Boondocking Vancouver, BC to Alaska

[texkayaker]

I did that trip from Austin, Tx. Alaska a few years back in unit like yours, Chevy P/U with a topper. Slept in it every night, sometimes Boondocking and sometime at Gov. parks while in Canada where the prices are very reasonable and they even provided fire wood. My wife cooked all of our meals on a Coleman 2 burner stove, never ate in a resturant the entire trip. Was one of our best trips ever. We were talked into taking the ferry back from Haines, Alaska to Bermingham, Wa. by a friend. Big mistake in our opinion, very expensiive and very crowded on the ferry. Hope you enjoy the drive as much as we did.

[tsimtcu8]

Great info thanks for sharing, the bear techniques and ferry ingot is especially helpful.

[wingnut60]

Vancouver to Anchorage is about 2200 miles, and it isn't shorter coming back. How do you expect to cover 4000+ miles in 13 days (300+/day) and have any time to do anything you mention?
Just made the trip from TX to AK and back in 4 MONTHS and did not have enough time.
I don't mean to say it can't be done, but to me, it wouldn't be anything else but driving.
Joe

[GaryB48]

We plan to travel from Vancouver to the Yukon via the Stewart -Cassiar highway, explore there for a couple of weeks and come back via the Alaska Highway. I have a copy of BackRoads Maps both as an atlas and on our GPS (Backroad GPS Maps). They are very good and show all of the trails available.

We are towing an 18' Winnebago Minnie with a Toyota Tacoma 4x4.


Gary

[GaryB48]

Thought I should post a note saying that we did do our trip to Yukon this summer (2014). Family crises prevented the trip in 2013.

We left Victoria on Vancouver Island on August 19 and headed north via Smithers and Highway 37 (Stewart - Cassiar). We crossed into Yukon on the 25th. We explored most of the main roads in Yukon except the Northern part of the Dempster and the North CANOL, and were back in Northern Alberta where we have relatives ob September 12.

Travelling north in late August, we were swimming upstream... We met hundreds of RVers heading south! The advantage was that most provincial campsites had lots of empty space, and the roads were not crowded. Also, NO BUGS! Well, one instance of bugs above the fantastic Salmon Glacier near Stewart/Hyder, but nowhere else.


Salmon Glacier

Days were warm, but as we went further north and got into September, the nights were cold. Minus 8 Celsius in Dawson on September 4. The freezing nights killed the bugs and changed the colours of the vegetation. The 'Top of the World' highway west of Dawson, and the Dempster Highway through Tombstone Park were spectacular.


Top of the World


Tombstone Park, south Dempster Highway

We were towing a Minnie 1805 with a Toyota Tacoma. The Taco pulled just fine on the flat but had to work on hills. The biggest problem was very poor gas mileage and limited endurance. We could only go about 400 km without filling up. This normally wasn't a problem since there are lots of gas outlets on the more travelled routes. It did become a bit of a concern when we got further off the beaten track. I had a jerry can, but never did fill it up.



We boondocked most nights in provincial and regional sites, only staying in commercial sites once a week to use laundry facilities and charge up electronics. We have a shower in our Minnie but I have to say we enjoyed the larger ground showers! We get enough charge on the trailer batteries from 300 km driving that we can go 3 days before we need to charge. Our biggest draw is our furnace. I changed all of the lights to LEDs so we essentially have free light. Dual 20lb propane tanks is more than enough - we only filled one tank once. We have a 80w solar panel that provides a nice charge, but we didn't stay in one place long enough during the sunny part of the day to use it much.