Logistics: Moving to Alaska

Moving our belongings:

Our employer offered to move all our belongings up to Alaska at no cost to us through a company they use, or accept a lesser amount in cash.  Since it is just the 2 of us we realized that, if we took the cash option, we could sell a lot of our stuff and ship up only the items we want and still have a couple thousand dollars left over. So that's exactly what we did.   Valuable items we wanted to hold on to but not ship to Alaska we gave to family members to use in our absence, some items we stored in family's garage or attic, but most of our possessions we sold via an eGarage Sale.  The eGarage Sale was a flickr account filled with photos of items we were selling or giving away, shared on facebook for friends & coworkers to peruse.  Whatever didn't sell there we were able to sell via Craigslist.  All said & done, everything we were bringing up to Alaska fit in one U-pack pod, the back of our VW GTI, and the back of our Honda Ridgeline.  Here's more info about the U-pack:

1 U-pack pod 9ft high by 8ft wide by 5 ft deep, $2243 shipping from Portland, OR to Anchorage, AK

• They delivered 2 pods to our front door on 12/17/14; the second pod is delivered for free in case we need more room and they only charge $2000 if pod is used.
• We were instructed to pack tightly to prevent items from breaking (pack up to the ceiling of pod and all the way to the door so doors have to be squeezed in when closing the pod)
• The pods picked up 12/22/14.
• We received a phone call on 1/6/15 to notify us of our pod’s arrival.  In Alaska, U-Pack pods cannot be delivered to your door.  We rented a 14’ uhaul truck, drove down to Carlile transportation near Salt Creek where we unloaded the pod on-site into our uhaul and drove the uhaul to our house.  

Moving our cars:

We used Alaska Auto Transport to ship our Volkswagon GTI to Anchorage for $1250.  We were allowed an additional 200 lbs of weight to pack belongings in our car as long as all window visibility was clear and both front seats were pushed fully back.  We dropped our car off in Kent, Washington while staying with family in Tacoma.  The person at the yard in Kent was very laid back personally but had meticulous attention to detail in dealing with our car.  The car was placed into a shipping container before being placed on a boat to Anchorage, which ships out every Monday so our car shipped out 12/29/14.  We received a phone call that our car was available for pick-up on 1/10/15.  

Transportation:

We drove our 2008 Honda Ridgeline all-wheel drive truck with cap on the truck bed, a storage box on the roof rack, and brand new blizzack winter tires.  We put belongings in the truck bed and storage box and kept our two dogs in the back seat of the cab.  Our truck’s average MPG is 16-19.  Items we carried with us were:

• Seven gallons of extra gasoline.  We ended up not needing it but it sure provided peace of mind and even gave us flexibility in where we wanted to gas up (cheaper in larger cities vs expensive in little road-side stands).  
• Two full-sized spare tires but, since the highway's potholes were filled with packed snow, a flat tire never became a major concern.
• First aid kit, wench to tow car out of the ditch, flares, extra lighters, down sleeping bags, blankets, all our warm clothes, our jetboil backpacking stove, and a box of food & snacks
• Any clothes and items needed to spend our first few weeks in Anchorage, including ski gear!

There was quite a bit of traffic on the Alaskan Highway, at least during the day.  Anytime we stopped at a rest area, 3-5 vehicles would drive by, whether big-rigs or passenger vehicles.  Point is, if you became stranded along side the road you won't wait long for someone else to come along.  Towing a stranded vehicle will cost a lot of $$$$ though!

This winter was a very low snow year so some of the highway was actually dry pavement, the rest of it packed plowed snow with gravel laid out.  The only time we really actually slid was on a wet, icy bridge before pulling into 100 Mile House in southern BC, and even that was for a few seconds.

Food:

Ate out three times = ~$150 for two people (typically includes alcohol), we mostly hit up grocery stores and ate "camping style" with our jet boil in hotel rooms

Cellphone:

We have Verizon wireless so we added a plan they offered - $25/month for 100mb of data in Canada.  We only used data for finding hotels in a town we just arrived in.  Each hotel we stayed at had free wifi to email our family.  Practically no coverage on the road so the only phone calls we made were to make hotel reservations while in town.

Expenses:

1% foreign transaction fee from our credit union for a total of $12.

The following is a price list of motel and gas expenditures.  Gasoline dropped to $2.50/gallon this winter, but some of the small villages far north had not yet reflected this price drop.

Motel	Price USD
100 Mile House	$96.42
Chetwynd hotel	$68.57
Toad River Lodge	$145.60
Yukon Inn	$100.00
Young's Motel	$76.00
Motel 6	$89.59
Total Motel cost	$476.18

Gas Station Location	Price USD
Gig Harbor	$34.56
Everson, WA	$26.07
Cache Creek	$35.88
Prince George	$54.30
Dawson Creek	$56.71
Fort Nelson	$69.27
Watson Lake	$72.74
Whitehorse	$59.11
Beaver Creek	$73.83
Glennallen	$43.67
Anchorage	$30.85
Total Gasoline cost	$556.99

Hope this info is helpful for anyone planning a winter Alaska highway drive in the future!

<< Previous                                                        Main