rpiereck

It was along trip... and today I drove into Fairbanks, Alaska, my home for the next few years. I was originally planning to drive across the whole length of the Alaska-Canadian Highway (Alcan), but at the last moment decided to take the ferry from Bellingham, WA to Haines, AK. I was driving alone and thought that ripping through Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon and Alaska all by myself with a deadline to meet would be stupid (I had to be in Fairbanks by 27 Aug), not only that, but weather reports in those remote areas showed rain, rain and rain.

Taking the ferry was pretty straight forwards. It cost me $1150 for a ticket for me and the Forester, and I would be in Haines by the 25th. There were no cabins available, but I have a good REI tent and sleeping bag and would put it to good use, as they allow you to pitch a tent on deck! We soon had a small tent community going on the rear deck of the MV Columbia, our ferry out of Bellingham. Our group was a mix of guys going to Alaska for commercial fishing, work, charity, or leisure. We spent our days trying to stay warm and dry, our nights drinking the night away at the boat's bar. We closed the bar every night and I personally drank the last Alaskan Pale and Alaskan ESB one night...

After we arrived in Haines I drove around the small town and had an encounter with Alaska's most notorious wild animal, the brown bear. This one was small, probably not an adult yet, I saw him crossing a road and stopped to take pictures. He took a look at me and ran away to the beach. Good I thought. I followed the bear for a while, snapping away, and it really didn't care about me. The drive from Haines to Beaver Creek, Yukon was beautiful, a rainy day in the mountains, losing count of the glaciers I passed by. After Haines Junction, in Canada the glaciers went away, substituted by the typical taiga forest of the extreme north, full of skinny black spruce. The road also deteriorated after Haines Junction, with many periods of gravel and pot holes everywhere. The Forester excelled here, eating potholes for dinner. The signs of the looming winter were everywhere, in the numerous gas stations already closed for the season, as well as the trees changing their leaves, showing their fall colors. I arrived at Beaver Creek at 11 pm, the sky outside still bathed in a dusky light, and was greeted by a gorgeous Indian girl with luscious black hair at the local lodge (Indian from India, not Native...). Nice touch after such a long day of driving...

From Beaver Creek to Fairbanks was another long day. Beaver Creek sits very close to the US border, so today's driving was mostly in US roads. The Alcan here was generally better, with less periods of gravel, and a very smooth layer covering most of the paved sections. A few construction sites here and there provided minor gravel and lots of mud. The Forester once again excelled here. As I drove closer to Fairbanks the relentless rain gave in to sunshine, and the low temperatures of the Yukon, 45 degrees during the day, changed to a warm 65 degrees in Alaska's second largest city. I planned on heading into town to check it out, but I have had a lingering headache since Haines and will be sleeping early tonight. The tour of Fairbanks will be left for later...

The guys of the boat loading crew had a sense of humor and put me behind another WR Blue Forester 2.5X... what are the odds! They happened to be a cool couple from Seattle, heading to Alaska on a holiday. I mentioned the owner our website, but he said he wasn't too big a fan of the internet...


Our tent slum in the aft deck... mine is the tiny green tent in the back. At times we felt like animals in a zoo as some people with cabins came by to ogle and take pictures of us...


Our nights were spent like this, playing chess and drinking Alaskan beer. This is Jess, going to Alaska to work for a non profit organization that helps poor people develop their local economies.


The weather was pretty much like this for the first two days, the rain was thin but relentless, typical southern Alaskan rain


My best drinking mate in the boat, Zak was going to Alaska to fish for Halibut and eventually King Crab. He's from LA and has been a fisherman since he was young.


Cars being loaded at Petersburg, one of the stops of the ferry.


I was talking to a local in Wrangell and she told me it's been raining like this for the best part of two months... wow!


Our boat, the MV Columbia, docked in Wrangell.


The bear that wouldn't care.


Detail of Saskia Glacier, up the Chilkat river from Haines. You can see the ice layer cracking as it follows the mountain downhill.


The Fozz taking a break from the potholes of the Yukon roads.


Welcome to the last frontier!


When Alaska roads turned bad they turned really bad. The Forester was THE CAR for this road!


Finally in Fairbanks, the drying mud was cheered by many road crews, a badge of honor that I had endured Alaska's best roads...

BAC5.2

Cool trip! It was $1150 without a cabin? How much with a cabin room? How long was the ride? What influenced the move?

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The Aggressive™ -- You don't know about it.

1998 Forester S - Big brakes, Big Tires, 5-gears.

Cliff51

Glad to see you made it!

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Cliff

2008 2.5X, 5MT - Topaz Gold Metallic

max6spd

How come in the first pic you have a roof box, but in the end you have a basket? Did you ditch it along the way?

I've always wanted to go to Alaska, but the trip from NY would have been LOOOOONGGG.

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07 OBP FSXT M/T (Stage 2)

GodWhomIsMike

WOW - Awesome trip.

Albino83

Great pictures thanks for sharing! I have always loved Alaska and hope to visit again soon, best of luck with your move and I hope to see lots of awesome pictures!!!!!!

pleiad7

Awesome trip report... thanks for keeping us posted!

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-Silke
04 FXT PP PSM ~ "Subed"
98 Forester S ~ "Slynki"
92 SVX LS-L ~ x2

HuskyHauler

What luck for me to have a "scouting report!" Thanks for posting!

I'm moving from WA to AK and will be departing on the same vessel via the same departure port, and getting off the ferry in the same arrival port exactly 2 weeks after your trip. My final AK destination is different, though.

Any additional insight on what went well for you and what you might have done differently? As I make my final preparation for departure, any pre-trip recommendations?

RocketEyes

Beautiful pictures! I've always wanted to visit there.

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Meg
2007 WRB XT Sport Auto

dwmoss

Great pictures, thanks for posting.

I love alaska, i have a brother who's lived in anchorage for years and years.

Couple quick questions for you:
what fog lights do you have in there and how do you have them mounted?
are those the oem mudflaps??

thanks again
dm

TC2000

Awesome pics, I'd love to visit Alaska some day.

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Whoop-dee-Doo for my Subaru!!

rpiereck

Thanks! That was $700-some for the Forester, plus $300-some for a walk in passenger. The cabin would have been $390 more and it fits four people. The Forester was just the right size, it's one or two inches short of paying $900-some!! The boat from Bellingham, WA to Haines, AK was three days long, we left Bellingham at 6 pm on the 22nd and arrived in Haines, AK at 12:30 pm on the 25th. The drive from Haines to Beaver Creek, Yukon is 328 miles long, done in 7 to 9 hours, road conditions and the spectacular scenery slow you down considerably. From Beaver Creek to Fairbanks is 312 miles and doen in 5 to 7 hours. The move was military influenced, I decided to return to active duty and have rejoined the Army, and asked to go to either Alaska, Germany or Hawaii, the Army chose the first for me.

Thanks, the Forester was the right car for the trip. My previous car, a Toyota Prius, was a great car on gas mileage, but would have taken a beating on the road here...


LOL, no! Read the caption above that photo. That was someone else's Forester, incidentally the exact same color and model as mine! It was kind of funny to line up for loading and seeing another Forester exactly like mine


First of all, I wish I hadn't done this trip on a tight schedule like I did, but I had to be in Fairbanks by the 27th, so I wasn't sightseeing half as much as I'd like to; so I'd recommend having plenty of time to stop everywhere, check out the wonderful sights and small towns of Alaska and the Yukon, don't drive too much everyday, enjoy the ride. Also, make sure you bring a very good digital camera with loads of memory as you will have lots of opportunities for great shots, also bring a quality binocular. Make sure your car is in very good condition, if you are doing the trip on the height of the summer there will be lots of traffic on the Alcan, but from late August to early May the travelers are fewer, especially during the winter months. Sometimes you might be over 100 miles from the nearest gas station and nothing guarantees they will be able to fix your full size tire and get you off the doughnut spare, I'd bring a full size spare. Buy a good quality emergency kit, with first aid kit, tow ropes, warning triangles and flares, etc. Buy some cheap fleece blankets. Bring some candles and matches inside an empty coffee can; just one candle lit inside your car will keep the interior 10 to 20 degrees warmer than the outside in the winter. You will need a "Non-Resident Inter-Provincial Proof of Insurance" to drive through Canada; Canada's insurance requirements are different from the US and the insurance you have right now might be enough or not, call your insurance agent and they can get it for you, my insurance sent me the cards by email and didn;t charge anything for them. BEST OF ALL TIPS: Buy the "Milepost", a kick ass road guide for Alaska and Western Canada, they guide you mile by mile and have all the tips on where to eat, sleep, fish, etc. (The MILEPOST: Alaska Travel Guide and Trip Planner - Home)


The round uppers are Hella 500F foglights bought at Walmart. They are mounted straight through the grille of the Sports model, I just had to buy a longer mounting bolt, plus rubber washers at Home Depot. The whole procedure has been shown elsewhere here in our site, but it's easy. Although the lights do not shake, it is not the perfect mounting place, I'd rather have them mounted on a light bar, but that's a project for a later date. The rectangular lowers are some lightweight, thin lights bought also at Walmart, I can't recall the brand, they are mounted with double sided sticky tape and have endured dirt roads in Utah, Wyoming, Yukon and Alaska and are still holding on... The mudflaps are OEM, came with the vehicle when I bought it.

James

I have driven to Alaska, but I cheated. I have only been to Hyder, Ak. I did drive from Vancouver BC to Dawson Creek, Up the Alaska Highway to Watson Lake, Yukon. Then back down the Cassiar Highway, back to Vancouver. Did that road trip (Tenting the whole way) mid September by myself (16 days), in the Protege. I got lucky to miss most of the snow blizzard that year. Actually two hours after I left Fort Nelson they closed the Highway because of blizzard.

I highly recommend driving the loop. I had a great time and the drive is just beautiful. Too bad you didn't have enough time to do the drive.

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2007 Forester 2.5x 4EAT Special Edition
2001 Mazda Protege 2.0l 5M LX (SOLD!)

rpiereck

I actually did have just barely enough time to drive it the whole way and that was my original plan, but weather reports showed constant rain all the way from Alberta to Alaska, and since I was doing the trip alone, I chickened out the last minute and took the ferry. I hope to make the trip backwards (AK to WA) by car with my wife later on.

One other tip: It is actually illegal to sleep inside your car in Canada, so buy a quality tent from REI and get a camping permit, which is required in Yukon, and possibly in BC and Alberta too. I'd also bring a rifle or shot gun of a decent caliber if camping in the wild, at least a 30-06, for the off chance that Smoky the Bear would get too close for comfort or for hunting in permitted areas. Rifles and shot guns are allowed through Canada, but it will cost you $50 per gun. You can buy a decent used 30-06 rifle at a pawn shop for $200. Hand guns (pistols and revolvers) are not allowed in Canada.

TC2000

Illegal to sleep inside your car in Canada? I wonder what the reason behind that is ? But they'll let you take your chances outside with a rifle. Id probably have holes all thru my tent the first night, shooting at every noise thinking it was a monster grizz..

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Whoop-dee-Doo for my Subaru!!