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.

[sue_t]

It usually means there's an RV caravan leaving town. The ferry isn't very big and if there are a lot of long RVs it can take only a few at a time.

Haven't ever really noticed that there is more traffic going one way or the other.

[CA_Traveler]

1. Drive from Chicken to Dawson City as the wait will be shorter at the ferry on the river. The wait to use the ferry going from Dawson City to Chicken via the TOW can be up to 7 hours as one couple told us as they were waiting to cross the Yukon.

Does this imply that from Chicken you'll meet more oncoming traffic and hence have more potential passing and rock damage issues?

[sue_t]

Regarding crossing the Yukon River by ferry at Dawson...if we're going westbound over the Top of the World, we'll overnight at the Yukon River gov't campground on the west side of the river. Then we can leave whenever we wish the next morning without thinking about the ferry.

As well, the paddlewheeler graveyard, which is a short walk north of that campground, is an interesting site to explore.

There are no services at the Yukon River gov't campground. If you get there early in the afternoon chances are you'll get a nice site by the river though, which makes for a pleasant evening around the campfire.

[AlCar]

The law in Canada and Alaska is to drive with your headlights on at all times. This law does NOT apply to vehicles with Alaska plates since at least 50% of them don't drive with headlights on. Among RV's and campers with Alaska plates, about 90% of them don't obey the law.

The law also says slow drivers must pull over if 5 or more vehicles are behind you. Again, Alaska plated RV's and campers almost universally disobey this law.

Why? As one Alaskan told me, "We don't like you lower 48'ers coming up here and crowding us out during the summer."

They may not like us in the summer, but they sure love our money (and their prices reflect the image that we are loaded and willing to spend it).

This is my only beef against our recent trip (we just got home yesterday) to The Great North.

[AlCar]

fireman93514 wrote:
Just got my 2014 milepost. Now the planning can begin in earnest.

Some tips to consider in your planning.
1. Drive from Chicken to Dawson City as the wait will be shorter at the ferry on the river. The wait to use the ferry going from Dawson City to Chicken via the TOW can be up to 7 hours as one couple told us as they were waiting to cross the Yukon.

2. Frost heaves are not just on the dirt road for the last 120 miles to Alaska, they are also on the paved road from Dawson City to Whitehorse as I found out the hard way when the seat belts were the only thing that kept us in our seat. It was a blind heave, meaning you didn't see it till you hit it. Below Whitehorse the road is excellent.

3. Reservations are not really necessary except in Fairbanks, Anchorage, and Denali. We made reservations at every stop and found they all had room for more campers. Just call a day in advance to confirm they have space for you either that day or the next.

4. Realize the weather is not going to be ideal. We had cold, rain, and even snow on the Icefield Parkway, but we were prepared for it and enjoyed every minute of the trip.

5. The Milepost is a good book, but the Church's book is better for campground data. The milepost can be difficult to use if you are driving south and their directions are for those driving north, forcing you to read that section of highway backwards.

6. Regardless of the posted speed limit, take your time and enjoy the view. I think we kept it about 10 miles below the speed limit the whole trip, just pulling over to let the vehicles behind us pass us (it is the law up there).

7. Buy the TourSaver coupon book. It is well worth the $100 price. We did not use every coupon, but we still saved over $400 using just about 6 of them. Then we gave it to someone going north so they could use it with the remaining coupons.

8. We were gone 10 weeks and saw what we wanted to see and do what we wanted to do. Don't try to cramp this trip into a 4-6 week trip. You will be frustrated at the end.

9. Take your time, drive the road not the speed limit, enjoy the view, and savor the minutes for the rest of your life.

[Trackrig]

Best time to visit Valdez as for weather.

If you're going to be spending the summer in Alaska, you can do Valdez either early or late in the summer as you make the trip around the state. As a former resident of Valdez here's my opinion.

If you're not a fisherman, then visit it earlier in the summer. As a general statement, the earlier in the summer, the better - there will be less rain. It can actually be nice.

If you're a fisherman then you have to go when the fish are running which is mid to a little later in the summer. Usually after early July it starts raining more and more and more until snow starts in Sept or Oct.

Bill

[Trackrig]

The best bear repellant

Bear Repellant Clicky

Bill

[2TXNZ]

Count us in. Hoping Alan's brother and his wife join us in our MH. For fun and to help with cost.

[oldtrojan66]

daily double wrote:
Churches book is good but don't take it for the gospel.

That's a good one!

[daily_double]

Just a word a caution. Churches book is good but don't take it for the gospel. If they say a campground is tight that was probably a couple of years ago, and it has grown since then! Also they say that boon docking on the side of the road in Alaska is a no-no. When we got to Tok about 6wks ago we asked the State police about this and were told that if is not posted it is OK to overbite There are a lot of places to do it and a lot of people doing it!

[CA_Traveler]

Below is the basics of a 2013 GS Caravan Tour which was shared by a fellow camper and should be helpful for planning. Day 21 is Anchorage.

[bob_nestor]

Guess I'll chime in to this thread. I was born and raised in Alaska on the Kenai but hadn't been back since '68 when I drove the Alcan. Retired last year so I decided to go "back home" for a spell this summer. Did it, had a lot of fun meeting up with old childhood friends and seeing how much things have changed - Yikes!

I drove my Class B and my total cost for the trip (gas, camping, food, misc) came to about $5,000 in about 11,000 miles. I did get 17 MPG though and I did a lot of dry camping and while in Alaska I camped for free in a friend's back yard with water and electric.

Definitely have to go back in 2017 for my 50th high school reunion, but I'll probably go back again in 2015. This time I plan on towing my Jeep Wrangler with me so my MPG will take a hit, but I'll have more toys with me for even more summer fun.

I traveled with a couple in their 5th wheel on the way up. (An old childhood friend and her husband.) Didn't feel I needed to, but she asked because her husband was leery about that trip without having someone else along. I came back by myself though. I'd be more than willing to travel with others when I go again, so if someone would like company just drop me an e-mail.

[CA_Traveler]

Fuel:

Do yourself a favor and get the PenFed Visa Cash Rewards card which gives 5% cash back every month on fuel, has no Canadian transaction fees, and can be swiped at all pumps and must be swiped at the pump to get cash back. This is now the only card we use for car/RV fuel in the US and Canada. It does require that you open a $25 money market account or pay a $25 yearly fee. Guess which option I chose. Cosco and Arco don’t accept Visa. Amex is not as widely accepted and has a 2-3% transaction fee.

Do not fall for the Canadian 3 cents per liter discount at some station as you pay inside. Sure you'll save 12 cents/gallon while I save 25 cents/gallon with my PenFed card.

This 2013 graph will help to understand fuel prices. The graph is normalized for cost and should be useful for 2015.
My 2013 Alaska trip fuel graph

You won't find much/any fuel price variation in a given town/area in Canada. As one local told me "There is no price fixing - it's just that all of the prices are the same!".

[CA_Traveler]

Information from the 2014 thread:

CA Traveler wrote:

sheltieRV wrote:
The past couple of weeks we have started to run into Caravans (going up the Cassiar and then direclty to Kenai limited our contact with most of them until recently) and finding that when we do, we have issues getting a decent site or anyone that cares about our business. I have started asking RV Parks if they have caravans coming in when we plan to stay. It's just the nature of the beast in a short season with a group that means lots of money versus my single site.

Arriving early afternoon worked for us. Of course the caravans have reservations but we arrived before most of the other campers.

Caravans often but not always had the best sites. We never had any interference when they arrived because they don't use any CG staff. Their leader arrives first, knows all of the reserved sites and directs them in by radio and/or with his car. ie They do not stop at the office which is part of what they are paying the big bucks for.

About caravans: They offer a service that we saw as useful. Like all reservations, bus service from the CG to the event, group social aspects and a source of information and help. Typically they meet in the morning to discuss the days driving, events, etc. The down side is a fixed schedule with only a few open days.

We wanted the independence from a fixed schedule. I also thought the cost was high. However we racked up more cost than I expected. I under estimated camping cost and event/tour costs and was close on fuel costs.

[paulineklein]

Retiring in November, heading west and then north to Alaska in April/may 2015.
Would love to meet up with some fellow travelers. PMK3233@aol.com