kind of following Equipt's Alaska Solo Trek

[NMBruce]

internet is hard to get at times, since I am taking so many pictures it is taking a while to load them and so not sure if I will be able to upload pictures on here and not sure how many people are following this.

last 2 nights and today have been raining and cold, got lucky and got the tent put up while dry. Tent is doing great and sleep bag is keeping me warm. Valdez & Denali where great for taking pictures, got some more Eagles, Sea Otters, Male Moose & female moose & calfs, Grizzlies & cubs and Mountain Sheep in the last 4-5 days

7/3
Day 17
5592. Gas $65.40
Homer, AK

5693. Lunch $25.00 at DQ in Sterling, AK

7/4
Day 18
5868. Anchorage
Gas $66.20
JK=17.2
GB=17.1
Decide to run to Seward and back

6126. Anchorage
Gas $63.11
JK=17.5
GB=16.7

7/5
Day 19

Dropped off Judy & Ray at airport, picked up John and family

6158 . $210.00
Stay at hotel again, no nice camping spots

6225. West Evergreen, AK
$28.80.
JK=16.4
GB=14.8

6375 Camped outside Glennallen, AK $15.00. Mosquitoes very bad, not sure the spray is working

7/6
Day 20
Going to Valdez today and back to camp site for a second night

6511. Gas. Valdez
$79.71
JK=17.3
GB=16.9

7/7
Day 21
6645. Started day

6660. Wrangell & St Elais national park. Largest in the us. 13.2 million acres

6669. Gas. Glennallen, AK $30.51. Part

6840. Delta Junction. Camping for night $25.00

7/8
Day 22

Got some food $50 at IGA

6937. Fairbanks
Gas. SAMs club
$72.25.
JK=17.8
GB=17.1

6938 Fairbanks
Oil Change & air filter
Walmart $76.00

Camp $17.26

7/9
Day 23

Went to Denali

Same camp site
$17.26

7/10
Day 24

Denali.

Same camp site $17.26

7/11
Day 25

Did wash $10

Raining day, headed to Anchorage


NEW PICTURES LOADED TO PHOTOBUCKET

 

[NMBruce]

7/11
Day 25
7272 start mileage

Did wash $10

Raining day, headed to Anchorage

7273
Gas. $22.30

7485. Anchorage
Gas $117.66
Fill 10 gal spare
JK=17.6

7530
Camped at Bird Creek outside of Anchorage, really nice site

7/12
Day 26

7668. Gas. $44.66
Soldotna AK
JK=17.6
GB=17.8

7/13
Day 27

Spent day in Homer. Sea Kayaking $100

7/14
Day 28
7837.
On the move to Russian River campground hoping to get a spot & do some fishing

7895
Gas $25.01
Soldotna. AK

7933
Russian River campground

Nice older guy gave me his hip waders, since he was flying home tomorrow and had no room for them

7/15
Day 29

Stayed at the Russian River campground for another night.

Meet a nice guy today, like his older Land Rover and after talking for a while he offered to take us fishing and give us some tips

No new pictures at this time. Posting from my phone

 

[jdlobb]

I love following your trip, but the running price total is terrifying.

 

[NMBruce]

I love following your trip, but the running price total is terrifying.

Part of the reason I am doing it, and I didn't have the cost of food there, since my sister got most of that.

 

[jdlobb]

Part of the reason I am doing it, and I didn't have the cost of food there, since my sister got most of that.

Are you keeping a detailed spreadsheet of the expenses? I'd be curious to see the breakout of how much has been spent on gas/lodging/activities/tolls/repairs etc.

 

[NMBruce]

Are you keeping a detailed spreadsheet of the expenses? I'd be curious to see the breakout of how much has been spent on gas/lodging/activities/tolls/repairs etc.

only in this log, I am trying to write down everything

7/15
Day 29

Stayed at the Russian River campground for another night.

Meet a nice guy today, like his older Land Rover and after talking for a while he offered to take us fishing and give us some tips.

7/16
Day 30

Headed to Washington State

8074 Anchorage
Food. $116.74

Gas. $88.70
JK=17.7

8257. Glennallen
Gas $22.16

8402. Tok, AK
Gas. $62.41
JK=17.9
GB=16.9

8593
Stopped side of road in Canada, road sucks

7/17
Day 31
8637

Destruction Bay, YT
Gas $50.01. CN

Breakfast $18.00

8809. Whitehorse
Tires rotated $70.00CN

Gas. $71.84
JK=18.8
GB=18.2

8924. Teslin, CN
Gas $38.20
JK=18.9
GB=17.5

9157
Boya Lake campground $18.00. Very nice

7/18
Day 32
woke to cold & wet morning

9249
Dease Lake, CN
Gas. $68.03

9318
Stopped at Totagga Lake resort, nice looking place. Walked in around 12:08 asked lady if I should sit anyplace, walk out at 12:19 without talking to anyone again

9557. Kitwanga
Gas. $124.81
JK=18.1
GB=18.1
Except for 2 miles, first phone signal in 600 miles

9630. Smithers
Hotel night $125.00

7/19
Day 33
Early Start, need to wash cloths, was heading to Williams Lake, except it was raining there and I made a hotel res for tonight and thought it was for tomorrow night, so I am headed for Bellingham, WA

9783 Fort Fraser
Gas $67.24
JK=17.8
GB=17.0

???
I missed some fuel added in Williams Lake, will see if I can find the amount

10271
Added some gas from the rear gas caddy

 

[NMBruce]

7/20
Day 34
hung around Bellingham, WA did laundry, picked up a new compression bag for my sleeping bags, old one fell apart after 30+ years

7/21
Day 35
Heading to Cascade National Park, but there are fires in the area, so I do not know what parks of the park are open

Since leaving Anchorage on the 17th, I was in bad weather for 80% of the trip, so not many pictures. 3 days in a roll, my tent was put up wet. The Alaskan highway from the boarder to Kluane Lake, is some of the worst road I have ever been on, not much better than a forest road/gravel road. I had eggs in an camping egg carrier and 5 where broken.
.
Cessiar Highway in BC was nice, think that without the rain and low clouds it would be a really nice drive. The top 1/3 of the road sucks about as bad as the above part of the Alaskan highway. Did see 5 bears, go pictures of one of them, the black bears seemed small, one brown bear ran across the road, fast.

I have a few pictures, but the internet here is not working very good

 

[NMBruce]

internet back, some pictures getting load

 

[NMBruce]

I love following your trip, but the running price total is terrifying.

Are you keeping a detailed spreadsheet of the expenses? I'd be curious to see the breakout of how much has been spent on gas/lodging/activities/tolls/repairs etc.

I have not kept a running total, so I don't know what I have spent and will not until I get home

 

[NMBruce]

I guess one could say that my Alaskan trip has ended, I am now in Washington State hanging out with an Air Force friend and meeting up with some Honda S2000 people on Sunday for a few days. Still have more travel left, the Oregon west coast, the Redwoods, Yosemite, Dead Valley and my drive home. Still more pictures to come.

 

[heehawhardy]

S2000 people??? That's a fun crowd. Always a good crowd

 

[Arktikos]

7/20



Since leaving Anchorage on the 17th, I was in bad weather for 80% of the trip, so not many pictures. 3 days in a roll, my tent was put up wet. The Alaskan highway from the boarder to Kluane Lake, is some of the worst road I have ever been on, not much better than a forest road/gravel road. I had eggs in an camping egg carrier and 5 where broken.
.
Cessiar Highway in BC was nice, think that without the rain and low clouds it would be a really nice drive. The top 1/3 of the road sucks about as bad as the above part of the Alaskan highway. Did see 5 bears, go pictures of one of them, the black bears seemed small, one brown bear ran across the road, fast.

I have a few pictures, but the internet here is not working very good

Tough luck on the weather. Not typical for that area this time of year. Agree with you on that stretch of the Alcan. It's really rough, due to frost heaving. Cassiar is never that bad, IMO, and is a real beautiful route in good weather.

 

[NMBruce]

7/22
Day 36

was told that part of SR20 was closed, so I headed back to Seattle and will go down the coast to my friends house. Last night was beautiful, but the sky looked a little dark this morning, so before breakfast, I put up the tent and and was about ready to start cooking when it rained. I did get everything put away dry, before I got wet, so , I stopped at a state park for a shower. Seattle traffic was bad, the president was flying in so there where police all over the place. I had planned to visit a couple of sites, but traffic put me way behind for getting to my next plan stopped. I was not able to get as far today as I had plan, so found a place to stay in Port Angeles, WA
Hotel=$160.00

10722 Sedro- Wooley, WA
gas $47.09 GB=17.4
lunch = $8.00

7/23
Day37
10876 Port Angeles, WA
Gas = $58.59 GB=17.7
I had planned to camp at Westport, WA at the Twin Harbors Beach state campground, but as i got closer the weather looked bad and I again stayed in a hotel, maybe my best decision of the trip as the weather got really bad that night, the worst I had seen.
had some good fish & chips for dinner $18.00

10928 Callam Bay, WA
Gas = $12.00 stopped for gas to show that i was in the US, my phone though I was in Canada and had sent me a notice of roaming charges that could be applied to my account. Since I had my data turned on, the charges would of been $9.xx for about 3 hours of data transfer.

7/24
Day 38
11119 Shoalwater Bay Indian tribe
Gas $30.00 partial
i have been enjoying driving along the coast as much as possible

11276 Longview, WA
Gas $16.99 GB=25.1

Arrived at my friends house, Wayne & Sue, hanging out here for a few days

7/25 & 7/26
Day 39 & 40

Just hung out with Wayne & Sue, Wayne had a couple of service calls to make, so I tag along. Wayne works for Stihl. found a nice hatched to replace my broken one.

Drove up to the Mt St Helens area, 3rd time there since 1981 or 1982 just after it let go. Wayne mom got some great pictures of it from the house as it was going off. back in 1982 we got to take a helicopter ride over and into the crater, a friend was delivering supplies to people studying the mountain.

7/27
Day 41
11343 Battle ground, WA 45017
Gas $17.51 GB=13.1
Headed over to Hood River, OR to meet up with my Honda S2000 friends at the S2KCA national meeting

7/28 & 29
Day 42 &43
Hood River, OR hung out for S2KDays
hotel cost = $550.00

7/30
Day 44
11441. Hood River, OR
Gas $29.25
GB=15.5
Leaving Hood River, my friend Jason has planned a route along the coast and into the Redwoods, over to Reno, Yosemite and through Death Valley

11675. Florence, OR
Gas. $58.25
JK=16.8
GB=15.8

11856 Cresent City, CA
Hotel stay points

8/1
Day 45
11941. Eureka CA
Gas. $70.00
JK=16.9
GB=16.1

12031 lunch

12195. Williams CA
Gas. $63.30
JK=16.3
GB=16.1

12226. Yuba CA
Dinner. $25.00

8/2
Day 46

Stay in Reno last night Hot August Nights was going on, beautiful cars Hotel points night

12405 Carson City, NV
Gas $ 92.73
JK=14.8
GB= 8.2. Includes extra tank

12692. Lee Vining, CA
Gas. $19.99. Just to get to next place

12761. Bishop, CA
Gas $64.69
Jk=19.1
GB=17.9

13060. N Las Vegas, NV
Gas $67.55
JK=16.9
GB=16.8

13193. Washington, UT

Hotel stay $116.00

8/3
Day 47
13193. Washington, UT
Gas $33.02
JK=17.4
GB=15.4

13565. Cortez, CO
Gas $49.64

13682. HOME

 

[NMBruce]

47 days away from home
13682 miles driven
states & province visited = CO, UT, WY, ID, MT, AB, BC, YT, AK, WA, OR, CA, NV, AZ
parks visited = Arches, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Glacier, Banff, Jasper, Denali, Chugach, Wrangler-St Elias, North Cascade, Olympic, St Hellens, Redwoods, Yosemite, Death Valley, Zion

 

[NMBruce]

Not sure how much I spent on gas, food, hotels or other stuff, not planning to add it up. I will say that I used my bank card the most and my credit cards are paid off, except for my last couple of hotel stays and cost. by looking at my account, it is down around $3000

Having my sister & brother in law along for part of it helped a lot on the cost. Camping also lowered the cost a lot, most camping was $12.00-25.00, high side being RV sites.
Over the last month, I have avg 17.5MPG, which is good pulling the trailer and some of the roads I was on.
A friend was talking about doing this trip on bikes in 3 years, but most big dual purpose bikes get around 45mpg when loaded on a trip like this, so with 2 people splitting the cost, my JK would equal to about 35mpg for each person, or 52.5mpg if there where 3 people sharing the cost and we could have just about everything we need. So the bike would be because you want to do it.

The trailer took a beating, I know there where times, the tires where a foot or more off the ground. I know it would of been impossible to do the trip without it. I had too much stuff. I have worn holes in my chair bags, my mattress bags, the paint has been worn off on parts of the inside of the trailer. The Yeti did a great job, I used block ice if I could get it, but being exposed to the sun, when through ice faster than I thought it would. part of that was keeping the stuff above the ice cold (eggs, lunch meat, cheese). The roads also beat up the stuff in the cooler, had eggs break, cans get puncture by ice, beer bottle cap start to come of.

Also noticed the JK worked hard pulling some hills, going through Death Valley, there is a hill they advice that you turn off your A/C for the next 10 miles, about 6 miles into the hill, the Jk went into a safe mode, the engine would not rev over 4000 rpm and the temp gauge was at 3/4 and holding there. The temps came down quickly after topping the hill. The engine temps did go up pulling hills before this, but this was the first time it would not rev higher than 4000 rpm's.

The Jeep GPS was not worth the cost, many times it was not sure where I was. The map is over 18 months old and Jeep says it is the latest map. Going through WY, the map did not even show the Snake River, going out of Reno, I was on a 6 lane highway that the GPS had me in the middle of a field, it took me down dead end roads, told me to turn where there where no roads, so have a better GPS system or just use maps. Sirius stopped working continuously somewhere around Whitehorse, YT, it would fade in and out, so it was good I had a iPod along.


all the pictures are up 632 of them, so some didn't load over the last 45 days

New link, last one didn't work
http://s1371.photobucket.com/user/coop2014/library/?sort=3&page=1