View Full Version : Calgary To Skagway/Ferry to Bellingham Aug 08
Planning a 2008 Summer trip to Alaska. I have reserved a oneway passage on the Alaska Ferry Adventures from Skagway Alaska to Bellingham Washington in August of this year. My plan is to slowly leave out of Florida in late May, heading out to Montana in June, follow Rt.15 across the border to Canada, to Rt. 2 /4 on up to Calgary, on up to Edmonton to Rt. 97 on up to Rt 1 then back over to Skagway and catch the ferry on August 18th. back to Bellingham on the 22nd of August. I thought that leaving in June, I would have enough time to stop along the way and take advantage of some of the wonderful parks and attractions on this route. has anyone made this trek before, and if so would it be possible to get some advice. My plan is to spend some extra time preparing the coach for the trip, and have been reading about some extra precausions that will help prevent mechanical problems along the road. Any advice would be appreciated. Also if anyone is thinking of heading up to Canada and Alaska during this timeframe, maybe we could start a Prevost Wagon Train???
bluevost
02-08-2008, 08:40 PM
Pam and Bruce,
I did the Alaskan thing in 2004. 9700 miles in 87 days (out of So. Cal.). The best trip of my life!!! Skip Edmonton, spend more time in Banff and Jasper, drive to Dawson Creek and start the Alaskan Highway there, mile marker 0.
FYI, on the ferry your bus will be on inverters only. Access to your rig is limited while on board. How many days from Skagway to Bellingham?? You might have to empty the fridge and shut it down. We took the ferry from Haines to Skagway, only 3 hours or so, so no problem there. If you're taking a toad, you will unhitch and park it separately. Less money that way too.
How do you feel about boondocking?? The Provincial campgrounds are mostly dry camping, but many of them are spectacular. You'll want to stay a couple of days. Especially if the fishing is good. Grayling rising to a dry fly. It doesn't get any better. And of course the salmon in Alaska.
I could ramble on for hours, so I'll stop here. We're talking of going back in 2009. Got to do it again!!
Have a great trip,
Ken
Pam and Bruce,
I did the Alaskan thing in 2004. 9700 miles in 87 days (out of So. Cal.). The best trip of my life!!! Skip Edmonton, spend more time in Banff and Jasper, drive to Dawson Creek and start the Alaskan Highway there, mile marker 0.
FYI, on the ferry your bus will be on inverters only. Access to your rig is limited while on board. How many days from Skagway to Bellingham?? You might have to empty the fridge and shut it down. We took the ferry from Haines to Skagway, only 3 hours or so, so no problem there. If you're taking a toad, you will unhitch and park it separately. Less money that way too.
How do you feel about boondocking?? The Provincial campgrounds are mostly dry camping, but many of them are spectacular. You'll want to stay a couple of days. Especially if the fishing is good. Grayling rising to a dry fly. It doesn't get any better. And of course the salmon in Alaska.
I could ramble on for hours, so I'll stop here. We're talking of going back in 2009. Got to do it again!!
Have a great trip,
Ken
Hi Ken,
My wife Pam likes your idea better than mine. I had not considered the Frig issue on the boat, but we were concerned about the dog having to stay long periods in the coach alone. it is a five day passage. I have a reservation, but have not made my final plans yet. Think we will rethink this part. It seemed like the easy way back, but we do not have to go as far up either.
Our coach is in Coburg at the Marathon factory, and is just about finished from its upgrades. We plan to head out in March now and work our way back to Florida.
We real like the boondocking idea, and have no fixed time table for com pletion. One of our only concerns has been cell service. We have to stay connected to the internet to stay in touch with our business, and have been told that cell service in parts of canada is sketchy. We had Marathon install a high gain antenna, a signal bosster and wifi on the coach that is supposed to be able to get signals up to 70 miles away from their towers. Hope this helps. We also ,plan to add another cell carrier once we get into canada to save some $, as we have been told that our carrier, Verizon costs too much in Ca.
Anyway in May we will head out to Vancouver and up until we decide to turn around again.
Stay fluid has been our moto. Love to find paradise if it still exists.
Bruce
Ray Davis
02-09-2008, 10:48 AM
Bruce,
As you make your way south, and then out to FL, please let us Southern CA guys know when you'll be in the area. I'm sure we can get a bunch of us to come out and say hi. We're also pretty famous for getting out to dinner when out-of-town POG guests arrive!
We did a wonderful rib feast when JDUB was in town, at high RV park in Anaheim! (They stopped for Disneyland).
Please let us know when you'll be coming through.
Ray
BrianE
02-09-2008, 11:05 AM
Bruce,
Beverly and I will be passing through Coburg for points south on the 17th or 18th. If you're in Camp Marathon at that time, give us a call or send a PM. Would guess you're getting pretty charged up to "attend school" on the new rig. Cheers.
Bruce,
As you make your way south, and then out to FL, please let us Southern CA guys know when you'll be in the area. I'm sure we can get a bunch of us to come out and say hi. We're also pretty famous for getting out to dinner when out-of-town POG guests arrive!
We did a wonderful rib feast when JDUB was in town, at high RV park in Anaheim! (They stopped for Disneyland).
Please let us know when you'll be coming through.
Ray
Pam says that we will get underway much more quickly if I stop upgrading the coach. We are having the 50K Prevost shell service done next week and that will be the end. My accountant (Pam) says I have done enough. This coach set more than it ran over the road, it has 30K miles on it and I do not want to have any surprises when we get underway. We are having the seals replaced, along with a full service, air, refrigirant, brakes, hope this will get us what we need. I am in the Marathon mode, which means that I want as much of their talent, time and experience as possible upgrading this coach. I have never had the chance to have a factory full of experienced people, most of whom worked on this coach when it was originally built. I am having too much fun with the upgrades.
We enjoy a good meal as well, and look forward to seeing you when we hit the road. Our son is moving to San Francisco in march, and we plan to stay in the bay area for a while as we head south, have been looking at a few RV parks in and around the city.
Look forward to meeting you both,
Bruce
Hello Brian,
We are charged up, and can't wait to get underway. The hardest part of this trip is getting the toad out to Coburg to get started. We have so much stuff, our dog etc. I am not looking forward to this part of the trip. As for school, I will need a semester of training before I leave the factory. They have promised to go through all of the systems new and old until I am completely satisfied, they do not know what they are getting themselves into, as I take about twice as long as the average person to completely understand what I am looking at, and Pam (German) will be taking notes.
We hope to get in the Toad about the 18th or so, driving west across I-10 will stay in touch.
Safe travels,
Bruce
garyde
02-09-2008, 11:24 AM
Hi Bruce. There is a Prevost Service Center and a Marathon Dealership and Service facility in So. California now as well, so if you travel thru California you have the added opportunity to stop if something comes up on your way to Florida.
Hi Bruce. There is a Prevost Service Center and a Marathon Dealership and Service facility in So. California now as well, so if you travel thru California you have the added opportunity to stop if something comes up on your way to Florida.
Hello Gary,
I had considered having the folks at Prevost Car do the service, and spoke with them on the phone. I plan to stop and have them inspect a few recalls and service bulletins that need to be done. marathon had agreed to see that they were covered, and I plan on spending some time in So. Ca. until they are sorted out.
Thanks,
Bruce
Kevin Erion
02-09-2008, 09:11 PM
Bruce, When at Prevost in Mira Loma Have Louise work on you bus. If you call ahead and ask, if he is not booked, he
will do the work you need. I can only say from my personal experience, he is very good!
Just my 2 cents worth!
Jerry Winchester
02-09-2008, 11:55 PM
Bruce,
We stayed at the RV park in Pacifica and it was pretty good. I think the one near downtown SF is more like a parking lot.
Enjoy the new coach and good luck on the trip.
JDUB
Hello Jerry,
Candlestick Park looks like a parking lot online, but it sure is close to downtown. We are thinking about staying at the San Francisco Rv Resort at Pacifica, you suggested, it appears to be about 15 miles on Rt. 280 to downtown, (Soma District) where my son will be living.
Bruce, When at Prevost in Mira Loma Have Louise work on you bus. If you call ahead and ask, if he is not booked, he
will do the work you need. I can only say from my personal experience, he is very good!
Just my 2 cents worth!
Very important to know, thanks Kevin, we will look him up.
Pam and Bruce,
Let us know when you will be through Houston (traveling I-10) and we will try to assemble the Houston area gang (HAG) for a meet and eat.
Loc
Pam and Bruce,
Let us know when you will be through Houston (traveling I-10) and we will try to assemble the Houston area gang (HAG) for a meet and eat.
Loc
Look forward to it, and will keep you posted on travel plans.
Bruce
win42
02-11-2008, 10:16 AM
There is a great Detroit Diesel / Allison shop located in Springfield, Oregon very near Coburg. Very good and reasonable. They work two shifts which gives you day / night service. I had a very good experiance with them.
Enjoy your adventures.
There is a great Detroit Diesel / Allison shop located in Springfield, Oregon very near Coburg. Very good and reasonable. They work two shifts which gives you day / night service. I had a very good experiance with them.
Enjoy your adventures.
Thanks Harry,
The coach is being taken over to a shop today for the 50K srvice. The folks at Marathon said that they have been using this shop for over 15 years and take all their coaches to them, it might well be the same folks.
bluevost
02-11-2008, 08:43 PM
Bruce,
Reading a post a couple of days ago, you indicated a need to stay in touch via cell phone, internet, etc. while on your Alaska adventure. Cell service north of Dawson Creek is sketchy at best. Towns are many miles apart. What you might consider is a satellite phone. I bought one back in 2004 as I drove much of the trip from Whitehorse to Fairbanks by myself. My sister and brother-in-law were traveling in their bus as well but sometimes were separated. I purchased a prepaid 700 minute card for the phone, which brought the per minute cost to about $1.50. Not toooo awful. You have 12 months to use up the minutes, and the card can also be recharged easily with a phone call or e-mail. You can keep the phone on at all times, and only pay for air time. The iridium service offered has global coverage, no matter how far north you travel. Not so with the dish on the roof of your rig. Just a ways past Whitehorse you could loose satellite tv and internet reception.
Keep us So. Cal POGgers posted on when you'll be down this way, we'll get together.
Ken
Bruce,
Reading a post a couple of days ago, you indicated a need to stay in touch via cell phone, internet, etc. while on your Alaska adventure. Cell service north of Dawson Creek is sketchy at best. Towns are many miles apart. What you might consider is a satellite phone. I bought one back in 2004 as I drove much of the trip from Whitehorse to Fairbanks by myself. My sister and brother-in-law were traveling in their bus as well but sometimes were separated. I purchased a prepaid 700 minute card for the phone, which brought the per minute cost to about $1.50. Not toooo awful. You have 12 months to use up the minutes, and the card can also be recharged easily with a phone call or e-mail. You can keep the phone on at all times, and only pay for air time. The iridium service offered has global coverage, no matter how far north you travel. Not so with the dish on the roof of your rig. Just a ways past Whitehorse you could loose satellite tv and internet reception.
Keep us So. Cal POGgers posted on when you'll be down this way, we'll get together.
Ken
Good morning Ken,
Sounds like you have had some real Alaska adventures. I have used Sat phones in Europe when doing Aerial photography up north in Norway, Finland in late Fall. They work pretty well, as long as I was standing outside. My greatest need will be for internet access (high speed best) so that Pam can answer her customer support questions from our websites, deal with our sales reps etc. based on what you are saying, along with others, we may not go beyond Whitehorse, just do some trype of loop back down to vancouver and maybe the islands.
Ray Davis
02-12-2008, 11:12 AM
Motosat makes moble satellite available on your rig. There are a number of different satellites available, and you can specifically (depending upon which service you chose), pick on that will cover Canada and Alaska.
If this is something you need to do, check out www.datastormusers.com for a forum simiilar to this, but dedicated to Motosat Datastorm users.
I have a dish on my bus, and I'm very pleased with the results. My particular satellite is probably not the best for Canada or Alaska however.
Ray
Thanks Ray, I will look into this and see if it has coverage up North.
QueenOfTheRoad
03-30-2008, 06:51 PM
If you haven't finalized your ferry reservations yet, I would urge you to make several stops along the Alaska Marine Hwy on your back from Skagway (especially to Sitka, but also Juneau, Ketchikan and Wrangell). I'm posting all about our Alaska trip in this forum (thread: Alaska via the Trans Canada) - a series of articles I wrote for Bus Conversions magazine. I hope they're helpful.
If you haven't finalized your ferry reservations yet, I would urge you to make several stops along the Alaska Marine Hwy on your back from Skagway (especially to Sitka, but also Juneau, Ketchikan and Wrangell). I'm posting all about our Alaska trip in this forum (thread: Alaska via the Trans Canada) - a series of articles I wrote for Bus Conversions magazine. I hope they're helpful.
Good morning Doreen,
Wish that I could say that we had purchased those tickets. We had to make a change in our plans based on a family health issues. My wife has to take care of her mother and didn't feel comfortable being so far from home. I tried to leave on my own but Pam took the keys.
I look forward to viewing your post on your Alaska trip. It will help us in the future planning for sure. We had decided not to take the ferry after we realized the dog would be stuck below for 5 days, not possible with our daughter.
QueenOfTheRoad
03-31-2008, 11:21 AM
So sorry to hear about your mother-in-law as well as canceling your trip.
We traveled (as you can see in my signature) with a large dog and two cats. By making the stops along the Marine Hwy (we'd disembark with the bus and toad, head to an RV park for a few days, then get back on), we never had a ferry ride of more than 12 hours (that was the longest by far). We also got to see scenery and places we never would have (the towns are inaccessible by car from the interior) and, in our opinion it was the highlight of the entire Alaska trip.
For the longer ferry rides (I believe 10 hours and up, but the number is in the article I posted), a ferry employee will bring all pet owners down to the hold to walk, feed, etc. their animals.
Do consider it whenever you reschedule.
So sorry to hear about your mother-in-law as well as canceling your trip.
We traveled (as you can see in my signature) with a large dog and two cats. By making the stops along the Marine Hwy (we'd disembark with the bus and toad, head to an RV park for a few days, then get back on), we never had a ferry ride of more than 12 hours (that was the longest by far). We also got to see scenery and places we never would have (the towns are inaccessible by car from the interior) and, in our opinion it was the highlight of the entire Alaska trip.
For the longer ferry rides (I believe 10 hours and up, but the number is in the article I posted), a ferry employee will bring all pet owners down to the hold to walk, feed, etc. their animals.
Do consider it whenever you reschedule.
Thats interesting, I did not know that you could get on and off the boat at will. This would make a huge difference in our future plans, and I bet for others as well with pets or who want to see the hard to get to regions of Alaska.
QueenOfTheRoad
03-31-2008, 12:56 PM
Not quite "at will" - you have to include all your ons and offs when you initially make the reservation. (In fact, I would guess that for the 5 day trip you canceled, it was not 5 straight days of sailing, ie the boat stopped several places, so passengers - with and without vehicles - could get on and off.)
Do check out the Alaska thread in this travel forum - a lot of people have posted great info. My first article there (posted last week) goes through the general info of getting there, including the Marine Hwy and the stops we made, why we chose to leave from Canada and not WA, etc.
Not quite "at will" - you have to include all your ons and offs when you initially make the reservation. (In fact, I would guess that for the 5 day trip you canceled, it was not 5 straight days of sailing, ie the boat stopped several places, so passengers - with and without vehicles - could get on and off.)
Do check out the Alaska thread in this travel forum - a lot of people have posted great info. My first article there (posted last week) goes through the general info of getting there, including the Marine Hwy and the stops we made, why we chose to leave from Canada and not WA, etc.
I was wondering how a bus and toad could just get off at will and not cause a mess each time. basically you pay an extra fee for your planned itinerary??
QueenOfTheRoad
03-31-2008, 01:47 PM
As I posted in the Bus Conversions article (that's now in the Alaska Trans Canada thread):
"To get on and off at the various stops, staying several days at each does not cost significantly more than just staying on board the entire time and we would highly recommend it, as each town is quite unique."
Hope that's helpful.
flyu2there
04-01-2008, 07:02 AM
Bruce,
We stayed at the RV park in Pacifica and it was pretty good. I think the one near downtown SF is more like a parking lot.
Enjoy the new coach and good luck on the trip.
JDUB
As an old San Francisco native may I make the following recommendation....Napa county Fair Grounds in Calistoga, Ca. Google the place and book ahead, some sites are full hook up others not. Fills up fast in the Summer months, especially when the sprint car races are in town. Very nice place, short walk to restaurants (5 star) and mud bath's if you are so inclined. Probably 50 good sized wineries within ten miles and about a 70 mile day trip to San Francisco.
Candlestick is what it is, a parking lot, check that, an overpriced parking lot in the worst area of San Francisco (Bay View/Hunters Point). Access/egress is terrible, especially when you make a wrong turn. I have been told you can get the graffiti off if its still fresh....enough said!
Pacifica is usually cold and windy and in the Summer months will be foggy. Lots of converted school busses there, replete with macrame curtains and peace signs. If you must be close to the "City" its probably your best bet.
Another option is Bodega Bay......out on the jetty, run by California State Parks..I do believe. Get to relive the Birds.......a bit of a long reach to San Francisco however.
John
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