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Every few years, in late summer, dozens of rally drivers gather in the Pacific Northwest to compete in the Alcan 5000. It starts in Bellevue, Washington, and runs 5000 miles through Canada and Alaska, over the region's most rugged terrain. Reporter Patricia Murphy rode along tells the story of the Alcan -- and the daredevils that drive it. Let's just say, this road trip also calls for innovation and successful group dynamics.
This version aired on KUOW in September 2003.
A shorter version aired 2-2003 on The Savvey Traveler.
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Piece Description
Every few years, in late summer, dozens of rally drivers gather in the Pacific Northwest to compete in the Alcan 5000. It starts in Bellevue, Washington, and runs 5000 miles through Canada and Alaska, over the region's most rugged terrain. Reporter Patricia Murphy rode along tells the story of the Alcan -- and the daredevils that drive it. Let's just say, this road trip also calls for innovation and successful group dynamics. This version aired on KUOW in September 2003. A shorter version aired 2-2003 on The Savvey Traveler.
Broadcast History
This version aired on KUOW in September 2003.
A shorter version aired 2-2003 on The Savvey Traveler.
Transcript
We start early on a clear August morning in Quesnel, British Columbia. Our black 1992 Subaru Legacy turbo is parked along a dirt forest road near Frazer Lake. White spruce, willow and birch trees blow in the breeze providing the perfect back drop for the fiery Indian paintbrush and lupine that line the road. I’m crammed into the back seat with all of our gear. This will be my seat for the next 41-hundred miles. Driver Ryan Douthit and navigator Chad Ligot are busy preparing for the day’s first timed event. Ryan is a magazine publisher and Chad is a machinist. Both are from Kirkland, Washington. Chad’s the team’s navigator. It’s his job to direct Ryan and keep him on time according the route (root) book. But right away there’s a problem.
(Ambient Road noise)
C: awww we’re tagged
The guys discover they’ve somehow driven past the start sign. Ryan quickly pulls a U-turn and heads b...
Read the full transcript
Timing and Cues
piece runs 20:06 no stops, there are spaces to break up if needed.
Musical Works
All short excerpts used for ambi..
Bob Dylan "High Water"
Wille Nelson "Stay all night, Stay a little longer"
REM "Out Of Time"
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Posted on June 01, 2005 at 03:22 PM | Permalink
Review of Alcan 5000 Adventure
KUOW's Patricia Murphy serves as your backseat driver on this Alaska-size drive, The Alcan 5000 from Seattle to Anchorage. It's an order of magnitude beyond the old Baja 500, but without quite all the rigors of the Paris – Dakar event.
This is rallying, not racing, and the participants are infected with TSDs – Time Speed Distance pegs – that reward precision not just raw speed. It's an odd lot, including an ex-marine, a heart surgeon, a motorcycle cop, magazine publishers, a driving instructor from Maine. A large-horsepower, computerized form of in-situ map-reading (Is that Airport Road or Old Airport Road?), the Alcan 5000 is something out of Your Worst Summer Vacation Driving Nightmare, generally with a laugh.
Since it's a rally, in stages, the stage is set every evening for lots of bartime and storytime. You'll discover, for instance, the Simple Green Solution to canine urine residue in motorcycle helmets. And lots more of equally-limited applicability and good humor.
I appreciate that our guide admits to puking on the Carcross Highway after blowing the doors off a lineup of lethargic RVs. In a demonstration of the teamwork integral to these events, her driver and navigator resuscitate her in time for a bloody crash (dodging a rock-hard grader on soft gravel) that takes them out of the rally.
But not our indefatigable Ms Murphy, who hops another car and motors ahead. By the finish line, she ticks off a tally sheet of the gang's defugalties: speeding tickets, stitches, the totaled car, one broken wrist.
Why on (the ends of the) earth? As Gary Webb, that driving instructor says, "When I ride with the people that I teach drivers ed with I’m scared to death. Sitting in car with my two best friends is fantastic."
This is a road trip story that, like the Alcan 5000 itself, is all about the journey, not the destination. It's a winding 20:00 of weekend radio that will appeal to listeners out for a joyride.
[PD NOTE: The attached transcript is evidently from a different edit – it varies significantly from the audio in this full version.]