Alaska Road Trip 2009

Extended road trip through the American West, Canada and Alaska

20090521 through ??

Last update: 20090906 from Mountain View, CA

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Two glaciers merge in northern British Columbia, Canada.
Canon 1DsM3. All photos copyright, Bill Caid 2009. All rights reserved.

New Capability - Track our current location!

After our mechanical issues that we suffered in southern Utah, we purchased a SPOT geo-location transmitter. This device reports your position through a satellite network and plots your path on Google maps. Additionally, the device has the ability to send messages through the satellite indicating that you are "OK", "Need assistance" or are having an emergency event. We hoped to not use the emergency capabilities of the device, but after the last trip, we felt that being prepared was the best solution. To follow our progress and see our current location in "near real time" see http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0W876btSW8SH7xrG6Z70n0NhXS9sne7me Bookmark this location to see our position over time. It shows the last 50 positions.

Go directly to the Trip

The Team and Equipment

The away team for this trip consisted of only one vehicle and 2 folks. Kathleen and I went in our turbo-diesel Mercedes Unimog 1300L with our now-proven Alaskan camper. We would have loved to go with another vehicle, but this was planned to be an extended duration trip and therefore would have been a great imposition on any partners who had "real" jobs.

As always, we were prepared for primative camping. But, analysis of the available road system suggested that we would always be within several day's travel of "civilization". Our research seemed to indicate that we would have cell phone coverage for a big portion of our trip, but that is always dependent on where, exactly, one travels. We planned to bring our normal compliment of gear and leave nothing to chance. Knowing that we would be away for so long, I purchased additional spare parts for the truck as well as a significant amount of tire repair components including four spare tubes. For this trip, we will be running our "new" set of Michelin 395/85R20 tires. But, these tires are so big that it is impossible to bring a full size spare without significant re-engineering of the camper setup (which I elected not to do). So, we brought tire repair components instead and are hoping that we will be able to repair any issues we encounter. We do have a spare, but it is significantly smaller that the tires that are mounted. The spare is a 14.5R20, which is not a small tire, just smaller than the 395's.

The Trip

Kathleen and I have traveled extensively in the arid portions of the west. However, we have not spent much time in the mountains. And, except for a ski trip to Whistler and our Rocky Mountaineer train trip, we have never been to Canada. Since both Kathleen and I were between jobs, we decided to make the best use of our time. We had both been wanting to travel to Alaska again since we last visited there in 2007. The 2007 trip was via plane and train, but this time, we wanted to drive there with our 1300L Unimog and camper. So, we repaired a myriad of niggling problems, made a few enhancements and set our course north to Alaska. Our plan is to travel north accross the Mojave desert of California and Nevada into central Utah and then north generally along I-15 to Glacier National Park. Crossing the border at Glacier, we will then travel along the axis of the Rocky Mountains in British Colombia and then northwest into Alaska. Our current plan is to go all the way to the Arctic ocean, but that plan may have to be adjusted depending on road conditions, weather and the calendar.

Trip Details

The link table below contains links to the daily adventures that include photos and dialog about what we saw. We will attempt to update pages from the road as connectivity permits.

 

Links to Daily Adventures
Part Dates Adventure Locations
1
20090521-25
San Diego to Lehi, UT
2
20090526
Timpanogos Cave and Logan, UT
3
20090527-30
Logan, UT to Helena, MT via Eastern Idaho
4
20090601-03
Helena, MT to Waterton, AB, CA via Glacier National Park
5
20090604-06
Waterton, AB, CA to Jasper National Park, AB, CA
6
20090607-11
Jasper NP to Teslin, YT
7
20090612-14
Teslin, YT to Fairbanks, AK
8
20090614-17
Fairbanks, Chena Hot Springs and Coldfoot, AK
9
20090618
Coldfoot to Prudhoe Bay, AK
10
20090619-20
Prudhoe Bay to Fairbanks, AK
11
20090620-25
Fairbanks to Kenai Peninsula
12
20090626-30
Kenai to Lake Eklutna, AK
13
20090701-03
Lake Eklutna to Valdez, AK
14
20090704
Prince William Sound Boat Tour, Valdez, AK
15
20090705-11
Valdez to Skagway, AK
16
20090712
White Pass and Yukon Railroad, Skagway, AK
17
20090713-15
Skagway, AK to Lake Kinaskan, BC
18
20090716-17
Lake Kinaskan, BC to Hyder, AK
19
20090718-24
Lava Flow to Vancouver, BC
20
20090725-29
Vancouver, BC to San Juan Island, WA
21
20090730-03
San Juan Island to Tofino, BC
22
20090804-07
Tofino, BC to Bellingham, WA
23
20090808-15
Bellingham, WA to Palouse Falls, WA
24
20090816-20
Palouse Falls, WA to Sheridan, OR
25
20090820-21
NWMF Part 1, Sheridan, OR
26
20090822
NWMF Part 2, Sheridan, OR
27
20090823-31
Sheridan, OR to Reno, NV
28
20090801-05
Reno, NV to San Francisco, CA

 

Conclusion

TBD

Traveler's Advice

Plan ahead on fuel. Diesel is not available everywhere.

Miscellaneous Information

TBD

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Copyright Bill Caid 2009