So as of today in exactly one week I leave for a road trip to Alaska!! It’s funny when you are planning something for months and it seems so far away and then all of a sudden, it starts coming up faster than you can imagine. So yea, despite all my planning I’m starting to freak out a little bit…
So a couple of weeks ago I took what I like to call my “shakedown cruise”, where I loaded up the Sienna like I was going to Alaska with the Yakima Awning, my Thule rook box and my hitch carrier box.
I headed down to Silver Lake campground, which is on the June Lake loop down near Mammoth. I’ve driven through there a bunch of times but never camped, but I’m glad I did because what an awesome campground! Two big waterfalls within site of our campsite and we were just steps from the lake.
So the plan for Alaska for years had been me driving up there with Panzer, my 7 year old Giant Schanuzer (the big guy up front).
But then about a year ago we got Blitz (the littler guy behind) and he is just the sweetest boy. I had planned on bringing them both to Alaska but I had some trepidation about Blitz. I love him to death but I realized on this camping trip that it would just be too difficult to have them both with me. They will have to be on leash a lot up there, and handling 200 pounds of dog is just too much. Plus, that’s a lot of dog food to buy and carry. So I made the decision to only bring Panzer and know it is the right choice. Blitz will be just fine with Sean, it will give them a chance to bond, and my in-laws will watch him when Sean flies up to join me for 9 days. And I am excited to have so much one-on-one time with Panzer, he is my heart dog.
So I’m glad I took the trip, I did realize that my awning was awesome, quick and easy to put up and put away, which was a concern. I know it can rain a lot in Alaska and I wanted something easy. The roof box was roomy and I also discovered that my mileage was not affected by the items on the roof, which was a concern. The hitch box also worked great, carried everything I needed. All in all, my setup was sound.
So here is a map of my first 11 days, very excited about this itinerary!
I will be posting on Instagram and blogging as much as I can given the spotty cell coverage up there, so stay tuned! You can follow me on Instagram and also sign up to be notified of new posts below.