1991: CT to Alaska in a '67 C10

[Shaky]

3 guys, 3 weeks, 14,000 miles, 1,800 bucks.

It was 1991 and I just got out of college. No job and not much money. Two friends of mine had 3 weeks off from work and were heading to Alaska. One of them owned the '67 C10 that was going to get us there (and hopefully back).

We each pitched in $600.00. 2/3 of it went for gas - the rest for food and whatnot.

The truck: 1967 C10 short fleet with the super rare '66 bed. 250 6-cylinder, 3-on-the-tree with sloppy linkage, and a recently re-geared 12-bolt that went from 3.73 to 3.07. Rear cab mounts were pretty much gone and the wheel bearings were a little past prime.

The pic below shows the truck at the end of the trip. Dig the plexi-glass headlight covers. We needed 'em.

The trip: The goal was to drive the pipeline haul road up to Prudhoe Bay. Since this is a private road we asked for an access letter prior to leaving. Letter in hand, we hit the road.

[Shaky]

Pic1: Cruising through the plains of Canada on the Yellowhead Highway. We exited the USA in ND. I'm from CT - it's 2 hours from corner to corner - Canada is big!

Pic 2: Getting up north now on the Alcan Highway. Stopped for a dip in a glacial-fed lake. Went a little farther up the road and found the hot springs.

Pic 3: Made it to the Yukon!

[Shaky]

Pic 1: Safety announcement - there's no seat belts in the bed.

Pic 2: Made it to the Dalton Highway above Fairbanks. Time to start the pipeline haul road. We got a little push back from the pipeline gatekeeper, but we whined so much he finally let us go and told us to stay out of the way.

Pic 3: The through-the-windshield shot. That rooster tail in the distance is the oil company 18-wheeler comin'.

Pic 4: Here's the pipeline. The pipe can actually slide side to side on those goal posts to allow for the temperature expansion/contraction.

Pic 5: There's lots of cool stuff in Alaska!

[Shaky]

Pic 1: Made it to the Arctic Circle! Other than a fuel pump change in Canada, we're still truckin'!

Pic 2: Heading for the Brooks Range.

Pic 3: It's not a public road. The trucks are runnin' hard and fast and you get pelted with gravel followed by a dust storm.

Pic 4: Prudhoe Bay! We swore that we'd jump in the Arctic Ocean when we got there (I think this pic was taken in the middle of the night). It was cold - there were icebergs, and we wimped out.

[Shaky]

Pic 1: Time for a little fishin' on the north slope.

Pic 2: Arctic Char. (Actually a grayling - see below).

Pic 3: Looking down at the pipeline and haul road.

[Shaky]

Whoops!

[Shaky]

Pic 1: The entrance road to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. It's huge. I think the entrance road was 90 miles.

Pic 2: Abandoned copper mine.

Pic 3: Just needs a little work...

Pic 4: Yup - we got stuck on the way out. Gotta watch those shoulders.

[Shaky]

Pic 1: Fishing out the back while under way. What can I say - ya get a little freaky after driving 14K miles in three weeks.

Pic 2: "Wake up and look at the glacier!"

Pic 3: Waterfalls near Valdez.

Pic 4: Valdez seemed to have cleaned up nicely after the spill.

[Shaky]

Pic 1: Denali. Home of the big one. It was in the clouds when we were there (like it usually is), but it's still a great park.

Pic 2: Public Service Announcement: Grizzly Bears are big!

Pic 3: "Ya'll got funny looking deer up here."

Pic 4: Alaska in July.

[Shaky]

Pic 1: Kenai Fjords NP. That's the glacier that leads to the Harding Ice Field in the background.

Pic 2: Hiking up along the glacier with the Freddie Krueger sweater on.

Pic 3: The Harding Ice Shelf. It's huge. Big. Really big.

Pic 4: Surfing the Harding Ice Shelf on our rain pants. Seemed like the thing to do.

Pic 5: It's a long walk back up...

[Shaky]

Jasper/Banff NP in Canada. We had to breeze back through Canada - customs told us to go straight to the US border. I guess we didn't look (or smell) too good at this point. Oh well, Canada was some nice cruisin'

[chas350]

Cool trip! thanks for sharing, great pics!

[BigRed Beast]

Awesome college road trip...wish we could all do stuff like that again...we were too naive to worry about anything!

[Shaky]

Back in the USA! Not easily though. Customs in Montana didn't seem to want the smell in the US either. We lost a number of hours there.

Pic 1: Devil's Tower in WY.

Pic 2: The Badlands in SD.

Pic 3: "Have You Dug Wall Drug?" Well - have you?

Pic 4: Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Who knew that they put part of Daytona Beach in Indiana? This was our first dip in the water since the hot springs on the way up. Phew!

[Shaky]

Originally Posted by BigRed Beast

Awesome college road trip...wish we could all do stuff like that again...we were too naive to worry about anything!

"No brain - no pain".

[too much stuff]

Cool, thanks for sharing all the pics. I think that was the same year i made a similar trip. Took us 12 days to get to wasilla. Also crossed over at banff/jasper and followed the cassier hwy. Second trip up we took the alcan and stayed in cordova. Had to take a ferry out of valdez for that one. Looks like you guys had fun!!!

[Longhorn Man]

thats awesome!

[martindc1]

Nice trip, that's really awesome.

On a side note, that fish is a Grayling. An Arctic Char looks like a Brook Trout.

[srea76]

Awesome I love it.

[Shaky]

Originally Posted by martindc1

Nice trip, that's really awesome.

On a side note, that fish is a Grayling. An Arctic Char looks like a Brook Trout.

Oops. My bad.

[Shaky]

Originally Posted by too much stuff

Cool, thanks for sharing all the pics. I think that was the same year i made a similar trip. Took us 12 days to get to wasilla. Also crossed over at banff/jasper and followed the cassier hwy. Second trip up we took the alcan and stayed in cordova. Had to take a ferry out of valdez for that one. Looks like you guys had fun!!!

We drove 89 hours straight to get to the AK. 95 hours got us above Fairbanks - to where the REAL mosquitoes live.

[martindc1]

Originally Posted by Shaky

Oops. My bad.

No worries, not many are lucky enough to hook a line into either.

[CG]

I love road trips...that looks like it was a blast, thanks for the pics.

[oldgold70c10]

Okay, this is the coolest thing I've seen on this board yet! That must have been one hell of a trip.

[bigguy69]

awesome!!!!