First, I'd like to thank everyone who posted and gave me such positive feedback. It was and is gratifying to know that the time I was spending was worth it. I'm not sure why it took so long, but each batch of posts often took an hour or two. So while Lesley was out wandering the various places, I was at the computer. I'm not complaining, since I enjoyed doing an on-going running commentary rather than an after-the-fact posting.
Suggestions and comments
In this post, I'll suggest what I found useful and/or necessary.
Keep in mind the conditions of our trip:
* two people sleeping in the Delica, not tenting. We sleep with our heads at the tailgate end
* most meals were purchased, though often as takeout to be eaten further down the road (we had planned to cook dinners, it didn't happen)
* summer time, so insects and hot weather were an issue
* we did no day hikes, although we planned to (with the terrifying exception of the Moosehide)
* we drove the Dempster (yes, that had a significant impact on our planning) It is gravel/mud/shale/dirt, all the rest of the highways are paved
* we were in the far north during the summer. In Inuvik, it was never dark the 6 days and 4 "nights" we were there.
* the only major roads we drove that could/should be considered remote were the Cassiar and Dempster highways.
Our route, in brief (highways in parentheses):
Calgary - Vancouver - Whistler (Sea to Sky) - Lillooet - Williams Lake (Cariboo) - Prince George (Yellowhead) - Smithers (Yellowhead) - Kitwanga (Cassiar) - Stewart (Cassiar) - Watson Lake YK (Alaska) - Whitehorse YK (Klondike) - Dawson City YK (Dempster) - Inuvik (Dempster) - Inuvik (Dempster) - Dawson City YK - Dawson City YK (Klondike) - Whitehorse YK (Alaska) - Fort St. John BC - Grande Prairie AB (no-name highways) - Whitecourt - Calgary.
These suggestions are in no particular order
1) Bug spray. Depending on the season, and your level of outdoor activity, and suceptability to bugs.
2) mosquito netting. We used one designed for tropical beds, and covered only the bed/matress. It clipped onto the tailgate curtain rails, then with rare-earth magnets to the upper sides of the roof, hanging down to cover the entire back inside of the Delica around the matress. (This works on CrystalLite roof, would not work on high roof without CrystalLite because its upper sides are not magnetic.) Meant that the rest of the vehicle would have mosquitoes in the morning, but putting screens on the windows would have let them all in when you open the doors.
3) Dark curtains and/or eye patches recommended if you have trouble sleeping in light.
4) Install cutoff switches for all doors. These switches mean a door can be left open for ventilation without any lights coming on to attract bugs or ruin night vision. Stock Delicas can't do that unless you have a cutoff switch on the sliding door step. If you are going to do that, might as well finish the job. My tailgate switch also allows me to turn the lights on without moving, since it is mounted in the centre just below the window.
5) A strap or handle to let you close the tailgate hatch without getting out of bed. I put a foot-long strap, attached just below the window, that you could pretty much reach without getting out of bed. When staying in a campground and it wasn't raining, we would have the hatch wide open (till mud made it too heavy) and the sliding door open. The strap was handy when it started to rain to be able to close the hatch easily. When we "wild camped", we only had the hatch propped open 6" or so, and kept the sliding door closed. We aren't normally paranoid, but this year (2008) the bears were too numerous and hungry to risk otherwise.
6) If you have monsoon guards on your front windows, keep them on. Very handy to be able to have the front door windows open some for ventilation without the rain coming in.
7) If you have a newer Delica with the centre brakelight (1992+) and therefore no access to the tailgate's lock button, do the fix (
link). Yes, most nights we would remember to unlock the tailgate before getting out of the driver's seat, but it only takes once to make you appreciate the effort. Also handy during the day if you don't have aftermarket remote locking.
8) Handle on the bottom inside of the tailgate so you can close it when standing behind it without touching the outside. Useful when you've driven gravel or dirt roads (or offroading) and the outside is covered in mud. You can use the strap mentioned above, but a handle at the bottom gives much better leverage.
9) Jerry cans for fuel were not used, but very comforting to know you have 20 or 40 litres of extra fuel. The longest stretch without gas stations (or any other services for that matter) is the south half of the Dempster at 370 km long. If no fuel is available at Eagle Plains for whatever reason (e.g., they close at 10PM), then mile zero to Fort McPherson is about 525 km.
10) The Northern store gas station in Fort McPherson is at the far end of town. The Coop gas station is right by the highway. The Northern store's diesel was 12 cents per litre cheaper (July 2008).
11) Get the
Milepost. It is the best guidebook out there for most of the northern highways. Details of what is there, kilometre by kilometre. Covers the Cassiar, Alaska, Dempster, Top of the World, Dalton, Sea to Sky, and many other highways. Worth the 30 bucks, even if it is big and heavy.
12) Lots of windshield washer fluid. We happened to hit the gravel/dirt/mud roads when there was no traffic and only 100km of dust, so we ended up doing 10,000 km without having to refill, but I think that is very unusual. By the way, we got enough mud on the tailgate the rear washer stopped working until I cleaned the mud off the nozzle.
13) For those who are radio-inclined, a VHF radio on LADD1 (154.100 MHz) is very useful. Many truckers on the Dempster call out their location every 5 or 10 km, giving you advance notice. On the Alaska Highway, coming up on Summit Lake (eastbound, west of Fort Nelson), where the road is narrow, winding, and has no guardrails, we heard an oversize load coming up on us. So we pulled off at a rest area to let them go by, rather than testing our nerves and driving skills. A VHF radio is also useful in emergencies.
14) CB is pretty much useless. Only once did we hear anything on it, and that was on the Coquihalla announcing an accident that closed the highway in Chilliwack. But LADD1 gave us the same info a few minutes earlier, and without the swearing. CB has a range of about 5 km, VHF can be up to 30 km. But take the CB if you got it. In an emergency, anything is better than nothing.
15) Have a full size spare tire (2 recommended for Dempster and anywhere in Alaska). In Pelly Crossing we helped a rental van put on their temporary spare. They then faced the prospect of driving the 200+ km to Dawson City, the nearest place with anything resembling a garage. A fully loaded van at 70 km/h for 200 km on a doughnut tire is not a fun prospect. The Dempster can easily eat tires. I've talked to people who went through 4 tires, and others who destroyed none (ourselves included). Our Delica wears light truck tires (Bridgestone Dueler AT Revo LT 235/75R15, not the P 235/75R15 version), 6 of them, all on the same rims, so all 6 are part of the tire rotation scheme. We knew when we bought the Delica we would be doing this trip, so bought tires to suit.
16) Don't follow the grader when it is scraping. A maintenance truck driver on the Dempster told us this. He said the grader scrapes off the top layer, exposing the sharp rocks underneath. Parts of the Dempster are surfaced with shale. When it is fresh, it is extremely sharp and will slice the sidewalls of the tire. (Keep in mind humans have been using shale and slate and flint to make arrow- and spearheads for thousands of years.)
16) Carry a tire repair kit and compressor. Won't fix a shale slash, but a quick plug and fillup on a nail is a lot easier than putting the spare on.
17) If you plan to wild camp (i.e., not in a campground), PM or e-mail me your route and I can supply the locations of the spots we used. We didn't wild camp as much as planned due to the bears. So we stayed in campgrounds instead.
18) In the first couple of hundred km of the Alaska Highway (Dawson Creek, BC to west of Fort Nelson), be careful of wild camping. There are lots of great well access roads that are very untravelled, but many of the wells are sour gas wells. When you see the "Danger Poisonous H2S Gas No Camping" signs, you might want to heed them.
19) Carry a towstrap or towrope at the very least. Hopefully used only to help someone else, but, as Docsavage has demonstrated, it only takes an instant of inattention to get into a situation.
20) Spare parts? We carried belts, oil and fuel filters, and a couple of air filters. We ended up not needing any except the oil filter (routine change in Whitehorse), but slightly different conditions on a dirt road like the Dalton, Top of the World, or Dempster could easily require several air filters. I will probably change the fuel filter soon.
21) Carry fuel additive. I don't want to start up the always/sometimes/never debate, but some of the fuel up there doesn't seem the best. I noticed that the fuel tanks at a couple of stations were labeled "low sulpher", not "ultra low sulpher". Some stations' fuel caused the Delica to smoke quite a bit, then the next it wouldn't smoke. I'm normally in the "occasionally" camp for additives, but on this trip I ended up adding it "usually" in the Yukon & NWT.
22) On the Dempster, drive "Dempster style." What does that mean? Slalom, use the entire road, drive wherever it is the smoothest, even if that is along the very left edge. (Subject to oncoming traffic of course.) Why bounce through potholes if you don't have to? BTW, the guy in front doesn't always pick the best line, so use your own judgement.
23) Awning and lawn chairs aren't necessay. The few times we stopped reasonably early and could have used them, it was either too buggy, or we were too tired.
24) Yukon territorial campgrounds are great. Outhouses, pumps with boil water notices for water, free firewood, no hookups, no electricity, $12 per night. So most RVs go to the private campgrounds with the full hookups, leaving the territorial campgrounds for the more adventurous types. And they are never full.
25) Get the free Yukon tourist guide available everywhere up there. The 2008 one has coupons for 4 cents/litre discount on fuel at a bunch of places.
Just my opinion. Hope it helps others plan their journeys.
Fred & Lesley
"Erebus" & "the Raven"