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Posted by Linda Hanney on March 5, 2012 at 8:03 p.m.

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Alaska Roadtrip, Keeping It Basic

Today I was thinking about how much fun we had last summer on our roadtrip to Alaska and it dawned on me I was busy planning that trip last year at this time. Really, any trip involving many days and miles requires a planning timetable of several months instead of weeks. I read blogs, books set in the north, travel books, Alaska tourist information and maps. Definitely helpful and so exciting.

With the thought that starting early is important, I decided to post the last entry of my Alaska 2011 blog from our trip. Some of the information there might be of interest to those thinking of planning a similar trip this summer. Feel free to visit the link for additional information and pictures.

“We left on July 6th driving a 2001 Ford ¾ ton diesel pickup with 182,099 miles on the speedometer. On the back of the pickup we carried a 2005 850SC NorthStar popup pickup camper. Obviously, we saw no need to have new equipment.

We returned on August 17th after 39 days. The ending mileage was 192,102. Here is the summary. We drove 10,002 miles, used 666.725 gallons of fuel, averaging 15.001 miles per gallon and $4.522 per gallon for diesel, for a total of $3015.00. (I converted all of Canada's metric figures to keep it equal.) I guess the reason I found these figures interesting is because I saved $3,000 for the trip but with higher fuel prices, I figured that amount would probably only pay for the fuel. Right on there!

We decided to convert $1,500 to Canadian money just to have the cash available. The rate was $1.06 American for each $1 Canadian. That amount of money paid for all fuel, camping fees and Canadian groceries except for two credit card charged fuel fills. At the border, coming home, we had enough change to buy a bottle of Crown Royal at the duty free shop. (It was a small bottle:)

I did not keep accurate records on other expenditures. However, we roughly figured how many nights we paid for camp spots, restaurant meals and misc expenses and $1,000 would almost cover it. (I don't count groceries because we have to eat at home).

So, bottom line, in this (last) summer's economy, it took close to $4,000 for the trip.

Another expense I am not counting toward the total is the cost of shipping our salmon home. It cost about $10.50 per pound. It is our salmon, the fish we actually caught. So many companies put the fish in bulk processing. I appreciate knowing how they were handled. Frozen wild-caught sockeye salmon in stores cost $6 to $7 a pound so it isn't too bad”