Visit our Popular Forums

Uncle Bill · 05-22-2014, 06:11 AM

Correction from Uncle Bill.......The product, plastic cardboard is from Home Depot, not Lowes. SORRY

BusDriver · 05-27-2014, 11:12 PM

We are in tonight, Teslin, next and then Whitehorse for several days. Have seen 12 bears, 3 caribou, many dear, 1 cute little red fox, 12 bison and one momma bear with 3 little cubs. The scenery is spectacular and the roads are in very good shape, nothing different than driving across Montana and other northern states.

Be sure to check out my undated blog:
Streamin with Joe and Buddy

GettinAway · 05-29-2014, 06:48 AM

The blog is great. Good pics. I can't see if you've added any extra protection to the front guards? Are you going to try the top of the world highway. Chicken is a neat little town.
Good luck & safe travels.
Jeff

Cyquest · 05-29-2014, 08:16 AM

Here's a tip. If you go on a hike, make noise and carry a big stick. Bears and cougers don't like being surprised. Good luck and safe travels!

IanPoulin · 05-29-2014, 08:57 AM

Agreed - make sure you are wearing your bear bells - and note some bells are sensitive to some specific breeds and not others.

crisen · 05-29-2014, 01:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IanPoulin

Agreed - make sure you are wearing your bear bells - and note some bells are sensitive to some specific breeds and not others.

This reminds me of the old joke - "When you are in bear country how do you tell if they are black bears or grizzlies? - Black bear scat is plain poop, grizzly scat is full of little bells."

GettinAway · 05-30-2014, 04:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by crisen

This reminds me of the old joke - "When you are in bear country how do you tell if they are black bears or grizzlies? - Black bear scat is plain poop, grizzly scat is full of little bells."

I think it smells like pepper also.. (Spray)

I've never heard that some bells were better than others. When we were in Yellowstone hiking, I knew we wouldn't surprise anything. We had a five year old that never stopped talking.

Until he said, look Dad a bear. There was a big grizzly about 20 yards from us, just walked on by.. Whew. We were by a stream, and I was focused on putting his shoes back on him, he had been wading. I'm just glad he wasn't hungry.

Uncle Bill · 05-30-2014, 05:07 AM

Who were you focused on putting shoes on and who was it that you were glad he was not hungry? Just a little confused who "He" was.

Uncle Bill

Monday morning we pull out...............North to Alaska!

GettinAway · 05-31-2014, 05:16 AM

I was putting shoes on the five yr old, glad the "grizz" wasn't hungry. Sorry about that. Some of my early morning posts can be a bit hard to follow. (5 yr old son) ;-)

Are you going to post some pictures along the way? Hope so, if you do, please let us know where. (If you start a report in "On the road" or somewhere else.

Thx
Jeff

BusDriver · 05-31-2014, 08:06 AM

Uncle Bill, glad to here that you are still on schedule........come on up, the weather is great, we are leaving Whitehorse this AM

Blog: Streamin with Joe and Buddy

StreamlineAK · 06-04-2014, 03:20 PM

Bus Driver: Did you apply a covering over the front of trailer as recommended? If so, what was it? Do you feel like you need it? I am picking my BRAND new trailer in Oregon, then bring in up the Cassier Hwy. and the dealer seems to think any covering will rub and cause scratches.

BusDriver · 06-04-2014, 11:31 PM

StreamlinaAK

No, we did not apply a covering, Joe felt we didn't need it and he was worried about it rubbing. So far we have not needed it. BUT, tomorrow we leave Dawson City and head up the "Top of the World". I have not seen anyone with any sort of protective covering. There were two Aistreamers here yesterday, from Idaho and California in newer rigs and they didn't have any covering. We did however purchase a big mud flap, the kind that goes onto your hitch call "Rock Tamers". It's pretty solid and I think better than the ones that have the bristles going across. I guess we will find out tomorrow. Tomorrow's drive is the only one I am concerned about for rocks. I have heard that the later you go on the Alaskan or Cassier the more pot holes have been covered up.

Good Luck, check out my blog

BusDriver · 06-04-2014, 11:58 PM

Leaving Dawson City in the morning, check out the new postings on my blog.

StreamlineAK · 06-05-2014, 10:31 AM

Thanks! I think I am going cover free as well, i think the rubbing could be a larger risk. I am also looking into rock tamers.

50KIP · 06-05-2014, 06:49 PM

I hope to be following Busdriver's route in July. I have noticed that there have been a number of moderate earthquakes recently in southern Alaska and Yukon around Haines Junction. Anybody feel them?

BusDriver · 06-05-2014, 11:47 PM

We are in Tok, AK, we only had lunch at Chicken and then kept on driving. We got to Tok with NO VISIBLE DENTS OR SCRATCHES. ........Yea!!!!!!! We did drive slow and stop when a car passed us or came toward us.

The Top of the World was a very good road, there has already been a lot of grading........Except for 13 miles of road construction from the Alaskan boarder. The road was very rough, lots of large gravel chunks. They still need to put in the fine dirt and gravel. If at all possible I would try to do this on a Sunday when they are not working. Today, Monday they were not working, don't know why.

We are staying for free behind the Shell Station, large mostly level lot. Ate at Fast Eddy's, very good dinner, then every night during the summer at 7:30 is a little trio of Bluegrass music, next door to Fast Eddy's. They are really good.

We will wash the truck and trailer in Fairbanks, but right now I don't see any marks from rocks. The Rock Tamers worked very nicely

On to Fairbanks tomorrow, no blog tonight.

BusDriver · 06-05-2014, 11:51 PM

I heard about the earth quakes but have not felt them, course we were on a pretty rough road driving 13 - 20 mph for 13 miles.

GettinAway · 06-06-2014, 03:44 AM

Very cool you guys drove the TOW with your Airstream! Great memories for sure.
I'll check out the blog again for pics. Are you thinking about going up the Dalton?
You will be in Fairbanks. (Maybe just go up to the Article Circle for a picture,, without the Airstream.)
Your trip is inspiring. How are the skeeters?

Silver Goose · 06-06-2014, 06:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BusDriver

I heard about the earth quakes but have not felt them, course we were on a pretty rough road driving 13 - 20 mph for 13 miles.

I think the official word is that Alaska sees 50-100 earthquakes per day. Depending on where you and they are, you may not notice the vast majority and certainly the motion of driving would soak up many that you might feel if otherwise standing still. There are a number of apps for smartphones and tablets that tap into the live feeds and show these things on a map, but then connectivity is sparse and we go on our way just as the rest of life in Alaska allocating our attention to the beauty of this remaining wilderness.

We will be headed that way in a few weeks so hope to cross paths with many of you this summer. Just installed a set of Rock Tamers also and opted not to add anything extra to the front of the AS.

Uncle Bill · 06-07-2014, 08:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BusDriver

We are in Tok, AK, we only had lunch at Chicken and then kept on driving. We got to Tok with NO VISIBLE DENTS OR SCRATCHES. ........Yea!!!!!!! We did drive slow and stop when a car passed us or came toward us.

The Top of the World was a very good road, there has already been a lot of grading........Except for 13 miles of road construction from the Alaskan boarder. The road was very rough, lots of large gravel chunks. They still need to put in the fine dirt and gravel. If at all possible I would try to do this on a Sunday when they are not working. Today, Monday they were not working, don't know why.

We are staying for free behind the Shell Station, large mostly level lot. Ate at Fast Eddy's, very good dinner, then every night during the summer at 7:30 is a little trio of Bluegrass music, next door to Fast Eddy's. They are really good.

We will wash the truck and trailer in Fairbanks, but right now I don't see any marks from rocks. The Rock Tamers worked very nicely

On to Fairbanks tomorrow, no blog tonight.

It is wonderful to read all your adventures as we are way behind. We managed to get to Rapid City, SD where we are in a holding pattern. Both of us have some kind of virus affecting the digestive tract. We have spent two nights in this holding pattern and have gone to urgent care to make sure we do not have anything serious enough to suggest that we not enter Canada. The provider there felt we would be ok in a few days, but I (Uncle Bill) can not venture too far from the toilet. We are setting tight (play on words) for a while.

Saddly, Uncle Bill