Road and weather May 2015

[Tee_Jay]

The road north of Ft Nelson had some construction starting at KM550, followed by a not-quite-ready-for-paveing dusty section. Fuel prices were around $1.10CDN per litre for diesel up to Ft St John, $1.36 at Ft Nelson. Weather was clear and upper 60's at Ft St John, Clear and lower 70's at Toad River. There are some fires around Toad River. I was told they will be setting fires for a week or so in old burn areas. No smoke at Toad River.

[sue_t]

Top of the World highway out of Dawson City is open now
http://www.511yukon.ca/

[MORSNOW]

The Dalton is closed at MP 335 due to flooding, it has been closed for days and the truck traffic is backed up in both directions (update: 2' water flowing over in places). You may want to postpone travel up that far. The Alaska Highway also has a wildfire that jumped the road at MP 1234. I'll post the AKDOT web link for all Alaskan road condintions for you.

http://511.alaska.gov/alaska511/mappingcomponent/index

Dalton Highway from Milepost 335 to Milepost 412
Closures: Road closure
Warnings: Travel is not advised
Obstructions:- Water hazard - Water flowing across road .
Notes: THE DALTON HIGHWAY IS CURRENLY CLOSED FROM JUST NORTH OF HAPPY VALLEY MP 335.5 THROUGH APPROXIMATELY MP 412 DUE TO WASHOUTS AND WATER ON THE ROADWAY. WE CURRENLY EXPECT THE ROAD TO BE CLOSED FOR 4-7 DAYS. THIS ADVISORY WILL REMAIN IN EFFECT UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

Alaska Highway at Milepost 1234
Closures:- Road open to traffic - Expect delays.
Warnings:- Be prepared to stop - Clearing in progress - Emergency vehicles on road - Use caution when traveling through this area - Warning - Thank you for your patience .
Obstructions:Flames next to road
Notes:A wildfire has jumped the Alaska Highway on Wednesday May 20th. Fire crews are on scene. Alaska DOT&PF is guiding traffic through the area with a pilot car to keep the road open. A staging area was established at milepost 1237.5. For more information go to www.akfireinfo.com.

[tonymull]

Russell Clifton wrote:
We left western Washington on April 28th. We drove to Eastern Washington so we could take the central access route talked about in the Milepost travel guide. Very nice roads and very scenic. We followed highway 97 north to Prince George, then turned west, than jumped on the Cassiar Highway.

This early in the season many of the parks have been closed. The ones that were open we had to ourselves. This has put us about 2 weeks ahead of schedule because we had to drive sometimes a 100 miles to the next park.

The weather has been very nice, in fact the further north we go, the warmer it gets. Haven't seen any rain in weeks. The Cassiar was good until about the last 75 miles, than quite rough. Once we were on the Alaska Highway it was better a short time, but once you are north of Whitehorse it too was quite rough. After crossing into Alaska it was instantly better road conditions.

Right now we are setting in Fairbanks and the forecast is for over 80 today. We are leaving today to drive up the Dalton to the arctic circle. I expect it will be a very dusty ride. They are doing alot of work on the Dalton this spring so if you are going be sure to check for road closures before starting out.

We have seen lot's of wildlife. So far: moose,black bears,brown bear,fox,caribou,deer,porcupine,squirrels, and every kind of bird you can think of.

That is really a good indicator as to how much climate has changed in Alaska. When I lived in Fairbanks 35 years ago May was break-up. Most of the snow was gone by Memorial Day except in the shade. It did get into the 80's or even 90 but not till mid summer, even then stepping into the shade was like going into air conditioning. I remember waking up in my tent on June 3 to find 4-5 inches of snow on the ground. Took it a week to melt. It really is kind of alarming.

[Russell_Clifton]

We left western Washington on April 28th. We drove to Eastern Washington so we could take the central access route talked about in the Milepost travel guide. Very nice roads and very scenic. We followed highway 97 north to Prince George, then turned west, than jumped on the Cassiar Highway.

This early in the season many of the parks have been closed. The ones that were open we had to ourselves. This has put us about 2 weeks ahead of schedule because we had to drive sometimes a 100 miles to the next park.

The weather has been very nice, in fact the further north we go, the warmer it gets. Haven't seen any rain in weeks. The Cassiar was good until about the last 75 miles, than quite rough. Once we were on the Alaska Highway it was better a short time, but once you are north of Whitehorse it too was quite rough. After crossing into Alaska it was instantly better road conditions.

Right now we are setting in Fairbanks and the forecast is for over 80 today. We are leaving today to drive up the Dalton to the arctic circle. I expect it will be a very dusty ride. They are doing alot of work on the Dalton this spring so if you are going be sure to check for road closures before starting out.

We have seen lot's of wildlife. So far: moose,black bears,brown bear,fox,caribou,deer,porcupine,squirrels, and every kind of bird you can think of.

[Tee_Jay]

Back to the top for a few days......

[Tee_Jay]

From Teslin to Tok. Past Whitehorsw there are a number of red flags. Most are pavement patches, but some have a dip included. Slowing to 40 or less avoided any surprises.
Fuel was $1.319 at Otter Falls Cutoff.
The road was good from Haines Junction past Burwash landing.
From Burwash Landing to Beaver Creek there were extensive areas where the road surface ia awaiting paving. The first was 11 miles long, quite rough and dusty. The others were shorter and non were as rough as the first one.
From Beaver Creek to Tok the road was good, a few marked repairs.

Sue.t is right in her comment, except when we went in to the YK Motel for dinner the cashier gave each of us a slip of paper with a unique UserID and Password, so they hav increased security quite a bit.

Travel time from Teslin to Tok was 11 hours. A few years ago it was 13 hours. The road has really improved.

[sue_t]

Contact Creek is usually the cheapest fuel in the area.

In Teslin, the Yukon Motel usually gives a four cent discount on fuel to RVers, just for the asking. Sometimes they want the coupon from one of the guidebooks, but I've learned if you mention it they'll give it. They also will give the password for the Wi-Fi if you fill up and ask for it.

[Tee_Jay]

From Toad River to Teslin there is no construction and only a few marked pavement patches. Diesel at Contact Creek was $1.129 CDN, Teslin is $1.299 per litre.

[algolfer]

Thanks for update. Will be heading in that direction at the end of this month.