Prep for the Alaskan trip: Looking at the GPS route-planning maps, the software suggested it would take 12 eight-hour driving days to get to Deadhorse. Of course, it would also take the same amount of time to get back. This was not an appealing route: almost a month --- 24 days --- on the roads with a single destination (no side trips), up and back, using the same roads both ways. The little crescent moons along the route, below, show where the software said there should be an overnight stop, if I were to drive 8 hours every day: 
I began thinking in terms of minimizing the time it would take to get to and from Alaska in order to have more time to explore the State. Maybe I'd take advantage of the long summer daylight and have some 12 hour driving days on the way up and back.... Hmmmm. I've done long-distance trips before, and sporadically participate in what's sometimes called "endurance riding" on my motorcycle. (Yes, it's a real sport. If you're interested, the amusingly-named Iron Butt Association can provide information on safe and sane ways to cover long distances.)
Once you're set up properly and know the tricks to make long-distance riding safe, it's really not that hard or dangerous to cover a lot of real estate. In the last few years, I've done 1,000-mile (1,600-km) rides on four separate occasions. And my longest single ride so far covered a little more than 1,500 miles in one 36-hour push — stopping only for food, gas, calls of nature, and (twice) for roadside "power naps." In truth, this Alaskan trip originally was to be a motorcycle ride, and I had even purchased the bike for the job. But that plan was taking too long to come together, and I was getting older every day. <g> So, I was planning a car trip. Cars are more comfortable than motorcycles; if I could do long distances on a bike, surely I could do the same in a car. I still work for a living and had to be able to find wifi and cell phone connections on deadline days along the route. The drive through the Yukon, and later along the Dalton, would be mostly in connection-free areas. I needed routing that would deliver me to a connection-rich environment on the days I needed to work online. With that, the details started to sort themselves out. Plugging in theoretical 12-hour driving days suggested this route, with overnight stops more or less naturally falling near locations that seemed certain to have good connectivity: Chicago, Fargo, Saskatoon Saskatchewan, maybe Dawson's Creek British Columbia (the semiofficial "Mile zero" of the "AlCan" Alaska Highway [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Highway], which I'd be driving), Whitehorse in the Yukon Territories, somewhere in SE Alaska, and then Anchorage, where I'd resupply before heading to the far north via the Dalton. Here's what it looked like.
But that's a hell-for-leather speed run, and I knew there were parts of this trip where I'd want to go slow and take in the scenery. So, figured I'd slow things down and allow 10 days to get to Anchorage. I could take my time crossing the northern Rockies and driving the Alaskan Highway across the Yukon. That sounded better. Once resupplied in Anchorage, I'd head north to the Arctic Ocean, spending about 5 camping days above the Arctic Circle. I'd adjust my return to Anchorage to use up whatever "extra" time I had in exploring southern Alaska and the Kenai peninsula, including a ferry ride that was supposed to offer great views of mountains and glaciers. Then: homeward. It would take just about exactly a month. Here's the Alaskan portion, as planned:
I bought a copy of Milepost (http://milepost.com/), a thorough annual guide to Alaskan roads; and got maps and books from government and tourist agencies in Alaska, and from each of the Canadian Provinces I'd cross. I bought a new GPS, in order to have the very latest maps; and fed in the routes. (I would also carry my old GPS as a spare.) I was almost ready. I picked June 1, 2010, as my start date, and made the final preparations. Next in this series: "Heading out, or: Why sleeping in the back of my car seemed like a good idea.
I began thinking in terms of minimizing the time it would take to get to and from Alaska in order to have more time to explore the State. Maybe I'd take advantage of the long summer daylight and have some 12 hour driving days on the way up and back.... Hmmmm. I've done long-distance trips before, and sporadically participate in what's sometimes called "endurance riding" on my motorcycle. (Yes, it's a real sport. If you're interested, the amusingly-named Iron Butt Association can provide information on safe and sane ways to cover long distances.)Once you're set up properly and know the tricks to make long-distance riding safe, it's really not that hard or dangerous to cover a lot of real estate. In the last few years, I've done 1,000-mile (1,600-km) rides on four separate occasions. And my longest single ride so far covered a little more than 1,500 miles in one 36-hour push — stopping only for food, gas, calls of nature, and (twice) for roadside "power naps." In truth, this Alaskan trip originally was to be a motorcycle ride, and I had even purchased the bike for the job. But that plan was taking too long to come together, and I was getting older every day. <g> So, I was planning a car trip. Cars are more comfortable than motorcycles; if I could do long distances on a bike, surely I could do the same in a car. I still work for a living and had to be able to find wifi and cell phone connections on deadline days along the route. The drive through the Yukon, and later along the Dalton, would be mostly in connection-free areas. I needed routing that would deliver me to a connection-rich environment on the days I needed to work online. With that, the details started to sort themselves out. Plugging in theoretical 12-hour driving days suggested this route, with overnight stops more or less naturally falling near locations that seemed certain to have good connectivity: Chicago, Fargo, Saskatoon Saskatchewan, maybe Dawson's Creek British Columbia (the semiofficial "Mile zero" of the "AlCan" Alaska Highway [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Highway], which I'd be driving), Whitehorse in the Yukon Territories, somewhere in SE Alaska, and then Anchorage, where I'd resupply before heading to the far north via the Dalton. Here's what it looked like.
But that's a hell-for-leather speed run, and I knew there were parts of this trip where I'd want to go slow and take in the scenery. So, figured I'd slow things down and allow 10 days to get to Anchorage. I could take my time crossing the northern Rockies and driving the Alaskan Highway across the Yukon. That sounded better. Once resupplied in Anchorage, I'd head north to the Arctic Ocean, spending about 5 camping days above the Arctic Circle. I'd adjust my return to Anchorage to use up whatever "extra" time I had in exploring southern Alaska and the Kenai peninsula, including a ferry ride that was supposed to offer great views of mountains and glaciers. Then: homeward. It would take just about exactly a month. Here's the Alaskan portion, as planned: 
I bought a copy of Milepost (http://milepost.com/), a thorough annual guide to Alaskan roads; and got maps and books from government and tourist agencies in Alaska, and from each of the Canadian Provinces I'd cross. I bought a new GPS, in order to have the very latest maps; and fed in the routes. (I would also carry my old GPS as a spare.) I was almost ready. I picked June 1, 2010, as my start date, and made the final preparations. Next in this series: "Heading out, or: Why sleeping in the back of my car seemed like a good idea. 
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