Yet again I'm putting my faith in my little 'roo. In about seven and a half hours, I'm taking off for Anchorage, 700-some miles away. The weather doesn't look too bad, as it's most likely just snowing and blowing in the chilkat pass, and it's forecasted to be 20-40 below from Haines Junction through Glenallen, which should give pretty good traction.

 

Just giving a heads-up to Matt so he knows I'm coming, and doing a bit of praying to the internal-combustion gods.

Good luck!

It's about 10 above here in Anchorage currently Snowman. Hope you make it with no troubles.

Kelly, got the message. If you break down before 5 P.M., call me at work - 907-376-5341. I'll be home by 5 . Good luck.

Snowman, I hope you made it fine. Post to let me know you made it - either tonight when you get in or tomorrow when you get around to it.

Snowman, let me know if you've arrived in Anchorage. If I haven't seen a posting by this evening, I'll know something is amiss.

I couldn't post last night because my connection was down for some reason.

 

We made it just fine, but it was a pretty lame trip. First we had an hour delay waiting for plows to remove a foot and a half of snow in the Haines pass (that was B.S.). It wasn't too cold, although I set my coffee on the roof, and after it fell off there was a huge coffee-sicle down most of that side of the car. My fuel economy wasn't too abominable, considering the circumstances, and I think I probably ended up using another two quarts of oil. I also now have a tire that leaks around the bead and had to be aired-up in tok and glenallen, and now again in anchorage.

 

From eureka all the way to palmer, we couldn't see more than 10 or 20 feet in front of the car most of the time. One of the scariest experiences in my life, since they don't have reflective snow-poles there. One of those, "Where's the road and where's that guy that was coming up behind pretty fast?" things, for about two hours. The entire trip took a dismal seventeen hours to complete, but Roxanne is here and ready for her rebuild.

Good to see you arrived safely.

Finally got all my pics up from Christmas break. Here's one that I took near Tok before it got dark and nasty.

Thanks for the good picture Snowman. Glad you made the trip ok and hope the operation on Roxanne goes well.

376?? Isnt that a Mat-Su valley number?

 

Glad you made it... never a doubt. I miss drives like that. Here in cali, a 700 mile drive takes you through city's and you have to hop on and off of 10 different freeways to make it where you want to go. At least in Alaska you point your car either north, or south, and keep the foot on the peddle and watch the scenery pass you by.

 

-Brian

glad to hear you made it..

 

I was sittin home last night wonderin if I was gonna get a call from ya somewhere between glenallen and tok..

 

Nice pic of your car....

 

Damn I wanna go roadtrippin..

Brian, yes - 376 is a Valley number - Wasilla High School, to be exact.

 

Kelly, is the trip to Haines smoother in the Winter than the Summer? Less problemswith gravel slide? How was the Caribou Creek construction?

Wasilla High School

 

GO WARRIORS!! (I hope i didnt get that wrong) Had a few friends that went there. I moved to Anchorage before made it to H.S. Grew up in Wasilla tho, love the place.

 

-Brian

Do they use salt in Alaska?

 

Mark,

Not anymore, they used to in the '80's but stopped cause of the rust it caused. Now they use sand. EA81's were destroyed by the salt tho, you'll never find a rust-less EA81.

 

-Brian

Matt,

As long as there are no white-out conditions or really slick roads, the trip is a lot smoother in the winter than during the summer. All the construction has been cleaned up and smoothed out pretty well, so I didn't even have to slow down most of the time. During the summer months, the construction and RVs combine to slow you down immensely. This summer, I found it wasn't too bad when I left Anchorage at 5pm and drove overnight when there isn't much traffic and they aren't working on the road.

 

The only bad thing about this trip in the winter is that no matter when you leave, it's going to be dark for most of the drive, which can be fatiguing. I don't think I would want to make the trip without my auxilliary lights.

 

My straight-through times so far have been as follows:

 

Anchorage to Haines during summer: 13.5 hrs plus 2 hr nap

Anchorage to Haines during winter: 14.5 hrs

Haines to Anchorage with sickly subaru, during bad winter conditions and with delays: 17 hrs

if I may....a pic from NC's snow.

 

snow removal via broom.