Posted by admin | Posted in Hiking Needs | Posted on 04-01-2009
Tags: alaska, hiking, outdoors, trails, travel
Backpacking alaska? Can this plan be done for this much money?
I have been scheduling a July or August 2010 Trip to Alaska to do some backpacking. We don’t have much money but luckily we are well equipped and willing to really rough it. Roughly our plan is rent a car in anchorage then travel from trail head to trail head spend almost all of our nights on the trail. We will restock our food supplies in between. And only spend a total of perhaps 3-4 nights in motels over the course of the month we plan to spend there. We are hoping to accomplish this with 1500-2000 of spending money once we get there. The rental vehicle will be split between say 4 people and we are planning on hiking in Denali and Chugach parks. Could you help me with budgeting? Keep in mind that we are willing to endure terrible accommodations, would like to spend the majority of our time on the trail and we don’t need to eat pricey/good food. Thanks.
Here are some tips.
Get the Milepost, actually this is more of a command 
it the nest travel guide for Alaska
http://milepost.com/
current good info on what you will find where, whats open, whats available and what you see as you drive every mile of major road.
remember Alaska is Huge:
http://www.tongass-seis.net/media/tong_USA.html
Depending on where you go you might be able to skip the car and use the Alaska Railroad.
http://www.akrr.com/
Many places in smaller communities will have a washateria (laundry, showers, and water jug filling) so you can clean up there and skip the hotel room. Some roadhouses will also sell you a meal and shower and place to pitch a tent.
And if you are looking at trails on topo maps like the Gazetteer (another great resource) that not all the trails show are still actively use and some are winter trail only.
http://store.randmcnally.com/product/road+atlases/state+%26+specialty+atlases/delorme+atlas+%26+gazetteer-+alaska.do?search=basic&keyword=alaska&sortby=bestSellers&page=1
Denali is expensive and crowded, to get our backcountry permits (no you can’t just go in hiking) you need to go a day before, jump through the hoops and hope there is an opening in an area you want. Waiting to do all this can eat cash. If you haven;t already looking into the park here you go:
http://www.nps.gov/dena/planyourvisit/backcountry.htm
Consider the Denali Highway instead, beautiful and less crowded. There is at least one roadhouse open for a mid way hot meal /shower. http://www.maclarenlodge.com/
But check with your car rental company as some restrict what roads you can travel on.
Side Note: although it is a highway the Denali highway is a dirt road open only in summer.
Alaska will not always be what you expect. it is not like there are always well marked trail head at roadside stops, and much hiking is done without trails. Not that there are not set marked trails too, just be aware that many popular recreation ares don’t have set marked trail.
This web site list some:
http://www.trails.com/toptrails.aspx?area=10049
Sorry I don;t really know anything about Chugach.
Hiking Alaska ~ Reed Lakes Trail, Hatcher Pass ~ 4th of July 2009 PT 1
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