North Carolina to Alaska July 2011

[Jager]

:smiley_drive:I've been planning my trip to Alaska for this summer for a couple of years. I'm within a month of starting the trip so am starting this thread to start posting my info and pics as I go. The trip will begin approx 15 July and I'll return sometime in Sept. My vehicle is an 2008 FJ Cruiser and I have an expedition trailer with RTT following me.

[m(a)ce]

sweet! subscribing - :lurk:

if you have time please post up pics of your rig, build specs & what you're planning on taking.

looking forward to this.

[Captain K-man]

Subscribed

[kai38]

Awesome trip, I just got back this week, also drove an FJ Cruiser towing a M416.
I was able to find free camping all but 2 nights,
Brought a lantern, 3 good flashlights & headlamps, never needed them sun was down 2 hrs a day. Lack of sleep was getting to me.
PM me if you want the site w/ my pictures I also have the campsites waypointed for GPS
Have fun

[Jager]

Here's the FJ and the trailer. I'm installing a tranny oil cooler this weekend so will take better pics of the rig on the road.

6414364144

[Jager]

Hopefully this works. I'm experimenting with photo bucket and an iPad. This is a new pic of the FJ with the new body armor bumper.

http://http://i1182.photobucket.com/albums/x448/Toddk375/0cc51103.png (http://i1182.photobucket.com/albums/x448/Toddk375/0cc51103.png)

[Captain K-man]

that link worked, nice bumper

[jeffjeeptj]

Nice looking unit. What is you rplanned route from OBX? I-40?

[Jager]

Yes, actually just south of Morehead so I'll take 24 to 40 and head north from there.

[Jager]

Here's a better pic of the FJ and trailer. :Wow1:


65083

Matt, lot's going on and it's taking a while to get updates. Here's the basic rig, with a Camping Labs RTT, small one. I've got the Body Armor Bumper, Smittybilt XRC8 winch, Hi light Apollo 100W driving lights, High lift extreme 48Inch. The trailer is a home built, I have a friend with a metal shop in his garage and some great metalworking skills. We designed the trailer to have the RTT, fenders and wheels match the FJ, water/fuel can holders, spare on the front, an Adventure Trailers MAX Coupler, tie downs from LetsGoAero on all four corners inside and out. The lid is hinged but didn't realize how hard it would be to open with the RTT so it doesn't get opened that way but I can pull it off with two people and use as a utility trailer. The tailgate is diamond plate and is reinforced to use as a table or seat.

The trip is planned as hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, and anything else I can get into up there. I'll have my 17 year old son with me for about half of the trip so it should be a lot of fun.

[83cj8]

Okay, I am all signed up and ready for your trip updates. You are probably knee deep in final preparations for the trip. Take lots of photos and post weekly if you can. Smoke those cigars at the end of a successful day and enjoy yourself.

[Schattenjager]

You should post your route here too - you can link in a google map of your trip - just click on the http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/images/editor/gmap.png link above and paste in your map.

Do you have a Milepost? GREAT resource for the trip.

Not knowing your route - are you planning on the Cassiar out of Seattle? I have driven the AK highway a few times and it is a little lack luster east of Calgary. Comparatively speaking of course.

[Photomike]

You should post your route here too - you can link in a google map of your trip - just click on the http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/images/editor/gmap.png link above and paste in your map.

Do you have a Milepost? GREAT resource for the trip.

Not knowing your route - are you planning on the Cassiar out of Seattle? I have drive the AK highway a fe times and it is a little lack luster east of Calgary. Comparatively speaking of course.

Is this an insult of the landscape around here? No wait it is true, south and east of Calgary can be a little (okay a lot) boring, north is a little better, west is great! Good thing is that on the major highways it is 110kmph so it goes by fast.

[m(a)ce]

sounds like a sweet setup.

looking forward to more pics & stories :ylsmoke:

[Jager]

Yes the last minute preps are wearing me out. I finally installed the tranny temp gauge today, had a bad connection that was driving me crazy but got it all working fine. Counted out my 50 cigars to take, took the fishing poles apart. Tomorrow I'll pull the wheels off the trailer to make sure everything looks ok, then lift the lid and install new gasket material. I have a little handloading and test firing for the big rifle, then I'll pull everything out of all the boxes and repack everything to make sure I have everything where it belongs (and I can find it).

My route will be through the border crossing north of Minot ND, then head north west through Edmonton. I'll be spending a few days with family in WI next week then onward.

[Jager]

Yes, the Milepost is an awesome piece of work. I've been drooling over mine for years, just got a new one.

[buel09]

I am all signed up too

[VW Jeeper]

Living in NC all my life, this trip is a dream of mine to make with my younger brother. I have to say I'm very jealous and also very excited to follow along. Please post up many pictures along the way as you have time.

[Dustycooper]

Sorry I missed the retirement! sure wish I had done something like this when I could have. Enjoy your deployment and post a lot for us to follow! Dusty

[Jager]

I packed most of the stuff up a few weeks ago but the final packup was just finished tonight and both the FJ and the trailer are stuffed. Once I make camp the first time there will be more room as I get rid of boxes and get the bedding in the tent,etc. I have a lot of stuff. I'll hit up a moderator to move this thread to the underway expeditions so you may have to look for the thread soon as I start out tomorrow morning :bike_rider:

[Hitch-Toys]

It is a great trip, enjoy! I work at Prudhoe so I am here 3 weeks on and 3 weeks off. I am here now until the 3rd of Aug. If it works out time wise I would love to show you around a little. A fellow FJ owner. There have been lots of rigs up here this summer. Just bring bug spray..:Wow1:

[Jager]

First opportunity for an update beyond the normal Facebook checkin. I left WI on Tues morning a little late to let the tent dry out. Nothing to report along the way, trying to make good time and got as far as Glendive MT and stopped for a nap. Slept about an hour and was wide awake so headed for the Port of Raymond to enter Canada. Made it through customs in about 45 minutes, thought the lady was going to strip search me, wasn't looking forward to it, not a pleasant person but got through. Drove to Regina with a awesome lightning display all night, three electrical storms ahead but didn't get any rain from any of them. That was route 6, two lane but clear sailing all the way. Stopped for breakfast and headed for Saskatoon then towards Edmonton and finally looked for a campsite and pulled in at Saguardo? at the speedway and set up there, slept like a baby. Left there early and headed for Dawson Cr then on to Ft Nelson. Drove until about midnight and stopped just past Liard Hotsprings, slept in a pullout until about 5:30. Up and driving and am having lunch in Whitehorse and heading north. Pics will have to wait until I get somewhere that the wifi supports uploading pics to photo bucket. I'm able to email pics to Facebook but photo bucket is taking forever. I have some cool pics of the mountains and some wildlife and will post when I have adequate connectivity. :Wow1:

[Jager]

Finally some bandwidth. Here are a few pics from the trip.
http://s1182.photobucket.com/albums/x448/Toddk375/. I'm still putting titles on some of them, some don't need them.

[x32792]

What brand expo trailer and what do you like the best and least about it?

Thanks in advance for your response.

[m(a)ce]

Glad to see some of the wildlife! Keep em coming.

[Jager]

We're fishing for King Salmon this week on the Klutina river and having a great time. Photobucket quit working so can't post pics right now. We drove the Richardson Highway down from Delta Junction, lots of great sights, mountains and glaciers. We're in view of Wrangell-St Elias, snow covered and majestic in the distance.

As far as the trailer, it's a home design and home built. Designed for cargo and the RTT, fenders and tires, track width, all match the FJ. Other than a minor frame reinforcement it has no issues. A friend of mine has a metal shop in his garage and does awesome work.

[Frank]

I would have loved to see that "leave itinerary". haha..."Where you heading for leave......Alaska, Sir!"
Very Jealous.

Ill be watching this thread!

Semper Fi, Sir.

[Jager]

I've updated the photobucket album. Went to the north slope. Dalton hwy is rough in a few places. Some construction, they wet the road to keep dust down then it rains. Miles of soupy road with several inches built up on the fenders. No issues going up but 2 stars and 2 cracks in the windshield coming down, and a flat that I plugged. Beautiful country.

I'm glad I put a tranny cooler and temp gauge in. I hit 215 going over the Atigun Pass heading north, easier coming south and only hit 195.

[Warhawk]

Nice trip, I can't wait until my boys are old enough for an expo. Your son will remember this trip for the rest of his life.

[Jager]

Yes, he's having a blast. Not having too much luck finding black bears right now but we're hunting them at the wrong time of year. Still having fun though and every day brings another cool experience or sight.

[Jager]

I've added a few pics to the photo bucket album. No big updates, went to Denali state park for a week looking for black bear with no luck. The ranger there told us that we were really trying to find them at the wrong time of year. Too much vegetation and they are low near the creeks, not the nice wide ones with gravel banks, the grizzlys claim those. Theyre in the little overgrown ones, I'm not done yet, I know how to crawl in the brush. But first I'm heading back to the north slope for another look for caribou. That should bring another round of pics as I find something cool everywhere I go. Here's the link again.

http://s1182.photobucket.com/albums/x448/Toddk375/

[Jager]

I"m back home, long drive. I'll admit this wasn't really the textbook overland expedition as I wasn't overly interested in a lot of the countryside I travelled so went through much of it quickly. I woke up in Fairbanks on Monday morning and slept in my own bed on Friday night in coastal Carolina. I did have a blast travelling Alaska which was my goal. I travelled most of the driveable part of the state to include three trips up the Dalton Highway. I'll post a story on that in a separate post.

[Jager]

This is a story of preparedness or lack thereof. On one of my trips up the Dalton Hwy I was flagged down by a broken down Pajero,
nice looking rig with snorkel, lift and big tires, nice roof rack. It was a young- 20 ish German lad driving. He asked if I had a jack to help him change a tire. He had his car shipped over and had driven much of Canada, apparently this was his first flat tire. He had a large steel footlocker full of tools but neither the bottle jack nor the floor jack he had would lift up the front end so he could change a tire. I supplied a bottle jack that lifted it, he didn't have a lug wrench, just a half inch socket set without a breaker bar or cheater bar and couldn't break the lugs loose so I provided a lug wrench. When he went to put the spare on, it didn't fit, wrong size center hole. He didn't have a tire repair kit but I had one and told him to put some air in the tire so we could see where it was leaking, he produced a $10 compressor that after about five minutes still didn't have enough air in the tire to do anything so I pulled out mine and plugged the tire and had him on his way. But after all that, he was still on the Dalton Hwy halfway from Coldfoot to Deadhorse without a jack, lug wrench, or spare, he was still one flat tire from being stranded. I'm not bragging about being prepared, but this kid thought he was ready for the trip. He hadn't tested either of the two jacks, one being a 2 ton floor jack, compressor, tools, etc. I'll admit that I drool over some of the articles in the Overland Journal like the one on building the ultimate tool kit but will state that all my tools save the jack and lugwrench fit in a 14 inch tool bag.

Buying stuff doesn't make you prepared unless it works and you know how to use it.