I can make Anchorage to Omak, WA in 60 hours in my truck. That's running 65 to 90 MPH, sleeping in the truck when I'm tired and eating in the truck from the cooler in the front seat with me. I have a 110 gal tank in the truck bed so I don't have to buy fuel on the way, when I'm starting to doze off, I get out and pump some fuel by hand or make a call on the sat phone for a few minutes.
So it was 60 hours down last trip. Coming back up with a nice three axle goose neck trailer with a 9,000# Tucker Snocat on it, it was several days longer.
There was a lot more road construction going on, road work, new bridges going in, paving, and accidents. When traffic would come to a stop I would go tell whoever was behind me that I was going to sleep and to lay on his horn when the traffic started moving.
One long accident was when someone hit a UPS truck head on and the driver went thru the front windshield. Traffic stops, you wait for the Mounties and medics to show up, then the helicopter to take out the body, then for the mess on the road to be cleaned up while the various vehicles are being hauled away by the wreckers. I think I got almost 5 hours of sleep on that one.
I also make good time in the middle of the night when there is only a little traffic and I try to time my trips so I cross the boarders in the middle of the night to avoid the lines.
Remember in Canada there is basically one road, when it comes to a stop, there's no cutting off on another road out and around, you sit there and wait.
Why people are in a hurry to get here to see Alaska, I don't understand. I've been here 50 years and think it's a great place, but the scenery in Canada is every bit as good as Alaska's.
And let's talk about the frost heaves on the road. On the way down with just the truck, just south on the northern boarder, I hit one frost heave so hard it threw the extra new spare tire I was taking down for the trailer, completely out of the back of truck. I never did find it.
And the animals standing in the middle of the road such as moose, bison, bears and goats. They're blocking the road along with the tourists taking pictures.
Unless I had a second driver so there was no sleep stops, I'd never dream of CA to AK in 60 hours.
I've got another trip next summer from Anchorage to eastern Canada to pick up another Snocat, but I'll have to take a trailer both directions so it will be a lot slower.
Bill
