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Recovery of two M101A2 trailers from Anchorage, AK
A couple of months ago, I won two ¾ ton trailers on a GL auction in Anchorage. I was working, so a friend pulled the units from the base to his house. Anchorage is about 750 road miles, plus a 60 mile ferry ride from my home in Juneau. Early Thursday morning (8-25) I took my 2007 Ram 2500 4X4 Quadcab (with a 6 sp. Manual trans) and headed for Anchorage, to recover the trailers. My friend Mark went along as co-driver and moral support. Our goal was to make the 1500 mile round trip in 3 days. We ended up driving from Haines to Anchorage and then back to Skagway. Here is a day by day report, all times are Alaska standard time.
Day 1-
Boarded the Alaska Ferry Matanuska and left Juneau at 0115, bound for Haines. Arrived in Haines about 0615. We drove out of Haines alongside the Chilkat River. We immediately saw a good brown bear (Grizzly) just a few feet from the road. We stopped at the 33 mile Roadhouse for a great breakfast. At mile 41 we crossed into British Columbia. We transited Chilkat Pass and on to the Yukon border at mile 85. We met the Alaska Highway at Haines Junction, mile 146. We were now on Highway 1, bound for Tok. We found this section of road to be in the worst condition of the trip. There were long distances of frost heaves. These heaves leave cracks, dropped pavement and a lot of dips and raised areas. If you hit them driving too fast, you will need dental work and suspension repairs! The bad spots are pretty well marked with signs and orange flags. The speed limit is about 55 mph (90 kph) but no one was driving that slow. All traffic was driving over 60, except to slow down for the heaved sections. Near White River, we saw a campground and RV resort that had a collection of MV’s. It turns out that this RV park was Camp Utah, during the construction of the ALCAN. We had a great visit with one of the owners and then looked over the trucks. I recommend that anyone driving this route, plan a stop there! They are MVPA members, also. We went through US Customs between Beaver Creek and Tok. At Tok, we took the Tok Cutoff Road to Glennallen, arriving about 2030. At Glennallen, we grabbed a motel and went for dinner in the motel’s café. It is hard to say if the meal or the motel was the worst, both were lousy. At $139 AAA rate for the room and $25 each for dinner, it was a real ripoff. (PM me if you want the name of the place!). This day was about 578 miles of driving.
Day 2-
We left Glennallen about 0730 and drove the roughly 190 miles to our Anchorage destination. This road was in pretty good shape. There was a section of about 30 miles that was being paved and had a 45 mph limit, near the Matanuska Glacier, as you descended the grade toward Palmer. After the repaving, the road gets pretty narrow, with a lot of switchbacks. From Palmer to Anchorage you are definitely entering an urban environment. We arrived at our destination about 1030 and started right in on prepping the trailers. We found both trailers to be in great condition. The canvas was good, the paint great and all mechanical stuff seemed to be in good or better condition. All four tires had great tread. Three of the four were in like-new condition. The fourth had age checking on the sidewall. We used two of the best tires on the ground for this trip. After stripping the canvas, sideboards and bows from both trailers, we were ready to stack them. We used a backhoe to flip one trailer and put it on top of the other trailer. I had brought two 7 foot long 2X6’s to lay crossways between the upper and lower trailers. We secured them together by using heavy truck ratchet straps. We crossed the straps diagonally from upper lifting eyes to lower lifting eyes on front and rear of the trailers. I then used one strap all the way around both trailers at the wheel well area (just for extra security). We removed the tires from the upper trailer and put them in the pickup, in case we needed to use them for a spare, on the road. Tire pressures, wheel bearing temps and straps were checked often after we left Anchorage. The bearings ran cool and the straps never loosened. We departed metro Anchorage about 1400. The State Fair was on in Palmer and we wanted to avoid the Friday night Fair traffic, so we were glad to be past that area by 1500. We went through Glennallen and on to Tok, where we stopped for the night. In Nelchina, we stopped to look at a couple of M37’s that had been converted with fat tires to run on the Tundra. The pair is for sale for about 10K, complete with spare parts and all the gear for a camp of 5 or 6 people. Look at Anchorage CL, if you want more info on those trucks. That day was 190 miles to Anchorage and 327 miles back to Tok, for a total of 517 miles. We arrived about 2000 and stayed at the Mainstreet Motel, in Tok. It was an older motel, but was well kept, clean, with good beds and the normal amenities. At $90 for a room, it was a bargain compared to the last night’s motel!
Day 3-
We were underway by 0700 and had a good breakfast in Tok. Leaving town a cow moose ran across the road, ahead of us. That was the only moose we saw during this trip. It could be that since moose hunting season just opened, the wildlife was hiding out! We duplicated our route back as far as Haines Junction, in the Yukon. There, instead of going to Haines, AK, we proceeded to Whitehorse. We then followed White Pass to Skagway. It rained cats and dogs as we transited the Pass and went down the U.S. side, through Customs and into Skagway. We arrived about 1800 with a distance today of 402 miles. Had a nice dinner and relaxed. The ferry to Juneau leaves in the morning at 0700.
Day 4-
Boarded the Alaska Ferry Malaspina at about 0600 for our cruise down North Lynn Canal, to Juneau. We arrived in Juneau at 1300. Road miles totaled 1,497. Used about 75 gallons of diesel, just under 20 mpg. Fuel was running about $4.20 to $4.40 (per gallon) in Alaska and $1.26 (per liter) in Canada. Not counting the load time in Anchorage, we were on the road about 34 hours. This time included butt breaks, meal breaks, fuel stops, etc. That average is about 44 mph. I think the temps were highs in the 60’s and lows in the 40’s. We had some beautiful sunny weather, but the last day was grey and rainy. The picture in the rail yard is the White Pass Railroad yard in Skagway. I will try to post more pictures in an album on my SS page.
Hope someone finds this travelogue interesting or helpful!
A couple of months ago, I won two ¾ ton trailers on a GL auction in Anchorage. I was working, so a friend pulled the units from the base to his house. Anchorage is about 750 road miles, plus a 60 mile ferry ride from my home in Juneau. Early Thursday morning (8-25) I took my 2007 Ram 2500 4X4 Quadcab (with a 6 sp. Manual trans) and headed for Anchorage, to recover the trailers. My friend Mark went along as co-driver and moral support. Our goal was to make the 1500 mile round trip in 3 days. We ended up driving from Haines to Anchorage and then back to Skagway. Here is a day by day report, all times are Alaska standard time.
Day 1-
Boarded the Alaska Ferry Matanuska and left Juneau at 0115, bound for Haines. Arrived in Haines about 0615. We drove out of Haines alongside the Chilkat River. We immediately saw a good brown bear (Grizzly) just a few feet from the road. We stopped at the 33 mile Roadhouse for a great breakfast. At mile 41 we crossed into British Columbia. We transited Chilkat Pass and on to the Yukon border at mile 85. We met the Alaska Highway at Haines Junction, mile 146. We were now on Highway 1, bound for Tok. We found this section of road to be in the worst condition of the trip. There were long distances of frost heaves. These heaves leave cracks, dropped pavement and a lot of dips and raised areas. If you hit them driving too fast, you will need dental work and suspension repairs! The bad spots are pretty well marked with signs and orange flags. The speed limit is about 55 mph (90 kph) but no one was driving that slow. All traffic was driving over 60, except to slow down for the heaved sections. Near White River, we saw a campground and RV resort that had a collection of MV’s. It turns out that this RV park was Camp Utah, during the construction of the ALCAN. We had a great visit with one of the owners and then looked over the trucks. I recommend that anyone driving this route, plan a stop there! They are MVPA members, also. We went through US Customs between Beaver Creek and Tok. At Tok, we took the Tok Cutoff Road to Glennallen, arriving about 2030. At Glennallen, we grabbed a motel and went for dinner in the motel’s café. It is hard to say if the meal or the motel was the worst, both were lousy. At $139 AAA rate for the room and $25 each for dinner, it was a real ripoff. (PM me if you want the name of the place!). This day was about 578 miles of driving.
Day 2-
We left Glennallen about 0730 and drove the roughly 190 miles to our Anchorage destination. This road was in pretty good shape. There was a section of about 30 miles that was being paved and had a 45 mph limit, near the Matanuska Glacier, as you descended the grade toward Palmer. After the repaving, the road gets pretty narrow, with a lot of switchbacks. From Palmer to Anchorage you are definitely entering an urban environment. We arrived at our destination about 1030 and started right in on prepping the trailers. We found both trailers to be in great condition. The canvas was good, the paint great and all mechanical stuff seemed to be in good or better condition. All four tires had great tread. Three of the four were in like-new condition. The fourth had age checking on the sidewall. We used two of the best tires on the ground for this trip. After stripping the canvas, sideboards and bows from both trailers, we were ready to stack them. We used a backhoe to flip one trailer and put it on top of the other trailer. I had brought two 7 foot long 2X6’s to lay crossways between the upper and lower trailers. We secured them together by using heavy truck ratchet straps. We crossed the straps diagonally from upper lifting eyes to lower lifting eyes on front and rear of the trailers. I then used one strap all the way around both trailers at the wheel well area (just for extra security). We removed the tires from the upper trailer and put them in the pickup, in case we needed to use them for a spare, on the road. Tire pressures, wheel bearing temps and straps were checked often after we left Anchorage. The bearings ran cool and the straps never loosened. We departed metro Anchorage about 1400. The State Fair was on in Palmer and we wanted to avoid the Friday night Fair traffic, so we were glad to be past that area by 1500. We went through Glennallen and on to Tok, where we stopped for the night. In Nelchina, we stopped to look at a couple of M37’s that had been converted with fat tires to run on the Tundra. The pair is for sale for about 10K, complete with spare parts and all the gear for a camp of 5 or 6 people. Look at Anchorage CL, if you want more info on those trucks. That day was 190 miles to Anchorage and 327 miles back to Tok, for a total of 517 miles. We arrived about 2000 and stayed at the Mainstreet Motel, in Tok. It was an older motel, but was well kept, clean, with good beds and the normal amenities. At $90 for a room, it was a bargain compared to the last night’s motel!
Day 3-
We were underway by 0700 and had a good breakfast in Tok. Leaving town a cow moose ran across the road, ahead of us. That was the only moose we saw during this trip. It could be that since moose hunting season just opened, the wildlife was hiding out! We duplicated our route back as far as Haines Junction, in the Yukon. There, instead of going to Haines, AK, we proceeded to Whitehorse. We then followed White Pass to Skagway. It rained cats and dogs as we transited the Pass and went down the U.S. side, through Customs and into Skagway. We arrived about 1800 with a distance today of 402 miles. Had a nice dinner and relaxed. The ferry to Juneau leaves in the morning at 0700.
Day 4-
Boarded the Alaska Ferry Malaspina at about 0600 for our cruise down North Lynn Canal, to Juneau. We arrived in Juneau at 1300. Road miles totaled 1,497. Used about 75 gallons of diesel, just under 20 mpg. Fuel was running about $4.20 to $4.40 (per gallon) in Alaska and $1.26 (per liter) in Canada. Not counting the load time in Anchorage, we were on the road about 34 hours. This time included butt breaks, meal breaks, fuel stops, etc. That average is about 44 mph. I think the temps were highs in the 60’s and lows in the 40’s. We had some beautiful sunny weather, but the last day was grey and rainy. The picture in the rail yard is the White Pass Railroad yard in Skagway. I will try to post more pictures in an album on my SS page.
Hope someone finds this travelogue interesting or helpful!
