Category Archives: Fulltiming

Alaska 2019 recap

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We have been in Redding for more than a month now so it is a good time to do an Alaska recap.

The planning started last year when we were traveling with the Chens. We were staying between Jasper and Hinton. In that area, I saw a turnoff that stated ‘Scenic Route to Alaska’. Some thoughts were that we were very close to the starting point, we should just go last year. Alas, we had obligations at the end of August. In hindsight, the decision was good since my mother passed away at the end of August. So we made plans to go in 2019. It would also mark 55 years since I was there last!

The only real plan we had for Alaska was a scheduled meetup with a group from Facebook on the 4th of July. We reserved a spot and it gave us a target for at least that date.

We made that date and pretty much winged it for the entire trip. Often I would make reservations for our next stop only, not any further ahead. The one exception was Denali NP. I actually made two reservations and canceled one of them once we knew our location better (it was only $6 to cancel).

For this recap, I consider the start of our trip when we entered Alberta north of Glacier NP on June 10, 2019. Then the end will be when we came back to the US at Sumas WA on Sept 3, 2019.

Here are the numbers:

Total mileage: 8673
Fuel Cost: $2303.57
Gallons: 696.15
MPG: 12.07
Avg price per gal: $3.33
High price per gal: $4.292
Min price per gal: $2.559

Trailer miles: 5783
Average miles per travel day: 199
Min travel day: 40 (Palmer to Eklutna Lake)
Max travel day: 291 (Liard Hot Springs to Teslin YT)
Travel days: 29

RV park expenses
Total: $3088.99
Overnights: 85
Avg per night: $36.34
Min: 0 (Walmart in Chilliwick)
Max: $62.11 (Seward KOA)

There were also numerous locations for pulling off the road, dry camping but we were never at a point where we had to rely upon it. One negative that we have found is that virtually every turnout in the Yukon was signed to NOT allow overnight parking. If there was an area off the highway, it didn’t appear to have a sign. There were many areas in BC that would not allow it also.

Alaska is huge, but the easily driveable area is not. My estimation is that you have about 500 miles north to south and east to west that you can drive. Most other areas are only accessible via sketchy roads, water or air. It is all pretty civilized also. There are some stretches of not much but not at all like you might expect. We thought it would be much more barren.

The stretch that seemed more like what we thought Alaska would be like was Northern Alberta and Yukon Territory. Long segments between towns. The biggest town in, and capital of, the Yukon was Whitehorse. Whitehorse’s population is 26K, the rest of the territory is another 10K.

Anchorage is a metropolis (300K) with 2 Costcos! It is a stark difference to other locales but helpful if you need to get something done. Roxie had to have a medical procedure and we were able to get it done there.

We tried to take day trips to some of the other smaller, well-known towns (Skagway, Whittier, Valdez). Fairbanks was a smaller version of Anchorage but much more palatable. Denali was both very rural and touristy. Homer was, by far, our favorite! We will spend about a month there the next time.

We also did not do everything while we were there. This gives us some more to do when we get back there again. We will go back, but it won’t be for another 5-10 years. We have more to see in the Northern Hemisphere.

If you decide to head to Alaska, you can not fret too much about the planning ahead but there is one thing you must do. Join the RVing to Alaska group on Facebook. Every year a new one is started so pick the right one. There is a huge amount of information available there, you can learn a lot from others and you can save it right in FB and get to it later. Here is the 2019 version: https://www.facebook.com/groups/rvingtoalaska2019/

Delayed in Alaska

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When we headed to Homer there was a wildfire burning on the Kenai Peninsula and we came through some of the smoke on the way. But after a week, we had very minimal smoke on the way to our next stop, Seward.

We stayed there for 4 nights at the KOA. I know there are spots downtown, near the water, but they were only $20 or so cheaper but only electric and water. Plus you had some more ‘permanent campers there. Right by our spot was an eagle that made a nest in the only tree at the KOA:

We scheduled a boat trip to visit Kenai Fjords NP and some wildlife on the way. Naturally the day we went out was rainy and with rough seas. This meant Roxie got seasick in the 6′ swells. She didn’t have a very good time. She was able to be alert enough to see some of the wildlife and glaciers:

We took a day trip from there to Whittier. We were able to go through the tunnel shortly after the train came through:

Unlike Skagway, Whittier only had 1 cruise ship but it dominated the skyline:

Whittier was built by the US military as a base and they built the tunnel for trains. Here is one of the buildings they left behind. They decided not to tear down this one due to costs since it was built to withstand earthquakes and is filled with asbestos:

Leaving Seward, we headed back to Palmer. We had a medical issue to take care of. One of the primary reasons to head to Austin this year was to get a Spinal Cord Stimulator (SCS) for Roxie. This will block her nerve pain electronically. However, shortly after we left Austin she had a problem charging it. Her SCS has a rechargeable battery that connects inductively through her skin. She take a flat paddle and lines it up parallel to her internal battery. The problem is that she has to really jam her hand into her side at an odd angle to get any type of charge to the battery and it takes a very long time.

She has been struggling with this for almost 2 months. We got in contact with the representative of the device’s manufacturer (Abbott) and scheduled a time to meet with her in Anchorage. We were able to also meet with an MD that does the SCS procedure. They discovered that her battery had shifted location and was no longer in a vertical orientation but was in such a way that she could not get the paddle parallel with any consistency. Hence the difficulty.

We started the procedure to get the battery replaced with a non-rechargeable one. We needed to get insurance approval but we had some time. We had reservations for Denali NP and then on to Fairbanks.

We headed on to Denali. We stayed at a very nice spot at Riley Creek campground. We had booked a bus tour (the Kantishna Experience) which was 11 hours long for the round trip. It was a cloudy day with a bit of rain. We were only able to see small bits of the mountain for moments at a time. We did see a fair amount of animals: Caribou, Dall sheep, black bears, moose and various other small ones.

On another day at Denali NP, we went to see the sled dogs. Denali still uses sled dogs in the winter for NPS transportation as the majority of the park is a wilderness area. Here is Roxie and I with new friends:

On the 1964 trip, I remember visiting a bunch of sled dogs and all the barking. I was able to find a picture of my encounter back then:

In the background of this picture you can see a name on a doghouse. The name is Niski. On the walls of the building on the grounds, they have all the doghouse names. They take them off when they find a home for a retired sled dog and normally give the new family the sign. However they do put up replicas in the building.

I took this photo to the rangers there and asked them about it. According to their records, there was a Niski that was in a litter from 1961. This would have made the age correct. Looking for the sign:

My memory was pretty accurate. It was a lot of fun to track this down. I asked my sister about all of this and all she remembered is that she wanted to take a dog home back in 1964.

Next was Fairbanks for a week. We should know about the SCS status soon and we had our anniversary coming up (39 years).

I also remember, vaguely, from 1964 that we rode a paddlewheel boat. I remember looking down from the top deck and seeing a salmon wheel. In keeping with the re-creation of 1964, we also took a paddlewheel trip.

Roxie was a bit fearful that she might get seasick, I assured her she would not. She didn’t. The tour is a very enjoyable journey. They have a demo of a floatplane taking off and landing. They show a sled dog team take a lap around a track. They also take you to a remake of a Chena Indian village where local native americans show you the life and techniques of times ago. Here are some fox pelts:

I talked to the trip narrator and let him know about the 1964 trip. I wondered what paddlewheel was used then. He told me this one:

Still floating.

Before we left Fairbanks we still did not know that status of the SCS replacement but decided to head back to the Anchorage area in anticipation of good news. He stopped for 2 nights in Talkeetna and rode the Hurricane Turn train.

We also saw some salmon heading up the river to spawn

We got back to Palmer (for the 3rd time) and found out Roxie got the go ahead for the procedure. Alas, we can’t get the procedure scheduled for 2 weeks after we got here, which means being here for 3 weeks total. But this is part of life on the road. You have to become a local at times.

However, we can see this from our campsite:

Next entry hopefully talks about being on the road again (Go Willie!).