North - to Alaska!

Michigan_Mike

I'm not sure I'd do any large caravan up to Alaska?  We discussed this briefly over on the Little Guy forum and quite frankly I'm very happy that things turned out the way they did.  A large caravan of trailers will test your mettle with gas stops, breaks for the bathroom, meals, communications between trailers and sight-seeing ventures, etc.  Alaska is one of them trips of a lifetime and as individuals everyone has their own likes or dislikes along the trail, places they want to photograph and explore and it will be a major issue when you are traveling along the ALCAN highway and points in-between.   I don't mean to come off as sounding negative here, nor am I playing the devil's advocate, but am just trying to be logical and eliminate a lot of the drama/tension that can unfold in such a long journey as our expectations are different, you find out about what others prefer and camping accommodations will also be challenging with a large contingent of campers.  

I'm not saying this cannot be accomplished, but know that such a long journey is much more complicated with larger numbers of people and will not allow for doing things the way you normally would prefer as we are all different, mileages are large in these vast expanses and you will have more fun in a smaller, more manageable grouping of trailers.  

Just tossing that out there as food for thought!  

Michigan_Mike

T@Buhura said:

Plus we would have missed out on meeting Michigan_Mike and his posse in Watson Lake during our return trip as they were headed north.

It was an awesome 7000 mile road trip and our T@B was fantastic. We encountered other T@Bers and even a local one to AK in Seward that was a twin to our 2006!

Pardon the dirty T@B... as Mike kindly said, "that's got to be the dirtiest T@B I've ever seen". Ha, good thing he hadn't seen it before the rains we drove through  

It was fun and a pleasure to meet you and your family up at Watson Lake and we laughed about the cost of breakfast up there as the prices blew our socks off!  And still recall your description of the trip up the gravel road to one of the furthest outposts (cannot recall the name of the town?)  in Alaska, the piping that ran above ground to the homes and the welcome reception you received from the local residents.  We did learn from your information and opted to err on the lighter side, stick to the paved highways and never did drive up to Chicken as Greg had wanted to do.  That was the interesting part of the trip, speaking to fellow travelers who were headed home, gleaning as much info as we could from their experiences and learning from them.  

Thanks for sharing the pic as I wondered how you guys made out heading back and am glad we met!  

DougandMia

connie6465 said:

Wear your took to Dawson City and earn your Sourtoe Cocktail Club certificate.  Mine #50834.

Ewww, yuck is that the one with the petrified toe in your drink? And I thought kissing a cod was bad!!

Tabaz

All good points Mike! Best to keep the number to a minimum and only like-minded individuals.  I have started stocking up on supplies.  See the first purchase above.

T@Buhura

Michigan_Mike said:

And still recall your description of the trip up the gravel road to one of the furthest outposts (cannot recall the name of the town?)  in Alaska, the piping that ran above ground to the homes and the welcome reception you received from the local residents. 

The Dempster Highway to Inuvik, NWT - one of our favorite parts of the trip! It was a super cool place and yes way off the beaten path; north of the Arctic Circle. The only other way to get that far north in North America is on the Dalton HWY in AK. If you think breakfast was steep at places along the way, you would have been in for a shock in Inuvik. A half gallon of milk and 6 eggs were US$7.75... at the grocery store!

Nomad

That is a dirty T@B - I've come close but I think ya got me beat :-)

Michigan_Mike

I love these stories!!!  Says the end of the road, but there was a Russian who proposed a super highway last year and it was intriguing.   Imagine if people could get along and share the world this way....  Interesting stuff for sure!

ChanW

Are CB radios still a common way to communicate up that way?

T@Buhura

Michigan_Mike said:

I love these stories!!!  Says the end of the road, but there was a Russian who proposed a super highway last year and it was intriguing.   Imagine if people could get along and share the world this way....  Interesting stuff for sure!

Last summer at an overland rally we met a family that was shipping their LR Series I to the UK to drive from London to Singapore over 6 months. And during our ALCAN trip we met quite a few overlanders that were at the tail end of Chile to AK, or the best part were ones that were traveling the world (mostly Germans). One couple we spoke to was on year 4 of their round the world overland journey in their MB.

http://wegaufzeit.de/route.html

Michigan_Mike

We also ran into some of these folks too.  One couple had been over to Africa, heading up through Alaska, back through Canada and on to New York.  Cool looking Euro truck style vehicles too.  

ChanW

Holy OMG! That's the ultimate tour! Wow! Amazing. 

_Now_ I have a bucket list....

Gregorio

I wholeheartedly agree with Michigan Mike. Having driven the AlCan as well as the Cassiar Hwy, a caravan would be the last thing that I would do.  Having just 3 LGs and 3 people was the perfect way to travel.  We stayed in communication with our walkie-talkies and were able to sit, drink wine (or whatever our personal choice of adult beverages happened to be at the time) and plan our next day over dinner. That would be difficult to do with a group of people having different goals. I can't stress enough the importance of being well schooled about the trip before heading out. Between the 3 of us, there were few surprises along the way. If you haven't already done so, I encourage you to read our Alaskan Journals on the LG Home page.  

lara9209

OutbackAZ said:

The gauntlet has been thrown. I'll be going to Alaska this summer with my T@B (sans ferry) If you're interested in joining the expedition, let me know.  Looking at mid-June, two to three weeks in duration. We only live once.

we have our Guidepost and are seriously looking at it ... but we will be going a little later in summer ... likely July ... maybe run into some T@bbers up there this summer.