Travel planning continues

I have not put much on here lately as things have slowed down.  However, we now have reservations forcamping at Mendenal Glacier campground in Juneau, AK.  We're not planning on making too many more camping reservations, but may do that for Haines yet.  I bought the Foder's guide to AK which is really helpful - some history included.  In March we'll buy the new Milepost mag for 2011.

Just five more months!
Bruce

More planning

12.9.10
Bought Foders 2011 Guide to Alaska yesterday.  Wandering around Borders Book store I found this and could not resist.  We have not done much with the trip the past couple weeks - once we had our Denali reservations completed.  My next step is to create a notebook of the  places we plan to visit with things we want to do/see along the way.  We are primarily looking for NFS campsites with some private ones along the way - for showers and washing clothes of course :). 

We have not heard anymore from the guy in GR about renting a camper - we may still end up buying one which I'm not very keen on...oh well, if we do we do.  We're locked in now since we already bought the ferry tickets for a 22 ft long vehicle (I allowed 2 ft overhang off the rear of the truck.

More later.

Denali Reservations Complete

December 1 was the first day we could make camping reservations in Denali.  So, we were online at 7 AM and secured our camp site and then in the afternoon Bruce called and made reservations for a tour bus that takes a 53 mile trip into the park.  We'll plan to stay there for 3 nights and hope we have a clear day to be able to see the mountain.

Then in the evening we went to a travelog on Gates of the Artic park in AK.  It was beautiful and got us more excited - even though we are not planning a 10 day backpacking trip through the  wilderness.  Camping with a pickup camper is about as rustic as we care to have it.

More later.....  Bruce

Reservations and one disappointment

Today we learned that the pickup camper we were going to rent was stolen on a hunting trip in Northern Michigan.  Maybe we'll still have to buy one...we have time and options yet.

Today I was able to make reservations on the Alaska Marine Ferry also....leaving Prince Rupert, BC on June 9, 2011 and making stops in Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Juneau, Haines, and Skagway before heading up to the Alkan highway.  We'll be spending about 2 weeks on the inland passage.  Exciting!

Preparation for Travel

We are really getting excited about our trip coming up in June of 2011.  We are emailing some of the parks in AK, checking ferry schedules, trying to read and study about the areas we're going to visit.  The Alaska magazine is helpful to give a flavor of the State but books from the library are also making contributions. One in particular is Insight Guides ALASKA. 

Sid N., a friend of ours, connected us with a man in GR, MI who will rent us  a camper for the back of our truck, a Ford F-250 Diesel which we bought for the purpose of travel after retirement.  So, while I won't post on here too much for  now, this introduction is to let you know that this trip is in the planning stages. 
Bruce