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Old 07-13-2018, 06:36 AM   #29
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Quote:
Dempster to Tuktoyaktuk

Did you take your RV up the Dempster?


In 2016 we did a day trip to Tombstone, with just the truck (about 60 miles up the Dempster) and the gravel road was fine. Was wondering how it was further up...Any fuel stops between Dawson City and Ft. McPherson?
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Old 07-13-2018, 12:33 PM   #30
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In June we took our 32 ft 5 th wheeler up into the Northwest Terroritories and ran into a blizzard. Dumped 8” snow. We turned around before our destination, but that was the best option. I would like to go back up all the way, I would not tow any kind of trailer, use a truck camper or Class Binstead.

The road gets much more narrow and rougher past Tomestone area. You saw the very best part of the road. Yes there is fuel, gas, diesel and Jet B at Eagle Plains. Motel rooms there were like $160.00. Per night and farther up we heard like $270.00 per night, Canadian.

It’s very interesting landscape and views up there. If you can put it together, just do it. It’s an adventure in itself.
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Old 07-13-2018, 11:51 PM   #31
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Superslif View Post
Did you take your RV up the Dempster?


In 2016 we did a day trip to Tombstone, with just the truck (about 60 miles up the Dempster) and the gravel road was fine. Was wondering how it was further up...Any fuel stops between Dawson City and Ft. McPherson?
We stored our MH at Bonanza RV in a bare site for $15 a night and took the Jeep to Tuk. Our friends took their camper (not their new one ). The road was better than I expected and improved for a ways once we hit the NWT beyond Ft. McPherson (best gas price there compared to Eagle Plains, Inuvik and Tuk ($1.46 a litre vs $$1.70). The road from Inuvik to Tuk was great except for the last 15-20k. If that is wet you won’t get through but they are working on finishing it now.

On the way home it rained and the road had terrible sections where it was like driving through 2” of slush because of the crap they put on the road, I think. Stuff packs onto your vehicle and you should wash it off asap. Saw mostly campers but quite a few trailers and fivers too. I wouldn’t have wanted to be dragging one back on that road in the rain.
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Old 07-14-2018, 06:06 AM   #32
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There are so many places that I've never heard of mentioned. Do you all plan most everything or just kind of wing it as you go. When you drop your trailer I imagine you leave it in a campground or are there places to park and explore with just tho tow vehicle?
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Old 07-14-2018, 09:55 AM   #33
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There are so many places that I've never heard of mentioned. Do you all plan most everything or just kind of wing it as you go. When you drop your trailer I imagine you leave it in a campground or are there places to park and explore with just tho tow vehicle?

We winged it on our trip last summer to Alaska. We preplanned our basic routes and major places to go, but made no advance reservations more than a few hours in advance. But we are very flexible and always ready to dry camp in a turnout, etc., if we needed to. As the very nice lady at the visitor center at mile 1422 of the Alaska Highway in Delta Junction told me, “the highways in Alaska are your oyster, camp anywhere you like as long as there are no ‘no overnight parking’ signs.” We never had a problem finding a place to spend the night or a few days. However, you will most likely need advance reservations at highly popular places like Denali Park Campgrounds.
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Old 07-14-2018, 04:16 PM   #34
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There are so many places that I've never heard of mentioned. Do you all plan most everything or just kind of wing it as you go. When you drop your trailer I imagine you leave it in a campground or are there places to park and explore with just tho tow vehicle?
This is a trip you really don't have to pre-plan. Get the Milepost and Church's book and you're all set. We read the Milepost every night before traveling the next day to see what there would be along the route. We then stopped at things that appealed to us. There aren't many roads to travel so you won't miss the main things. There are plenty of places to stop for the night. You don't have to use RV parks. Yes, just wing it. It's a big trip that's so easy to do. You meet up with some of the same folks time after time because everyone is going to the same places. You definitely don't need a ton of reservations. Yes, just park the RV and sitesee with your tow vehicle. However, there are many things you can do as you travel the day. Hit them as you're driving. Don't backtrack. You've got a lot of miles to do ahead of you!

How often do you think you'll make the trip? I'd highly recommend to spend as much time as you can doing it. Three months is what most folks do.
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Old 07-15-2018, 08:27 PM   #35
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Only driven the Alaska Hwys twice, but suggest little, if any night driving, for large animals on the road. A few years ago, the Cassier Hwy was far superior to most interstates in Kalif.



I recall a sign stating a requirement for tire chains before mid-April or so, in BC(?).


No hand guns in Canada, but long guns were okay, unless that changed.


Moose kill more folks than bears, BTW. Folks stopped on the roadside, again usually means wildlife sightings, esp in cities.



RVing in AK can spoil you for elsewhere, as being able to see another unit is a downer! Road noise is an issue with loooong days and truck traffic, so I preferred finding places well off the big roads; finding gems along a (Matanuska) glacial silt river, steps from the RV; that in the private, not public CG. Another time we noisily (bears) picked berries and wife made fresh jam!


In 10+ years in AK, never had a mosquito bite, itch. Hmmm. They are hungriest in early June and in low-wind, wet, forested areas.


Bug screen for that gas-powered Bounder's radiator got loaded!


Valdez has three cool and smallish museums (animals in airport terminal, earthquake and one more I forgot); maybecatch some salmon from the rocks near the huge oil terminal. As mentioned, the nearest 35+/- miles in/out are gorgeous, with water falls, etc.


Denali is special, but bears and nature's paintbrush disregarded man's boundaries. A glacial flight around it, from Talkeetna is awesome, esp if the mountaintop is clear; very rare.


To me, AK is not about people, rather nature: raw and powerful, just and totally real, but slowly disappearing.
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Old 07-16-2018, 10:20 AM   #36
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We're on the way back from Alaska. Took 3 weeks to get there, taking 2.5 weeks to get home, the 3 weeks in Alaska were great. Your mileage might be better; we're old and don't like to drive more than 250 miles per day, especially when we have to slow down into the 40s/50s because of high winds or road conditions (or both). Also gets us early into campgrounds, where we're practically certain to get a space, from which we can go do touristy things in the area.

Concur with others: highlight the Milepost and refer to it a lot. Very useful and informative book. We used one color for the incoming trip and another for outgoing to make it easier to read. The detailed paper maps got highlighted for roads not RV appropriate.

The Alaska Highway is still narrow with no shoulders in places, but a whole lot of widening is going on. From late April through September, you can expect road construction.

With a rig your size, one other issue is in the mountains. When the recommended speed around a curve is x, don't exceed x. We routinely rounded curves 5-10 kilometers/mph below what was marked. Be ready for very high winds gusting between mountains; I'm used to driving in prairie winds, but those mountain gusts were worse going up. Also going up in late May/early June, pavement breaks, frost heave, pot holes of massive size, broken pavement edges, and road repairs where the surface was huge washboards really requires one to read the road and slow down before hitting that mess. Not all are marked, but when you see a sign with a horizontal wavy symbol, it means road damage ahead. So do orange cones and flags. Slow down!

Coming back in mid-July, there were no windy days either at Kluane Lake (Destruction Bay) or in the mountains, so we only had to deal with gravel over mostly repaired frost heave and pot holes. Most of the roads were vastly improved over our trip up.

The worst mountain grade we saw was 9% for short distances. The 6% grades for miles did necessitate using our engine brake going down; didn't even notice it going up. Our friends with the 42' Fifth Wheel and F-350 double cab used their transmission brake going down and also had no struggle going up. The road builders just love to give you a sharp curve at the bottom of a long or steep grade, where they drop the speed limit to about 50 kph to go over a bridge, so be alert for that.

Expect 30 amp at the most; it's a rarity to find 50 amp -- not usually necessary up there. Don't expect luxury accommodations: most CGs will be wide gravel or dirt parking areas with hookups, no TV reception of any kind, none to works slowly WiFi (just for emails and map checking, no streaming), and minimal cell phone service, if any. It's the wilderness...

There's a story that everyone who drives the Alaska Highway will replace the windshield during or after the trip. We lucked out. Just one windshield ding that's easily repairable. Do back off from anyone in front of you when there's gravel on the road. Some people don't slow down (semis in particular) and they throw rocks like mad.

You might want to look into satellite phones for emergencies. There will be vast stretches where there's zip cell coverage. If your cell phone company is AT&T, you're best off getting another service. We got AT&T international coverage and it was total garbage and way too expensive - wound up borrowing one of our friends' phones while in Canada. If you have Verizon's international coverage, you're good when there's a cell signal. Don't know about the others.

Don't forget to file travel plans with your credit and debit card companies. Even though we did so, we still have had to deal with their computer systems doing fraud alerts for no apparent reason. Filing the same travel plans over and over and over has gotten very, very old...especially when we didn't even know about it because we didn't have cell phone coverage...

One more thing: don't trust your GPS. The various companies haven't updated the region for years, apparently. Go to the campground's website and write down the directions, because roads have changed access into many. Especially do not listen when your GPS tries to send you down a road just because it appears to make the drive shorter (refer back to the RV inappropriate road maps). Might also refer to RV Park Reviews, where folks have been real helpful about correcting GPS directions into a campground.

One final note: Sirius/XM gets little to no signal along the Alaska Highway or in Alaska.

Don't let anyone talk you out of the trip, but do research and plan before setting out. You'll enjoy the trip more.

Have fun.
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Old 07-16-2018, 07:14 PM   #37
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Go slow have fun.

Things missed on my 2016 trips bucket list were:

~ Going all the way to Kennecott / McCarthy Mine. Made it as far as Kenny Lake, but was worried about the last 55 miles of gravel road built on top of the railroad grade. At the time in 2016 I only had highway tires as now I have upgraded to more of a larger lugged off-road tire.

~ Did a day trip up to Tombstone Territorial Park in the Yukon This time knowing the first 60 miles of gravel road is decent, I'll haul the RV trailer up to the campground there and then to a day trip further up to the Arctic Circle.

~ Missed Lake Louise in Alberta. This next trip I'll make a reservation at the campground there will ahead of time.

~ find more gold.

~ A hope fuel prices don't go crazy for our trip up next summer.
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Old 07-16-2018, 09:13 PM   #38
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Howdy!

We are traveling in Alaska now MDT 4400 International custom hauler and a 44’ Cyclone tire hauler. We crossed the Canadian border Memorial Day and we plan to stay in Alaska until mid September. You will not have any up here. The roads can get rough but as stated slow down. The last thing you want up here is a breakdown. It’s been ten years since our last trip to Alaska and it has changed drastically. The one thing we’ve notice now it there are many more RVer’s and I’m not just talking about rentals. The RV parks and campground are full and at times it is very difficult to find available sites especially the one in high sougth after areas. Also be prepared to pay for those campgrounds we are in the Kenai now at a RV park and it’s $90.00 a night and that’s the weekly discount rate. That’s mostly because the salmon are running and even the Alaskan are fishing now.

“Happy Trails “
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Old 07-17-2018, 03:26 PM   #39
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The fastest speed limit we encountered in Canada was 110 kph (68.3 mph). It was usually 100 kph (62.1 mph), 80 kph (49.7 mph), or 70 kph (43.5 mph) on the highway, with construction zones and sharp curves into bridges at 50 kph (31 mph).

Between the lower speeds and the need to slow down for road damage or construction, six weeks is not near enough time to make this a good trip.

As for RV height, your RV height of 13'2" is 4.02 meters. The only time I saw our Fifth Wheel friends have a height issue was at the Canadian crossing in Emerson, MB and the USA crossing past Beaver Creek, YT. They moved into the commercial lane and got through just fine.

It's a fabulous trip, as long as you take the time. Please don't rush -- you'll miss so very much.
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Old 07-19-2018, 02:42 PM   #40
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Agree on the Milepost. Have 2 spares. I cannot stress that enough. If you have your original tires, buy new ones.

I bought a bumper mounted spare tire carrier for my 40' 5th. You have a toy hauler, throw it in the back.

Oh..... did I mentioned have a second spare.

Enjoy the trip, it is an awesome drive.
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Old 07-19-2018, 03:13 PM   #41
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I'm sure I'll have many questions but here's a couple. We have a 40 foot 5th wheel toy hauler and dually pickup. I know it's heavy, long and tall but I really don't want to purchase anything just for this 6 week trip. What do you all think of us taking this rig. Crazy? Second question: our rig is 13 foot 3 inch tall Wil we have problems being too tall especially in Canada?

You will have no problem on the Canadian highways. We did the trip 2 yrs ago in our 2004 National Dolphin motorhome. We also saw several rigs your size on the drive to Dawson City, Yukon and they took the free ferry across the Yukon River and continued up the Top of The World Hwy, a dirt road to Alaska.
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Old 07-19-2018, 03:33 PM   #42
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Everyone is talking about the roads and sights - any one have ideas about health insurance and motor vehicle insurance?
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