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shotgunshooter3
Posts: 6,116 Senior Member
Planning a trip to Alaska, how do I approach this?
shotgunshooter3
Posts: 6,116 Senior Member
Hey folks, I am considering planning a trip to Alaska at some point (next few years), and I'm wondering what I need to know to get ready and how to get there.
I have a few friends out there, so I'm not concerned about a place to stay, especially in Anchorage. However, what I am concerned with how to get there. I was considering driving to Seattle and taking a ferry up, or perhaps driving through Canada. However, funding may or may not be an issue at the time that I go.
So any hints, suggestions, etc for those who have been up there?
I have a few friends out there, so I'm not concerned about a place to stay, especially in Anchorage. However, what I am concerned with how to get there. I was considering driving to Seattle and taking a ferry up, or perhaps driving through Canada. However, funding may or may not be an issue at the time that I go.
So any hints, suggestions, etc for those who have been up there?
- I am a rifleman with a poorly chosen screen name. -
"Slow is smooth, smooth is fast, and speed is the economy of motion" - Scott Jedlinski
"Slow is smooth, smooth is fast, and speed is the economy of motion" - Scott Jedlinski
Replies
1. Go active Duty
2. Request assignment to 4/25th
3. Allow Uncle Sam to arrange travel
4. Enjoy your tour
Back in the late 80's, a lot of the Alcan was still gravel. One of our Lt's drove up his IROC and by the time he got there quite a bit of paint was missing from the nose. Oncoming 80mph timber trucks can do that. He had a bra on the nose, it was shredded.
Another guy went home to CA and bought a new car and drove it back. Wasn't 100 miles over the US/canadian border and hit a moose.......
I'd let someone else drive and take in the sights. Rent a car or bum a ride from friends in Anchorage....
Sounds expensive, but jbp mentioned it was 2,500 miles from the border to Anchorage. Assuming you have a vehicle that gets roughly 25 MPG, you'll need 100+ gallons of fuel. I have no idea what it costs up there, but it is around $3.20 a gallon here. That's $320 in gas alone. Factor in hotel rooms, food, and other expenses, not to mention the time it would take, and I'd rather fly. Averaging 60 MPH, you're looking at over 40 hours in the drivers seat. At least a few days of hotels.
Most all of the flights I took in and out of Anchorage were Jumbo jets going to/ coming from Japan (refuel in Anchorage). Not like the little rattle box I took to FL last year.....
Funny you should mention Alaska, I just got this from a DA CIV friend stationed up there at Fort Richardson.
"Hey Fellers, I Snapped a pic of this bad boy on post on Monday. No, he didn't look both ways before crossing the road"
Words of wisdom from Big Chief: Flush twice, it's a long way to the Mess Hall
I'd rather have my sister work in a whorehouse than own another Taurus!
I don't know if it is urban legend or not ...
When I was on a temp exchange in Vermont I was told NEVER blow your horn at a moose, something about certain pitch horns made them attack.
- George Orwell
Other thing is photo equipment ... video or still ... LOTS OF MEMORY CARDS!!!
- George Orwell
He can always go Space-A through his closest Air Force base, too. It costs around $25 last I checked. The catch is that you need some flexibility because you're at the mercy of when a flight becomes availa ble both ways. However, many of those transit flights are regular enough to treat like a commercial flight.
also, if you decide to drive, as someone pointed out, not toys in canada. Also, if you decide to drive be ready to have your vehicle beat to crap. also, make sure you put some metal screening over your headlights. the roads upto there arent the best and you will loose some lights. my neighbor drove up there a couple years ago and he bought a used truck to take up there. it got beatup alot.
then all you have to do is to figure out where you want to go/stay/do.
personally, id rather fly and spend more time doing things up there, but thats just me.
- Don Burt
Someone else told me a few years ago it is not uncommon to call work in Alaska and tell them there is a Moose in the driveway and I'll be late. I asked why he couldn't just go outside and shoo it off, he said heck no it might get pissed off and attack! The Moose will move when he is good and ready.
I dunno about the horn blowing :driving::uhm:
Words of wisdom from Big Chief: Flush twice, it's a long way to the Mess Hall
I'd rather have my sister work in a whorehouse than own another Taurus!
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
If you get serious, I still have a contact list with all of the fishing charters and other places I used over the summer up there. Just let me know.
Snake, I agree that's sage advice. It ranks right up there with don't eat no yeller snow :tooth:
Words of wisdom from Big Chief: Flush twice, it's a long way to the Mess Hall
I'd rather have my sister work in a whorehouse than own another Taurus!
If you drove from Texas it would be four days to Seatle, then you could hop the ferry overnight to Ketchikan or Juneau. You would be severly limited in your driving in those locations and should have 4wd. Once you get to Seward, the road to Anchorage is a piece of cake. Obviously if you go in late June there's more daylight.
If you intend to go to Mt. McKinley / Denali National park thre are lots of restrictions and some activities you have to have "applied" for, like a lottery, and back country access is limited. Go to the Denali website for details on their backcountry stuff.
It all depends on what you want to do. It's bigger than Texas and fewer roads.
Planning is key. If you fly up, car rentals are expensive. If you plan to be there a while driving up might offset the expense of a 4wd rental.
Then again there is the first class trip, and just pay everybody to go everywhere.
Personally I liked the Glaciers, fishing and cruising the intercoastal on a cruise ship. Denali is gorgeous, but you need to be rough and ready. Fairbanks is a stepping point to the wild north and it is kind of a little town. My wife was an ER physician in Fairbanks for a summer.
In summary, plan, plan plan. There is too much to do if you are an avid outdoorsman to do in a month, let alone two weeks.
IMHO
D
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.... now who's bringing the hot wings? :jester:
http://news.yahoo.com/residents-alaska-city-could-9-gallon-gas-231347434.html
..ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The residents of Nome, Alaska, could be looking at a very costly winter: $9-a-gallon gasoline.
The coastal city of more than 3,500 residents that is known for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is iced-in, and a massive winter storm this month prevented a barge that usually carries fuel from getting to shore.
The most likely plan is to fly it in, but it would be costly and could be a logistical nightmare.
"It could be pretty outrageous, the prices," said Jeremy Nassuk, Nome airport fueler for Crowley Marine Services, Inc.
A gallon of gas was selling for $5.98 and jet fuel $6.77 a gallon on Wednesday. The next barge delivery wouldn't be until next June. In the meantime, flying fuel to the city could increase the cost per gallon by $3 to $4, officials said.
"We are going to have to have fuel drivers picking up fuel 24 hours a day as flights are available to fly into Nome," said Jason Evans, board chairman of Sitnasuak Native Corp., which provides services to the region.
Sitnasuak arranged in May with petroleum distributor Delta Western Inc. to have three barges deliver fuel to Nome, but only one arrived early in the summer, Evans said. That barge carried home heating fuel.
The storm that barreled into Alaska's western coastline in mid-November, zeroing in on Nome, prevented the arrival of a barge carrying 1.6-million gallons of gasoline and diesel.
"Ice is forming around the community and making a normal barge delivery impossible at this time," Evans said.
Delta Western has canvassed the nation looking for ice breakers and ice-class tugs and barges to get fuel to Nome, but so far has had no success, vice president Kirk Payne said.
The good news is that the city is not in dire straits of running out of fuel, he said.
"We got some time to work through this," he said. "Can product be flown up? Yes, absolutely. What is it going to cost? We don't know. Is the public going to see that cost? We don't know."
Gasoline and diesel are needed to run the ambulances and state equipment to maintain and plow roads, Evans said. If nothing is done, gasoline and diesel supplies will run low within three months, he said.
The plan is to have fuel delivered 4,000 to 6,000 gallons at a time by prop plane or jet, beginning before the end of the year. Sitnasuak is looking at a pared-down delivery plan of perhaps a half-million gallons, he said.
That amount could increase if it turns out to be a cold winter, and so far it looks that way.
"It has been cold up there," Evans said. The temperature at 10 a.m. Wednesday was minus 2.
A lot of people in the old Gold Rush-era town, where bars are housed in Western-style false-front wooden buildings and where temperatures can plummet to 30 below zero, don't own cars and rely on taxis to get around.
From one end of town to the other is about 5 miles, said Sunny Song, owner of Mr. Cab, which ferries children to school, nurses to their patients' homes and women to hospitals to give birth.
Mr. Cab now charges $4 per fare. Song said a big rise in gasoline prices will put them out of business.
"It is going to kill us," she said.
But Polar Bar owner Patrick Krier isn't worried.
"People will still go out and have a few drinks," he said. "That is inevitable."
This is all dependent on when I get marching orders for Fort Sam Houston and Fort Rucker, of course.
"Slow is smooth, smooth is fast, and speed is the economy of motion" - Scott Jedlinski
Well thanks for telling me how to get all the way to Colorado!
"Slow is smooth, smooth is fast, and speed is the economy of motion" - Scott Jedlinski
Let me know if this happens. That's near my old stomping grounds. I'd love to meet up at the indoor range in Daleville when we're visiting the family, and grab a bite to eat.
:rotflmao::rotflmao::rotflmao: You got that right Chief!!!
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.