Alaska Bound 2011

When Pat, THE WIFE, and I decided to go to Alaska in our RV, an EVERGREEN 31RLS travel trailer, we started researching the trip by talking to friends who had done so and surfing the internet and amassed quite a bit of information. THE WIFE spent lots of time worrying about where the sani-dumps were and where we could find water, all of which turned out to be totally unnecessary.  It just wasn’t a problem or even an issue and she’s very happy about that.

Our plan was to leave South Louisiana as early as possible in the spring and to cross into Canada AFTER snow melt. We departed April 20^th and eased our way north. This was a good plan as we were just ahead of most travelers.

On our arrival in Banff and Jasper National Parks in Canada there was still plenty of snow for us but none on the roads. Neat.

Of the several routes through Canada we opted to do this route and the parks on the way north as opposed to doing them on the return trip, in our opinion a good choice. We were fresh on the way up and still plenty of snow, hey, we are from south Louisiana and our last snow was in 1988!

We were determined to see all that we could as this could be our only trip to Alaska so we took the opportunity to swing over to Stewart, BC and crossed into Hyder, Alaska for the afternoon. Not much in Hyder but the trip there was spectacular----a portend of things to come.

This is not a travel log, there are plenty of those floating around, rather this is a compilation of our findings about this fantastic trip.

1.    It is nowhere as difficult as it was made out to be, just was not.

2.     Overall the roads were in very good condition, sure there were the ever- present repairs and construction but that is true no matter where one travels. Example, the Cassier Highway, some construction. The worst road section was Destruction Bay, Yukon Territory to Tok, Alaska. Not terrible, but one could not or should not, try to drive 55 mph on it. We, of course, opted to depart Alaska via the Top of the World Highway through Chicken. OK this is a dirt and gravel road from Chicken to Dawson City, Yukon. Can you spell “well worth the trip?” It is slow going, no shoulder, dirt, gravel and drop- offs at the road’s edge of thousands of feet. No kidding, great. Huge trucks and tankers pulling two trailers drive this every day. Again, go slow and stay in your lane, what there is of it. Even THE WIFE enjoyed it once we got started on it. The fear of what we had been told was, by far, the worst of the trip. While talking about this road, do not pass without stopping at Boundary just before leaving Alaska. It is but a log cabin bar and café but is the “real Alaska”. The roads in Alaska proper are very good and we drove just about every one of them even up to Joy near the Arctic Circle. Note that in Alaska and all of Canada there are many long; fairly steep grades on the roads, up to 10% that are often miles long so one needs a strong tow vehicle.

3.    We did purchase the recommended travel books, MILE POST, WOODALLS, and TRAVELER’S GUIDE TO ALASKA CAMPING by MIKE & TERRI CHURCH. The latter we particularly liked and used, it is just Alaska but the advantage, a big one, is that it has NO ADS. Therefore no “bias”. It also lists prices for campgrounds. An experienced Alaska traveler suggested that we laminate the two maps in MILE POST and we did, a great help. Had it done at the local office supply store for just a few dollars. MILE POST was a great tool for the Canadian parts of the trip.

4.    We stopped at the visitor center as we entered each state or province on the way up and got all the travel info for the area and the latest road reports.

5.    One question many RVers ask is about reservations at camp grounds. We did NOT make any going or coming. One exception, we did call Denali 3-4 days ahead of arrival for a reservation in the park and got it. That is the ONLY one of the entire trip and we had no difficulty in getting into parks or camp grounds. Our practice was to, usually; call ahead an hour or so out from our intended stop, if we had cell coverage! That brings up another matter, communications. Don’t even think about using your air cards, such as Verizon, as they are prohibitively expensive, as of now. We switched our Verizon cell phone plan over to the Nationwide Plus Canada for only $20 per month, well worth it, again when one had coverage. You can switch back & forth to your regular plan when you’re out of Canada. When in Alaska you are back on the cell grid, so to speak, and can use your air card but call your carrier and make certain, the cell signals DO CROSS THE BORDER as you do not want to get caught in that trick bag.

6.    Preparations for the trip were actually minimal. I always have my truck serviced regularly so not much there except that I accelerated several items so that I would not have to deal with them on the road. With 40,000 miles on the truck I went ahead and had the transmission serviced early and had the gas filter changed as well as these are 50,000 mile items. So many had cautioned me about all the rocks that would be thrown up on the roads and how I must install rock guards and all. I placed a piece of hardware cloth in front of my radiator, behind the grill, to protect from rocks. I guess that it worked as we had no problems! No dings on the windshield either. The other concession that I made was that I carried a five gallon can of gasoline in case of not finding gas. NEVER used it. As the book says, when you get to one half tank, fill up, don’t go lower, the next listed gas station may no longer be in business or you cannot get your rig into it. On the latter point this was a consideration more often than one would think, but this is true in US travel as well.

7.    An air compressor, I think, is an essential piece of equipment to have on board. I always carry a small 110 volt SEARS compressor that has a bit over 100 lb. capability with a 30 ft. hose. Don’t leave home without it. Few gas stations have air these days and those that do, you may not be able to get to the air pump. We carry, as a matter of course, a HONDA, 3 kW gen set and used it several times to charge the batteries only. It was always more than cool enough at night to not need a/c.

8.    In the US, we utilize the 2-4-4 Rule and did on this trip, 200 miles, 4 hours or 4 pm whichever comes first. You will not regret it. Gives time to smell the roses.

9.    In both Canada and Alaska there are “turn outs” all along the highways. They usually have a trash can and sometimes a restroom. We utilized them for rests and to have lunch and on more than a few occasions all night. Note that some do not allow overnight stays. A few were actually better than some commercial camp grounds, one comes to mind on the Al-Can, with a fast running stream on one side of the road and on the other, bears coming to the stream! By the way, most all traffic on it all but ceases at dark.

10. About bears, everywhere are cautions, and rightfully so. But, and this is a big but, we would stop to photograph them on the side of the road and they would not even look up. On several occasions I would shout, out the window of the truck, “HEBERT” and the bear would look up and at us, bingo a great picture. (Ok for the uninitiated, in French/Louisiana speak; Hebert is pronounced “A bear”. We saw as much wildlife from the road on almost a daily basis as we did on a very good all day guided trip in Denali Park.

11. Not a surprise, but this is an expensive trip any way you cut it. Gas is very expensive in Canada, as it ranges from about $1.30 to $1.80 per liter which is about $6 per gallon- recall that from the US border with Canada to Alaska is about 2,000 miles each way!  Food in a grocery store or a restaurant is likewise expensive, how about a $20 hamburger, you do get fries with that. Granted that was not real common, but, most of the time a burger was about $10 -you get the picture.

12. Alaska is, literally, overrun with tourists. I had no idea. Not only are there               so many RVs, but tourists from the cruise ships are bussed all over the state, so even if you avoid the cruise ship ports, the ship passengers are bussed all over the interior. Trust me; once the ships designate a port “An Alaska experience” in that town is altered forever. The ships even open what appear, at first blush, to be local shops and inns, but are actually owned by the ship. Be sure to check the labels on things you buy to make sure that it’s made in Alaska and not China. We do recommend doing a boat tour or two on the Fjords to see the marine life, our tour took us to Juneau and it was great. The Alaska State Ferry was also interesting, we only did a short trip to an island, Seldovia, and back to Homer, but it took all day.

13.With respect to border crossing, the rules are fairly simple, but and this is important, have all of your documents OUT and ready for presentation, this includes passports, truck registration and driver’s license. Granted that we were asked for the latter two on only one occasion, and not the same occasion it is much easier to have them at the ready than scrambling to find them. Need I say holding up a line of vehicles. On our last crossing into the US, the customs officer even THANKED US FOR HAVING BOTH PASSPORTS at the ready! NO weapons, tobacco, nor alcohol  into Canada. I am not saying that a small amount for personal use is prohibited but saying NO to the query speeds things up considerably. Returning to the US, neither fresh vegetables nor fruit, there are exceptions but as the customs officer said the rules change so often that it is easier to not have any. If traveling with children or pets proper documents should also be in hand.

In conclusion, I must admit that THE WIFE and I are not “outdoors people” even though we had our 45ft Trawler Style boat for many decades and spent five seasons doing the Great Circle Cruise around the eastern US and Canada. That being the case, we did this trip for the scenery and the adventure. As it turned out it was more of the former than the latter. I guess that’s good!!

I failed to mention that our rig consisted of the aforementioned bumper pull travel trailer and a Ford F-250 four door Super Duty V 8 gas pickup that did a yeoman’s job on the trip. The trip was certainly do-able and worth doing, it was lots of fun and the sights were breath-taking.