Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2012 10:23:27 -0500
Reply-To: Harold Teer <teer.vanagon@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Harold Teer <teer.vanagon@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Virginia to Alaska and back -- Late July to Sept trip report and
pictures--long
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After almost 3 months and 14,500 miles, I finally am taking time to report
on a great trip through parts of Canada and Alaska. There is so much to
tell but I will try to keep this shorter than a James Michner novel. If
you have questions, ask and I will babble on some more.
Let me get the normal gas, oil, and tire questions out of the way first.
Before we left, I filled the gas tank and recorded the beginning mileage
and kept records of the number of gallons and liters along the way. At the
end of the trip, I filled up, recorded the ending mileage and took the
total number of miles driven and divided by total gallons of gas purchased
and averaged 19.43 mpg for the entire trip. That is with a fully loaded
Westy with Hankook RA08 185 tires that had about 7,000 miles on them at the
beginning of the trip.. While I did not have a spare fuel can on the trip,
it would have provided a sense of security in case one of the gas stations
we were depending on had been closed. I use Mobil 1 15-50 and changed the
oil twice during the trip. While we carried one good spare and a can of
"large tire fix a flat" I had no tire problems, didn't have to add oil
between changes, and the only mechanical problem I had was a slight seep
around a water pump gasket and the day before we arrived home, the van
developed a crack in the exhaust pipe at the flange before the catalytic
converter that I had welded in Kentucky.
As maintenance before the trip, I changed or had changed the plugs, rotor,
dist cap, belts, water pump, air filter, fuel pump, fuel filter, fuel
lines, ignition switch, oxygen sensor, and accelerator cable. Carried
various small parts such as the old fuel and water pumps, new belts, extra
ignition switch, Temp 2 sensor, rescue tape, epoxy, assorted tools, etc. I
recently replaced the factory radio with one that had a weather band
(CSS-5920E).
The radio was great but as expected had little reception outside of major
cities in BC, Yukon, and Alaska.
Since we left Virginia pretty late in the season (July 21) for Alaska we
spent several long days driving until we crossed the border into Alberta.
From there, we drove to Edmonton before heading West into British Columbia,
the Yukon, and Alaska. There was one real advantage to leaving so late in
the season---the major bug season had passed. All in all, we had less
problems with bugs on this trip than any other summer trip we have taken in
bug lands. Once in BC and onward, the morning temps were usually in the
40's although we had a few mornings in the high 20's and low 30's and the
daytime highs were delightful--60's and 70's.
We spent a good bit of time in BC and the Yukon in 2005 and 207, so we
didn't linger in either place but instead just enjoyed the scenery and
camping on the way to Whitehorse and then on to Dawson City, Yukon. In
2005, what really struck us was the lack of power and phone lines from
Whitehorse to Dawson City. But now, that has changed and the remoteness of
the drive is broken up by a continuous power line to Dawson City. Kind of
sad from a tourist viewpoint but if I lived along the way I would be
thrilled to have power. In fact, at one gas station, I commented on the
new power line to the owner who said something like "We just got power and
I love not having to rely on my own generator but I hate the looks of that
power line".
We had been to Dawson City so did not linger after we visited the tourist
information center in the evening and asked about he ferry across the Yukon
river. The personnel there checked the schedule and said a caravan of big
RV's were leaving in the morning and it would take from about 7am to noon
to get them all across the river. In order to avoid that tie up, we
immediately took the ferry and spent the night at a camping area across the
river.
Once we left Dawson City, we took our time, drove leisurely, had no set
itinerary and made daily decisions on the fly and just enjoyed the scenery
and people until we entered Washington state on the way home. From Dawson
City we were on "The Top of the World" highway then drove the dead end road
to Eagle then down to Chicken to Tok. This road was almost all gravel &
dirt road (Google Maps says 500km and 12 hours driving time but am certain
it took us much longer than that) and since it had been raining, by the
time we reached Tok, the van was the muddiest and dirtiest it has ever
been. After we left home, I noticed a 1 inch tear below the metal bar on
the mud flap and by the time we arrived home the entire bottom of the mud
flap was gone. To replace it, I ordered the original front set from
Van-Cafe and wish I had done that before the trip. I know the passenger
side one would have really helped keep mud and dirt from the sliding door
track and that side of the van.
We met some great people in Eagle, Alaska and one person at the BLM in
Eagle was from a town about 25 miles from us in Virginia and gave us some
wonderful advice on things to do in Alaska. He recommended a great book
"Coming Into The Country" by John McPhee which we bought at the BLM office
and read during the trip. While it is an older book, I truly believe it is
a must read for anyone exploring Alaska or anyone just wanting a feel for
the state and the people. We also took the 2 1/2 hour walking tour of
Eagle and the remains of Fort Egbert and probably exhausted the tour guide
asking questions about Eagle, the Yukon river, and her life there. But,
since we were the only people on the tour, we really came away with a real
appreciation for the way the year round residents live. Our tour guide
came to Alaska 25 years ago, married a local, has 5 kids, 24 sled dogs, and
catches and drys or freezes over 1,000 salmon a year to feed the dogs.
Chicken has a couple of gas stations, a bar, a restaurant and a gift shop.
The restaurant owner and cook were characters and do a great job serving
the tour buses, RV people, etc. Tok has some commercial RV parks, grocery,
auto parts store, restaurant and tourist information center. While at
tourist information center, met a fellow and his 15 year old son in a
Vanagon returning to their home in Fairbanks after a year traveling in
their van and they invited us to call them if we needed anything in
Fairbanks.
We headed south to the Wrangell--St. Elias National Park (largest park in
America) and since there are only two roads into the park (West to East in
the Northern and Southern part), we decided to take both of them. The
drive along the 42 mile one way Nabesna road is beautiful and we saw all
kinds of wildlife and basically had the road to ourselves and hiked a few
trails without seeing another person. Stop at the NP office at the
beginning of the road and inquire about road conditions since there are
several major stream crossings littered with big and small boulders and the
road is impassible at times. When we went, the road was rough in places
but very doable in a 2wd Vanagon. Spent the night at Jakes Creek
Campground (place for 2 vehicles) along the river and while having coffee
the next morning in the van, a river otter checked us out for quite a while
before diving away.
We then headed South to Chitina and took the McCarthy road (120 mile round
trip) toward the old Kennecott copper mine. At Chitina, had a surprisingly
great meal at the old hotel. Right outside of Chitina on the Copper River
are plenty of "fish wheels" where people are harvesting salmon or "dip
netting" salmon. Look that up on the Internet---very, very interesting.
The McCarthy road was built over the old railroad bed and occasionally old
spikes and sharp rocks puncture tires and we did see a few people changing
tires along the road. We took it slow, enjoyed the scenery, and took way
too many pictures. We spent several nights outside Kennecott, took the
mine tour and even splurged for a glacier flight tour. All was worthwhile
and highly recommended.
At Valdez, we took the very scenic ferry ride over to Whittier on the Kenai
Peninsula which is a fisherman's paradise and where people from Anchorage
go to play and fish. On the Kenai Peninsula, we drove almost every
possible major road and saw many grizzles fishing in the Russian River. We
drove to Hope, Soldotna, Homer (Two Sisters Cafe had wonderful food and the
tour boat to Halibut Cove was very worthwhile), Anchor Point, and Seward.
We had planned to spend several days in Seward, but the weather was foggy
and rainy and while at a coffee shop, I checked the weather and saw several
days in a row of great weather predicted for Denali National Park.
Since Denali NP was one thing we really wanted to do in good weather, we
left Seward and drove hard for Denali and went through Anchorage without
even stopping. That ended up being a great decision since we had wonderful
weather in Denali for viewing and hiking and driving the Denali Highway and
the good weather only lasted in that region for about 4 days. After
leaving Denali NP, we took the mostly rock and gravel 135 mile Denali
highway East toward Cantwell. We truly love remote areas and scenery
instead of big cities and the Denali highway was one of the trip
highlights. While the road was rough in places, there were beautiful
views, plenty of wildlife, places to pick blueberries, and great unimproved
camping areas. It was hunting season and we saw mostly hunters and few
tourists. We took our time and drove slowly but saw another tourist
vehicle (big SUV) going way too fast for my tastes. Later we saw them on
the side of the road with a flat tire. I stopped to help since I felt I
had everything needed to get them going, but for some reason they didn't
want my help and waved me off and said they had it under control. They
were trying to fix the totally flat tire on the vehicle with a puncture
repair kit and a tiny electric air pump and it didn't look to me like they
had it under control but I didn't argue. While on the Denali highway, we
stopped for coffee at McLaren River Lodge and the waitress said the last
time she drove the 22 miles from there to the paved portion of the road,
she had 2 flats. Don't know the condition of her tires or her speed but we
did fine.
Once off the Denali highway we headed to Fairbanks with the intention of
perhaps driving the Dalton Highway to Prudhoe Bay. But, after talking to a
lot of people, we decided it wasn't worth it to us since it is really a
haul road for the oil industries and the commercial vehicles own the road.
Supposedly, they drive fast, throw a lot of gravel, and make the drive
pretty tough. We just did not want to beat up the van that badly and we
like to take our time and not be pushed. We were advised to just take a
commercial van both ways or fly to Prudoe Bay and then a commercial van
back. That did not sound like a lot of fun and one of the van drivers told
me he lost a windshield about every 4 trips. So we skipped that road---I
know the scenery & wildlife would have been wonderful, but I just did not
want to fight the big trucks and beat up the van.
Weather was rainy and dreary so we headed southwest on the Al-Can highway
toward the Yukon. At village of Haines Junction, Yukon we took the the 300
mile round trip road to Haines, Alaska. This was a beautiful and scenic
drive and the road was hard surface and mostly in good shape. Saw a mother
grizzly bear and her cubs along the highway to Haines and stopped to take
pictures. Another car was stopped and the guy taking pictures had a camera
that looked almost as big as our van. We happened to see him the next day
in Haines and it turned out that he was a professional wildlife
photographer. The Milepost (the big Canadian/Alaskan highway road and
touring book) has many of his photographs and one was on the front cover.
Eventually, we headed south in British Columbia on the Cassiar Stewart
highway, and took side trips on dead end roads to Telegraph Creek, BC and
later one to Stewart, BC which leads to Hyder, Alaska and then to Salmon
Glacier in BC. That is an unusual road since it starts in Canada, goes
into the US and then back into Canada to the glacier. Anyway, the US
portion was in terrible shape and the roughest road we have ever traveled
on. At many points, we had to come to almost a complete stop to go through
pot holes. Even pick-up trucks were bouncing all over. At one point, I
stopped a mine construction guy in a pick-up truck returning down the road
and asked if the road got any worse. He said something along the lines of
“up ahead it eases up for a short stretch, but overall it is a sh.. road.”
Sixty miles round trip on the roughest road we ever hope to meet, but the
view of the glacier was magnificent. We spotted bears six different times
on that day of driving—that was our bear record for one day.
Near the Nass river bridge, along the the Cassiar highway, we gambled and
took a gravel/dirt road to where we thought there might be the Mezidian
fish ladder (no signs along the main highway that we saw). That is
basically a dam across a river that Salmon cannot jump and after tiring of
trying to jump they are forced to go up a chute on the side of the dam
which brings them to an area where fisheries people can count and assess
the health of the fish. Anyway, we found the fish ladder after driving to
the end of the dirt road, parking and walking down a very muddy four wheel
drive road. Spoke to two locals who were netting salmon for their own use;
they were in the beginning stages of filling a huge ice chest (sort of like
you would see on commercial fishing boats). They told us how to get to the
fisheries counting station which was down another side road with a locked
gate. We were told that depending on who was there we might be told to
leave or we might be allowed to watch. We walked around the locked gate
and met a young fisheries employee who took us into a fenced and locked
area. He invited us to watch him work; he explained the entire process to
us as he counted the fish, put tagged ones into a separate area, etc. All
in all, between being at the fish ladder and the counting area, we were
there for several hours and the only tourists. It was a great experience
and a real highlight of the trip.
After that, we drove through central and southern BC and saw cowboy and
cattle country, farmland, and wine country. You would have thought you
were in Napa Valley, Montana, Wyoming, and upper New York State. We
enjoyed the city of Kelowna (population 110,000), BC in wine country—our
first real city since leaving Edmonton, Alberta back in July but were sad
to leave the wilderness behind.
From there we went to Vancouver where we spent several nights and days
exploring before heading to Seattle where we had to do the usual tourist
trip to Pikes Place Market. Spent time exploring in Washington and Oregon
before deciding it was time to head home.
We took way too many pictures and although I have not taken the time to
clean them up I selected a bunch to give a feel for the trip.
Go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/101409063124906966630/albums/5821808317940849025?authkey=CLeA3ZPOy6z7zwE
Harold
Harold & Faye Teer
1991 Westy
Harrisonburg, VA
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