Back in the early 90's I did a bicycle trip in Alaska (4 weeks) with Wayne B. We took the ferry up to Haines, AK and then pedaled up through the Yukon and crossed into AK at Beaver Creek. There was some road construction there and they did have to take us a couple of miles in a truck for the worst part of the road but otherwise we did quite well on our mountain bikes. We went on to Fairbanks and then on down to Anchorage, by way of Denali Park. We had some gravel but as I remember mostly paved (blacktop or other hard surface). On our ferry ride from Bellingham, WA to Haines (3.5 days) we met an older man who was planning a similar route by motorcycle. We sent Christmas cards to each other that year and he apparently had as much fun on his motorcycle as we had on our bicycles. So don't rule out the possibility of doing a trip by motorcycle or bicycle. There will be some challenges but it is worth it. My two cents. Mary TZ
----- Original Message ---- From: Stefan Creaser <stefan.crea...@arm.com> To: texascavers@texascavers.com Sent: Thursday, July 5, 2007 4:33:43 PM Subject: RE: [Texascavers] RE: Driving in Alaska (UNCLASSIFIED) >>>So if someone was thinking of doing Alaska on a m/cycle you wouldn't recommend it? Cheers, Stefan > > In 1999 I drove the Dalton highway to Deadhorse, Alaska and > the equivalent > gravel road to the arctic in Canada. I was in a 2WD Ford > Explorer and I had > 5 flat tires. I carried 4 spares and two 5 gallon Gerry cans > of gas with me. > > You are correct about the condition of the Alaska roads and the rental > policy. In fact, when there are wash outs, the road > department fills them in > with gravel, so it is often hard to avoid. When we took our trip last > summer, we planned to drive up the Dalton Highway, 400 miles > of a gravel > > > > That's a funny thing about renting vehicles in AK. > When I was > >up there back in the '90s with Nancy Weaver, we rented a car > and had to > >sign a statement saying we would not take it on gravel roads. > >Well, if you have ever driven much in Alaska, you know that that is > >next to impossible if you leave the city. There are > precious few paved > >roads in AK to begin with, and those that they do have are > frequently > >under repair during the few summer months that it is feasible to do > >road work. So even the paved roads have long gravel > sections or places >> >Mark Minton > >
