Advice for a Road Trip to Alaska

So along the way I started keeping track of all of the little (and moderate) things that someone towing a small trailer or just plain driving the highway might want to know.

1.  Always carry cash and back-up debit and/or credit cards. I had all kinds of issues with my cards. I also saw other people having issues. They all worked out but be prepared- even if you call your bank and credit union to let them know you're travelling.

2.  If you're in the middle of nowhere and see a big bright box with a traffic light connected to it AND there's a sign that says wait for the pilot car- stop and wait. It's amazing how many people blow past those putting themselves and others in great danger in the huge road construction sites.

3.  Go before mid-September or be prepared for shorter hours at information centers and many closed RV parks, gas stations, etc. and possibly snow; definitely freezing weather.

4.  Decide when to go by what your priorities are. I saw fewer critters because it was hunting season in Alaska and moose rutting season everywhere. Think about the weather. I had heavy rain and incredibly clear sunny days. I experienced everything from 90+ degrees to just below freezing. Be ready for snow anytime of the year. There were less tourists when I went which made for happier information center and gift shop folks. The salmon runs were near the end so it was harder to see any bears. Don't forget bugs!

5.  Face it- you'll always have the wrong lens on your camera. Have a point and shoot and your phone available. Keep them next to you at all times.

6.  Signs are not always there. There might be one sign directing you to a rest area or the second sign might be right at the turn. Just slow down.

7.  4wd or AWD vehicles are recommended. They come in handy in the construction zones.

8.  Never let the gas tank get below 1/2, really. I carried an extra 5 gallons just in case. I'm glad I did in a couple of cases. One time because the station wasn't obvious and my truck's gas tank was low. Since my gas mileage was pretty low I was quite concerned when it got below 1/2.

9.  Plan for an average of 55mph. There are lots of steep hills, curves, construction, and more things that slow you down.

10. Don't drive between dusk and dawn. If you do, you really raise your risk for a collision with wildlife.

11. Stop at the small funky, eclectic places. Talk to the people. Connections with others is an important part of the adventure.

12. Don't be afraid to ask for help.

13. Carry lots of music. I could only listen to my set of 6 CDs twice in a day. Radio stations are few and far between and limited in the type of music.

14. Don't forget to stop, look, and listen once in a while.

15. Check your tires! Often. Make sure your spare is good, too.

16. Don't expect to see wildlife. Be surprised.

17. Slow down for the frost heave warning signs and/or orange flags/cones. If you don't, well sometimes it's okay but many times it's not going to be pretty when you hit it.

18. Make sure your windshield wipers are new. So much rain and so many bugs.

19. Bring your own laundry soap if you don't want to run around looking for some and those will be full of perfume. And doing laundry can cost $8CDN for 1 load wash and dry. 

20. Showers- tough. I suppose you could go to an RV park and pay. I only stayed at one B.C. Provincial Park that had a shower and the Yukon and Alaska Parks didn't seem to have any. Be prepared for few showers if you don't have a shower in your RV and you don't stay in RV parks.

21. Review and read the parts of the Alaska Milepost BEFORE heading out on this big trip. I reviewed the various highways I would be driving. Then every night while on the trip I reviewed the next days target camp spot, gas stops, and other interesting stops I might have time for.

22. Have a target of 250-300 miles. Check the Milepost for camping spots (and gas) and then have a back up spot.

23. Wifi is rare. If you stay at an RV park you might only get 1 hour or you pay $5 for unlimited time except they turn it off at 9pm. And none of it is strong enough to download photos. 

24. Coffee shops- bring your own. The larger towns have Tim Horton's otherwise there aren't really espresso stands all over the place. Or stop in a restaurant and grab a cup of coffee or tea. Or bring your own.

25.  Bring a tennis ball. It will come in handy for the long driving days when you hold your neck wrong. You can drive with it behind your neck or lie on it to get the kink out. It works great!

26. I finally took my truck to the car wash and it's shiny. Expect to find many windshield flecks (slight chips) when you return home. I found 24 in my truck's! 

Day 16 Closer to Cassiar

The results of yesterdays 80 miles of Yukon Road

Badge of honor

289 miles today- Whitehorse Walmart to Downtown RV Park; much better. I’m back at the Downtown RV Park in Watson Lake. I really needed a shower and wanted to get some entries posted in the blog before I enter the real hinterlands down the Cassiar Highway! Unfortunately, I only get 2- ½ hour wifi sessions again so I’m posting these on the morning of the 17^th day so I can edit them when I’m awake.

Today started quite briskly in Whitehorse. Usually I get dressed in the morning and take Templeton out for a potty walk then return for breakfast and tea. Sometime during the night the trailer door popped open and since he had jumped off of the bed before I rolled out he decided to go on his own. We’re in a Walmart parking lot next to a busy road!! I jump outside in nightshirt and flannel pants and call to stop him. I finally convince him to come back when I walk to the truck and say let’s go for a ride. So scary. Damn door is curved and is a crappy design. My son Allen has spent a lot of time trying to get it to close properly which we thought was fixed. Unfortunately, the constant rattling of the Yukon roads are causing issues. Tonight it’s closed and bungee corded. Thank goodness we weren’t at Pine Lake- known for bears- because there was a bunch of dog food all over the floor (don’t ask)!

Templeton's new spot to travel. On top of the pile o'stuff behind and sort of between the truck seats.

Then after I posted my “badge of honor” muddy vehicle photos, Allen texted that one of my tires looked pretty low. All of the tires were 6 pounds under which may be the reason the 4wd wasn’t working quite right. I must have spent an hour literally driving in circles around Whitehorse trying to find air for the tires. All of the tire stores and automotive-type shops were closed- including Jiffy Lube. And the gas stations didn’t have air- well one did but I couldn’t get the trailer and truck into it. I finally stopped by the information center and they told me about one at the other end of town- been there twice now. Back I go and yay- they have air for my tire. The truck handled much better today. I didn’t get out of town until 12:30. Ugh. I really wanted to stop at a couple of museums but no time.

My drive was taken up listening to “Trucker” radio out of Ontario because I forgot to change out my CDs. I can only listen to the same ones over and over a couple of times. Trucker radio is country but not the new stuff that sounds like pop music. And they did interviews with various trucker people including a 22 year old woman who is a trucker. Different world.

Just another lovely river view

There wasn’t much Autumn color today. This section will be lovely a week or so from now. Like much of the trip the road is nearly always in the shadow of mythic mountains. So high above you that you are humbled by their magnificent size. I never get tired of being in their presence. I don’t know their names and really don’t feel a need to. I feel like I’m the size of a flea.

I went through an area called Carcross, short for caribou crossing. There used to be thousands of caribou in the area. Once the Alaska Highway was built the population dropped to a few hundred. The numbers are around 1,600 now. The highway cut through the migration path of the caribou, allowed for more killing of them, and loss of habitat from mining and logging. I have a lot of time to ponder such things and this highway is so much bigger than it seems. In 1942, in the name of security, the U.S. and Canada built a road through the wilderness with absolutely no regard for the people whose land it was nor for the wildlife that utilized the wilderness. This type of disregard for the First Nations/Native Americans is still occurring. Just look at the huge stand being taken in South Dakota. The tribes are standing up for their land and water because an oil pipeline is being shoved down their throats. How ridiculous. Greed has destroyed our planet, our water, our air, and so many people. When the hell do we stop? Maybe the South Dakota conflict will be the turning point to put the land, the wildlife, and the people first. Rant done.

Rainbow over the highway

Tomorrow I head a new way toward Prince George to save 130 miles but has so much beauty I hope to take a few days enjoying it. The Cassiar Highway offers Stewart B.C. with Hyder Alaska across the road. Hyder is the location of the Fish Creek bear platform where you can watch them fishing (google it and watch the videos). Also, farther south is Kitwanga, home of some of the oldest totem poles and the 'Ksan Historical Indian Village nearby. I have no idea where I’ll be camping except, hopefully, Camp Run-a-Muck RV park in Hyder tomorrow night. Maybe Kantishna Lake tonight. And somewhere near Kitwanga or along the Yellowhead Hwy 16. It's 2 days to home from Prince George.

See ya on the other side because I don’t know if wifi is available anywhere along the road.

Wildlife- American kestrels, red-tail hawk, magpies (I see them nearly every day), golden eagle, sharp-shinned hawk, and some sort of little bird that likes to sit in the middle of the road doing something (they have a slightly yellow breast).

Lesson #16 Give your dog treats whenever he gets in the truck to go for a ride, just in case of an emergency.

Day 14 Breaking Up is Hard to Do

See you soon Denali

Leaving Cantwell and Denali today was difficult. Denali is a healing place. The people are friendly. The place, the land is alive, even if you can’t see all of the lives it holds. The "great one" left an imprint on my soul. I already know I must, I want to come back and embrace this place again. I may have reached my destination however, the journey never really ends.

Good bye Cantwell

I got a late start this morning-11:30- because a group of RVers were filling up the RV park and were quite talkative. One of them was originally from Sedro-Woolley and still has family in Skagit and Snohomish County. We reminisced about the old days growing up in logging towns (I spent several years in Granite Falls which I will not reveal the goings on in this blog). Plus, the RV park owner wanted photos of me and Temp before we left. What a great place. Although, I’m a bit glad I left before the place filled up with a bunch of old people. LOL.

Train on its way to Denali

There wasn’t a lot of stopping today so I drove 339 miles from Cantwell RV park to Moon Lake campground just north of Tok. The campground is small and cozy, and my site is right on the lake. The sunset was amazing unlike the Aurora Borealis which didn’t do much. There is a sign warning folks that the lake is very popular with motorized craft. Why in the hell would you want to ruin this serene wilderness lake with all of that noise and water pollution? Fortunately, none showed up.

"Freeway" outside of Fairbanks

The drive today was through a lot of human presence. I wouldn’t say development because that sounds like there would be lots of homes and businesses, although Fairbanks is a city of 32,000+ and three times that when counting the borough (like a county) population. The drive outside of Healy is through a steep canyon which then levels out into a lower elevation and driving through miles and miles of birch-dominated forests. Miles and miles… In some places the birches were changing to a golden hue although many appeared to be brown. It isn’t quite as spectacular as the bright yellow and pink leaves I enjoy. Much more subtle. There were giant hillsides covered in the changing birches, though.

My second sighting of the pipeline

Somewhere past Denali National Park I did a slow swerve and horn honk at a ptarmigan trying to walk across the busy Parks highway. Honking worked, I noticed in my side mirror it flew safely across the road. Silly chicken.

I didn’t like the Fairbanks area. The energy was different, more like the frenzy of the Puget Sound area. Certainly not friendly like everywhere else I’ve been. Maybe it’s the military base. Besides I held out to gas up there and found that they have no signs letting drivers know what services are available at the freeway exits. The highway turns into a two-lane freeway just before, and up to, Eielson Air Force base. Low on gas, I finally stopped at a place quite a ways out of town called 12 Mile Roadhouse to ask for help. It brought back some interesting memories with its smoke-filled and beer scented barroom. They were very helpful in telling me where the closest gas station was located. The bartender even asked if I would make it to the station. I told her yes, I’d be okay. Who does that? Most of the people I’ve met in Alaska. I then found myself in North Pole Alaska at the gas station. I didn’t stop to see the giant Santa and candy canes or other tourist traps. I just got my gas and ice and hit the road. 

Road trip scene

The roads were good today, for the most part, so I managed to travel quite far. There were some fantastic views here and there but not continuous. It took a long time after leaving Fairbanks before I felt like I was back to wilderness.

I have a beef with the Alaska roads department. They put up these tiny little signs for vistas or parking areas with a 1,500 foot warning but then no sign at the entrance to these places. I constantly fly by them, especially since some are next to other gravel roads or driveways. They put out entrance signs for the rest areas so I can’t figure out why they don’t do it for these spots, too. Rant done.

The end of the Alaska Highway at Delta Junction

YES!!

I made it to Delta Junction which is the official end of the Alaska Highway. I arrived here in a roundabout way since I took a detour down to Wrangell- St Elias National Park on my way up. I had my photo taken and my official certificate that I survived. Ain’t that the truth! Now I just have to make it home in one piece. Although, I’m detouring again down the Stewart-Cassiar Highway. I have a couple of stops I want to make along the highway and it’s a shorter way home.

My Moon Lake camp site

Driving along this trip has enlightened me to just how many people rent RVs! There are 100s of them which may also mean they have no idea what they’re doing. Be careful when traveling up here.

Sunset photos over Moon Lake

Waiting up for Aurora Borealis again tonight. It wasn’t as spectacular this morning at 1am but I still love it!

Wildlife- pretty slow day with eared grebe and red-necked grebe on Lost Lake, northern goshawk, magpies, heard a great horned owl at lake.

Moon Lake Reflection

Lesson #14 Following your instincts instead of planning every detail for places to stay- priceless.