view. If you could see them at all. It is steep and wet and slick and irregular. With channelized streams of melt water running over the surface and plunging hundreds of feet into gaping holes. Amazingly beautiful, surprisingly accessible with Cruisers and sneakily dangerous.

Chains are what the doctor ordered for driving up there. No need for them on this trip otherwise.

Such a jaunt is not planned for the entire group. A side trip for those who wish *may* happen.

The Glacier Goddess apparently has close ties with the Cruiser Gods. A few years back, John and a couple of the other guys took a shovel and started chopping iced for the coolers.... She must not have liked the shovel to the back of her head.

She struck back immediately....

Gina cut a tire in the rocks below... Charlie got his M37 stuck... Peter found some rock pudding and mired his rig... resulting in one burnt out winch, two blown birfields and a blown full floater rear axle. Jeff ripped his tranny off the old school adapter plate. Greg lost 4wheel drive in a rocky ice hole halfway up. and I have a hidden crevasse attempt to swallow my '40. All of this happened within about 5 minutes.


DON'T make the glacier angry!


Mark...

 

[D'Animal]

So bring plenty of Ice or a ton of spare parts.

The Glacier Goddess apparently has close ties with the Cruiser Gods. A few years back, John and a couple of the other guys took a shovel and started chopping iced for the coolers.... She must not have liked the shovel to the back of her head.

She struck back immediately....

Gina cut a tire in the rocks below... Charlie got his M37 stuck... Peter found some rock pudding and mired his rig... resulting in one burnt out winch, two blown birfields and a blown full floater rear axle. Jeff ripped his tranny off the old school adapter plate. Greg lost 4wheel drive in a rocky ice hole halfway up. and I have a hidden crevasse attempt to swallow my '40. All of this happened within about 5 minutes.


DON'T make the glacier angry!


Mark...

 

[Mark W]

Or at least be very very polite when you ask her to share


Mark...

 

[PabloCruise]

Sounds like everyone better get one of those fancy Cruiser fridges...

 

[Randy88FJ62]

Explain to me why anyone would ever attempt to take a cruiser up a glacier that had potential crevasses? That sounds insane.

 

[GRM]

Keep me in the loop. I'll have the days off of work as soon as a schedule is set. Been thinking about this trip after spending too many hours chatting with roger about it.

Been exploring options to ship my truck, as I can get a maximum of 14 days off. If anyone finds a good shipping company, let me know.

 

[Mark W]

Judge not without facts.
Travel over glaciers is nothing new. In this case we are on the glacier in summer conditons.
No snow to disguise the features. No more hazardous than lots of other stuff we all do. New water crossings can be much more unnerving than crawling the ice. The "crevass" that I mentioned giving me trouble... was actually a narrow slot in the ice, cut by running water, hidden under a broad shallow area of overflow at the very foot of the glacier as it sunk uner the rocks piled at the bottom. Simple mistake, learning experience, moved on. I'll post some pics of that and others from the glacier later.

 

[Mark W]

GRM, check Charla's last post. The dates have been set. Jun 26 - Jul 05. We may be off the trail early from the main event, to do a day trip or overnighter or two closer in to the Anchorage area. But that might not be determined until we are out on the trail. Or at least after discussion with confirmed participants prior to departing the roads at the trailhead. We will be on the trail for the main Trek for 7 days at least. If we do return to the road early, that would be opportunity for those who are cutting it close for time to head south at that point instead of turning toward the Anchorage area with the rest of us.


Mark...

 

[Mark W]

As promised.... Embarrassing pictures

The water here is about 2 inches deep... except for a slot about 2-3 feet wide, that goes straight down further than I was willing to lower myself into with chest waders to see if I could reach the bottom. I was a couple of feet off to the side of the line of the folks ahead of me and found the channel that was overflowing to cover this broad flat spot.

Mark...