ROF= Ring of fire Odyssey MEF-H = Marine Expeditionary Force- Hargus
AK= ALaska journey
October 24, 2017
Alaska roads 1. If you have to go to Alaska I recommend you to fly and drive. A road trip to drive to Alaska is an awful long drive.
If you listen to other people on YouTube or articles they'll say how the roads in Alaska are bad, but they don't tell you how bad they are. I'm going to tell you how bad they are and find some pictures of bad places.
Now Alaska, state of Alaska, does not spend the money on roads that I would expect to have better roads. I'm sure the Department of Transportation commissioner would say you take my budget and you do better and I couldn't. The state of Alaska sells itself as a real tourism juggernaut. The Last Frontier, sounds very romantic rugged unique and it is rugged and very unique in places. But it is very touristy in a lot of places and we'll talk about that later.
And there's only about 4 to 5 main roads in Alaska that are paved. Maybe 8 or 9 with the Spur Roads. And when I'm talking about a main road it's like a two-lane undivided Highway.
And it's not asphalt surface this nice and smooth. Roads in Alaska are literally a layer of tar and a poor dirt gravel on it and the dirt washes off eventually leaving a bitumen stone surface that is not a good flat asphalt road like you expect in the United States. And that's the good roads..
Frost heaves. Frost heaves are on every road and they will tear up your car very quick. Alaska is mostly permafrost. That means about four to six feet under ground is Frozen ice. And the top surface the top 3 ft heat up in the summer and flex out... and it's like most things in nature when you expand it and contract it if it while it becomes a dip in the road. Now this dip is what's called a heave and some dips or, he leaves, are 2 inch deep and the size of your room. some heaves or dips are a foot deep, 12” deep and 150 feet long.
The state of Alaska is at least decent enough to put red flags at the beginning of the heaves.
You see a little red flag or a red cone or right on the side of the road you slow down because you're about to go into you know basically a deep pothole. Now they do put some signs on the road and places. But look for the flags. On the dips in the heaves you will see the vehicle scrapes where the suspension shocks and leaf spring brackets have drug the the asphalt when they come up out of the heave.
We talked with several people that had repair work done on their RVs, the suspension, alignment was shot and not even finished with the trip. one guy from North Carolina had to have his frame part of his frame welded back together where it had literally broken you know sheared off had to have some part welded back on Hardwell during one of these towns.
What the state of Alaska doesn't spend on roads, it spends on Advertising for the tourism industry.
And that's the paved roads, supposedly the good roads. There are places that are just nothing but dirt roads and potholes the size of of a house. The basic size not the deep ones. And I think the dirt causes a problem because there is no clay there there is no kaolin and in the soil like we have in the South where that sticky clay Bonds and binds gravel together in compact into a sub base, I don't see that in Alaska.
If someone told me that they had driven their car or their RV to Alaska I would not buy it because I know how rough and abused it has been to make that trip.
You plan on doing a road trip to Alaska you be prepared for rough roads and I mean rough. Top of the world Highway, the dirt road, 81 miles took 8 plus hours. It's a rough road. It's a view that few have ever seen and I'm glad to say that I have seen it, I have done it, but it was a it was rough on a vehicle… and your focus.
You never drink twice from the same stream.
Just because you wander doesn't mean you're lost.
Uncle Hargus: Last of the Independents
Have Bear,
Will Travel
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