A few words from Peter Straub....

My name is Peter Straub, and my wife, Tanis, and I, are veterans of ACT 2001 and 2002. Our trusty steed is our 1984 BJ60 which we call Tippy the Behemoth. Tippy is mounted upon 38" tall military mud tires, with a collection of lockers, gears, and armour. Tippy made for a great viewing platform from which to see Alaska.

One question that always haunts me before going to an event on a trail I've never been on is "how difficult is the terrain". The short answer is that every single obstacle in Alaska is actually pretty easy. It's not like Rubicon or Moab, where the obstacles are named, and have certain well established approaches to conquer. The challenge is the glacier fed river that is rising in response to the heat of the day that we criss cross more times that we can count, and somewhere twenty miles or so upstream, after following an old trail that you can only see every few miles, there is a tributary, and that's where we turn left... we think. Put together the long distances with the remoteness, uncertainty, bugs, and the rain, and suddently the Alaska Cruiser Trek is the greatest wheeling challenge I've ever faced. Many of the obstacles along the way have nothing to do with wheeling. Finding a flat place to lay out a sleeping bag amung the hummocks just adds to the experience after a day behind the wheel. Perhaps out of necessity you have to sleep on a gravel bar on the river one night, or on an ancient landing strip next to a long deserted mining camp. Never knowing is a lot of the fun. Once you learn to enjoy 'random camping' it makes it very difficult to go back to the gravel pads we've become used to in the 'outside' world.

One of the lessons we've learned on the Trek is to always eat, shower, sleep, and sh** whenever the chance presents itself. You never know when someone's truck will break down, get hopelessly mired, swamped, or discover that the sight seeing side trip required the crossing of a tame river that is suddenly flooding over the banks on the return trip, forcing you to make camp on the wrong side to wait out the glacial surge.

The other thing to carefully contemplate is your food for the journey. 10 days is a long time to pack in fresh food. I don't know about you, but I have to go to the grocery store for every single meal I make. Think about this carefully, and be prepared for a feast and famine routine. When the day is short, everyone will haul out their covetted supply of savoury food items for a communal feast. Be prepared to share your best food with the others. Other days, most of the Alaskans will be eating military rations while you may just decide to just go to bed hungry.

Despite my accusation that the trek's obstacles are 'easy', I suffered the humiliation of a flop on my side in 2001 whilst travelling an easy section of trail and not paying attention to the terrain, and in 2002 I broke two birfields and sheared the axle studs off the rear axle after the axle housing was bent during the long and arduous journey up the Alaska Highway. More than anything else, dependability is key. I would far rather be stuck and calling for a winch, than trying to MacIver together a fix to my custom 5 link suspension that easily floated over the mud, but broke in the process.... right Mark!

The Alaska highway is not to be underestimated. I am considered very close to Alaska in my home-town of Calgary, AB. Believe it or not, I am about equidistant between Key West Florida, and Anchorage! It's a really long way, and you cannot underestimate the length and remoteness of the journey. There are very long stretches of very lonely highway along the way. The good news is that the journey forces a sense of brotherhood along the highway. I was forced to stop when my fan fell off (someone forgot to tighten the bolts during last minute preparations for the journey), and during the 15 minutes I was on the side of the highway, both of the vehicles that passed me stopped to render assistance.

This simple anecdote exemplifies why I went back to Alaska twice. The most amazing part of Alaska are the people. espite disparate and conflicting backgrounds, these fiercely independant Alaskans know that their very survival may one day depend on a helping hand from a stranger, and they are ever vigilant to the welfare of their fellow man. That experience, to spend time with these people and share in that way of wheeling, and their outlook on life, is what occupies the fondest memories of the Cruiser Trek.

Peter