Talked Alaska with a local rider that's been there

Had the chance to have lunch with a local rider that did this little trip last year about the same time. The insights were excellent. She also took the time to send me this recap so it's here verbatim. Thanks Colleen!

(In no particular order)

Dease Lake, BC – icky cafeteria atmosphere that left me with no interest in even trying the food

Prince George, BC – much bigger than I thought. Stop before or after unless you’re looking for urban accommodations (and Moxie’s Grill has killer steaks!!)

Vanderhoof, BC – “OK Café” – cute Mennonite-type folk with light breakfast fare. A nice place to stop for a break

Very little (I can’t remember any) gas between Meziadin Jct (at the Stewart turn off) and Dease Lake. This is probably the longest stretch without gas stops.

Iskut (?) north of Dease Lake has a nice little grocery store and gas (and not much else)

Swift River, YT – excellent food and service and new clean motel rooms and LAUNDRY FACILTIES!!!

Teslin, YT – pretty good size, or at least has more amenities than most of the towns you’ve just ridden through.

Haines Jct – also pretty good size. Decent food and a (slight) variety in restaurant choices

Destruction Bay, YT – motel/gas/restaurant (blah food) and LAUNDRY FACILTIES!!! This is the place to pick up my replacement stickers, too J

Beaver Creek, YT – last town before crossing into Alaska. Good restaurant.

Border crossing – easy a pie, although they looked at us funny (Americans and Canadians apparently aren’t supposed to travel together – it’s “weird”)

Tok – Internet access at the fudge shop!!! Big touristy area – you can get just about anything. Ate at a diner on the south side of the road (yeah, that’s a lot of help) but it was good food.

North Pole, AK – begin the urban sprawl of Fairbanks and say good-bye to anything remotely resembling what Alaska is supposed to look like…

Fairbanks – motels are hard to come by, even on a random Tuesday. Things are expensive (except the grapes – the grapes were amazingly cheap). The whole town left me with an icky feeling – I was glad to leave.

Road north from Fairbanks to Fox is paved. Gas up in Fairbanks (can’t recall if Fox has gas, but it probably does)

Next gas is (possibly) just over the Yukon River (watch that wooden bridge!) otherwise you’re on your own until Coldfoot.

Ask about gas in Prudhoe. They keep the pump inside a little wooden shack with the hose outside sitting in a barrel. One station will actually put a $400 hold on your credit card, so ask specifically about where you should go. (the guy at the Caribou Inn told us about the cc hold thing).

Quite possibly the other motel (ie not the Caribou Inn) is the better of the two in town.

Recommendations:

- Buy foodstuffs in Fairbanks and reserve a room in Wiseman (cash only). Gas up in Coldfoot and continue on to Wiseman. There’s a common kitchen area (VERY nice and well-equipped) where you can cook whatever you brought with you. Make some arrangements for the return trip (possibly leaving food behind for yourself if that’s ok with them). You can do the run from Fairbanks to Prudhoe in one trip, but I’d only recommend that if the weather and roads are very good.

- I can get you the contact info for Wiseman (Boreal Lodge if you google) if you need it

- Motel accommodations in Prudhoe are expensive – all two of them.

- Make tour arrangements at least 24 hours ahead of time if you want to dip your toes in the ocean

- Bring lots of layers rather that just lots of clothes

- Extra fuel can wasn’t needed, but the peace of mind was well worth dragging it along

I’m going to attach the Full Gear List that I used to plan this trip. Not everything on this list came along for the ride, but it gave me a good idea of where to start.

The boxes after each item I used to indicate Doug or I was bringing it (for those items that we could share) and then a box to check off as it was acquired. It worked out quite well for us. I’m also attaching some un-adulterated gear lists that I liberated from the ‘net. Some of the items on there are funny… I found the other three lists fairly repetitive and condensed them all down into my own list (the one I’ve said I’ll attach) but since I cut out some of the stuff from the other two lists, I didn’t want to omit anything that you might deem important.

I think that’s about all for now. Here’s a quick list of the stickers I’d really like to get from Destruction Bay:

Alaska (shows the star constellation and looks fairly cheesy)

Yukon Territory map

I guess just those two. I can get a Canadian sticker just about anywhere else, and the other one was just a cool native fish thingy that I can live without. But I miss the Yukon one most of all L

Let me know what else I can help you with! Oh, and you can use the Thermarest if you want to.

Colleen