Driving the Alaskan Highway in February

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Here in the PNW we grow a lot of fruit (biggest producer in the US), grapes, wheat, barley and thus we are very serious about fruits and food in general coming into country/state. We are grateful that the border guys take this seriously and enforce it.
I also cross border very often. The experience is very pleasant going out. I keep it simple: no alcohol, no tabaco, no drugs (although marihuana is legal now in Canada and in WA, but the border is federal), and absolutely no firearms. Coming back the experience vary. Some guards are very pleasant "welcome home sir", some are kind of angry/aggressive even with citizens. They're usually aggressive with non-citizens.
 
MCtree said:
@GordJ
You are serious that you have only heard bad reviews for Muncho Lake?
If so, I guess I would not be overly surprised. I thought it was wonderful and the staff was warm, friendly, and helpful. But it could be that the winter experience is completely different from the summer. The entire place had a youth-hostel vibe to it and most of the cabins were closed for the winter. So maybe it gets hectic and overworked in the summer when the crew there is overworked.
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Yeah, it was the only gas stop from Vancouver to Tuktoyaktuk that you could not get something to eat, not even a cinnamon bun.
Oops, edited to show that the unmanned gas stop at the Dempster turnoff had no vittles either.
 
MCtree said:
Day 5 – Feb 17. Shelby to Whitecourt AB.

I contemplated leaving the pistol in Shelby. A contingency plan of mine was to leave it at a hardware store there that I knew had rentable lockers. Going through the search and questioning again was daunting. But I decided to give it one more go.

This time when I pulled up to the drive-up window, the guy was expecting me and told me to pull over into a different parking spot and leave the vehicle and come inside to a different building. There, two polite young border guards examined my forms, walked out to my LC to check the gun’s serial numbers and to ensure it was properly locked up and then sent me on my way.

Thankfully there was no second cross-examination or search. All this took only about 20 minutes.

Bottom line: you can legally bring a pistol into Canada, but it takes some effort, and you have to leave it locked away while in the country.

But having crossed the border – I was in!

Day 5 was a beautiful bluebird-sunny day.
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Not a cloud in the sky and the temp hovered around 30F all day. Despite there being no snow in the forecast, it got cloudy and started snowing as I pulled into Whitecourt and found my hotel.
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Most people mail their pistols to themselves from Great Falls, MT to Tok, AK .
 
What an awesome trip and write up––appreciate all the details and tips. Would love to make that run one day…and would also love to know how my 200 handles on dedicated snow tires. Did you consider extra siping or going all out studded? Guessing the mileage getting there ruled that out. Anyway, thank you for sharing the adventure. 🤘
 
Ovis said:
What an awesome trip and write up––appreciate all the details and tips. Would love to make that run one day…and would also love to know how my 200 handles on dedicated snow tires. Did you consider extra siping or going all out studded? Guessing the mileage getting there ruled that out. Anyway, thank you for sharing the adventure. 🤘
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As in cutting extra siping myself?
Absolutely not. I did not consider that. I don’t think modifying a tire like that would be a good idea. (Though to be honest, I haven’t looked in to it much either.)

As for the studs… yes, I did consider. But since I had to drive a long way before I hit snow and ice covered roads I worried about handling on pavement would be too dangerous.

I did consider swapping out my tires somewhere along the drive so I would be on my all terrains until I was far north and on snow, but the logistics of this are complicated. And it would mean leaving 5 tires up north when you switched back to the AT’s.

So I had the Blizzak’s installed here in Houston. I did have to order them in advance since they aren’t available in Houston.
And then had to deal with the installer’s repeated worry that I was doing this for Houston driving.
 
But this line of thought does make me wonder;
@stonepa , you have studded tires up there in AK, right?
Even in the winter I know that lots of the roads are clear of ice and snow. How do you navigate these with studded tires?
 
MCtree said:
But this line of thought does make me wonder;
@stonepa , you have studded tires up there in AK, right?
Even in the winter I know that lots of the roads are clear of ice and snow. How do you navigate these with studded tires?
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People drive studded tires on pavement all day long without issues. I see thousands of such cars on the road all around me every winter season.

Studs will wear down faster and they will cause slight damage to the road, plus add some noise to your ride, but otherwise there are no measurable downsides.

Where they really shine is when you're traveling at highway speeds along a clean/clear highway in the early morning and hit a patch of black ice mid-corner. In that situation most vehicles (even with good winter tires) will be at risk of losing traction and getting into an accidents, but studs will really help.
 
eatSleepWoof said:
People drive studded tires on pavement all day long without issues. I see thousands of such cars on the road all around me every winter season.

Studs will wear down faster and they will cause slight damage to the road, plus add some noise to your ride, but otherwise there are no measurable downsides.

Where they really shine is when you're traveling at highway speeds along a clean/clear highway in the early morning and hit a patch of black ice mid-corner. In that situation most vehicles (even with good winter tires) will be at risk of losing traction and getting into an accidents, but studs will really help.
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Ah. Good to know.
I guess I should have considered studded tires then.
 
MCtree said:
Ah. Good to know.
I guess I should have considered studded tires then.
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I think for your trip you made the right call. Studs would have been nice to have in parts of Alberta, parts of British Columbia, Yukon and Alaska, but you drove over enormous distances before you got there, and I suspect they might have worn down by the time you got there.

Having studs in winter time and using them on non-snow/ice roads is what I was talking about in my previous post, but driving on studs from a non-winter climate across half the world TO the winter climate seems a bit different to me.

Running studs may also be illegal in Texas and other states. Even here you're not allowed to be using studs during non-winter months (because of the road damage they cause).
 
MCtree said:
But this line of thought does make me wonder;
@stonepa , you have studded tires up there in AK, right?
Even in the winter I know that lots of the roads are clear of ice and snow. How do you navigate these with studded tires?
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I have not used studded tires in a long time. The new winter tire compounds seem to work well for our recent road conditions. In the past, roads were typically not plowed down to the cement - instead, an inch of snow and ice built up over time and studded tires were then a benefit, weren’t too loud, and did not tear up the roads. Now that plowing has gotten better, and we often have bare pavement in South Central AK, studs are just a pain.
 
Studs may be ilegal outside winter season even in states where they are legal in the winter. They do damage the roads and I hate people that do that in the summer.
OP choice of tires was perfect for the circumstances. The winter tires are OK driving in the summer. I've done it many times to get more miles out of them before replacement. Yes, there are drawbacks like thread wear, steering response, increased noise (depending on what your regular dry season tire is), etc. but none of them negate OP decision.
 
I've done the Alcan several times but find it a boring 1,000 mile straight line. Take the Cassiar Highway next time it's more scenic! Spare tires (note PLURAL) are a must especially in summer as the gravel will tear your AT to shreds. FWIW, Tok to Fairbanks is a 4 hour drive on a good day and about 800 miles from the border at Beaver Creek. It's probably one of the furthest distance between two border posts or about 20 miles. The reason is permafrost. They couldn't find anywhere to build the Canadian side until they got down below. However Canada starts as soon as you leave the US Border post.

Seemed like a lot of trouble for a Glock that won't stop much. A .308 would be much more useful against moose as bears would be hibernating then. Another no no in Canada is bear spray. Don't try and bring that in.

Great write up! Love the pictures! Holler if you ever come back up here. We're on Moose Mtn. about 20 miles NW of town.

siberian
 
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siberian said:
I've done the Alcan several times but find it a boring 1,000 mile straight line. Take the Cassiar Highway next time it's more scenic! Spare tires (note PLURAL) are a must especially in summer as the gravel will tear your AT to shreds. FWIW, Tok to Fairbanks is a 4 hour drive on a good day and about 800 miles from the border at Beaver Creek. It's probably one of the furthest distance between two border posts or about 20 miles. The reason is permafrost. They couldn't find anywhere to build the Canadian side until they got down below. However Canada starts as soon as you leave the US Border post.

Seemed like a lot of trouble for a Glock that won't stop much. A .308 would be much more useful against moose as bears would be hibernating then. Another no no in Canada is bear spray. Don't try and bring that in.

Great write up! Love the pictures! Holler if you ever come back up here. We're on Moose Mtn. about 20 miles NW of town.

siberian
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You can bring bear spray in, or at least you could 18 months ago. You CANNOT bring pepper spray even if you intend to use it for bears, but the border patrol specifically said cans marked bear spray were allowed (and specifically double checked that we had bear spray, not just pepper spray). Ironic since bear spray is stronger than pepper spray 🤷‍♂️
 
linuxgod said:
Ironic since bear spray is stronger than pepper spray 🤷‍♂️
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It's a question of two factors:

1. Intent. You can plan to protect yourself against animals (dog spray is legal, too), but you cannot plan to protect yourself against people.
2. Canadian stupidity.

Welcome, eh.
 
Dyslexia, pepper spray is what I meant. Apologies

Adding, the whiteouts described are real and dangerous as those 18 wheeler do fly by in either direction reducing your visibility to nil and coupled with the wind shear can send you off road in a flash.

siberian
 
eatSleepWoof said:
It's a question of two factors:

1. Intent. You can plan to protect yourself against animals (dog spray is legal, too), but you cannot plan to protect yourself against people.
2. Canadian stupidity.

Welcome, eh.
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Not stupidity. Canada doesn't allow weapons against people. Hence the handgun and mace restrictions. They completely understand protection against animals. A big can of bear spray is not concealable and is designed for animal protection. Mace or pepper spray is designed and effective only against people. They really understand protection from animals, but their culture does no understand the American fascination with protection from people. Zero stupidity on Canada's part. Maybe on the lower 48 American's part, where people seem to be terrified of their own shadow. Canadians don't really have that fear.

For me, if I want to be safe here in Alaska I carry a Marine 870 or my 375. Or, if I am wearing waders, maybe my 629 in 44 mag.
 
Neat trip. The whine for 10 seconds is almost certainly your power steering. Block heater won't do much.

I'm in Minnesota, I do enjoy reading about people experiencing winter for the first time as a positive learning experience.
 
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