Mike,
You are correct about the condition of the Alaska roads and the
rental policy. In fact, when there are wash outs, the road department
fills them in with gravel, so it is often hard to avoid. When we took
our trip last summer, we planned to drive up the Dalton Highway, 400
miles of a gravel road with few towns along it, and so rented a
vehicle from an outfit that equipped the vehicle with extra full size
spare tires, a tool kit and a CB radio. We ended up using one of the
spares on this road. We also clogged up one of the sensors with mud,
causing the check engine light to come on.
We still had this vehicle when we drove to Wrangell-St. Elias. The
biggest danger on this road is actually old railroad spikes sticking
out of the roadbed since the road was built over the old rail line.
Although we didn't have any problems here, a full size spare is
definitely a good idea.
So, the moral of the story is, if you go caving in Alaska, take some
one else's car. :-)
Evelynn
Evelynn Mitchell said:
>It is a little more challenging to get into Wrangell -St. Elias
since you have to rent a vehicle that is allowed to drive on gravel
roads,
That's a funny thing about renting vehicles in AK. When I was
up there back in the '90s with Nancy Weaver, we rented a car and had
to sign a statement saying we would not take it on gravel roads.
Well, if you have ever driven much in Alaska, you know that that is
next to impossible if you leave the city. There are precious few
paved roads in AK to begin with, and those that they do have are
frequently under repair during the few summer months that it is
feasible to do road work. So even the paved roads have long gravel
sections or places where you get shunted off onto smaller gravel
roads. We drove all over the place and took as many gravel roads as
paved ones, even getting stuck once. The car we had was a compact
like a Chevy Nova, but we discovered that the back seat could be
laid down and the partition between trunk and seat removed so that
it was, remarkably, long enough for us to sleep in the car. Since
it rained a lot on our trip, we camped in the car often (always off
of gravel roads). We didn't tell and the rental agency never
complained, although I think we did wash the car before returning
it. :-)
Mark Minton
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