2019 Alaska trip with our 21’ Escape

[casejh]

Fred, we will look forward to seeing you and Dora at GRRR! And I hope to visit with you some about your trip. Looks great!

[Red Dog]

Originally Posted by casejh

Fred, we will look forward to seeing you and Dora at GRRR! And I hope to visit with you some about your trip. Looks great!

Sounds like a plan!

Fred M.

[Red Dog]

Originally Posted by 75thRanger

I traveled the 'Alcan' in 1959. All gravel then. We used masking tape around the trunk but dust still got in our stuff.

There are still some gravel roads out there. The Dalton Highway, The Denali Highway, The Dempster Highway, The Top of the World Highway , just to name a few.

The frost heaves can really slow you down too on the highways that are paved.

Fred M.

[Mike Lewis]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

I was going to say, Fred was at the Osoyoos Rally in late May as we helped weigh Myron's tongue on his E19. So basically it was about 2.5 weeks after that to Alaska.

Yeah, I should have looked at Fred's map first before asking the question. As you surmised, I wanted to know how long it takes to get from the 49th parallel border to Alaska. Thanks for the info. If I make reservations at Denali as Fred did, I'd need to guesstimate when to do it.

[MyronL]

Dalton Highway someplace around Coldfoot. It was 2004. We took the bus.

[rmitch]

Fred, Amazing trip and internet skills. Being new to forums and message boards I have learned a lot from your post. Great that you answer all posts individually and even by name. I appreciate the time and effort and hope to incorporate this into my feeble attempts at posting. Thanks!

[James Gang]

Yep, Fred is the best.

[alanmalk]

Originally Posted by Red Dog

...

1. I wish we would have gotten a light switch that we could flip on before walking inside the trailer at night.
...

I added this remote controller-dimmer to one of the built-in lamps near the bed. With a couple of controllers (buy 2 or 3, they all work on the same frequency) you can turn on the light with one and turn it off with another. We have one controller mounted near the head of the bed so we don't have to move to turn the light on/off. We also use it on a very dim setting so as not to ruin our night vision. Glue a key chain ring to one and take it with you.

--
Alan

[cpaharley2008]

Escape now installs 2 switches by the door, as standard, one controls the ceiling lights for coming in and the other the exterior curb side light for exiting.

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by alanmalk

I added this remote controller-dimmer to one of the built-in lamps near the bed. With a couple of controllers (buy 2 or 3, they all work on the same frequency) you can turn on the light with one and turn it off with another. We have one controller mounted near the head of the bed so we don't have to move to turn the light on/off. We also use it on a very dim setting so as not to ruin our night vision. Glue a key chain ring to one and take it with you.

--
Alan

That’s a great idea for older trailers without a switch by the door to turn on interior lights.

[Red Dog]

Originally Posted by alanmalk

I added this remote controller-dimmer to one of the built-in lamps near the bed. With a couple of controllers (buy 2 or 3, they all work on the same frequency) you can turn on the light with one and turn it off with another. We have one controller mounted near the head of the bed so we don't have to move to turn the light on/off. We also use it on a very dim setting so as not to ruin our night vision. Glue a key chain ring to one and take it with you.

--
Alan

Thanks Alan!
I will look into this mod!

Fred M.

[ROWDY II]

Fred and Dora, we enjoyed meeting you at the Rally and then along the road while on our Caravan of 3 Escape 19 footers this summer! Having you join us at our house in Port Townsend for the Wooden Boat Festival was a special treat after the great journey as well:-)

We also agree that taking it slow on those gravel and frost heave roads is the answer to travel without troubles for the tow and the trailer. We simply saw no reason to travel at fast speeds anywhere as the views were spectacular, and the animal sights were a delight.
We 3 trailers left the Rally and began our caravan up north through B.C. and the Yukon Territories to Alaska. The trip through Canada was equally beautiful and a treat to us...except for the voracious mosquitoes. Prince George was where we bought our screen tent; a necessary addition to our trailer for this trip.
Would we do it again...maybe, but there are so many other places to visit that we will probably travel in a different direction before a return trip. Are we glad we made this trip...ABSOLUTELY!
Hope we meet up again as we travel this earth with our Escape 19' :-)

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

Escape now installs 2 switches by the door, as standard, one controls the ceiling lights for coming in and the other the exterior curb side light for exiting.

I didn't even know ahead of time that they were doing that now. It's so handy. Use it all the time. A bonus that I wasn't expecting.

Ron

[waltkaren]

The wife and I took a 2 month trip to alaska this year, June1till July30. Fantastic journey. I agree the roads can be bad but most were no different then the lower 48. Most frost heaves were marked, a few were not, you learn very quickly how to spot them. To help mitigate damage, I tried to keep a vehicle ahead of me to provide an indicator of how bad the up coming bumps were, although there were some stretches there was nobody around so we just hade to be more alert. We did see a camper in front of us hit a heave so hard its wheels left the ground, they keep on going with no apparent damage. We met one RVer bragging about how he had 4 flat tires and a broken axle doing the Dalton Highway, needless to say we didn't go that route.

[rajenkins]

Originally Posted by Mike Lewis

Fred- About how many days did it take you to go from Montana to Alaska? I'm considering going up there after the Escape rally next year. Mmmaybe.

Mike, as to how many days from Montana to Alaska, the answer is always: It depends. We did our first drive (with our Escape 15) from Bozeman, MT in August of 2012. Including a layover day in Whitehorse (a GREAT Place to stop), it took us 10 days to get to Anchorage. We made reservations all the way up, because it is such a popular time of year. Photos of that trip are here: https://twohikers.smugmug.com/Alaska...htoAlaska2012/

On our second driving trip there (we have been to AK eight times in total), we took the Alaska State Ferry from Bellingham to Skagway. A great, easy way to go, but not cheap. There are three smaller photo albums from that trip off this page:
https://twohikers.smugmug.com/Alaska-Canada-and-Hawaii

It is a great road trip with ANY Escape trailer.

Roger

[cpaharley2008]

You need to post more often Roger, great pictures....

[Yakanaka]

Originally Posted by Doug2000

Wow, what a trip!

I would love to take a trip to Alaska one day. Ontario, north across the provinces, hit the casinos in Dawson City, around to Anchorage, back down to Haines and on the Ferry to Seattle, and then maybe down the west coast. Who knows, that's a few years away.

Ill have to take a look at the FB Group for some more pics.

Doug, we met you when you were selling your 17 a few years ago in London. We are doing alaska this summer in our 21!!

[Yakanaka]

Fred, Dora and Flaco, you guys are amazing. I hope we can enjoy life the way you do when we retire! Thanks for posting so much. I'm using your posts to plan our trip north.

[75thRanger]

Took a trip to Juneau back in, I think 1962, I remember it was before the big quake.

Went from Fairbanks to Whitehorse in the Yukon territory. Put my car on the narrow gauge railway flatcar and jumped in the old passenger car. Wood stove in it! Off to Skagway.

That was some ride. Out of a tunnel and onto a bridge. Don't look down if afraid of heights! Most of the trip followed the old gold rush trail from Skagway to Whitehorse, or so the conductor said. Pointed out junk down below that he said was trash discarded on the trail up the mountain. Those had to be hard people.

Boarded the ferry at Skagway for the trip to Juneau. I can't remember how long it took but it was a nice trip.

[Red Dog]

Originally Posted by Yakanaka

Fred, Dora and Flaco, you guys are amazing. I hope we can enjoy life the way you do when we retire! Thanks for posting so much. I'm using your posts to plan our trip north.

Your kind words are much appreciated. We can hardly wait to return and spend more time in Alaska!

By the way... we ran into this video on YouTube and thought you might enjoy it too. In our opinion, it was very well made.

Fred M.