So what did we do to prepare for a two-month trip in our trailer?
First, we sent away for a copy of The Milepost, the bible for all road trips to Alaska. It is an amazing book that they update every year with information on every sign, every turn, and every facility on every road you might drive on a trip to the great north.
Second, we went to AAA and got maps and their camping and tourist guide books and bought a Lonely Planet book on Alaska.
Third, we checked out some guidebooks on Alaska and the Yukon from the library. And we searched the web for blogs and articles on RV trips to Alaska. We worked our way through all this learning all about the ferries, the roads and the sites to see in both Alaska and the Yukon. Whew.
After studying the guidebooks we decided that we wanted to visit the Alaskan Inside Passage in June since that's the driest month there. The Inside Passage is a very rainy place so we figured dry is a relative term but we'd take what we could get.
Given that July is a good month to visit the interior of Alaska we decided to take the ferry up and drive back. Next we did research on whether we should take the ferry from Bellingham, WA (just 1 1/2 hour drive from home); from the north end of Vancouver Island, BC; or from Prince Rupert, BC.
All the ferries charge by the foot when you tow a trailer. So we're paying for the equivalent of a 37 ft. vehicle It actually turned out that we measured 39 ft and had to pay extra when we checked in at Prince Rupert). The ferry ride from Vancouver Island to Prince Rupert is supposed to be gorgeous but they charge an arm and a leg for large vehicles. I think it would be better to go an a separate trip to Vancouver Island and go as a foot passenger to enjoy the views.
The premium for leaving from Bellingham was nearly $1500 so we decided to drive to Prince Rupert instead since we're not in a hurry. Besides, a great deal of the sailing from Bellingham is at night so you end up not seeing much.
Next we pored over the ferry schedules (available at the Alaska Marine Highway website) to try to figure out how we could stop at as many places as possible along the ferry route without having to stay a really long time at any particular stop. We especially wanted to visit Sitka which is a bit out of the way and only has a northbound ferry once a week. After many happy hours, we figured out a route and made a reservation. When you make a reservation for a trailer you have to call them since the computer site spits you out even after you've told it everything you tell the folks on the phone.
We made our reservations in late March for our June 4th ferry departure and had no problems. The agent I talked to said that the route we're taking including Sitka rarely fills all the way up. Our ferry tickets including stops in Ketchikan, Petersburg, Sitka and Juneau with our final stop being Haines for F150 truck, 17 foot trailer and 2 passengers cost $1650 (plus an additional $70 for our 2 extra feet in length that we didn't realize we had).
Next we moved on to planning our trip to Denali National Park. We wanted to camp within the park. Spots at the campgrounds inside the park go fast so we figured out our post-ferry route to Denali and made reservations on-line to camp at Teklanika Campground at mile 29 inside Denali. This campground has a minimum stay of 3 days and once you get there you can't move your vehicle again until you leave. We booked one night at Riley Creek Campground at the park entrance and then 4 nights at Teklanika. We made our reservations in late March for late June and had no problems. (We ended up only staying 3 nights at Teklanika but it's not an expensive place to camp so it was not a big loss to give up that one pre-paid night.)
We lined out a rough itinerary for the rest of our trip but have made no reservations at this point. We want to give ourselves as much flexibility as we can while still having a rough idea of where we plan to go and how long we have to allot to get from one place to the next.(The only place we SHOULD have had reservations for was Seward for 4th of July. It filled up entirely and we had to dry camp on July 3rd and then left town).
Then we set about arranging for our house to be taken care of while we were gone and figuring out things like cell service, Wi-Fi, groceries, border crossings and the like.
We discovered that the post office will only hold your mail for 30 days. They want you to forward it to someone for any longer than that. Phooey. I went in and begged and our postmaster approved holding our mail for 60 days. Whew.
Our Virgin Mobile cell phones don't work in either Alaska or Canada. So we did research and decided to get a pre-paid unlimited phone from Alaska Communications for $20 a month. Their coverage appears to be the best in the areas of Alaska, the Yukon and BC where we're going. I ordered the phone in early May and will have the service turned on the day before we leave. Since we'll be gone for 60 days, we should only have to pay for 2 months. You can get a smart phone with internet service from them but I didn't see the point in paying a lot of money for a phone that we'd only use for 2 months. The phone worked fine but we still had problems getting it to complete calls while we were in the Yukon. I don't know if it was the phone, the service or just the Yukon.
From what we can tell most of the private campgrounds and RV parks have Wi-Fi. Most of the public libraries in Alaska have Wi-Fi. So we're planning on taking our laptop and using Wi-Fi when we find it rather than trying to deal with a hotspot when cell service is known to be spotty at best. They say that Wi-Fi is actually more reliable and prevalent in the Yukon than cell service. (This turned out to be true. Wi-Fi could cost you a bit extra at some campgrounds and was often slow because it was satellite but we seldom went many days without it.)
Most of the books talk about bad roads and construction both on the way to Alaska and within Alaska. The Milepost and all the websites we visited recommended that you protect the front of your trailer by first washing and waxing your trailer and then adding 2 layers of transit shield. This is the stuff they wrap new cars in when they haul them cross country. It's not real expensive and comes in big rolls that are 3 feet wide and many many feet long. We discovered today that it is incredibly self-sticky. Think of having a piece of packing tape three feet wide flapping in the breeze and of course adhering to itself! We ended up cutting strips about 10-12 inches wide and applying it to the trailer that way. It wrinkles up pretty bad when you try to apply it but it does stick on nicely and peels off the trailer pretty easily.
We've noticed over the years that the passenger side of the trailer gets many more gravel pits than the driver's side. I guess that's because there's more gravel over on the edge of the road. Here's a close-up of one of the corners where we've put on a second layer of transit shield for protection. People talk about having their running light break so we left the shield over the light since it will shine through just fine.
You can leave this stuff on for about 30 days. Then you need to remove it so it doesn't stick permanently to the surface. So we'll be removing this and putting on a fresh layer about 1/2 way through the trip.
Needless to say we washed and waxed the trailer before we put the transit shield on. A good coat of wax should help protect the surface of the trailer from all the dirt and bug juice that will be heading our way.
(The second layer of transit shield was a complete bust. It started to come off the first day and was all balled up and hanging by a thread by the second day so I took what little was still stuck on off. Some of the second layer came off too but most of it stayed in place. The problem was that dust got down into the wrinkles and then became mud that slowly was discoloring the trailer. We removed the first layer by the time we got to Sitka and were glad we did.
During our drive on the Alaska Highway our driver's side front running light on the trailer broke twice. So we took the time to cover both the running lights with the transit shield. This worked wonders and we didn't lose another running light. By the time we got home, the transit shield was shredded to bits.
I got the discoloration from the mud caught under the transit shield off with a marvelous product called Barkeepers Friend. The liquid form works really well on fiberglass.)
We also planned 60 days worth of meals and packed all the non-perishable food into the truck and trailer so that we will be buying only fresh food along the way. We have large Rubbermaid containers that hold about 15 days worth of food. 15 days worth goes into the pantry in the trailer. Two Rubbermaid tubs go under the bed and the third tub goes in the back of the pickup.
We also did some quick and dirty calculations of how much Canadian money we might need for national and provincial parks and the like and ordered $200 in Canadian cash from our bank. If it turns out we need more we'll have a sense of that by the time we get to Alaska and can get more pretty easily there. If all else fails you can always get cash back with your groceries, right? (We came home with cash having only spent the Canadian cash on campgrounds and showers).
On the financial end we also made sure we got a credit card that didn't have a transaction charge for Canadian charges. We got a Capital One card that not only doesn't charge 3% on our foreign transactions but also gives us 1% back. On a big trip like this that can add up.
We've set up all of our regular bills to be paid electronically so as long as we can get secure Wi-Fi now and then we're good to go.
Usually when we take a trip, I wait to update this website until we get home. This time since we'll be gone so long, I'm going to try to update it as we go along. (In the end I created a Blog that I kept up to date as we went along and only did part of the Photo Journal as we went.) Part II will give you the first stage of our journey.