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abbydog Offline OP
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For you residents of Alaska and those who have spent a lot of time there. I’m 69, in good health so far. I would like to plan a trip of a lifetime to the last frontier. I would either drive with a camper in tow or fly and stay for a month or more.
I would see the sights and fish the various specie and if it worked out stay for the earliest hunting season. I have no issue having a base of operations and venturing off for multi-day trips without the camper, staying at the destination and returning to base. It’s a hugeeee state so I’m not sure how to approach this project.

All the posts you guys put him up is like reading about it in OUTDOOR LIFE in bits and pieces and that’s what i find most interesting and intriguing and very personal to your life experiences.

Thanks for any input you guys can give me.

Steve

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pak Offline
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#1) Wait for a clear calm day and go to Talkeetna. Take a flight around Denali. Option: land on Ruth Glacier #2: take the Devils canyon tour, by boat, from Talkeetna. 3) Drive the haul road to Deadhorse 4) drive the Denali hwy from Cantwell to Paxson 5) drive to Seward 6) on your way home drive the Top if the World hwy, take the ferry accross the Yukon to Dawson. These are all road system trips. This will get your listed started. Ak is a great big spectacular place. Enjoy


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come to SE and ride the ferry from location to location, the schedule is online

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Lots of people bring an RV or camper and stay several months in an RV camp, with a small boat you can do a lot. Once Canada opens up would like to drive and fish all the lakes I could taking my time on the way back home to Alaska with a small boat.

Going to add a lot just leave their RV up here and fly back home here every summer.

You can do a lot with a beater rig you leave up here, small boat and 3 months to play

Last edited by kk alaska; 02/27/21.

kk alaska

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Definitely drive but travel light. Don't overload the camper. You really don't need a pile of clothes or food as grocery stores are frequent and quality.
Yukon Territory has a lot of interesting areas and roads with fewer tourists. Kenai Peninsula fishing is a mad house and roads are crowded. Bring
binos and spotting scope for game watching without visiting the Park Circus.

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My recommendation is to wait until September. Most tourists are gone by then or are on their way south, the weather is glorious (usually), the trees are turning color, and while some species-specific fishing opportunities may be limited there are always silvers and dollies and big catch & release rainbows to chase. Plus, it coincides with good hunting seasons. Cool/cold nights, fall colors, and many fewer tourists open up lots of opportunities that would simply be a zoo during peak summer months. The only potential problem might be driving through mountain passes of you're driving up from the L48. Fly up and rent a vehicle and then fly home.

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Don't think one can do the state justice in a lifetime. Still, the ability to stop and smell the roses is far ahead of the jump out, snap a pic, and run crowd. Been up three times. Two for hunts and the third as a tourist. One needs planes, trains, boats, automobiles, and several years. All of Alaska and the Yukon is view property.

The advice to avoid the tourist meccas until Sept is quite sound.

Last edited by 1minute; 02/27/21.

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I would be in Anchorage by the end of May, to catch the best King fishing in Cook Inlet, and then go for whatever blows your skirt up. I doubt you will be able to drive through Canada then, so you have to either drive to Tacoma and ship your vehicle up, or rent or buy when you arrive. If it were me I would come in mid-May, spend a week or two buying and stocking a camper, and then sell it when you leave, rather than pay the steep cost of shipping a vehicle up and back.

I prolly wouldn't do a lot of sight-seeing, I'd pick species of fish to pursue (like graying along the Denali Hiway) and see the sights while doing that.

I'd end it with a hunt for blacktail deer on Kodiak in October, probably one where you sleep on the boat that transported you from the town of Kodiak to the bay you would be hunting. I would not fool with trying to hunt sheep, goats, moose or bears. I'd be fishing through August, catching Silvers and trout, then I'd sell the vehicle, fly to Kodiak and do some things there, such as flying out to a lodge or two for fishing, maybe some ptarmigan hunting, then cap it all off with the boat deer hunt.

Tourism is going to be way, way down in Alaska again this year, so finding hotels and lodges to stay in should be pretty easy. You prolly could not have picked a better year to come.

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Originally Posted by John_Havard
My recommendation is to wait until September. Most tourists are gone by then or are on their way south, the weather is glorious (usually), the trees are turning color, and while some species-specific fishing opportunities may be limited there are always silvers and dollies and big catch & release rainbows to chase. Plus, it coincides with good hunting seasons. Cool/cold nights, fall colors, and many fewer tourists open up lots of opportunities that would simply be a zoo during peak summer months. The only potential problem might be driving through mountain passes of you're driving up from the L48. Fly up and rent a vehicle and then fly home.



Yup!.....Late August and take your time on the Alcan.......see Atlin......if you time it right, there's a one hour ferry from Skagway to Haines......

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What makes you guys think Canada is going to be letting him drive thru by then, or that there are going to be ANY tourists in Alaska this year?

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Exactly rimfire. If this scare is over and borders open, driving is the best.

If you fly up and rent a vehicle, don't tell them where you are going. Some roads are banned cuz of conditions. One is the Denali highway. To me that is the best dirt washboardy road in the world. I loved that drive. We would hit it atleast once a year. I gave up looking for my exhaust that fell off one year.

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Tourons will fly, not drive. Like last year. Fewer of them, but that’s a plus to me.


If you take the time it takes, it takes less time.
--Pat Parelli

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Buy a copy of "The Milepost" and dream and plan.

https://www.amazon.com/MILEPOST-2021-Alaska-Travel-Planner/dp/1892154552/ref=sr_1_3?crid=CYRBY13NOZBI&dchild=1&keywords=the+milepost+2021&qid=1614458257&sprefix=the+milepost%2Caps%2C284&sr=8-3

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abbydog Offline OP
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Thank you. I tried getting up there back in the day when the pipeline was hiring but i was a day late and a dollar short!!
I will definitely go in the off season and likely will fly because my wife won’t spend two months on the road unless i convince her to fly home for two weeks!! Another alternative is a trip with my son and his buddy for 10 days in the fall. It would be great to fish and then do a hunt, not interested in Grizzly or goats, way to expensive and no desire.

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sse Offline
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was watching a YT channel i follow and they highlighted the Chena hot springs NE of Fairbanks, had no idea


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Originally Posted by sse
was watching a YT channel i follow and they highlighted the Chena hot springs NE of Fairbanks, had no idea

Overrun by folks bent on the notion procreation under the Aurora embues special characteristics in their children...


Mark Begich, Joaquin Jackson, and Heller resistance... Three huge reasons to worry about the NRA.
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OAM Offline
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Originally Posted by pak
#1) Wait for a clear calm day and go to Talkeetna. Take a flight around Denali. Option: land on Ruth Glacier #2: take the Devils canyon tour, by boat, from Talkeetna. 3) Drive the haul road to Deadhorse 4) drive the Denali hwy from Cantwell to Paxson 5) drive to Seward 6) on your way home drive the Top if the World hwy, take the ferry accross the Yukon to Dawson. These are all road system trips. This will get your listed started. Ak is a great big spectacular place. Enjoy

This guy nailed it! I would ad a Homer halibut charter though.

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sse Offline
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Originally Posted by Sitka deer
Originally Posted by sse
was watching a YT channel i follow and they highlighted the Chena hot springs NE of Fairbanks, had no idea

Overrun by folks bent on the notion procreation under the Aurora embues special characteristics in their children...

exactly what i was thinking...could get a little gross


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Bernie has done a lot with CHS. I remember when it was just a little rock pool.


If you take the time it takes, it takes less time.
--Pat Parelli

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las Offline
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Originally Posted by ironbender
Bernie has done a lot with CHS. I remember when it was just a little rock pool.


Me too.

Especially if you speak Japanese.

Funny story from 2019 Xmas trip up there. We went out to soak in CHS with my nephew and his wife, Alba. It was 35 below outside. Nippon lady took Alba's towel, and when confronted, went to jabbering in Japanese, pretending she had no English. She did - we had heard it.

Big mistake! No one does Spanish invective better than a pissed off red-headed Columbian!

Hell, I was looking for an exit! smile
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OP -Seward is beautiful during the 3 days yearly it ain't raining. Take the glacier cruise- you can also fish salt-water silvers in late August and September, halibut most any time.

Hike up the Carter Lake Trail with binocs - it's gorgeous up there. You might see bears, or sheep. At/near Seward Y (Tern Lake) glass both sides of the valley. Sheep and goats are usually visible. Spotting scope is very useful.

At Sunrise (when you first hit Kenai lake coming from Anchorage, there are usually sheep to be seen in the closed area on the north side (right). There is a parking lot there that has telescopes - or used to.

In Seward, you could hike or boat to Caine's Head - A WWII fort, We walked the beach down (low tide!) and took the water taxi back last summer. 7 miles, part of it on trails, part on the beach. Taking the taxi both ways makes it a shorter hike - 1.5 miles IIRC. You could take a pack along and overnight along the beach in places if you wish.

Last edited by las; 02/28/21.

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