Cassiar Highway

[magbrin]

Planning to take this route when we drive from Seattle to Alaska in May, spending 4 - 5 days travelling, and stopping for hikes along the Cassiar Highway. We are from UK, and my question relates to satellite communicators/phones. We, at home, have a Spot (with no messaging facility) for emergencies, but we are following our RV trip with a cruise, and the cruise line states clearly that this would not be allowed on the ship. Our preference would be for a two way communicator or phone, and I am looking for recommendations of somewhere we could rent one in Seattle and return it in Anchorage. Any help would be much appreciated!

[magbrin]

I appologise for creating mis-understanding. We plan to spend 4-5 days on the Cassiar Highway which I understand is about 450 miles and can be driven in 8 - 10 hours. We have been in BC several times in an RV and have previously driven to Hyder and the Salmon Glacier and as far as Bell 2 on the Cassiar Highway.

[Veebyes]

4-5 days Seattle to the border? You cannot be serious. The Cassiar alone is a minimum of 2 days & that does not allow for any side trips to Hyder or any time to fully soak up the spectacular Provincial parks along the way, let alone spot those elusive bears along the road hiding in plain sight.

Alaska is pretty big but Canada is huge.

[SideHillSoup]

I think you’re underestimating the distance from Seattle to just the Boarder at Beaver Creek Yukon and Alaska, and in a RV to from Seattle to Alaska in 4 to 5 days?
I live in BC and my wife is from Stewart which is on Hwy 37-A, we usually take a week to drive/ camp and that’s just to get to Stewart, which is still a long ways from Alaska.
From Stewart it’s still 1,400 miles to the Canada / Alaska boarder at Beaver Creek.
It’s just about 1000 miles from Seattle to Stewart BC.
And if your final destination is Anchorage Alaska, that’s another 425 miles from the Border at Beaver Creek Yukon.
Seattle to Anchorage is just about 2300 miles.
If you’re using Google drives times don’t they are wrong, especially in the mountains, they are never correct, you always need to had time to your trip, and sometimes a lot . When Google came up with theses drive times, they were in a car, not a RV.
You will be stopping more often for fuel in an RV, plus traffic, slow semi’s in front of you on hills on 2 lane Hwys, road construction, wildlife and possibly of hwy accidents they all slow you down, your not on a interstate hwy.

I’m using Stewart as it is located on Hwy 37-A which is a sub hwy off or Hwy 37, and probably one of the most spectacular 35 mile drives anywhere (Meziadin Jct on hwy 37 to Stewart BC on Hwy 37-A)

You’re going to be having a lot of windshield time on this 4 to 5 day “trip” to Alaska.

You also won’t have much time for hiking with an average daily drive distance of 400 to 500 miles depending, and like I said RV’s don’t travel as fast on the Hwys as a car.
It will be spring and with that comes pot holes and frost heaves everywhere especially the farther north you go, that will also slow you down. There will probably be guys out working on the Hwys which will also slow you down.

The other thing about May, is “when” in May are you planing this trip to Alaska?
The start of May is early for most campgrounds in BC where it is cold especially at night.
There will be some campgrounds open at the begging of May however you may find a lot of campgrounds won’t be open until “around” the third week of May which in BC, we have Victoria Day long weekend ( 3rd Monday of May) it all depends on where they are located. I know of some that don’t open until June and I’m taking BC Provincial Parks campgrounds.
There are some campgrounds that will open at the begging of April however theses types of campgrounds are either on Vancouver Island, the lower mainland ( Vancouver area) or the Okanogan valley, where it’s much warmer than most of the rest of BC.
There are private and some community campgrounds as well, but the colder the weather the later they open.
Now a lot of people say just to boondock, but those places are getting harder to find because of ignorant people the last few years that have left theses road side “parking spots” in a mess. My wife’s friend works for the Hwys dept for Hwy 37 and he says they are starting to block so off “spots” because of ignorant people. I’m not saying every place is blocked for access but they are starting to watch and block access where needed.

Have you thought about a side trip Barkerville or over to Watson Lake and the Sign post Forrest? or up to Dawson City Yukon, of the Klondike Rush fame? Or visiting all the little museums in the towns and villages on your route?
In my opinion you’re going to be missing a lot on your super fast trip through British Columbia and the Yukon.
Myself I would be spending way way more days in the trip north to Alaska.

I hope you guys have a fabulous trip whatever you decide.
Soup.

[SteveAE]

I can't speak to the cruise line rules.....though how would they know?

However, if you haven't already bought a SPOT, take a look at In-Reach.
Worldwide two way texting and email on the Iridium constellation for a reasonable price (IMO).

As far as renting one, not sure if they do, but try REI. They have stores in both Seattle and Anchorage

[Scottiemom]

magbrin wrote:
Planning to take this route when we drive from Seattle to Alaska in May, spending 4 - 5 days travelling, and stopping for hikes. We are from UK, and my question relates to satellite communicators/phones. We, at home, have a Spot (with no messaging facility) for emergencies, but we are following our RV trip with a cruise, and the cruise line states clearly that this would not be allowed on the ship. Our preference would be for a two way communicator or phone, and I am looking for recommendations of somewhere we could rent one in Seattle and return it in Anchorage. Any help would be much appreciated!

The cruise line doesn't allow a Spot? When we went to Alaska we had our Spot. I used it to send a message every night to our kids so they knew where we were. We cruised on the Alaska ferries and nothing was every mentioned. We also rented a satellite phone and took it with us for the trip. My DH had health issues and I wanted to be able to get help if something happened to him. It was cheap insurance. We never used it but it was available if needed.

Dale