Yukon, Northwest Territories and Alaska 2006 (cancelled)

[Scott Brady]

Hello Scott,
How many vehicles did you have in mind for this expedition? I know the other group is starting to plan for a Alaska 2006 trip. I just wanted to know if this would include people from that group too. Thanks. :victory:

This trip is essentialy full. We have three/four vehicles. We do intend to drive all the way to the Artic Circle and ship the trucks back from Anchorage.

Probably a 4-5 week trip...

I do need to spend more time researching it, but not until late Nov., when the move is done, SEMA and the truck are done, and I am caught up with everything

 

[Outback Expeditions]

I hope you guys have a safe trip.

 

[Scott Brady]

I hope you guys have a safe trip.

Thanks Mike

 

[XXXpedition]

Loved the Dalton

Scott,
this is an older thread and my comments might be a moot point, but since I just joined.....

We drove the Dalton last summer (July) and absolutely loved it. Very remote, though you do get quite some truck traffic and the occasional tourist. Spectacular scenery and wildlife. It's true that it runs parallel with the TransAlaskan Pipeline but that just accentuated the remote wilderness. Deadhorse is just as exciting as the name sounds, and we didn't bother to take a $35 per person tour to Prudhoe Bay to dip our toes in the Artic Ocean. At any rate, the trip was well worth it for all the beauty on the way - plus you'll hit the northernmost point accessible by car within the US.

There's a report plus pics on our website: www.xxxpedition.com if you want to read some details.

Heard only good things about the Dempster but haven't driven it myself.

 

[Scott Brady]

Sven,

Thank you for stopping buy, and for offering your advice and experience (and for posting a link to your great trip).

I am going to start planning this trip in earnest after Baja in January.

 

[Desertdude]

XXXpedition - thanks for posting that link - You have included incredible documentation/photos on your trip - as well as some handy travel tips.

"In preparation for the worst we built a stone guard for our windshield and lights "



Still reading and looking - :ylsmoke:

 

[Nullifier]

Hey scott have you any idea what the cost of shipping the vehicles back is gonna run. Just workng on putting together my budget. I think I am going to ship my truck to AZ and fly out. Would you be willing to take delivery of my truck if I do that?

On return My goal is to leave it in Cali till August. I have a trade show in SLC (outdoor Retailer) so I will fly to Cali pick up the truck drive to SLC and then home. Then hit Moab on the way back for 2-3 days since I'll be going right by.

 

[dmc]

dates?

Scott,

do you have dates for this trip yet? right now i'm planning to attend ACT2006 next July and hope to bookend the trek with about 8 days of wandering on my own in AK. Depending on the time frame we may have to get together for a few days.
dmc

 

[flywgn]

Scott,

I think we spoke of our trip to the Arctic Circle when we saw you (God, was that in September?).

Ours was a marvelous trip. Five weeks was not enough, though, and there was a lot, I mean a LOT, of windshield time getting from here to there. Don't regret a minute of it, however.

In case any of the other readers want to see some of my notes, they are at http://www.4wdtrips.net/forum/default.aspx?f=10&m=21967

I was posting my notes 'live' most of the way using Motosat mobile dish hook-up. Lost the satellite somewhere around latitude 55 or so and was too lazy to make a change with Motosat. Now that I know how (all it takes is money), next time I'll continue to post.

The bottom part of the Dempster up to Eagle Plains, YT, is nothing short of spectacular, with several 'spurs' that one can take if time permits. Our visuals were hampered by smaze being created by several big fires SW of there. Even so, we found our vocabulary limited by the beauty of the moraines, the lakes, the mountains...I can go on.

In short, your trip will be memorable. We may even cross paths, since we plan to tow Motosat up to the Great Slave Lake next summer.

 

[gene]

Scott,

I have done the Dempster several times now. The Dalton is very impressive but I'd rather take the Dempster any day. I can't recommend highly enough that you go all the way to Inuvik! Inuvik is Arctic/Funky construction but the feeling of being on the edge of the truly last frontier is superb! The Dempster (like the Dalton) really is easy to travell. You can quite easily do the 500 miles of graded dirt in a couple of days. Most of the vehicles up there are your standard mid sized sedans, only modification is a well cracked windshield. In the 4WD department, full size diesels: Dodge, Ford and Chevy rule. Stock for greatest reliability, full size in order to handle big jobs.

Places not to miss in that area are Dawson City, Chicken and most of all Eagle, AK. John McPhee has a great book called "Coming Into The Country" about life in the bush town of Eagle. The central character in the book John Borg, married my wife and I a few years back on the banks of the Yukon River. He is a friend and fellow fiddler.

I am suprised at your choice to ship vehicles back from Anchorage. It is overall an easy drive up there and back, the miles pass by as fast as any highway in the lower 48. You can take one route up such as the alaskan Hwy and enjoy the ever more scenic, Cassair Hwy on the way down. Alternatively, I am sure you have responsible readers who would love the opportunity to drive your vehicles back for you!

Enjoy your trip, I'll be up there this summer as well.

Gene Rubin

 

[Scott Brady]

Gene and Alan,

Thank you for the great feedback and suggestions. I have a few issues to work out, and then I will start posting details of the itenerary. It would be great to get your thoughts on our plans.

 

[DenverCruiser]

I can't wait to see how your preparations & trip go, as I am planning to go up in '07!:lurk:

 

[paulj]

I took a 3 mth trip to Alaska in 1988 (August-October) with my wife and 6 yr old son. The car was a Chevy S10 kingcab with a Wildernest campertop/tent. We camped about 2/3 of the nights, with motel, friends and ferry accounting for the rest. Mileage most days was 2-300, with only a couple of longer ones.

Some highlights of the trip were:
- a week from Chicago to Edmonton, another to Whitehorse and Dawson City.
- 5 days round trip on the Dempster. This was best part of the trip. I liked the open mountain views, which reminded me of Andean paramo (grassy highlands). We crossed paths with a group of Italians driving little cars, each with a roof top tent.
- Top of the World hwy (good gravel on the Yukon side) to Eagle and Tok. Rainy day in Eagle, nice museum tour.
- Fairbanks - good university museum (Dalton wasn't open to the public)
- Denali - 3 nights; bus trip into the interior
- Kenai and Homer (with boat tour across the inlet)
- ferry from Portage to Valdez. Then you drove onto a train flatcar to get to Portage, now you can drive through the train tunnel.
- The mountain views driving inland from Valdez may be some of the best in Alaska
- McCarthy Rd - well worth the side trip; old railroad bed.
- Denali Hwy (gravel) across to the park
- a week flight to Nome and St Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea
- Return via Haines, Juneau and (wet) Ketchikan and the Alaska Ferry
- Hyder/Stewart and lower part of Cassiar Hwy; I want to drive the rest of the Cassiar one of these days.
- Jasper and Banff
- a month drying off by looping south through the 4 Corners area, including Moab, Navajo Res, and Colorado San Juans.

There are lots of guidebooks for the area, Mileposts, Bells. Lots of Alaska threads on rv.net openroads forum.

There used to be a good travelog on line, NorthbyRover, of a family of 4 that drove from Texas to California and north in a Disco. They had one flat, due, I think to a shale sliver from the Dempster. It appears their main site is gone, but they still have pictures on Expedition Exchange. http://www.expeditionexchange.com/northbyrover/

paulj

 

[gene]

Paulj,

Your trip looked great! My wife and I were married in Eagle and we now have good friends there. Have you read "Coming into the Country"? It has a great section on life in Eagle.

I have done the Cassiar many times. Just so you can rest assured, the lower Cassiar, the part that you have seen is actually the best of the Cassiar.

Gene

 

[Scott Brady]

NOTE: Trip has been postponed due to my Colorado trip, Washington trip and a trip to Oahu in early June. I am seriously considering a winter assault, driving the ice roads.