Mark W
Yep, I really don't really care that much I guess.
I got a phone on Friday evening from one of my buddies. I had been unable to get away from work so he had gone out solo to take his daughter and another young friend out to fill their caribou tags. he was hunting one of our preferred areas about 50 miles from the road. With the three people in the '40 he was dragging my M416 along to carry gear and meat. We normally do not encourage anyone to tun solo out there, but he is one of the most experienced guys I know, and we know the area as well as we know our own backyards so there was no real trepidation. He had the satphone with him so that he could call for help in the event of a breakdown, which was the most like;y reason he would nee to call.
It is SOP in the Alaska Cruiser crew, when the call goes out that someone needs help. we all drop what we are doing, take off work and head out. Most of us have been on the receiving end at one point or the other over the years, so it is not really even a thing we remark on. It just gets done.
Anyway, the phone rang as I was working on an HZJ78 camper conversion belonging to one of my German stop in customers (There is apparently a circle of overlanders in Europe that have passed the word amongst themselves that I am the guy to see if they have a problem in Alaska).
My buddy had gotten crossed up climbing a bank on the Little Oshetna River and laid his rig on it's side in the water. no one was hurt, and they were removing gear to dry when he called, but he could not get it back on it's feet without help.
I made a few phone calls real quick and we wound up with three capable trail ready '80s and four experienced guys ready to head out first thing in the morning. the German tourists that were here wound up tagging along as well for their first off road use of their cruiser!
It was an uneventful 90 miles run to the trailhead from where we mustered in Palmer AK. We topped off fuel and headed in another 50 miles up the trail to where we needed to be. with a group like this, over these trails i have come to expect an day long average of about 5mph. That turned out to be pretty close for this trip too so it was getting into the evening before we reached to overturned rig and bored campers.
We had a couple of slightly boggy spots, a couple of steeper washed out hill climbs and a lot of easy water crossings (most under 3 feet deep, only a couple that approached 4 feet). There were a couple of times that our visitors were wondering what they had gotten themselves into... only 2 months into a 2 year trip through the Americas... but they learned fast and we watched them closely and all went smoothly.
It was a bit anti-climatic once we got there.... we pulled the rigs into position and had the '40 on it;s feet and out of the water in short order... It turned out handy for us that uor new German friends had come along. The extra winch turned out to be very handy in making a clean and simple extraction.
The day had turned to rain by the time we got there, so as soon as the rig was back on the trail, we all crawled into the roof top tents (and pop-up camper) and hit the sack.
Come 7 am or so we were awakened by the sound of the small block 400 in the 40 firing off. A couple of the guys had decided that they would get up at 6 am and drain and service it to get a jump on the day. other than a soaking wet interior and a shattered fiberglass lid, the rig was little the worse for wear.
The rest of the story is even more boring...
uneventful trip back to the road and down the highway
but fwiw, here's a few pics
A couple of Supercubs made low approaches over us to get a look
Approaching the trailhead
Bernd and Viola refused to show any hesitation and kept up fine as they tagged along
Not a bad roll and not a bad bank... just bad combination and bad luck.
Edit: I tried to embed a vid of the winch out, but did not manage to get it to play.
Mark...
It is SOP in the Alaska Cruiser crew, when the call goes out that someone needs help. we all drop what we are doing, take off work and head out. Most of us have been on the receiving end at one point or the other over the years, so it is not really even a thing we remark on. It just gets done.
Anyway, the phone rang as I was working on an HZJ78 camper conversion belonging to one of my German stop in customers (There is apparently a circle of overlanders in Europe that have passed the word amongst themselves that I am the guy to see if they have a problem in Alaska).
My buddy had gotten crossed up climbing a bank on the Little Oshetna River and laid his rig on it's side in the water. no one was hurt, and they were removing gear to dry when he called, but he could not get it back on it's feet without help.
I made a few phone calls real quick and we wound up with three capable trail ready '80s and four experienced guys ready to head out first thing in the morning. the German tourists that were here wound up tagging along as well for their first off road use of their cruiser!
It was an uneventful 90 miles run to the trailhead from where we mustered in Palmer AK. We topped off fuel and headed in another 50 miles up the trail to where we needed to be. with a group like this, over these trails i have come to expect an day long average of about 5mph. That turned out to be pretty close for this trip too so it was getting into the evening before we reached to overturned rig and bored campers.
We had a couple of slightly boggy spots, a couple of steeper washed out hill climbs and a lot of easy water crossings (most under 3 feet deep, only a couple that approached 4 feet). There were a couple of times that our visitors were wondering what they had gotten themselves into... only 2 months into a 2 year trip through the Americas... but they learned fast and we watched them closely and all went smoothly.
It was a bit anti-climatic once we got there.... we pulled the rigs into position and had the '40 on it;s feet and out of the water in short order... It turned out handy for us that uor new German friends had come along. The extra winch turned out to be very handy in making a clean and simple extraction.
The day had turned to rain by the time we got there, so as soon as the rig was back on the trail, we all crawled into the roof top tents (and pop-up camper) and hit the sack.
Come 7 am or so we were awakened by the sound of the small block 400 in the 40 firing off. A couple of the guys had decided that they would get up at 6 am and drain and service it to get a jump on the day. other than a soaking wet interior and a shattered fiberglass lid, the rig was little the worse for wear.
The rest of the story is even more boring...
uneventful trip back to the road and down the highwaybut fwiw, here's a few pics
A couple of Supercubs made low approaches over us to get a look
Approaching the trailhead
Bernd and Viola refused to show any hesitation and kept up fine as they tagged along
Not a bad roll and not a bad bank... just bad combination and bad luck.
Edit: I tried to embed a vid of the winch out, but did not manage to get it to play.
Mark...
Seems to a 4x4 thing.
This was the first caribou hunt for both of the kids... It was/is about more than just killing the animals. 
