We got up and left Inuvik at 6:00 rally time (not mountain time) in the morning. The only road from Inuvik to Tuk in the winter is to drive on the McKenzie River all the way North until you reach the Beaufort Sea. Then drive out onto the Beaufort to cross over to Tuk. The drive was completely on the frozen ice, slick as it may be, and nothing but flats of snow cover river as far as the eye can see.

When we reached Tuk, we found the Northern-most road that we could drive on in Tuk and stopped to take more pictures before the moon set upon the pingos.

Right before we left, the sun was finally starting to rise. We got gas and mailed off a couple of postcards from Tuk to friends and family.

After a filling up with gas, we traveled the via the Beaufort Sea and the McKenzie River once again to head back to Inuvik.

 The McKenzie River is the ultimate super ice-highway. It is plowed 6 wide with signs (such as stop signs and chevrons) that are drilled and set into the ice. When the ice starts to melt, they drill the signs back out and the road once again becomes a river.

Today was just a trasit from Dawson to Eagle Plains then Inuvik. As boring as 480 miles might be, the scenery made up for it. The mountains were spectacular! The farther North we headed, the less trees and foliage there were. We could see the mountains for miles upon miles.
O

 Dempster Highway North.

Olgilvie Ridge Viewpoint along the Dempster Highway. 

The sundown over the Rocky Mountains.

Tomorrow we head North once more for Tuk where we will have to drive up the frozen River full of cracked ice to make it over there. From there we head back to Inuvik and stay in Eagle Plains for the night.Since we are on a full moon, the gravitational pull of the moon moves the waters under the river and in the Beaufort Sea, causing ice to crack and water to re-freeze on top the ice. Don't fall in! 

More scores are coming up and the rally is starting to take more shape. It's a difficult struggle to stay on top with the rest of the computer cars. A lot of times the winner just ends up getting luck because of traffic, other rally cars, checkpoint timing errors, or mechanical failures. Today was not our lucky day as the first leg of the day started us off in ruch hour traffic in the middle of Whitehorse, YK, where we ended up running extremely late.

After two legs, we had 4 runs of ice racing on Long Lake. Scoring good times in the ice racing will play a pertinent part in not gaining any more unwanted points. Fast time of the day was a 1:19 set by car 17. My fast time was a 1:20, up there in the top 5 fastest times of the day. Points are scored by how many seconds you are down from the fastest time in each tire class.

Then the transit from Whitehorse at 1:00pm to Dawson (about 320 miles). Briskly driving along to keep things interesting and new, the drive was entertaining and scenic as the temperatures varied, snow and ice disappeared and reappeared, and large cats were seen crossing the Alaska highway.

The next three days are a pass/fail standard instead of TSD sections. Just making it to the destination point is going to be a challenge, let alone introducing time into the factor.  We will be traveling to Inuvik and then Tuk. If anyone declines to stay in Dawson instead of traveling to Inuvik, then they get 200 points added to their score and 10 more points for not going to Tuk. 

Alcan Rally, $5000.

Side trip to Canada's Tim Horton's Cafe' $20.

Timbits, $2.99.

Happy driver, PRICELESS.

Good morning to the beginning of the Alcan Rally! The car is all stickered up, it's full of gas, and after discussing the route instructions last night, we are ready to go. First car out is at 8:01 this morning. We will have 2 TSD sections today, one before we cross the border and one after we cross into Canada.  

Car #1, which is running with the rally computer, is starting in the 24th position. Car #2 is gridding at position 21. On the transits, we buddy up with another car for safety to make sure we all make it to the end and no one gets lost. We are close enough in car numbers for both of Team Mitsubishi's cars to buddy up.

 Good luck to all competitors as we leave for the beginning of our new adventure.