ckent323
Senior Member
We departed Solvang for Alaska on August 2. We are on day 52 and have completed three parts of our four part Alaska adventure.
Part I was our ferry journey to Ketchikan, Juneau, Sitka, Gustavus and Whittier. We experienced some rain but mostly had good weather.
Part II was our travels with our trucks and campers from Whittier to Palmer to McCarthy, to Valdez and back to Anchorage. We had mostly good weather.
Part III Was our round trip travels via our railroad track inspection car on the Alaska Railroad. We travelled over 960 miles of track in 16 days staying in Talkeetna, Denali Park, Fairbanks, Wasilla, Girdwood and Seward. We had more good weather for the most part. We arrived back in Anchorage on Sunday after a beautiful, relatively warm, clear and sunny day travelling from Seward. (we did experience heavy fog and cold temperatures around Kenai Lake).
We picked up our truck from the shop on Monday after having an exhaust leak at the turbo fixed during our 16 day railcar trip.
Tuesday we got our covid tests that are required for crossing into Canada. (that was an adventure in itself!)
Tomorrow part IV begains as we start our journey home.
Our present plan, depending on weather, is to depart Anchorage tomorrow morning, Thursday, for Tok and spend the night in Tok crossing into the Yukon on Friday morning. Our planned route home, weather permitting, is the Alcan highway to Prince George then cross over to Jasper and Banff and down through Glacier National Park. Alternatively we would drive to the lower 48 via Cache Creek and cross over at Abbotsford (as we did in 2018).
Anchorage is seeing an early winter (which may be a fake out). It snowed down to the edge of the city Monday night. The higher parts of the highway between Palmer and Beaver Creek had a few inches of snow accumulation on the highway which is melting off today. We will see light snow in Tok Thursday night and perhaps in Haines Junction on Friday night. We should be getting into warmer temps and light rain part sun by the time we reach Watson Lake on Saturday. We are trying to hold the distance to around 300 miles a day to minimize driver fatigue and to maximize the chance to enjoy the beauty along the way. If weather (and the Canadian Government) allows we may layy over a day or two on the way home.
We still do not know how the Canadian border crossing is going to go (we do not have our covid test reults yet) and if we will be forced to drive more than 300 miles a day because of a limiytt on the amount of time allowed to transit Canada (I hope not).
This afternoon the truck is back in the shop because one of the new wheel bearings has an issue. (most surprising as there is only about 2,000 miles on the bearing).z
Edit: Turns out the low frequency rumbling which led to evaluating the wheel bearings is actually coming from a broken transmission mount (there are two and the passenger side mount is proken). The situation is not a safety issue but is an easy fix if the shop can find or make a part. We will attempt to get it fixed first thing in the morning. If that fails we depart anchorage with a boken transmission mount.
We will adapt and endeavor to enjoy the journey.
P.S. I have talked to a number of long time Anchorage residents the past two days and none can recall a snow this early in many, many years. All think it is too early for winter and expect temperatures to warm up before winter actually sets in closer to the end of October (which is when they said winter typically sets in).
Part I was our ferry journey to Ketchikan, Juneau, Sitka, Gustavus and Whittier. We experienced some rain but mostly had good weather.
Part II was our travels with our trucks and campers from Whittier to Palmer to McCarthy, to Valdez and back to Anchorage. We had mostly good weather.
Part III Was our round trip travels via our railroad track inspection car on the Alaska Railroad. We travelled over 960 miles of track in 16 days staying in Talkeetna, Denali Park, Fairbanks, Wasilla, Girdwood and Seward. We had more good weather for the most part. We arrived back in Anchorage on Sunday after a beautiful, relatively warm, clear and sunny day travelling from Seward. (we did experience heavy fog and cold temperatures around Kenai Lake).
We picked up our truck from the shop on Monday after having an exhaust leak at the turbo fixed during our 16 day railcar trip.
Tuesday we got our covid tests that are required for crossing into Canada. (that was an adventure in itself!)
Tomorrow part IV begains as we start our journey home.
Our present plan, depending on weather, is to depart Anchorage tomorrow morning, Thursday, for Tok and spend the night in Tok crossing into the Yukon on Friday morning. Our planned route home, weather permitting, is the Alcan highway to Prince George then cross over to Jasper and Banff and down through Glacier National Park. Alternatively we would drive to the lower 48 via Cache Creek and cross over at Abbotsford (as we did in 2018).
Anchorage is seeing an early winter (which may be a fake out). It snowed down to the edge of the city Monday night. The higher parts of the highway between Palmer and Beaver Creek had a few inches of snow accumulation on the highway which is melting off today. We will see light snow in Tok Thursday night and perhaps in Haines Junction on Friday night. We should be getting into warmer temps and light rain part sun by the time we reach Watson Lake on Saturday. We are trying to hold the distance to around 300 miles a day to minimize driver fatigue and to maximize the chance to enjoy the beauty along the way. If weather (and the Canadian Government) allows we may layy over a day or two on the way home.
We still do not know how the Canadian border crossing is going to go (we do not have our covid test reults yet) and if we will be forced to drive more than 300 miles a day because of a limiytt on the amount of time allowed to transit Canada (I hope not).
This afternoon the truck is back in the shop because one of the new wheel bearings has an issue. (most surprising as there is only about 2,000 miles on the bearing).z
Edit: Turns out the low frequency rumbling which led to evaluating the wheel bearings is actually coming from a broken transmission mount (there are two and the passenger side mount is proken). The situation is not a safety issue but is an easy fix if the shop can find or make a part. We will attempt to get it fixed first thing in the morning. If that fails we depart anchorage with a boken transmission mount.
We will adapt and endeavor to enjoy the journey.
P.S. I have talked to a number of long time Anchorage residents the past two days and none can recall a snow this early in many, many years. All think it is too early for winter and expect temperatures to warm up before winter actually sets in closer to the end of October (which is when they said winter typically sets in).