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Date:         Thu, 22 Sep 2005 10:10:42 -0400
Reply-To:     Harold Teer <teer.vanagon@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Harold Teer <teer.vanagon@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Roundtrip from VA to Yukon -- 77 days and 14,000 miles
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

My wife and I recently returned from an incredible 14,000+ mile and 77 day round-trip from Harrisonburg, VA to Dawson City, Yukon and wanted to share our experience.

A trip of this magnitude in a 14 year old vanagon would have been pretty scary had it not been for the knowledge that had we had problems, there was the entire vanagon list community to call on for help. While I am seldom post to the list, I have religiously read most of the posts since I purchased our van in 1996, archive many messages, and have gained a lot of ideas and knowledge from the list.

We were fortunate to have a van that had been properly maintained by the previous owner and I have tried to do the same over the years. Before leaving on the trip, the van had a good tuneup with new fuel filter, plugs, plug wires, distributor cap, and rotor. The tires were the Michelin Agilis with plenty of tread. I had Ken Wilford give the van a good going over and he changed the belts, fuel lines, upper ball joints, and a few protective rubber boots. We left with 90,000 miles on the van and returned with 104,000+ . I am happy/lucky to say that we had absolutely no mechanical problems on the trip.

Maintenance during the trip? I changed the oil and oil filter twice (Mobile1 15-50 and Mahle filter) and had the tires rotated and balanced at Costco Stores in Washington State. Every morning, I checked the coolant level and the oil level and several times during the trip I checked the condition of the belts and the hoses and looked for any oil or coolant leaks. I carried a few tools that were enough for my mechanical ability and an extra distributor cap, rotor, oil filters, and belts. OK, just in case, I also carried duct tape, marine epoxy, wire, etc.

Several years ago, I had the Yokohama Y370G tires on the van and loved the stability but when they were no longer available I went with the Agilis from Michelin. The Agilis were great--I do not find them noisy and their toughness provided a lot of security on many of the rough roads. No flats or problems.

Fridge--we ran it continuously for the 77 days with the exception of turning it off as required on a few of the ferries and when refilling the propane tank. Highly recommended addition is a D cell battery powered fan to circulate air in the fridge. While I also have a wired internal fan for circulation, I think the battery powered one sitting at the bottom of the fridge did the most useful work. Years ago, I purchased it at some RV place.

Our Route? We made a deliberate decision to avoid as much as possible the interstate highways on the way out West and to not use them until we were in Washington State on the way home. The trip route was not planned and we made decisions as we drove on where to spend each night. All we knew is that we wanted to spend a lot of time in British Columbia.

From Virginia, we took smaller roads through WV, OH, IN, IL, WI, MN and ended up spending some great time along the western shore of Lake Superior before taking highway 2 through MN, ND, MT, to Glacier National Park. After a great hike to Iceberg Lake and a night in the van, we hoped to drive the Road to the Sun through GNP. But, it was cold, rained all night, and the Road to the Sun was closed because of 8" of snow during the night---oh well, another year for that one. Then onward to the North Cascades NP and to Olympic NP.

After about 20 days on the road, we took the ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria and spent 3 nights in a hotel in Victoria. Those were the only nights we didn't spend in the van until we had been on the road for about 70 days and were on the way home in the US on the interstates.

Before our trip, Shawn Wright who lives on Vancouver Island, provided a lot of advice on things to see and do on the island--thanks Shawn!. Thanks to his advice and that of numerous helpful people along the way, we went to China Beach, Mystic Beach, and Long Beach. We rode a working boat out of Port Alberni, a float plane trip out of Tofino, and a whale watching boat out of Telegraph cove before we got on a ferry from Port Hardy to Prince Rupert and then a ferry up to Skagway. We drove to Atlin, and then up to Dawson City before heading back down to BC to Liard River, Fort Nelson, Prince George, and Jasper. We hiked in Mount Robson Provencial Park, Jasper National Park, Yoho NP, Kootney NP, Glacier and Mt. Revelstock NP. If you are a hiker, you must hike to Jakes Pass in Mt. Revelstock NP--incredibly beautiful hike.

People along the way couldn't have been more friendly and helpful. At each campsite, people gave us recommendations and we sifted through all the advice and made decisions on where to head next. Frankly, we never intended to go into the Yukon, but on the ferry from Port Hard to Prince Rupert, people convinced us to take the ferry from Prince Rupert to Skagway and continue north to Dawson City. While we were glad we did that, there is more than enough to do in BC to take up all of your time.

Where did we camp? Mostly in Provincial or National parks and we never made a reservation. The trick in the most popular parks was to get there early in the day, however we only found about 3 that were really crowded and most of the Provincial parks were surprisingly uncrowded. In a few cases, we stayed at commercial campgrounds--in Dawson City and at Watson Lake we stayed at ones that provided wireless Internet service and we were able to send email, check on family, upload a few pictures, etc.

Over the years, we added or changed a few things to the van which made it more livable on this trip: A commercial floor mat for the rear. It is one like you find inside or outside office/store doors. It reaches from the cabinet area to the sliding door with only about 1/2 unprotected space and I cut a little off of one end so it completely covers the area from the rear bench to the back of the front seat area. It kept mud, dirt, water from the floor and made for easy cleanup with a small whisk broom.

I moved the over sink light to the back over the bed area for a night time reading light and installed two Thinlights above the stove and sink.

I removed the table stand from behind the drivers seat and use that spot to put a 2.5 gallon water container for our drinking water. Our faucet water is used to wash dishes.

Porta-poti behind the passenger seat---can't imagine not having this for a long trip.

I installed an inverter on the wall between the sink and the drivers seat to recharge the digital camera battery and computer from the auxiliary battery.

I had the older model Propex heater from the list group purchase from many years ago. We only had to use it a few mornings but it was nice to take the chill off.

A Kirkhams canvas bag made especially for the vanagon luggage rack which is where I stored things like oil filters, anti freeze, extra drinking water, folding chairs, etc.

We used a bra on the front of the van in some areas where the roads were pretty bad and I am certain it saved me from some pretty good rock chips on the front since the windshield post to the left of the driver sustained some chips and on the gravel road to Atlin, BC we caught a few small chips in the windshield and sustained a cracked headlight.

All in all, an absolutely wonderful trip and I can't imagine having nearly as much fun and freedom in any other type of vehicle.

Harold and Faye

-- Harold Teer Harrisonburg, VA 1991 Westy


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