Ultimate Adventure

The 20th Anniversary of Ultimate Adventure goes big in Alaska! On Day 1 the group departs Wasilla Alaska, airs down, and engages 4x4 to tackle the deep water, bottomless mud, and gooey silt on the trail leading to the Knik Glacier. After getting stuck, suffering some axle and tire carnage, and fixing a few flat tires, Ultimate Adventure heads back to civilization to prepare for UA2019 Day 2.

With the fuel tanks filled and several days of supplies stowed in the 4x4s, Ultimate Adventure leaves civilization behind on Days 2 and 3 and forges deep into the Eureka Trial System where the mud is sticky, the water crossings are deep, and the Muskeg is unrelenting. We find moose, nearly blow up an engine, come close to a rollover, make some field fixes, and show what real hardcore overlanding is all about.

As it turns out, time travel is possible in Alaska as Ultimate Adventure discovered on Day 4 by following the meandering Copper River until the road ends at the historic Kennecott Mine. When the mine shut down in 1938 the workers simply walked away, leaving all the tools of their trade behind. Its remote location allowed the mine to remain undisturbed for decades, a living time capsule of an early Alaskan mine. After touring the historic site, Ultimate Adventure hit the road, peeling off the pavement at sunset and engaging 4x4 because the campsite flanking the Alaskan Pipeline wasn’t accessible without Low Range and big tires. UA2019 set up camp and cooked under the stars among blueberry bushes and wildlife track.

Ultimate Adventure Day 5 began early with the group firing cold engines and wheeling back to blacktop before heading out across the historic Denali Highway, after which the camping gear and unnecessary equipment was dumped at camp to lighten the load for a serious day on the Stampede trail. Most familiar with the “Into the Wild” book and movie know this as the route Christopher McCandless walked on his ill-fated journey to the school bus in which he died. While it was too dangerous for Ultimate Adventure to make it all the way to the bus, we did find the Teklanika River as well as some of the most intense mud wheeling in Alaska.

While some members of Ultimate Adventure spent the morning of Day 6 making repairs, the rest of the group headed to the nearby Usibelli Coal Mine to get a tour of Alaska’s only working coal mine and gawk at some of the biggest, gnarliest machines in North America. After a mine tour, we high-tailed it back down to Wasilla past active wildfire areas to the Transportation and Industry Museum of Alaska which has some of the best examples of backwoods machinery in the state. Finally, UA2019 closed out on Day 7 with the best trail of this year’s event, with a trip up to the top of Bald Mountain. Crazy vegetation, deep mud, and even some rock crawling are on this trail. A near rollover, a B-29 crash site from 1956, and an incredible 360-degree view were the reward.