NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

Alaska Cruiser Trek 2006
The Best Yet!

by Mark Whatley, Pasquale Benedetto and Clarence Giesbrecht

The following feature is an excerpt from Toyota Trails, the official publication of TLCA. To read the entire article, join TLCA now!

 
Getting Started

Several of us met up the night before the Trek as folks filtered into the area to either camp or grab a room at one of the nearby lodges. This night saw Mark Whatley in his modified FJ40, his son in-law Jose (and buddy Albert) driving one of Mark’s mini-trucks, and John Pavlichek in his far from stock FJ40—all representing the Alaska Cruiser Crew, camping near the highway along with Pasquale Benedetto and Kristina Hall in their very nice Arizona-based FZJ80. Just before we turned in for the night, Bob Bancroft and Karr Smith rolled in with Bob’s 1HZ turbo converted FJ60 from Oregon. Jim and Deb Van De Ven from Minnesota had found a room nearby and they spent the night there instead of camping in their FZJ80. Greg Bowie and Clarence Geisbrecht were up from Canada in Greg’s BJ74 and had also found a room for the night.

First thing in the morning we all gathered at the Eureka Roadhouse for an early breakfast and to meet the rest of the folks who came rolling in. Mark’s wife Melanie and youngest daughter Erin joined us in another of the mini-trucks that had been pressed into service to haul fuel and supplies. Bob and Sally Deveroux from Denver were there in their FZJ80. Stephan Keller made it down from Fairbanks in his turbo’d BJ70, and Kevin and Lydia Holthaus showed up in one of their 40s. Tim Cowin and Darrell Wayman were there in Tim’s Chevy powered 4Runner, and Gina Bringman made it out in her much modified 1968 FJ40. Greg Hayden, his wife Kathy and his two sons showed up in his V8 powered FJ40 and their SOA FJ62. Norm Roach was the last to arrive, towing his monster FJ55.

Day One—On The Trail

Not too long after we were supposed to be on the trail, we held a quick drivers meeting and got everyone introduced to each other. Mark gave everyone a rundown on what to expect and he and John and a couple of other locals offered some suggestions about how to handle some of the local conditions. Then we got under way not too awfully late.

About a mile or so from the trailhead there is a muddy spot which let everyone know what they’d be up against on this type of terrain. Within about 5 minutes, half the group was in the mud spinning tires and looking for a tug out. It was comical and somehow poetic that those of us used to dry wheeling would get buried in a hurry. We learned quickly that Mark was right—it takes a keen eye to suss out the trail and apply the right amount of gas to keep momentum up through the boggy mud. Shortly after this first mudhole, Mark wound up at the back of the group, and as he is the only one who knew the route, the front of the group missed the first turn before Mark worked his way back up to catch the mistake. We then got turned around in short order and continued on our way. Shortly after this, Norm experienced his problems and Mark had to turn back to escort him back to the trailhead (Jose went too so that Mark would not be making the trip back in solo). They would meet up with us later at camp, taking a faster way in while the rest of us kept going with John leading the way.

We hit another, bigger bog soon after that. Some rigs made it through and others got buried. Bob Deveroux was the first 80 through and he “paved” the way for the rest… but also paid the price. The truck’s right side found a soft spot and he was done—it took four rigs and a real team effort to get him out. Greg Bowie’s chain anchored Kevin’s rig to Greg Hayden’s, and Bob’s winch ran through a Greg anchored snatch-block and over to Gina’s 40. John then attached his winch to the left side of Bob’s bumper and the winching began, as did the movement of Bob’s truck. With Bob’s 80 free we quickly managed to get lost again but eventually got back on the route and met Mark and company a ways down from where we would camp for the night in a sandy walled canyon along the Little Nelchina River.

Day Two—Rain, Welders and Altars To The Cruiser Gods

We woke up wet on day two. What makes rain a real problem in Greg Bowie’s truck is there is no heater core and so the windows fog up really badly. The only way to get rid of the fog is to crank the A/C, and on a cold rainy day in Alaska, blowing A/C is not your friend. Oh well, it’s what has to happen to make a trip like this a success.

Our first challenge of the day was a deep water crossing followed by a steep hill. Tim took the lead and got stuck with wheels in the air in a deep rut about half way up. Darrell and Gina drove up to rescue Tim, and Greg Hayden followed to assume the lead, only to make it three-quarters of the way before dropping into a rut that stopped his progress. Once these rigs were freed and moving all the rigs made it to the top without further problems.

The views and vistas were incredible, as was our timing. No sooner had we finished eating lunch than it started to rain again—and rain hard. By then though everyone was warm and dry inside vehicles and carrying on—well, almost everyone was warm…. We were headed for Tyone Creek and picked up one of its tributaries where it came out of the ground as a small spring, and followed it down to an abandoned mine site that was in the final stages of being demolished, cleaned up and removed. Even in what feels like the middle of nowhere to us “outsiders” (as Alaskans call anyone from anywhere else), we found cabins. Not many, maybe three or four including the abandoned mine site that we visited—but any is more than we expected to find. We drove by one of these lonely cabins along the trail and saw that someone was home, waving from a window. Being behind schedule, however, we pressed on instead of stopping for coffee.

We moved further down Tyone Creek and stopped there for a while. We all had a chance to rest, hike a bit or fish—Mark had assured us that this was one of his “secret spots” for catching grayling. I chose to head downstream in my boots and try my luck at fishing. After an hour or so, I came up short, no bites, so I gave up. According to Mark, if you can’t catch a fish in 5 minutes there, you shouldn’t quit your day job to take up fishing. Guess none of us are switching jobs…. At this stop we met a few owners of quads and one Jeep. Greg Hayden knew the people and discovered that the cabin we passed is inhabited by friends. Alaska can really feel like a small place when you’re talking about people, not landscape.

It was raining a bit so folks spent a little time organizing gear in the Land Cruisers. It was very important to keep gear inside strapped down tight. The mud bumps sent things flying around in a hurry. We then headed down the Tyone to a spot where Mark was hoping to take the group back up into the high ground. One of the many showers we would experience during the week was settling in and by the time we reached the trail up the hill, we were all donning raingear to get out of the rigs. Mark, John and Kevin walked up the hill and we could see that they were picking their way carefully through a bog that sat on the 30-degree slope. When they came back down, Mark announced, “We could probably get up there,” talking about their three rigs—40s locked at both ends wearing Boggers—“But I’m not really sure about John’s and nobody else is going to make it that way.” He had mentioned that this was a wet year and that these trails changed significantly with the weather. If we’d had a few dry days in the weeks before the Trek it might have been possible, but it had been raining pretty steadily. We got the rigs turned around to head back up the creek to an easier route up the hill, only to be stopped in the rain by a broken spring on the blue mini-truck. Mark was smart enough to know just about how much gas everyone would burn on the Trek so he had two mini-trucks loaded with 55 gallon drums full of gas for us to siphon from every morning before we headed out. Mark’s daughter Erin was driving the blue mini-truck with her mom, Melanie, and Jack the dog was riding shotgun. Erin is a quite capable four-wheeler and has many wild and interesting stories to share around the campfire.

Mark got out the portable welder and repaired the spring that had broken due to the weight of the gas and gear. He had originally planned to drop the gas in on a pre-run but this was thwarted by late snows and heavy rains. So the half-ton trucks were loaded with over 1,200 pounds each for a hard week on the trail. We made quick work of the spring repair and Mark welded the pack back together and quickly brought the truck back to wheeling shape.

There had initially been some concern about how the group was going to mesh and how the outsiders would take to the Alaskan style of off roading. Since Mark had needed to escort Norm back to the road on our initial day, he had not spent much time with the group while we worked our way through the swampy area. We had to do a bit of winching and since John was not as familiar with the trail as Mark, we did some casting about and trail reversals. Mark was a little afraid that this, along with the rain, the inability to follow the trail he had planned for the day, and now a broken support truck was going to take its toll on the attitude of the group. But as we dealt with the disabled rig, it became clear that he wasn’t worrying about this anymore. The structure for this event made everyone a member of the Alaska Cruiser Crew for the year. And as we worked in the rain, everyone was an Alaska Cruiser Crew member. We all pitched in together, got the rig jacked up, the wheel and axle unbolted, parts cleaned and welded back together, components reassembled, tools located, used, and then put away—and then the rig unloaded and reloaded so as to reduce the strain on the field fix. Everyone joined in and got the job done. Those who weren’t needed to lay hands on stayed close and ready to help if called for and we all chatted and enjoyed the challenge. As we started back on our way, we knew that we were going to have a good run.