Mark W
Yep, I really don't really care that much I guess.
Yep, doing it again.
This is just an advance notice and details are subject to change still at this point. But I wanted to get the word out as soon as I could so that folks thinging abut coming up have time to plan.
The Alaska Cruiser Trek will happen again next year. The plan at the moment is to return to the area where we hosted the ACT2003 and the "Unofficial ACT2002". Basically the southern side of the eastern end of the Alaska Range. Between Tok and Paxon.
This will not be a high challenge event. This will be a bit of a change in mindset over the earlier Treks. Up 'til now we have always gone into it with the hope of presenting some tough trails and getting into some new territory, even for thos of us leading the way. We've managed to do both to a varying degrees. But I've realized that this has been a minor consideration and in the end a minor high point of the Treks.
I've jokingly been referring to the Treks as "Hard Core Sight Seeing". But I have come to whee I'm no longer joking. When you get right down to it getting out into the back country for the sake of getting out into the back country and doing it with good company really is what the Treks are about. So this time around, I'm not going to mislead myself that we will be doing much else.
Now that that's been said, no one should come up thinking that this wil be a like a weekend of driving fire roads in the Smokies or wandering along old mining and ranch roads in Utah. We've had varying degrees of breakage, mechanical failures and mishaps during every Trek and we expect that this will continue. In the past 4 Treks we have seen 3 roll overs, 3 or 4 broken springs, three broken rear axles, 4 or 5 busted birfields, a couple of shattered Tcase, sheared knuckle studs and wallowed knuckles, sheared ball joints, failed alternators and electric fans (water and silt), sliced tires, torn brake lines and lots of other miscellaneous carnage. We've drowned a couple of rigs in crossings gone bad, had more than a couple rigs which had to be extracted from a crossing without actually drowning them.
Nothing drastic and when you consider how many vehicle miles we've accumulated with the Treks, this is a pretty low tally. My only point is that, stuff happens. And you have to be prepared to deal with it. And so far, we have. When you are well back into the trails alot, you get used to this.
Anyway, while the actual dates are not set yet, expect early to mid July. A week or so on the trail. At least two occasions where the camp will not be broken down and moved in the morning so that folks who want to can spend some time hiking, relaxing in camp or doing other non-vehicular activities.
We will see a LOT of river crossings. Your rig will have to be able to handle 3-4 foot deep moving water without any real concern.
We will not see a lot of mud on the trails that we know for sure we will be using. On a couple that we'll very likely take a shot at... LOTS. We'll be sticking with "at least one locker and 35x12.50 mud tires" as minimum requirements.
I'm thinking that we'll probably make a run up Glacier 13 this time out there too. Tire chains would be very handy for this (but not a requirement).
Anyway, this is not the place or time for lots of details yet.
The Alaska Cruiser Crew will be participating, but will not actually be hosting the Trek This time around. It'll be my show in 2008. With some probably assistance from a couple of the Crew (and/or some of the Whatley Clan). We'll be limiting the number of rigs to 15. Locals will have to wait until the deadline for all outsiders has passed before they get a shot at the remaining slots. This limit *may* be a bit flexible but not by much.
Here's a couple of links with pictures from the area that we'll be visiting.
http://www.xplorn.com/ACT2002/
http://www.xplorn.com/ACT2003/
These are left over websites from previous Treks. Bounce around and check out the info and comments there. It will mostly apply to ACT2008 also.
Anyway, here's the initial announcement. More info will follow, here and in the Trails. If you have questions, ask away.
Mark...
This is just an advance notice and details are subject to change still at this point. But I wanted to get the word out as soon as I could so that folks thinging abut coming up have time to plan.
The Alaska Cruiser Trek will happen again next year. The plan at the moment is to return to the area where we hosted the ACT2003 and the "Unofficial ACT2002". Basically the southern side of the eastern end of the Alaska Range. Between Tok and Paxon.
This will not be a high challenge event. This will be a bit of a change in mindset over the earlier Treks. Up 'til now we have always gone into it with the hope of presenting some tough trails and getting into some new territory, even for thos of us leading the way. We've managed to do both to a varying degrees. But I've realized that this has been a minor consideration and in the end a minor high point of the Treks.
I've jokingly been referring to the Treks as "Hard Core Sight Seeing". But I have come to whee I'm no longer joking. When you get right down to it getting out into the back country for the sake of getting out into the back country and doing it with good company really is what the Treks are about. So this time around, I'm not going to mislead myself that we will be doing much else.
Now that that's been said, no one should come up thinking that this wil be a like a weekend of driving fire roads in the Smokies or wandering along old mining and ranch roads in Utah. We've had varying degrees of breakage, mechanical failures and mishaps during every Trek and we expect that this will continue. In the past 4 Treks we have seen 3 roll overs, 3 or 4 broken springs, three broken rear axles, 4 or 5 busted birfields, a couple of shattered Tcase, sheared knuckle studs and wallowed knuckles, sheared ball joints, failed alternators and electric fans (water and silt), sliced tires, torn brake lines and lots of other miscellaneous carnage. We've drowned a couple of rigs in crossings gone bad, had more than a couple rigs which had to be extracted from a crossing without actually drowning them.
Nothing drastic and when you consider how many vehicle miles we've accumulated with the Treks, this is a pretty low tally. My only point is that, stuff happens. And you have to be prepared to deal with it. And so far, we have. When you are well back into the trails alot, you get used to this.
Anyway, while the actual dates are not set yet, expect early to mid July. A week or so on the trail. At least two occasions where the camp will not be broken down and moved in the morning so that folks who want to can spend some time hiking, relaxing in camp or doing other non-vehicular activities.
We will see a LOT of river crossings. Your rig will have to be able to handle 3-4 foot deep moving water without any real concern.
We will not see a lot of mud on the trails that we know for sure we will be using. On a couple that we'll very likely take a shot at... LOTS. We'll be sticking with "at least one locker and 35x12.50 mud tires" as minimum requirements.
I'm thinking that we'll probably make a run up Glacier 13 this time out there too. Tire chains would be very handy for this (but not a requirement).
Anyway, this is not the place or time for lots of details yet.
The Alaska Cruiser Crew will be participating, but will not actually be hosting the Trek This time around. It'll be my show in 2008. With some probably assistance from a couple of the Crew (and/or some of the Whatley Clan). We'll be limiting the number of rigs to 15. Locals will have to wait until the deadline for all outsiders has passed before they get a shot at the remaining slots. This limit *may* be a bit flexible but not by much.
Here's a couple of links with pictures from the area that we'll be visiting.
http://www.xplorn.com/ACT2002/
http://www.xplorn.com/ACT2003/
These are left over websites from previous Treks. Bounce around and check out the info and comments there. It will mostly apply to ACT2008 also.
Anyway, here's the initial announcement. More info will follow, here and in the Trails. If you have questions, ask away.
Mark...
at 45 
