Roll Call Alaska 2015

[trcgolf]

I know its early but we have been planning for the past 3 months. I know its another 15 months at least till we leave but we are just going crazy...
So here is our very rough plan overview. Leave mid June from western NY; travel west up through Ill., Wis., Min., ND, into Canada.
Diagonally across Saskatch. and Alberta, BC, and YT...
Our first destination is Fairbanks, via Top of the World Highway... thinking of doing the Dempster to the Arctic Circle. I know there will many stops... some short, some long but all will be great.
Fairbanks to Homer with the obligatory Denali stop for a few days.
Homer to Portland Or; Oregon to San Fran; San Fran to home via the Northern US.

We have so much planning yet to do but reading all the Roll Call posts in 2013, and 2014 just keeps us going. Started to plan finances which brings us to the first major question.
I have heard all the diesel advantages and draw backs of the gas engines. We invested in a 32' fifth wheel and 2013 GMC 2500 HD with 6.0L Crew 4x4. The fiver weighs about 8K empty, I would guess 10,500 loaded. ( I will get that checked for sure)Brand new to Rving

The truck is my every dayer.... need the 4 wheel drive here in winter. The decision with gas was pure economics. A Cummins diesel and matching tranny was $9500 more. Doing the math it was going to take a bunch of miles to save enough in mileage to pay for the increase in price. About 100000 mile by my calculation. We not going to be full timers; one long trip a year to Florida.
Traveling around NY and Pa and maybe Florida, that all makes sense but going on a trip like this, I am not so sure gas was the way to go. So I am asking for those who used a truck like mine to haul a fifth wheel through Canada...Alaska...et al... What kind of mileage can I expect? Sorry for the novelette...I will get better at this.

Edited to add 'Alaska' within the title.

[sheltieRV]

dannydimitt wrote:
We came back down the Cassiar in 2013 . The wife and I thought it was by far the best part of the journey. From camping on the shore of Dease Lake , the wildlife , the solitude , and Hyder AK was awesome ! Loved the drive thru Smithers to Prince George as well !

Agreed and the road was no worse condition than the AH, and very little traffic.

[hr0082]

Having made trips from Hattiesburg, MS to Alaska 3 of the past 4 years, I cannot emphasize enough that to really enjoy the trip, do not think in terms of how much time it will take to get from point A to point B. I know that people who have a limited amount of time might need to do this, but if you have "unlimited" time, try to just go with the flow and see, do, stop wherever your interest leads you. On each of our trips, the only campground reservations that we made were in Denali and in Seward for the July 4th week. Otherwise, we just drove however far we wanted with a vague idea of when we would arrive and how long we would stay. An example being Valdez where we originally thought we would stay 3 nights and ended up staying 7.

[joe_b_]

GA, the driving time from Fairbanks to Bellingham is roughly 48 hours. I really enjoy the Cassiar for the scenery, more laid back but is slower than the Alaska Hwy, since the Cassiar is more twisty and up and down. Over the years the Alaska Hwy has been straightened, widened, relocated in places and overal shortened about 40 miles in length.

Prince Rupert is a good visit for us. It is a beautiful drive from Kitwanga Junction over to PR. We spent 4 days there our last visit and could have enjoyed a couple more. We were not aware PR is such a major shipping port, especially for ocean going bulk freighters. A great multicultural population, lots of good eating places, museums and the restored fish cannery, many beautiful buildings, etc to view and photograph. Nice campground there in town.

[dannydimitt]

We came back down the Cassiar in 2013 . The wife and I thought it was by far the best part of the journey. From camping on the shore of Dease Lake , the wildlife , the solitude , and Hyder AK was awesome ! Loved the drive thru Smithers to Prince George as well !

[Tee_Jay]

We avoid the Cassiar. Did it once about 12 years ago and the wife hated it.

Most of our days are 350 miles: WA to Merritt, BC; Then to Hinton, AB; Then to Charley Lake (Ft St John north end); Then to Toad River; Then to Teslin. The last two stages are 500 mile days, Teslin to Tok, then Tok to the Kenai.

Prince George is two days of travel for most to Washington.

[RamblinManGA]

Hi from AZ. . . we're still on for the drive to AK, hoping to leave home Memorial Day weekend. Coming back, I'd like to do the Cassiar Hwy, & wondered how much time to plan for to Seattle. Also, is the trip to Prince Rupert worth the drive ? We could also take ferry from there to Bellingham. . .the planning is fun, eh ? thanks for opinions, and Regards, Craig

[stickdog]

DW and I are headed to Alaska this coming Spring. We will be volunteering at Tetlin NWR mid-May till mid July. We then plan on touring as much as we can through the end of August.

[CA_Traveler]

dahkota wrote:
Since our aborted attempt last year, we have swapped the truck and tt for a class A and toad. While we are less equipped for road hazards this time, we are slightly better equipped for boondocking, which we hope to do often. With 60,000 miles towing our toad without a scratch I was in denial about rock damage - Welcome to the Alaskan Highway! I learned:
1. Covers collect dust, will rub the paint and have to be washed (best at a DYI car wash) every driving day.
2. Radiator repair places love vertical shields because they can and do bounce rocks forward into a rear radiator.
3. The best protection is the Protect A Toad type of screen.

We look forward to meeting up with anyone else that may be going our way both in the states and in Canada.Small 8.5x11 signs are easy to miss. Our big sign covering the toad tire attracted some fellow travelers including in parking lots, etc.

[dahkota]

We will also be making the trip this year. We had planned on 2014, but family obligations got in our way.

We left DC on January 1 and are now in Florida for some last minute fixes/upgrades. We start moving west next week, heading first to Arizona, then turning north. We hope to cross near Vancouver around May 15, returning to the border in Montana around September 15.

Since our aborted attempt last year, we have swapped the truck and tt for a class A and toad. While we are less equipped for road hazards this time, we are slightly better equipped for boondocking, which we hope to do often.

We look forward to meeting up with anyone else that may be going our way both in the states and in Canada.

[taviking22]

Add us to the list!
Leaving for Alaska mid-May and staying in Alaska until after Labor Day.
We are starting to plan routes, etc. as we try to suffer through counting down the days!
We were last in Alaska the summer of 2013.

[CA_Traveler]

MH tires can be large and heavy and take a lot of storage space. But here's a creative solution for transport.

[fullmoonoversal]

americanrascal wrote:
I tend to agree its likely I would not ever need it, but I do want a spare for peace of mind. This is our second Class A MH. Had one for about 10 years a decade or so ago. I had bad experiences with tires on that one having had one blow out and one wall failure (They were Michelins and brand new).Luckily that rig carried a spare. The new Itasca we got several months ago came without a spare and having run up the Alaska Hiway last year I just would not feel comfortable without having a spare. A used rim is to arrive today, then I'll add the tire and be all set!

I know of 2 motorhomes who blew tires on the highway coming up. One of them had 2 flats. Some of those roads are in pretty bad shape - especially in the spring.

The tires had to be brought up from anchorage for one of them (don't know why) and the delivery cost was half the cost of the tire. Probably because they could charge that much - not becausue it did cost that much. It was a 2 day wait for those tires.

[4X4Dodger]

trcgolf wrote:
I know its early but we have been planning for the past 3 months. I know its another 15 months at least till we leave but we are just going crazy...
So here is our very rough plan overview. Leave mid June from western NY; travel west up through Ill., Wis., Min., ND, into Canada.
Diagonally across Saskatch. and Alberta, BC, and YT...
Our first destination is Fairbanks, via Top of the World Highway... thinking of doing the Dempster to the Arctic Circle. I know there will many stops... some short, some long but all will be great.
Fairbanks to Homer with the obligatory Denali stop for a few days.
Homer to Portland Or; Oregon to San Fran; San Fran to home via the Northern US.

We have so much planning yet to do but reading all the Roll Call posts in 2013, and 2014 just keeps us going. Started to plan finances which brings us to the first major question.
I have heard all the diesel advantages and draw backs of the gas engines. We invested in a 32' fifth wheel and 2013 GMC 2500 HD with 6.0L Crew 4x4. The fiver weighs about 8K empty, I would guess 10,500 loaded. ( I will get that checked for sure)Brand new to Rving

The truck is my every dayer.... need the 4 wheel drive here in winter. The decision with gas was pure economics. A Cummins diesel and matching tranny was $9500 more. Doing the math it was going to take a bunch of miles to save enough in mileage to pay for the increase in price. About 100000 mile by my calculation. We not going to be full timers; one long trip a year to Florida.
Traveling around NY and Pa and maybe Florida, that all makes sense but going on a trip like this, I am not so sure gas was the way to go. So I am asking for those who used a truck like mine to haul a fifth wheel through Canada...Alaska...et al... What kind of mileage can I expect? Sorry for the novelette...I will get better at this.

Edited to add 'Alaska' within the title.

Just a suggestion for your return trip from SF to NY: Consider taking US Hwy 50 all the way from SF to Annapolis MD. It is never interstate and traverses some of the most interesting scenery and small towns in America. Yes it's Slower and much of it is two lane. But the rewards I think would be worth it.

On the other hand this is a trip all unto itself.

One of the few other non-interstate Hwys that run completely across the country is Hwy 83 that runs from the Canadian Border to Brownsville Texas with almost no runs on interstate. Another worthy trip (but yes a bit out of your way)

[Johnny_G1]

What happened to those 36F temps that you had the other day??? A ft' of snow coming our way.

[sue_t]

This morning there was an amazing light show overhead. From 7:30-8:30 a.m. I was outside in -31F temps to photograph the northern lights.

Some of the shots are posted at http://yukonsights.ca/20150104_Aurora.html

Here's a teaser: