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00:00Expedition Overland's Pan-American Series is presented by General Tire. Anywhere is possible.
00:27All right, Rhonda, so what's going to happen is we're going to have you back up a little
00:31bit until we get tension on this line, and then we'll have you slowly back up, and Clay's
00:38going to go ahead and try to pull himself out of this. We don't want you to run too hard,
00:42otherwise that land cruiser might sink itself in. Roger that. We found we can go around here
00:48and just cut back onto this island, it looks like. The question that's been raised, though,
00:54is are we just going deeper and deeper into the center of the river, and then comes into
00:59question, are we still making good decisions?
01:41Day 12 was a wet start. A cinematic rainforest downpour graced our pack up from Valdez.
01:50We set up our own little VIP every morning. Well, not every morning.
01:56It's about, though. It's about. You can't look good when you overland.
02:00You can't look good when you're going overlanding.
02:06Over one inch of rain fell within the hour. Rain jackets were a must, and the awnings proved
02:12they're worth.
02:14They're worth.
02:45With a departure from Valdez, it was nice to get back on the road.
02:49We made good time, covering 264 miles and restocking our supplies in the Palmer area of Alaska.
02:56It is quarter to nine, and we're just now starting the trail to head to the Kinnick
03:03Glacier, and I think we heard it's two hours, roughly two hours in, and we know we have two
03:09major river crossings. We have more than that, but two major ones that are definitely going to test
03:17me. I started to say test the cars, but it's going to test me. Who are we getting?
03:23The cars will take it.
03:24We're looking to camp up by the glacier tonight and enjoy the outdoors, finally doing some
03:32off-roading, which is great. Off-roading? Off-roading. We do that? I don't know.
03:39We might need to turn around just over there.
03:49What's your off-roading experience, my friend?
03:550.4.
03:560.4?
03:570.4.
03:59Are we on a 10 scale here?
04:02Yeah, 11.
04:0311 scale?
04:0411 scale.
04:05Had a Geo Metro once.
04:08I'm super excited.
04:09Ready for some dirt.
04:10Yeah.
04:12Even if it is mud.
04:13I'm okay with mud as long as, yeah.
04:15Yeah, I'm okay with mud.
04:17I think it could be fun.
04:19We'll see what I say after we're in the mud, but right now I'm going to be optimistic.
04:23I think it's going to be fun.
04:25Just talked to a local, and he said, when you then move on up the trail, you'll go through
04:31some trees, and you'll go along a bank, and you'll cross some creeks, and you'll go along
04:34some more trees, and go along another bank.
04:36And then you'll get to some more creeks.
04:37Then you're going to get to the next one, and it's going to look really bad.
04:41But it's not that bad.
04:42Look for the trees across the way.
04:44It's not so bad.
04:45It just looks really bad.
04:46Yeah.
04:46Yeah, it's going to be a rodeo.
04:47It's going to be interesting.
04:49There you go.
04:54Wow, she don't want to go anywhere.
04:57Rhonda is at the wheel, and has found herself in her first technical scenario.
05:08We're just powering out now.
05:09Is that four low?
05:12That doesn't seem like four low.
05:14That doesn't seem like four low.
05:15So, she's in four high, which the gear ratio is too high for this load, all this, and the
05:22limited slip wasn't doing its job.
05:24So, we've activated front and rear lockers now.
05:26There you go.
05:28There you go.
05:37Oh, you're all right.
05:40You're all right.
05:40It's just the pan underneath.
05:42I thought we flew too.
05:44I know.
05:45I thought we flew too.
06:01There you go.
06:02Right.
06:02Right.
06:03There you go.
06:03Right.
06:05Oh, my.
06:07Woo!
06:10You're awesome.
06:12You're awesome.
06:14How you feeling, babe?
06:16Down like that.
06:18I did it.
06:21I've got so much sand in my teeth.
06:25I'm having to face this whole thing where I feel I have to be perfect.
06:31I was put in the driver's seat of the cruiser with the trailer, and I realized on an expedition
06:37you're given a thousand different avenues to fail because you can't pre-plan anything.
06:44I can't work it out in my head ahead of time.
06:46I can't, you know, perfect it in my mind before I tackle a course.
06:50And so, for me, it was like, oh, I failed.
06:53I should have just been able to do it.
06:54But everyone was like, you did such a good job.
06:56And I was like, I did.
06:59If I had done a good job, I would have made it the first time.
07:02Like, that was how my mind was.
07:03But it's all good.
07:05It's part of the process.
07:06And just give myself room to breathe and give myself a little bit of grace.
07:13Jeff's a good teacher, you guys.
07:14Seriously.
07:15He came to be so calm.
07:17He's like, no.
07:17Finding your vehicle's limits and getting stuck is part of the game.
07:20Having the right tools allows you to preserve your vehicle, making the recoveries easy and effective.
07:26As long as you're being smart about it, it's generally rewarding and fun.
07:30There's a shot from the cockpit to the right.
07:35Is that incredible.
07:43A sense fell upon us that this place was sort of the Wild West.
07:51Over here at one point, he said last week, there was an F-150 buried up to his windshield.
07:57So he's, and he crosses here all the time, he said, but he's nervous because he didn't see exactly where
08:01that Hummer crossed.
08:02So he's like, I don't know, I'm going to wait and see because I don't want to do it wrong
08:06because I'll sink my Jeep.
08:08Scenarios like this, a dynamic recovery is more effective than a winch recovery.
08:13Because instead of just a hard straight line pull, it loads and lifts and I don't know.
08:19I've been in a lot of snow situations where this actually will get you out and up and out and
08:25a winch won't.
08:27So, but we're ready with both.
08:29Got it.
08:30I am ready. Let's roll.
08:31Okay.
08:35There's some four wheelers coming over.
08:37Oh, he's being towed out of it.
08:40That is awesome.
08:42That's a Samurai getting pulled by a four wheeler.
08:46That is hilarious.
09:01I love America.
09:03America!
09:04Woo!
09:05Props to the four wheeler.
09:07You got to love them.
09:08I've never done a big water crossing like this and I'm nervous and really excited.
09:15You're going to hear noises.
09:16You're going to see water come up to the hood.
09:18You might see it go over the hood.
09:19Don't freak out.
09:20It's okay.
09:21The biggest thing is throttle control.
09:23Just nice and easy.
09:25Romping it isn't going to help because it's completely silt under there.
09:28You just need to let it, let the vehicle do its thing.
09:46All the adrenaline pumping.
09:51So it's our particular...
09:54Just straight there and straight across over there.
09:57First gear.
09:58Idle out.
09:59A little bit of throttle.
10:09Yeah! Get some! Get some!
10:18Oh! The notch!
10:20The notch!
10:29It's just like working out 3-2-1.
10:38Yep. Straight over to those tracks so you can see them over there.
10:45Yep. Going down.
10:48Pretty good. Just crawl right on out.
10:52And clear!
10:54Yes!
10:55One last step.
10:57That wasn't as bad as the first one.
10:59Okay.
11:01Oh! Okay!
11:03Perfect!
11:05Okay!
11:26I don't even have words!
11:28Words.
11:29Words.
11:30Cannot describe.
11:31Words!
11:33All right, let's go with 10 more miles.
11:42Going on very limited knowledge of the area and on ambiguous roughneck directions, we pushed forward toward the glacier, weaving
11:50our way through tributaries, thick brush, and deceptively shallow or deep crossings.
11:57Every crossing was different, and we had to take our time.
12:00Swamping a vehicle was not an option.
12:03Okay, we had a local guy.
12:06That guy in that Dodge was giving us a warning before, saying stay left as long as possible.
12:19It was a good thing we relocated our axle breathers to prevent water from being pulled into the differentials.
12:27It's pretty much the best upgrade you can do if water crossings are in your future, and are a must
12:32for Alaska Yukon adventures.
12:38I just remember watching that YouTube video of that guy going through that thing and then just falling in that
12:43hole.
12:48Yeah, that's not going to happen to us.
12:52A moose just ran across the way.
12:54We saw it.
12:55Yeah, we saw that. That's pretty awesome.
13:01Okay, so we've come to our biggest river crossing yet.
13:06And right as we got up here, right as we crossed, a moose ran across the way.
13:10So we got a cow moose somewhere right here.
13:15I rode up there a little ways, didn't come across anything.
13:20Got far too narrow for the vehicles to travel through.
13:24I mean, I was in the Tacoma, it was on either side.
13:28Scraping.
13:29And I was going to have to get out and cut stuff down.
13:31So there's no way people inside this vehicle could get up there for the honor series.
13:35So we have to go across here.
13:37So Scotty is going to go across with his staff.
13:44He's got staff both staff skills.
13:46And he's going to use what's called the tripod method.
13:51Getting deep pretty quick.
13:52You cross the current facing upstream with the log in front of you in the tripod.
13:58And you move it over, then you step.
13:59That's pretty much the safest way for a single person to cross.
14:03And we'll make a note here that a much bigger pole is preferred to break the current in front of
14:07you.
14:08There's always one spot that they said don't cross to get right up the river.
14:14This drops just as fast.
14:18Well, crap!
14:21Should we cross further downstream?
14:23Because we stayed high.
14:24Should we go back down and look for another route that way?
14:27I think we should before we do this.
14:29How was that?
14:331254.
14:361254.
14:37It's 1 in the morning, practically.
14:39And we're still trying to make our way up here.
14:43So I'm going to try this section right here.
14:45It might get pretty rowdy and deep.
14:47But, uh, it's what we're here to do, right?
14:58Around the corner, soft, water-saturated ground impaired further progress.
15:02Yeah, we just rolled over, and I was like, hmm, it's not feeling right.
15:06And so I backed up, and with the back end being light or something like that, just bump bump, and
15:12we were stuck.
15:13And it's quite the break-o-wrangle here.
15:15We might have ice-centered quickly, too.
15:17And we're slowly sinking, all at the same time.
15:20I tried to back up right away, and, uh, it got launched.
15:24It might be a big rock or something like that.
15:27That's the rule of thumb.
15:29Once you're stuck, you're stuck.
15:30Just stop.
15:31Otherwise, you just make it far worse.
15:34Okay, Jeff, go ahead.
15:37We opted for a gentle snatch-strap recovery.
15:43Try to back out.
15:44Clay and Rhonda, you keep moving back.
15:51We found we can go around here and just cut back onto this island, it looks like.
15:56The question that's been raised, though, is are we just going deeper and deeper into the center of the river?
16:03And then, are we still making good decisions?
16:07As far as I can estimate, we are seven miles still from the glacier.
16:15Right. Yeah, easy.
16:17It's by far, like, the most powerful river system I've ever come in.
16:22That you can just drive through and interact with.
16:24I've never been here.
16:25Yeah.
16:25Yeah.
16:26So we just call it.
16:28Okay.
16:29These vehicles have to go a long way.
16:32Yeah.
16:33Still, we've got a lot to get through.
16:34They've got 5,000 miles left on this trip alone.
16:38Yeah.
16:41Yeah.
16:41Yeah, I think that would be the smart thing to do.
16:45And we've got tomorrow, you know.
16:47Yeah.
16:48All right.
16:48If we want to talk right then.
16:50So I say we make our way back.
16:53Mm-hmm.
16:55And find, maybe there's a great spot.
16:58Yeah.
16:58And we can camp out between rivers or something.
17:00I don't know.
17:01Let's just play it by ear.
17:02With our objective far away, limited knowledge of the area, darkness, and no known alternatives,
17:08the decision was emotionally hard but crucial.
17:11We had lost the ability to observe, orientate, and navigate effectively.
17:15It was honestly a no-brainer.
17:18Sleep was now the objective.
17:21After deciding that we were safe from any rapidly rising water, we set up camp on a high mid-river
17:27bar.
17:28My fear is there's going to be a few rowdy four-wheelers in the morning.
17:32Yeah, we might get our room away today.
17:36You're so amazing.
17:37Can I sleep with you tonight?
17:38Yes, you can.
17:40Yes.
17:40As long as there's going to be Littlespoon.
17:43Done and done.
17:44Yes.
17:46You've been awesome.
17:50Second attempt trying to get up to the glacier today.
17:54Canick, I think that's how you say it, Canick Glacier.
17:56We had to call it quits out of just wisdom at two-something in the morning last night
18:02because we hadn't even reached our most difficult river crossing yet.
18:07And Jeff was the one that said we were willing to keep going but we needed to do it with
18:14the claws.
18:14We only keep going as long as we're able to make wise decisions.
18:18And that ended pretty abruptly, I would say, for the whole group once the Tacoma got stuck and we had
18:23to pull it out.
18:25We allowed ourselves a morning to sleep in.
18:27It was very needed.
18:29It was the first time, honestly, I think on this whole trip we slept in until we naturally woke up.
18:33It was very needed for the group and now we're going to try to hit it hard and get up
18:40to that glacier today.
18:41We're still very early in our expedition.
18:44We still have the Yukon territory to go through.
18:47So we are going to be smart about what we do.
18:50But we're going to have a blast and see what these trucks are capable of at the same time.
18:55So this is where I come alive.
18:57This is what I'm living for right now, today.
19:04Here we are again.
19:06Same spot we were last night.
19:07Same spot as last night.
19:08Some locals arrived and offered their assistance.
19:13Since he's got waders on, I might borrow him.
19:22He's starting to get...
19:27That's here.
19:27Yeah.
19:29That's definitely going to push the truck.
19:31Yeah.
19:31Yeah.
19:33I mean, you were like...
19:34I mean, that was this deep.
19:35With the plastic bed, that little bed will lift up.
19:38Yeah.
19:38And this is all sealed as one big balloon.
19:40Yeah.
19:41That's too much.
19:41Yeah.
19:44I think we've got to call it.
19:46Same as last night.
19:47Just can't pass here.
19:48Just can't do it.
19:50It's too high.
19:51The risk is too high.
19:52I mean, we might be able to do it, but...
19:58It was simply too early in the year.
20:03So, Clay and I are fighting right now because he keeps stealing my driver's seat.
20:10He, like, literally just snuck in and he's like, I'm just going to turn the truck around.
20:14You got to drive a lot yesterday.
20:16I'm like, no I didn't.
20:17I only drove while they were filming and then he hopped in and drove all the rest of the
20:20way to Canada.
20:21So it's my turn.
20:22So we're fighting.
20:23Oh, and here he comes.
20:24We're totally going to take it back.
20:25So this is going to be our battle today.
20:27Should be interesting.
20:28We better get out of there.
20:29It's so...
20:30I told everybody what you just did.
20:31I just adjusted my seat and I'm actually thinking I'll do the rest.
20:37It hurts totally fighting.
20:38Look at that face.
20:41I'm getting back.
20:42It's not okay.
20:43To my credit, Rochelle didn't have to suffer long.
21:02We're going to check out Tolquitna and want to see that town.
21:04I've always wanted to go there actually.
21:06Cool.
21:06And from mountaineering and all kinds of reasons to go there.
21:11So we'll go check it out.
21:12See if we can find a cool restaurant or something or a cool campground and see what we can find.
21:17Cool.
21:24We finally got some good mud on the tires and now a good meal was on the mind of everyone.
21:29We set our breaks at the Mountain High Pizza Pie and struck up a conversation with owner Todd Basselin to
21:36hear how Mountain High Pizza Pie came to be.
21:39I had a fire burn almost all of it.
21:42The roof burned off and you could see where the walls were packed together and everything.
21:47And this wasn't here then.
21:49And I spent the winter rebuilding it with no heat.
21:53Wow.
21:53And not too much money but I got it built and opened May 17th in 2003.
22:00Fantastic.
22:01Todd provided us with recommendations and the kitchen staff quickly set to work on the evening's masterpiece.
22:15At this time it's becoming apparent that we are actually on an Alaska Greek pizza tour.
22:20For some reason there's a lot of good pizza up here.
22:24Reindeer sausage.
22:27Reindeer.
22:27Reindeer.
22:28Santa's fist.
22:28I'm eating it.
22:30I was always leery to come here because you hear about the bears and the bugs and it was definitely
22:35going to be out of my comfort zone but I am definitely falling in love with it.
22:40Well, I would say that fewer men have seen the likes of these.
22:48Magical night tonight.
22:50Magical day.
22:51The stuff you dream of really.
22:53I've always wanted to cross rivers, explore for glaciers, do it with good friends.
23:01I don't think I'll forget this night for a long time.
23:04Maybe ever.
23:06It's up there.
23:07It's up there on the top.
23:09Top ten nights.
23:12Yeah.
23:13But I should go to bed.
23:14It is one in the morning.
23:16So.
23:19Good night.
23:20Bye.
23:44But you see us all today.
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