Off To Alaska

Our "Float Plan" for the voyage. For info, Prince Rupert is as far as we got last year on the BC Ferry during the Canadian trip, so we'll be repeating some of the same part of the Inside Passage we covered last year.



Well, we're finally off on the big adventure to Alaska that's been in the planning for almost a year - since we returned from the Western Canada trip last year in fact. Will be driving up to Bellingham tomorrow morning to be in place for boarding the ferry on Friday afternoon. It's about a 5 hour drive and, although we could probably have done it Friday morning, I didn't want to have to worry about possible delays on I-5 ... especially going thru Seattle...so we're leaving a day early and just spending the night up there.

The ferry takes nearly 3 days to get to Skagway - arriving there Monday afternoon the 27th. We'll be staying just out of town, in a little place called Dyea - near the Chilcoot Pass trailhead. Hope to be able to walk at least part of the route that the gold rush stampeders had to traverse back in 1898 to get to the gold fields up near Dawson City.

After that the rest of the itinerary looks like this:

1-3 July in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory (YT)

3-7 July in Dawson City, YT

7-8 July passing thru the little town of Tok

8-15 July in Anchorage. Several State Parks we want to check out for hiking opportunities.

15-20 July catching the ferry from Whittier across Prince William Sound to the small town of Cordova.

20-22 July catching another ferry over to the port of Valdez

22-26 July in and around McCarthy in Wrangell-Elias National Park. The road in used to be
a 62 mile nightmare. Still unpaved but supposedly the State actually does grade it
occasionally so it's supposed to be passable by 2WD autos. Bought a full size spare before the trip especially for this leg.

26-28 July in Glenallen

28 July - 1 Aug in Fairbanks

1-15 Aug in Denali National Park. Everything I've heard indicates that this will be a highlight,
so we're making it a point to spend plenty of time here.

15-19 Aug driving to Anchorage, then flying to Sitka. After reading the chapters in Michener's
Alaska about the old Russian fur trading town of Archangel (modern Sitka) it was a
must-see

19-22 Aug back to Anchorage and driving down to the Kenai peninsula...first stop the town of
Hope.

22-29 Aug in Homer...supposed to be an especially pretty place.

29 Aug-1 Sept back across the peninsula to Seward

1 Sept will be driving back up to Anchorage and dropping off the car for shipment back to
Seattle (Tacoma actually). The car won't be arriving there for pickup until the 8th.

2-8 Sept Flying over to Kodiak while the car works its way south

8-9 Sept Flying to Seattle, spending the night, (hopefully) collecting the car at the dock in
Tacoma, and then driving back home to Vancouver.


Don't know about cell phone connectivity outside Anchorage & Fairbanks, but we'll have them with us as we move around.

Below is a photo of our trusty ship, the MV Kennicott.




Depending upon internet connectivity along the way, and assuming that my hiking partner remembers to bring the camera, we'll be blogging as we go.