TheSamba.com :: View topic - Planning a trip to Alaska (Dalton Hwy): recommendations?

Tue Aug 17, 2010 5:59 pm

Hello from the road, just left billings MT and bouncing down the road using a tethered iPhone. Seen two westy's so far and both waved back.

Should be entering Canadia in a few hours, wish me luck!

Tue Aug 17, 2010 6:55 pm

Good luck with the border crossing. I just read a shocking account of poor treatment of an American visitor right in my own backyard, here:

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Opinion/1197106.html

Very embarrassing.

And speaking of backyards, the other guy in this book (Gary Sowerby) is from right here as well. He has done many such adventures.

Sir Sam wrote:
Anyone out there ever read the book "Road Fever?" its about two guys doing a promo for Chevy driving a new truck from the south tip of south america(terra del fuego) to the northern slope.

RonC

Wed Aug 18, 2010 5:23 am

How long do you plan to be on your trip to Alaska? Oh I see you have left home. Hope you got your bear spray.

I read that article on sailors and I'm livid. I find most incidents are about people abusing their power. When I sailed between Canada and the US and also down in the Bahamas from the States, I'e met some very serious officers but never anything like this report. I've always found it was about attitudes. I am ashamed by this report of actions.

Hopefully Sir Sam your passage will be smoother and more pleasant. Don't forget to keep connected here in Samba.

Fri Aug 20, 2010 1:33 am

Feel free to pmail or look us up when you get in State. If you need repairs anywhere near Whitehorse go to Johns Auto just outside of town on the road to Skagway. They are great people and know Vanagons well. We were just there last week when we did an Anchorage to Whitehorse to Skagway to Haines and home loop. Johns installed our clutch in August of 2003 when it failed on the way home from Sacramento.

Enjoy your trip.

Mark

Sat Aug 21, 2010 8:48 pm

In deadhorse ak. Just went and dippedy feet in the artic ocean. Gonna get a shower now.

Sat Aug 21, 2010 9:31 pm

Ok so I'm out in the parking lot next to the Carabou Artic Inn. $125 per person per night, ya right, ill sleep in the van for free.

Otherwise I went and dipped my feet in the arctic ocean and took pics.

Last night we made the arctic circle at 10pm local time, cooked a few steaks and drank more beers than I count and headed further north, about 2 hours later when the sun set we stopped for the night.

Didn't see any Carabou or bears, but did see a muskox. Lots of hunters are returning south with many carabou racks stacked on top of their trucks. Lots of hunters camped north of attigan pass along the tundra.

The tundra is weird stuff, its like walking on a giant memory foam bed. Weird little tree's too.

Foot after stepping in ocean:

Sun Aug 22, 2010 5:18 am

looks a wee bit blue

Tue Aug 24, 2010 1:34 pm

Well I got a bad right rear wheel bearing, right now I'm in Denali state park about to head south into Anchorage.

Gonna try and find a napa I suppose and get some new parts and tools for the axle nut.

Tue Aug 24, 2010 1:38 pm

?more pics? Hope you get it fixed.

Tue Aug 24, 2010 1:39 pm

Sir Sam wrote: Hello from the road, just left billings MT and bouncing down the road using a tethered iPhone. Seen two westy's so far and both waved back.

Should be entering Canadia in a few hours, wish me luck!

wait...tethered iphone? do tell.

Tue Aug 24, 2010 1:43 pm

?plugged in? tethered can refer to "attached to something".

Tue Aug 24, 2010 1:52 pm

DAIZEE wrote: ?plugged in? tethered can refer to "attached to something".

i know what it means. i'm assuming he has freed his iphone ala jailbreak, but was interested in details. as i'm sick of paying for a data limited plan usb/3g when i have two perfectly capable iphones.

Tue Aug 24, 2010 4:00 pm

:oops: sorry. I'd still like to hear what he means too!

Sun Aug 29, 2010 7:52 am

I dont know if you've headed south again yet or already know about it but dont miss Liard Hot Springs...mile 497. Campground and one of my favorte hot springs of all time.
Also, if your still in Anchorage on the 2nd of Sept and need a place to recharge let a guy know.

Sun Aug 29, 2010 12:44 pm

Sam and his dad Steve fixed their wheel bearing and camped in our driveway last week. I suspect they are well on their way headed south by now. When they left our place their next stop, at our suggestion, was going to be McCarthy and Kennicott.

Tue Aug 31, 2010 10:29 am

vwlovr wrote: DAIZEE wrote: ?plugged in? tethered can refer to "attached to something".

i know what it means. i'm assuming he has freed his iphone ala jailbreak, but was interested in details. as i'm sick of paying for a data limited plan usb/3g when i have two perfectly capable iphones.

Ya between the two of us we have 2 laptops, 3 iphones and a 3G USB "aircard"

1 work phone, 1 work aircard, 1 work laptop, and my personal phone and laptop.

I jailbroke the iphone and installed a program(which the maker also wants you to pay for so they cripple it after every 1MB and you have to hit ok to keep using it) called iPhoneModem. It had a companion program to run on your laptop which sets up an adhoc wireless network and lets you connect. The 3G speeds are pretty good, but the edge is terrible and often times will just sit there trying to load something or even just stalls out without any data being transferred. It's pretty frustrating trying to use edge to say the least.

I doubt if I will pay for the program as it seems to fight you at times, there are some other ways to tether that I will look into one of these days. Ideally I would be running a program on the iPhone that would setup a wireless network that multiple devices could connect to.

However even if I could get the european iPhone tethering to work I would be happy(basically just a setting that lets you tether your iPhone with either bluetooth or your usb cable, pretty easy huh?). This would then let me turn on internet sharing on my laptop letting other wireless devices connect to my computer which was tethered to the iPhone.

ak_runner wrote: Sam and his dad Steve fixed their wheel bearing and camped in our driveway last week. I suspect they are well on their way headed south by now. When they left our place their next stop, at our suggestion, was going to be McCarthy and Kennicott.

Yup, mucho thanks for the helping hand and tools, would have made the job much harder working in walmart parking lot!

We did then head to mccarthy/kennicot, after that we headed into valdez to resupply our beer, got some fresh seafood(or mostly fresh, I don't think shrimping is a big catch up there), took a quick detour off to the side that I am sure glad we did. Took the road to the pipeline terminus, ended up being where many many people were fishing along the roadside, saw all sorts of people hanging out fishing.

Ended up seeing about 3 black bears getting into the salmon running upstream, that was pretty cool, just dead fish all over the riverbank and bears gourging on them.

Little further down we saw a pair of bald eagles, then saw a place where the salmon where so thick they were making the water boil.

Headed back up and out towards tok and then whitehorse, where of course we lost a day with the van not running right. Luckily we managed to limp from destruction bay to whitehorse(the biggest city around for 1000 miles, literally). All I gotta say about that is that canadian tire is an awesome store! Good parts selection, tools, all sorts of things automotive. Nothing quite like it in the US, I'm going to have to stop in there again before we leave Canadia.

Tue Aug 31, 2010 11:33 am

Yes Cdn Tire is a neat shop. It's been here in Ontario (headquarters) for decades and decades. One of those places you go in for one or two items and come out with a bag full.

Just read in the news the other day that this year's salmon run is extremely intense. Haven't run like this for many many many years. I guess if the bears weren't around you could go and just hand catch some.

Glad you are back on the road.

Thu Sep 02, 2010 9:15 pm

Currently in Puyallup. Heading to rainier national park. Got dome fish and vegetables at the pike place market. Then got happy hour and beer looking over the water there.

Went to napa to get yet another fuel filter(been getting lots of water in fuel problems. Damm canuckian gas) and air filter. Noticed they had wild blackberries growing so we stopped and picked a bunch. Planning to make some jungle juice with them.

Fri Sep 03, 2010 3:27 pm

You've invented a new word "Canuckian". Usually we just say crazy canucks, a hang over from our vintage (former era) Downhill ski racers. Frequently suitable. Many will disagree but I never use Esso as I always am the one to get water in the gas whether it was for a car or a boat! Sounds like you are having a nice trip. Got anymore pics?

Oh you liked Cdn Tire so much, if you come across a Princess Auto, you gotta go in!!!!

Sat Sep 04, 2010 8:11 pm

made it home! pics and stuff to come tomorrow!@