Sunday, July 26, 2015

*START* of Alaska Trip, July 2015

Summary:
Our first trip to Alaska. This was a looong drive, almost 16,500 km in all. We were gone 5 weeks and 1 day.

Miscellaneous Notes:
This was the first tough trip for our 2014 Sprinter van. It worked well for us again. It averaged 8.6 L/100K (or 32.7 Cdn mpg) for the trip. Van odometer went from 15,642 to 32,109. We went out via Canada and back via the US and Canada. It was a nice mix, seeing new areas in BC, and new and familiar areas in the central US.

Sunday July 26:
We got away about 5:50 EDT, across hwy 4 on a beautiful morning, tempered by thick fog south of Wasaga and Collingwood. 12C starting temp.



Breakfast at a McD in Parry Sound about 7:55, up to 18C by then. A couple admiring our van mentioned we were lucky to have missed the 6-hr hwy closure the day before. An accident caused a lot of people to spend the night in the area.

Nice lunch spot in a town park in Blind River, about 12 noon.

By 3:15 EDT we had made it to the Agawa Crafts Esso at Pancake Bay, about halfway between Sault Ste Marie and Wawa. Diesel was $1.10.9 there, but fortunately we didn’t need any, as the pumps were very crowded. Unfortunately we had filled up on the way out of Sault Ste Marie at $1.25.9 instead! Lots of people around the ACE today.

By 4pm we were camped at a nice water-view site in the Agawa Bay cg (unserviced, seniors rate $32.50) in Lake Superior Park. 

We were brave enough to put our feet in the water, but it was too cold for us to take a dip. We unwound with a beer and smoked salmon (from the Agawa Crafts). 

It got up to 31C for a while today, too hot for us, but by 3:30 had dropped to 23C, about perfect. After a walk we cooked up some of Janine’s new potatoes with ground beef and onions.

Several things here indicated the trend for a lot of the trip:
- Didn’t need levelling blocks for the van
- No hookups needed
- We don’t seem to notice the traffic noise nearly as much when sleeping in the van as with the trailers over the years, likely due to the van insulation type.
- Simple meal prep
- Early start and early stop
- Great range for the van. We usually filled up when about ½ full, which gave us a 500 km cushion.

Today's route:



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