Alaska trip

[SLOWSPOKES]

We are planning to travel to Alaska (from East Marion, NY) in 2011. We do not want to travel with a caravan (but would travel w/ one or two RVs for part of trip). Does anyone have direct knowledge of "must avoid" roads? Does anyone know what spare parts we should bring with us? We are planning on entering Canada near Glacier National Park, head to Dawson Creek, then toward Homer. Does anyone have an itinerary, campground comments, etc?
We heard so many scary stories, we would like some first-hand-info based on recent travel.
We would also like to know what special prep we should take care of for our coach.
We will be travelling in a 2008 Diplomat (40PDQ) w/ toad.
HELP!

[WheelCaptain]

I have been planning for a 2011 trip also and have been doing searches reading others experiences and that has helped a lot. I would also advise to go to the caravaning web sites and downloading their itineraries, maps, tours, and other preparation information as a guide. The milepost seems to be a necessity also. Others will advise you about their trips. As a newbie going there the info from the caravans and their itineraries has relieved my wife a bit. I have been resisting her urges for safety to join a caravan.

[Possum]

Two more of us are also planning a 2011 trip so we may be running into each other along the way. I would suggest you read the write-ups that Seajay is posting elsewhere on this board, as they are priceless.

For our trip, being we are from Vancouver Island, we're starting out in Vancouver and heading north through Whistler, Lillooet, Cache Creek etc up to Prince George, then west to the Hazelltons and then North to Alaska. On the return we will travel the Alaska highway to Dawson Creek. We will take 97 south to Osoyoos, BC and then back to Vancouver via the Crowsnest Highway (BC #3) and thats it thats all. )

[goldwingerx2]

We did such a trip last year leaving from IA. Just 2 couple in 2 MH. We had a list of stops, another words stops we wanted to make (no time table). Our only time table was the leave date and return date for us as my mother-in-law turned 101 the middle of Sept. We left the 2nd of May heading to Great Falls and North to Edmonton to see the Mall then to Dawson Creek. We had agreed that we might split up if interests were different and then meet up again. This on happen once at Denili as they wanted to hike and I could not hike(knee problem). Since they were in a Class C and we were in a Class A we agreed to fuel up when the first one hit half tank. This work great as I got better fuel mileage We were both retired military so we stayed at many of the campsites.

With a little preplanning it worked great for us. Good luck, if your trip is half as good as ours you will have a wonderful time.

[Scottsdale]

We went to Alaska last year in a caravan of 4 motorhomes. It was the best trip we have ever made. I created a write up for a group of our friends that are going this years, so I can post it here.

[Scottsdale]

Caravan:

In my opinion, a small caravan is the best way to travel to Alaska for several reasons. (1) Security. It can be greater than 50 miles between any form of civilization in northern BC, Yukon and Alaska. If you have a break down, 50 miles from anywhere, you would be stuck without traveling companions to help and to travel to the next town to call your road service. (2) Social aspect. Our trip was much more enjoyable with the others that traveled with us. Eating out, going fishing, cooking meals together, daily happy hours, etc etc. It turned out much better traveling with the others than I had expected.

Caravan Ground Rules:

We agreed on several issues with traveling together and I think each group would need to do the same. Here are some things that you need to come to an agreement about.

1. What time each morning to break camp.
2. How much, if any boondocking will you do?
3. How many miles on average per day.
4. What time in the afternoon to come off of the road
5. Do you want to have a daily happy hour, do meals together at night?
6. How often to stop for a rest break and lunch.

Also, we changed caravan leaders everyday. The person responsible for the day did the following:

• Determined the place to stay for the night
• While driving, warn the others over radio’s of any information they would need, like approaching a frost heave, having to stop for construction, alerting the others of animals sighted, finding rest stops and places to eat lunch. They are the daily leader and would make most of the decisions for the day. This way, everyone has an equal part in the trip.
• Usually the non-driver would keep the Milepost open and let everyone know any significant information. Deciding on fun places to stop and see things, as there are a lot of them to stop for.

The tailgunner would let the others know of vehicles trying to pass the caravan. There will be many cars and trucks trying to get around the group and alerting the others, especially to very aggressive drivers, will make everyone aware and alert.

Important Note: Even if you do most everything together, there may be times that one couple does not want to participate for some reason. THAT IS OKAY. Make sure that everyone understands that anytime they want to do something different from the rest of the group that it is OKAY.

[Scottsdale]

Items Needed:

• Passports. Check the dates to make sure they will not expire.
• Rabies documents for all pets. Make sure they will not expire before returning to lower 48
• Cloths for cool wet weather. You will run into many very cool days and nights and also some very wet days. You will need coats, hats, gloves, and warm cloths. Also shorts t-shirts etc for warm days.
• Good digital camera with at least a 200mm lens. Many animals and scenery will be some distance away and you will need this lens to get a good picture. The little pocket digitals just will not work very well for what you will see.
• Milepost. This magazine tells you what to expect on all the roads by mile marker. It has so much information that you will need. But beware that they do over hype a lot of things, but it is a must have for the trip.
• Emergency Road Service.
• GPS

Route:
We picked a small town for our crossing over from lower 48 to Canada. Some large cities, the border crossing can take a long time. I would suggest the Eastern Route going into British Columbia and the Western Route coming out. This is the route most people do, mainly because the Cassiar highway on the Western Route is in terrible shape in the early part of the summer, but they get it repaired by August.

When you get to Tok Alaska, you have a choice, clockwise or counter-clock wise. For us, going counter-clock wise (Tok to Fairbanks) was our choice, as it made the timing right for getting to the Kenai Peninsula for Salmon fishing.
Border Crossing:

Have your passport ready when Border Agent approaches. Answer the questions truthfully. They will ALWAYS ask if you are carrying any guns or ammo, and usually ask about any alcohol that you have. When we crossed, they were confiscating all fruits and vegetables. Check the Internet to see what restrictions they have.

DO NOT BRING GUNS TO CANADA.

[Scottsdale]

Communication:

• If traveling in a caravan, use hand-held radios for communication between rigs. CB’s do not work as well as the hand-held radios. We tried it both ways.
• Cell Phones in Canada. You will have service in Canada, but the cost will be about 65-75 cents/minute. Buy phone cards, they work very well and are about 0.05/minute. You will need a different phone cards in BC and Yukon.
• Cell Phones in Alaska. You will have cell phone service in most towns of any size, but it will be only in towns. When you are traveling between places, there is no service.
• Internet. We found plenty of RV parks that offered free WIFI. Most of the time, the signal strength was weak and slow, but you will find places with good service.

RV Parks:

We were disappointed in most of the RV parks we stayed at in Canada and Alaska. The cost is high and the services are little. 30 amps electric is the norm.
The water was good, but you should use your filters if you have them.

All the parks either have sewer or a dump station.

In Canada there are Provincial Parks. They do not have any service and cost about $12-19/night. Some of them may be to small for larger 40+ foot rigs.

Electricity at RV Parks:

If you do not have a surge protector, then you need a plug in meter that will show what the voltage is. A high percentage of the RV parks we were in had lousy electric, especially the small towns and RV parks. Some little RV parks get their electricity exclusively from a generator. One RV Park in Chicken AK turns their generator off at 8pm each night. There were some RV parks that we would run our generators when using the microwave because the voltage was so low and bad. BE AWARE!!!!!


Boondocking:

We did some boondocking while traveling for a couple of reasons. (1) Save some money. (2) Some RV parks are not much better than boondocking and cost a lot of money. (3) Convenience, especially when in a beautiful area where you can have a nice view.

Rest Stops and pullouts provide enough space for overnight camping. Be aware that many rest-stops and pull-outs have signs saying that overnight camping is not allowed, but we still used them and never had anyone say anything to us.

Wal-marts in many places would have up to 25-30 RV’s parked overnight, as do many of the Fred Meyers.

[Scottsdale]

Fuel:

There is one word for Fuel in Canada. EXPENSIVE. Canada heavily taxes fuel. It will be cheaper in Alaska than Canada but still higher than in the lower 48. The more remote the service station, the more expensive the fuel will be. Don’t run low on fuel. Keep the tank topped off.

Roads:

Road conditions will vary. You will find that you need to drive cautiously on most roads in Alaska, northern BC and the Yukon. There will be frost heaves from the winter that will be severe if you do not slow down over them. You will run across many road construction crews repairing the damage from the winter. On the Top-Of-The-World road, we averaged 18 mph for over 100 miles because the road is bad gravel and very rough. Take your time on this trip and watch the road. When traveling on gravel, make sure that you slow down when meeting other approaching vehicles so that they will not throw rocks on you and you will not throw rocks on them.


Food:

Like fuel, food is expensive in Alaska and Canada. We did most of our grocery shopping in Canada at the Canadian Superstore when available and would load up with a lot of stuff. You still will need to get bread and milk at some of the remote small stores and you will pay dearly for it. Before crossing into Canada from lower 48 or Alaska, load up as much as possible with non-perishable goods and alcohol. You will save a lot of money this way. When shopping in Canada, don’t expect to find all the brands you are use to, they just are not sold there. Most Wal-marts are not Supercenters.

In Alaska the main grocery stores of size are Safeway and Fred Meyers. We really did like Fred Meyers.
Mail:

DO NOT get your mail sent to anywhere in Canada nor send any back to the lower 48. You may not see it for several weeks. Get it before crossing the border and then get it sent to Tok, AK. Be aware that some remote towns in Alaska only get mail delivery twice a week. Most of the time, it only took 3-5 days for our mail to get to us via General Delivery in whatever town we had it sent to in Alaska.

[Scottsdale]

Fishing:

License: You can purchase a one day, three day, fourteen day or one year license. If you fish for King Salmon, then you will need a King Stamp.

Halibut: When in Valdez, Seward, Ninilchik, or Homer, find a charter and go Halibut fishing. The limit usually is just 2 fish per person. When you catch a Halibut, they will ask you if you want to keep it or throw it back and keep fishing. The average weight is about 15-25 lbs. But you will see many in the 80-120 lb range and some from 180-325 lbs.

Salmon: Reds (Sockeye) is what most people go after, as they are the best to eat. The Pinks are also good. The Kings are very good, but hard to catch. Salmon fishing is described as trying to floss the teeth of the Salmon. Salmon do not bite on lures once they are in fresh water so you have to snag them in the mouth. Not an easy task. But when you get one hooked, they put up a great fight and are a blast to catch. The main places to Salmon fish for Reds and Kings is on the Kenai Peninsula in the Kenai and Kasilof Rivers. You will need either hip boots or waders, a rod with at least 12 lb line and several fly’s and weights. All can be purchased at a reasonable price at Fred Meyers.


To Do:

• Take a cruise to a Glacier. On most cruises you will get to see a lot of sea life and birds. Whales, Sea Otter, Seals, and Porpoises. Watch the Glaciers “Calf” is remarkable. You see some ice fall from the face of the Glacier, and then 1-2 seconds later, you hear the sound like a cannon shot. Awesome. We did the one out of Seward called Kenai Kjord Cruise. Used coupon and got 2 for 1.
• Go to Denali and take the shuttle all the way into the park. Try and pick a day where the weather is clear so that you have the best chance to see Mt. McKinley. You will also see Grizzly Bears, Wolves, Moose, Elk, Eagles, and others animals. Only 30% of the people going to Denali get to see Mt. McKinley because of the cloud cover.
• Take a Flightseeing tour over Denali or Wrangle-St Elias, or some other beautiful place.

Credit Cards and Money

Before crossing into Canada, call all of your credit card companies and let them know that you are traveling to Canada and Alaska. This will save you getting your card cut off due to security measures. Also, all credit card companies seem to charge 3-4% charge for the use of their cards in Canada. Credit cards are taken everywhere. In Canada, you can use a Debit card, but don’t expect to get cash back. I understand that in the future, you many be able to, none of us could.

Get some Canadian money. Get the money at a bank by using an ATM. Canada has $1 and $2 coins. The $1 is called a Loonie and a $2 is called a Toonie.

[Scottsdale]

Medical and Drugs

Your health care coverage from the USA will not work in Canada. If you need to go to a doctor, then you will have to pay up front for any charges. You can later file for reimbursement from your health care provider.

We get our drugs through Wal-mart, but while in Canada, they will NOT refill your prescriptions. If you want drugs, then you have to visit a local doctor and get him to issue an order for your prescription. When you get to Alaska, then you can get your prescriptions refilled. Take as much with you as you can and also take refill orders from your doctor as backup.


Discounts

When in Alaska, go to a Safeway Store and by the $99 Discount Coupon Book. This coupon book saved us a couple of hundred dollars as it allows you many prices that are 2 for 1. For example, the scenic cruise out of Seward cost about $160/person. With the coupon book, we got 2 tickets for $160.

[Scottsdale]

My best advice: Take it slow and enjoy the beauty that God created.

There were only 2 bad roads.
1. Top of the World from Dawson City, YK to Chicken, AK. We averaged 18 mph for this 100+ mile trip. Would not do it again.
2. We were told NOT to travel TO Alaska on the Cassair Highway in BC, but definitely travel down it on your return trip.

All of us only took any spares that we already had. No spare tires.

None of us had any rock damage to windshields except me, and that occurred in Montana.

We did not make any reservations for our trip and only found 1 or 2 times we could not find a place for all 4 of us. You can always find a turnout to stay overnight.

We heard all the scary stores too. The only one that was true was Top-of-the-world.

We did not do any "special" prep, but make sure your rig is in good shape. Good tires, etc.

[Denali]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Possum For our trip, being we are from Vancouver Island, we're starting out in Vancouver and heading north through Whistler, Lillooet, Cache Creek etc up to Prince George...

I don't know what kind of RV you have, but when we took the "Sea to Sky Highway" (Highway 99) in 2004, there were extremely steep grades. Northbound, the final grade uphill was 18%. After we went over the summit, there were miles of 10-13% grades. With our Bulgemobile towing a car, the tranny was overheating before we reached the summit. I had to dart into a logging road and unhook to complete the climb.

I haven't bought a copy of The Milepost in several years, but my old 2004 edition warns against that route. I know that the BC government made improvements in preparation for the Olympics, so maybe it has been flattened.

[Denali]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SLOWSPOKES We are planning to travel to Alaska (from East Marion, NY) in 2011. We do not want to travel with a caravan (but would travel w/ one or two RVs for part of trip). Does anyone have direct knowledge of "must avoid" roads? Does anyone know what spare parts we should bring with us? We are planning on entering Canada near Glacier National Park, head to Dawson Creek, then toward Homer. Does anyone have an itinerary, campground comments, etc? We heard so many scary stories, we would like some first-hand-info based on recent travel. We would also like to know what special prep we should take care of for our coach. We will be travelling in a 2008 Diplomat (40PDQ) w/ toad. HELP!

Buy a copy of The Milepost, plan your route, and enjoy!

There is nothing scary about the trip. The road is generally like driving on county roads in the US--two lanes, limited shoulders. You can usually drive comfortably around 50 MPH. The longest stretch without services was 60 miles the last time we drove up there, and that was four years ago. Slow down for the frost heaves once you get up into the Yukon Territory.

Fuel is particularly expensive in the Yukon, so try to fill up before entering it.

Once in Alaska, you can legally camp anywhere along the side of the road as long as you are well clear of traffic. There are RV parks with full hookups along the way, but some have only 15 or 20 amp power (again, that was four years ago). In Alaska, public campgrounds almost never have any utilities; you need to go to RV parks for those. Gas stations often have dump stations; some free, some require a fuel purchase or a fee.

Before we retired and started fulltiming, we would often hook up our little travel trailer after work and drive the 127 miles from our house in Anchorage to the beachside municipal campground in Seward. They have electric hookups and a central dump station, and you have Resurrection Bay and the Kenai Fjords out your windshield. They had a few sites with full hookups, but they were crowded. Don't miss the Sea Life Center there in Seward.

It's a great trip. Enjoy!