The Alaska Trip

The Alaska Trip

2015 r-pod 179, TV 2015 Nissan Frontier SV V6 4x4, no WDH, no Sway control, no problem despite 3 emergency stops and unbelievably rough roads. Note this statement applies only to this TV/trailer combination others may be different.
I left Boston on June first via a southern route to southern California north to Reno and Glacier NP then to Banff NP and the Ice Fields Parkway to Edmonton, AB up the ALCAN and to Fairbanks, Denali, Valdez, Homer, Haines, Skagway, then back to the ALCAN and down the Cassiar Highway, through Stewart, BC, Hyder, AK, Jasper, and Glacier NP to Boston, just under 16,000 miles in 75 days. We had 1 minor mechanical problem, despite having put extra ties on the axle to secure the electric brake wires the left brake wires broke and needed repairs.

So what did I learn:

Commercial campgrounds up north are mostly just open gravel fields with no privacy, pay showers and no WIFI even though it says WIFI the capability is overwhelmed by todays bandwidth demands.

We found the the State, Provincial, and National park campgrounds to be outstanding but it is usually dry camping.

Don’t count on getting potable water at the campground when you have access to potable water fill up.

Dump stations can be far between use your in house facilities judiciously.

Cell service is spotty at best and using cell data can be pricey I ran up $350 in data charges in July then shut things down.

The Milepost is a must you will use it all day everyday.

If you see a small orange flag on the side of the road SLOW DOWN NOW. I managed to get the pod airborne atleast twice.

Wherever you are going will take much longer than the GPS says.

Be prepared to go several (we went 5) days without a shower.

Everything gas, groceries, tours, etc. are more expensive than you thought.

Was it worth the trouble?

Yes, yes, yes I would not have missed a single moment of the trip. The scenery is beyond fantastic, the wildlife is exciting, the people can’t do enough to help you have great trip. The mountains go on forever, the rivers flow unbelievably fast, the wildlife on the roads take you by surprise everyday. In over 3 weeks actually in Alaska we saw only a tiny corner of the state. We could have spent a month each in Alberta, BC, and the Yukon. Imagine driving on the Cassiar Highway 450 miles long and only 3 gas stations which may or may not be open when you get there. Driving 27 miles of rough dirt roads to the top of the Salmon Glacier. Watching two and a half year old bear cubs that had only weeks earlier been driven off by their mother trying to catch Salmon in the Chilkoot River in Haines, AK. We saw a Black bear on the side of road and its fur was covered with white it turned out it was eating dandelions that had gone to seed and it fur was covered in seeds. We hiked a section of the Chilkoot Trail out of Skagway where so many dreams of the gold seekers were shattered. We took a cruise from Haines to see the glaciers and saw Humpback Whales, Orcas and thousand of Puffins, Common Mures and Bald Eagles.

This was truly an adventure.