Made it to Alaska - Montana Owners Club

BirdingRVer · 06-26-2008, 06:32 AM

We made it to Alaska border late yesterday afternoon, by 5:00 Alaska time. (That's 6:00 Pacific time.) The entry station on Top of the World Highway is the most northern border crossing in the US, at this tiny little outpost with an authentic log cabin for the US Customs Inspector!
He was really friendly, asked for the usual identification, even for Raider, where are we headed, that sort of thing. Then asked
if we wanted our passports stamped. "Sure". It was a great big "caribou" stamp on the first page, how fun! After that he asked us if we had any extra transmission fluid. (Huh? Is that one of those things you're not allowed to bring across the border?) It turns out the fifth wheel parked to the side of the log cabin had some serious problems and need some transmission fluid. I carry some to refill the hydraulic reservoir because I have a fitting that leaks whenever I open the slides. So I said, "actually we do have some!" The inspector said, "Great, you might ask those people if they could use it, maybe they can get under way!" Off we went. Not only did this couple from Canada need transmission fluid, they broke a spring on the axle of the trailer, but he had a spare!

But to tell you about our arduous day, we have to start at the beginning. We had a 6 hour wait at the Yukon River in Dawson City. There's no bridge since this is a summer only road, so they have this small ferry that can only take 2 motor homes and a couple of cars at a time! Unknown to us, there were 26 RVs in a caravan ahead of us! We just sat in this long, slow moving line down the middle of town. Including the time to load the ferry, cross the river, unload, load the ferry again, recross the river, then unload. it takes 20 minutes for one round trip of the ferry. So only 3 trips per hour. It only took about 4 minutes to cross and it is free! Then we had the experience of traveling on the "Top of the World Highway" from Dawson City to the Alaska border crossing, mainly bad cheap seal and gravel for 65 miles. We were doing good, better surface than some California roads! :-) There was no rain to turn the dirt into mud, but a water pumper truck loomed around one corner and hosed everything down to keep the dust down! INSTANT MUD! There are some places on the bottom of the trailer and the truck that look more like stucco had been administered!! After the border we traveled the "Taylor Highway" for 43 miles, all gravel and in less repair, lots of rocks showing through. We caught up with some of the very slow moving caravan of motor homes, our top speed was 11 miles an hour!!! After miles of accumulating their dust, they finally found a spot to pull over and we moved on by. All of a sudden we had to find a place to pull over, because we had a gasoline tanker barreling down behind us! We found a wide spot and let him through! The first town in Alaska is "Chicken", barely a town, mainly an RV Park and café. It looked like the caravan was heading there so I decided to push on to Tok, Alaska where we had reservations. So 2 more hours, with a mostly paved road, in a lot better condition than we had been led to believe. We actually got up to 50 miles per hour!

Thank goodness there's a great restaurant next to the rv park. It was 9:00 Yukon time according to our stomachs and we hadn't had dinner yet, just a few snacks! Our favorite brew, Alaskan Amber on tap and wonderful hamburgers were inhaled!

Despite the sun still being up, all three of us fell asleep instantly and slept like logs!

Bill-N-Donna · 06-26-2008, 07:52 AM

Sounds like the beginning of a really great adventure. Keep us posted and if you can we would like to see some pictures!

HamRad · 06-26-2008, 08:47 AM

Grant and Kathy,

Sounds like a great adventure! Keep on enjoying. Take lots of pictures as we'd love to see them the next time we get together.

Dennis and Mary Kay

David and Jo-Anna · 06-26-2008, 09:28 AM

Grant and Kathy,

Welcome to Alaska - sounds like you're have a great adventure!!! We are now in Seward, heading for Homer in a few days - hope we have an opportunity to meet up.

Have fun!!

Jo-Anna and David

bob n pam · 06-26-2008, 09:54 AM

Grant and Kathy,

Holy cow! What a rough day of driving, but a good ending with good food and Alaskan Amber! Thanks for the heads up on the 'Top of the World' highway as we'll be going back that way in a few weeks. We're in Homer right now and then on to Seward to meet up with Icehouse, and maybe David and Jo-Anna if we're lucky. Hope we can meet up with you along the way.

Bob and Pam

DHenry · 06-26-2008, 03:55 PM

Grant and Kathy, we were so lucky when we crossed the Yukon in Dawson. We were the third RV in line so we got the second ferry and were on the other side within a half hour of getting in line. We also were lucky to have rain the night before so the dirt roads were not to dusty, and weren't muddy at all. When we got to Tok, I washed the 5th wheel the next morning and just washed the truck today. Both are looking good again. We will be leaving the Fairbanks area tomorrow to go to Denali and will be there for four nights, hope to meet up with you two at one of these stops so we can swap stories.

David and Jo-Anna · 06-26-2008, 05:25 PM

Hey Doug,

Where are you staying in Denali? Sounds like you are moving right along.

Continue to enjoy - we are loving it.

Jo-Anna

BirdingRVer · 06-26-2008, 07:00 PM

Hi All,

To see our pictures our blog is http://birdingrvers.com/we try to update the blog about ever third day or so.

Doug, We keep missing you by a day. I think we arrived in Dawson City the day you left and we arrived in Fairbanks today. Fairbanks is one of our favorite places in Alaska and we will be staying here for at least a week.

Grant

DHenry · 06-26-2008, 07:08 PM

Grant, sorry we are missing you, we will be staying at the Denali Grizzly Bear Resort near Denali. We will be there 4 days and are leaving for Mat-Su valley after that.

BirdingRVer · 06-27-2008, 06:42 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by DHenry

Grant, sorry we are missing you, we will be staying at the Denali Grizzly Bear Resort near Denali. We will be there 4 days and are leaving for Mat-Su valley after that.

Doug, It is a very big state but, only a few roads. I am sure we will cross paths somewhere. Maybe at a Montana minni-rally somewhere on the Kenai Peninsula.

We are taking our time and won't be in Mat-su Valley area for 2 or 3 weeks.

Grant

GOFNUTS · 07-04-2008, 12:04 PM

Grant & Kathy, and we thought our day was long when we crossed the Top of World Hwy. Can't imagine waiting in line for six hours to cross the ferry and then to drive all the way to Tok. Like Doug said, we were very lucky the day we crossed. They were ahead of us and went over first. We were delayed by one crossing after them because a big truck came along and took priority over us. Nonetheless, much faster crossing than yours! Hope to meet up with you at some point.

BirdingRVer · 07-05-2008, 07:07 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by GOFNUTS

Grant & Kathy, and we thought our day was long when we crossed the Top of World Hwy. Can't imagine waiting in line for six hours to cross the ferry and then to drive all the way to Tok. Like Doug said, we were very lucky the day we crossed. They were ahead of us and went over first. We were delayed by one crossing after them because a big truck came along and took priority over us. Nonetheless, much faster crossing than yours! Hope to meet up with you at some point.

Hello Michael & Renee,

Our Dawson City to Tok day was our longest ever; it was 12 hours from the time we left to RV Park in Dawson until we were all set up in Tok!

We are currently at the River's Edge RV Park in Fairbanks (we have been here a week) and will be until at least Tuesday morning. We are waiting for two packages that are coming by different methods from two locations. Tracking says that they both got to Anchorage on the 3rd so we are hopeful that we will get them on Monday. If not we will stay until they arrive.

Fairbanks has been great place to spend a week, there is so much to do I haven't updated the blog for a week because we have been too busy.

From here we are going to Denali then to Talkeetna.

Grant

FireTruckerWife · 07-05-2008, 07:31 AM

What kind of internet connections are you guys using? Verizon air card????? or other????

DHenry · 07-05-2008, 07:53 AM

Most of the time we have had pretty good free wi-fi. Just a few times I have had to use the air card.

FireTruckerWife · 07-05-2008, 08:06 AM

good to know. comforting to know, if we ever make it up there. Thanks Doug

timandsusan · 07-05-2008, 12:17 PM

Grant and Kathy, We were in the Albuquerque KOA this past spring and saw your Monty with the logo but did not get a chance to say hello. We were in Alaska last summer and kinda feel lost this year except for the fuel bill! We did the TOW the other way. We drove thru from Whitehorse to Tok and left the RV in Tok. Then drove over the TOW to Dawson City and back--stayed in a nice B&B in Dawson City. Anyway--it was a great trip and I know you will enjoy it. If you are interested our trip in on our trip journal at http://www.goodsamclub.mytripjournal...llingtontravel

wswebster · 07-05-2008, 08:13 PM

We made it in 10 hrs. What a ride, we knew it would be bad so we just took it easy. We'll try anything once. We waited in Dawson 2 hrs. for the ferry, there were almost 40 rvs behind us. We are now in Fairbanks at the River view rv park. We're having a great time on our vacation/retirement trip. On to Denali sometime next week. Stacy

BirdingRVer · 07-06-2008, 03:50 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by timandsusan

Grant and Kathy, We were in the Albuquerque KOA this past spring and saw your Monty with the logo but did not get a chance to say hello. We were in Alaska last summer and kinda feel lost this year except for the fuel bill! We did the TOW the other way. We drove thru from Whitehorse to Tok and left the RV in Tok. Then drove over the TOW to Dawson City and back--stayed in a nice B&B in Dawson City. Anyway--it was a great trip and I know you will enjoy it. If you are interested our trip in on our trip journal at http://www.goodsamclub.mytripjournal...llingtontravel

Hello Tim and Susan,

Too bad we didn't get to meet in Albuquerque. I am sure that we will cross paths again somewhere on the road. I followed your blog last year while I was still working. We travel with our dog and didn't think B&B would be an option. Also you had to do the road TWICE!

"We were in Alaska last summer and kinda feel lost this year"
Any plans yet for next summer?

Grant

BirdingRVer · 07-06-2008, 03:57 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by wswebster

We made it in 10 hrs. What a ride, we knew it would be bad so we just took it easy. We'll try anything once. We waited in Dawson 2 hrs. for the ferry, there were almost 40 rvs behind us. We are now in Fairbanks at the River view rv park. We're having a great time on our vacation/retirement trip. On to Denali sometime next week. Stacy

Stacy,

Welcome to Fairbanks. We have been here over a week and are planning to move on to Denali as soon as our mail catches up to us. Fairbanks has so many things to see and do.

Try to get to the Pump House for lunch. On a nice day sitting on the deck watching the river is a great place to be. Also on a clear day the view from the UAF Museum is incredible.

"40 rvs behind us"
That would be at least a 7 hour wait! What time did you get in line for the ferry?

Grant

Icehouse · 07-06-2008, 05:47 PM

I love Fairbanks. It is one of my favorite places in Alaska. I agree about the Pump House - excellent!
Tammy

You may also like: