First trip--what would you do different?

[Damdifino]

I'm thinking of a solo trip from San Antonio to AK this summer, for a total of 3-4 months. Maybe leave in July so I can catch a touch of chill on the return trip. I've read a lot on this forum over the years, but I can't escape the nagging feeling that I'm overlooking something pretty obvious that I should be paying attention to. Which begs the question: what would you have done differently on your first trip to AK, knowing what you know now?

[hr0082]

In the past 5 years, we have made 3 trips and I would love to go back but hubby wants to go elsewhere this summer. How long you spend in each area depends on individual interests. My husband nor I fish, but we love watching any form of wildlife and enjoy the beautiful scenery. The first time, we spent time in Fairbanks and Anchorage. The 2nd and 3rd time, we spent much less time in those two cities. While Fairbanks was OK, I found Anchorage to be just like another US city and I don't particularly like big cities. Take your time and just go to as many places as possible. Stay as long as you want. Once again, it depends on you preferences, but with the exception of Seward and Valdez, we stayed away from commercial campgrounds. We either boon docked or stayed in Provincial, State or National parks or forests. The journey to and from Alaska is just as enjoyable as getting there and getting around. We really like the YT and BC as well as Idaho and Montana where we spent quite a bit of time.

[joe_b_]

Here is some verbiage about my first driving trip to Alaska. This is a cut and paste of a post I did several years back. On edit: cleaned it up a bit.


I found my second trip to be the most stressful, as I knew then what I was getting myself into. LOL

1962 and twenty years old, with a Texaco road map that went as far as the Canadian border. I mean, how much farther could it be to Alaska? I had enough money to cross the border and happened to see and buy a copy of the 1962 Milepost, which I still have.

I must have been around Lethbridge when I found a place to spread out my tarp and sleeping bag for the night. The Milepost was about 60 pages long back then, so read through and came to realize I was only about half way there from Oklahoma, where I grew up and lived at the time. I knew I didn't have enough money to make it there and back, but when you are 20, you know everything is going to work out.

I knew there were 3 towns, Anchorage, Fairbanks and Nome, and wanted to see them all. Made it to Fairbanks, spent a few days, met a guy that said I could store my car at his business and I bought a ticket to fly to Nome. I was impressed with the little old mining town and wanted to come back to live there someday.

But the first order of business was to find a job,as I was close to broke and I had to show $300 cash to get back into Canada. Walking around town, I saw a man working on an old Cat crawler tractor, D 7 with a cable blade as I remember. It had a stuck clutch, engine ran fine but you couldn't put it in gear. He was a miner and needed to get his equipment running and out to his claim, North of town. Told him I was looking for work and that I could help him with the dozer. I must have been convincing as he hired me and then left in his truck to go work at his mine. I couldn't believe I had a job doing something I didn't have a clue how to fix. I thought I was going to be his helper or gofer.

Anyway I figured where the clutch had to be located, and there was a cover, which I removed and there was this huge dry clutch, so I found a large chisel and a sledge hammer. After a few swings with all my might, the clutch disk broke free. So I started the engine and was able to get the dozer to go into gear. Put the cover back on and tightened the bolts back down. The guy that hired me showed back up about this time as I had been working on it for 5 or 6 hours. He was impressed.
I was astonished it worked. But it got me two weeks of work and a shed to sleep in for free.

Caught a flight back to Fairbanks, retrieved my car, and headed back to Delta, south on the Richardson to Paxson, across the Denali Hwy to McKinley NP for a few days. Back to Paxson, south to Glennallen and to Anchorage. My dream was complete with the three towns. Then back to Glennallen, to Tok and at the border, showed my required $300, to the Canadian Border folks and headed back to Oklahoma, in time for the fall semester of college.
I had met another man in Nome that told me he would hire me when I finished college, so in 1964 I made my second driving trip to Alaska, this time to live there . The Parks Highway didn't open till the early 70s so the Denali Hwy was the only way to drive to the NP. Most folks went there on the train from Fairbanks or Anchorage.

I did a lot more planning before the second trip in 1964, actually a bit nervous about doing it. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

[RangerJay]

The only thing I might have done differently was to spend more time - and it looks like you've already got that covered - we only had 2 months.

Have a great trip.


Jay