Day 3-Dawson City to Whitehorse, Yukon

Moose taking a walk

It was a very adventuresome day, to say the least.

First the competition stuff:

Two very long Regularities:

The first about 30km with two timing points; the second about 25km. The first one was high in the mountains above the cloud level and with the bright morning sun in our eyes it was difficult to see the timing instruments. Brant had difficulty seeing the road on account of the enormous amount of dust and the sun in his eyes. With all that complaint, we achieved a perfect score of “Zero Penalty Points” on the first section.

We were not so fortunate on the second timing section. We arrived at the Marshall’s checkpoint 9 seconds early. In my opinion -- to be off 9 seconds after 30km isn’t so bad, but the rules assessed a 9 second penalty. We found out later in the day that other crews had a similar high score on the second section. We’ll have to see later tonight if it hurts on the overall scoring.

The afternoon Regularity was long, but only one scoring point. We finished two seconds early so there will be a small (and acceptable) penalty. Our total penalty points for the day are 11 (9 + 2) and well see how that affects in the standings later tonight.

We had no penalty points for missing the timing on the Time Controls….but only by the magic of Brant. After we finished the second Regularity, we had 110 miles to the finish line in Whitehorse, Yukon. We knew we were low on gas, but we knew where the next petrol station was and thought we could get there without a problem. Wrong!!

With 110 miles from the finish and 20 miles to the next fuel station, our car coughed to a halt. A wonderful competitor stopped and gave us gas. The old gal (the car was born in ‘65) ran for a few kilometers, but again conked-out.

In the end, Brant determined that our fuel pump was giving up the ghost and needed to be replaced. By the side of the road, it took him 5 minutes to get all of our luggage out of the car;
18 minutes to replace the fuel pump; and another 5 minutes to repack the car. Amazing!! And we finished at our hotel in plenty of time to avoid penalties.

Wildlife: We have now travelled about 1,800 miles in the Northwest and have not seen many wild animals. In two days we spotted a very pretty red Fox and today we saw a black bear crossing the highway. Hopefully, more will come.

Tonight we’re in Whitehorse, the capitol of Yukon. Originally, the Capitol was Dawson City, but it was moved to Whitehorse 20-30 years ago. Tomorrow, we head south to warmer climes.