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Great Alaska Cache And Dash


CENT5

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I just picked up a nice Alaska TB too!  I think we should pass it through the entire group before we leave it in Alaska.
We should be able to fill up a few pages on the flight up. Unless everyone in the group passes out like I plan to do.:D

 

Couple of housekeeping items.

 

Though not specifically mentioned in the list of prohibited items. Please remove any “Leatherman” or multi-tool from your carry-on bags.

 

There is a “Dress Code” for these passes. Clean jeans etc. Collared shirt for the guys. Which basically means we can’t show up in the ANC airport looking like we were drug through a mud hole.

 

I think we should probably let our guide NorthWes do his thing for the 1st day and plan an appropriate cache route down Turnagain Arm. He knows what’s doable and what’s not.

 

Since our second night is in Palmer we could plan on caching our way in that direction when we hit the road Wednesday AM. (Doesn’t mean we can’t rattle a few more cans in ANC along the way.) Unless the weather is severe clear I think the run up to the Talkeetna Spur may be too much to squeeze in. I think it will serve us well to be informed about what’s available and we can rely on our ANC hosts to keep us pointed in the right direction.

 

Flights still look fine at 82/59 open seats.

 

10 days 2 hours 18 minutes to push time. Not that I’m counting mind you. :laughing:

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...Which basically means we can’t show up in the ANC airport looking like we were drug through a mud hole...

Which is to say - oh dear, we'll have to disguise ourselves from looking like rag-tag, grubby geocachers.

 

10 days 2 hours 18 minutes to push time.  Not that I’m counting mind you. :D

9 days 21 hours 26 minutes til lift-off and counting... :laughing:

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Getting ready to put the ACD Welcome Event on-line today. I'm curious if Cent5 or anyone else has a problem with a 6pm meeting time for the evening event.

 

My logic: 6-7:30pm dinner/event/jabber time, then back into the field to cache - head for Campbell Airstrip Rd's night cache (Mission Impossible GCH2QV) with estimated arrival at 7:45pm (cache hunt's eastward, away from setting sun...) with departure from MI by 8:30pm, then over to Connor Lake Park's night cache (Operation Blue Moon GCH2QT) with departure by 9:45pm; then on to the northwest side of the airport to hunt the final night cache (Tactical Advantage -GCH2QZ - has coords gleaned from MI & OBM), which requires extraction from the parking zone NLT 2300 hrs (or risk being treated like lovestruck/doper teenagers by security elements guarding the parks around the aerodrome.) Afterwards, any other night hunting of 24/7 accessible caches will be up to the pleasure of the ACD team's stamina.

 

Please advise...

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Well, since liftoff is just over a week away and I've been unsuccessful in finding another professor willing to cover 6 hours of lectures for me on that Thursday, it looks like I'll finally have to admit to myself that I'll be handing over my precious ACD TB #17 to Reino.

I have Tuesday/Wednesdays off so I thought that I'd be able to swing this trip, and CENT5 even graciously offered to look into an earlier flight for me so that I could be back in time for my Thursday morning class. But I think that would most likely cramp the group's style since I wouldn't be able to wander too far from the airport on Wednesday. So much as I appreciated the offer (CENT5, has anyone told you recently that You Rock?!!!), I think it's just not in the cards for me this time.

Reino is trying hard not to gloat too much about getting to go instead of me (after all, I've been caching longer than he has and I'm the one who hooked him into this whole caching adventure hobby thing), but I can tell he's way excited and that makes me smile and smile. :laughing:

I'm sure that this trip to Alaska will be much better for him than our last trip there. A few years back we booked an Alaskan cruise, and I arranged for mountain bike tours at every port. To make a long story short, I had an excellent time. Reino, on the other hand, spent almost his entire week throwing up (first from seasickness, then from a nasty virus and a fever of 102). So while I was enjoying the fabulous scenery, he saw mostly the four walls of our little room. He did get to go on one or two of the mountain biking tours, and of course had a tire blowout (the only one in the group) going down a big hill at a high rate of speed.

So, I'll have to settle for living vicariously through his (and the rest of the team's) adventures, and let Reino make it up to me somehow. :D

Now I'm going to go interrupt his happy dance to remind him to call the rental agency to change the van reservation from my name to his.

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My logic: 6-7:30pm dinner/event/jabber time, then back into the field to cache - head for Campbell Airstrip Rd's night cache (Mission Impossible GCH2QV) with estimated arrival at 7:45pm (cache hunt's eastward, away from setting sun...) with departure from MI by 8:30pm, then over to Connor Lake Park's night cache (Operation Blue Moon GCH2QT) with departure by 9:45pm; then on to the northwest side of the airport to hunt the final night cache (Tactical Advantage -GCH2QZ - has coords gleaned from MI & OBM), which requires extraction from the parking zone NLT 2300 hrs (or risk being treated like lovestruck/doper teenagers by security elements guarding the parks around the aerodrome.) Afterwards, any other night hunting of 24/7 accessible caches will be up to the pleasure of the ACD team's stamina.

 

Please advise...

Good comments about the night cache itinerary. I think two out of three the first night is feasible, but I think snagging Tacticial Advantage before 11:00 p.m. is a stretch. If I remember correctly, it's close to a mile walk from the Pt. Woronzof parking lot to the start of the cache for Tactical Advantage, so unless the group is interested in jogging, 75 minutes isn't going to cut it. If they want the third night cache, they can do it early Wednesday morning (parking lot opens at 0600) before sunrise or take a LONG walk from the Postmark Drive parking lot the night before to avoid getting locked in/chased out. Could stop by "For All To See"...I'm not sure doing that one in the daylight helps much :laughing:.

 

Edit: Referenced wrong cache...Mission: Impossible is the eastern most cache, Tactical Advantage is the western most cache. Mission: Impossible and Operation Blue Moon must be done in order to get coordinates for Tactical Advantage.

Edited by Ladybug Kids
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Getting ready to put the ACD Welcome Event on-line today. I'm curious if Cent5 or anyone else has a problem with a 6pm meeting time for the evening event.

 

Afterwards, any other night hunting of 24/7 accessible caches will be up to the pleasure of the ACD team's stamina.

 

Please advise...

Anything you decide we will be there. The timeline looks just fine.

 

I suspect we will not get out of Gwennies until close to noon. We will probably need to drop some gear at your place and with a trip to the grocery for lunch stuff we may need to make Tuesday an ANC day and keep any foray down Turnagain Arm fairly close in. The Whittier run would be a majorly rushed deal within the time constraints.

 

With decent weather perhaps caches in the area of Cache with a view would be appropriate as well as some in KinKaid park. Views/ Views/ Views.

 

Your bookmark list is great with, many options.

 

I think 8PM will probably be closer to a realistic time to depart the event with beer, pizza, and tall tales it will be hard to leave much earlier. If we get 2 of 3 night caches it will do. If it is nice we might want to look at a night view cache further up on top.

 

I'm not sure about getting up at 6 AM to finish night caching. I suspect we will be pretty whipped after 20+ hours on the go. We can play alot of this by ear.

 

Appreciate all your help and I look forward to meeting you.

 

9 Days 13 Hours and 56 minutes. Tick-Tick-Tick

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Sounds good on the planning comments, Cent5.

 

We'll get to Gwennies, chow/caffeinate/hydrate, head to 'Casa Cache Anchorage' to dump gear, hit a store for provisions & then depart for a few Turnagain Arm (TA) caches. We'll try from there to ensure your goal of 'View/View/View' is achieved! As for the evening, well - that will work itself out as the ACD team feels up to doing.

 

Hit two caches on a too-brief drive up to Hatchers Pass north of Palmer today - River Song (GCJVQB) (beauty of a location I'd recommend to you - but drive uphill past it a couple of miles as well for the sheer beauty of the mountains) and the conveniently-located Wasilla Creek (GCPZ8C) cache along the way.

 

Well, the BBQ beckons me... more later!

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Hit two caches on a too-brief drive up to Hatchers Pass north of Palmer today - River Song (GCJVQB) (beauty of a location I'd recommend to you - but drive uphill past it a couple of miles as well for the sheer beauty of the mountains) and the conveniently-located Wasilla Creek (GCPZ8C) cache along the way.

 

Well, the BBQ beckons me... more later!

I saw your log on River Song I've been watching your weather and I knew it had been awfully wet. 15 days of rain sounds more like Seattle in Dec. B) Hope your getting it out of your system now. :grin:

 

I also noted in your pictures the color is just starting to come in so we may get some good fall colors on our trip after all. :oColors Starting to come in

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So, I'll have to settle for living vicariously through his (and the rest of the team's) adventures, and let Reino make it up to me somehow.  B)

Now I'm going to go interrupt his happy dance to remind him to call the rental agency to change the van reservation from my name to his.

Truely sorry you can't make it. I'm sure Reino will find ways to make it up to you. :grin:

 

Welcome aboard Reino. Looking forward to the journey with you.

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I suspect we will not get out of Gwennies until close to noon. We will probably need to drop some gear at your place and with a trip to the grocery for lunch stuff we may need to make Tuesday an ANC day and keep any foray down Turnagain Arm fairly close in. The Whittier run would be a majorly rushed deal within the time constraints.

OK, I'm a little fuzzy on which day we are doing what. I had thought we were going down to Turnagain Arm and Whittier on Wednesday.

 

Cent5, would you please post a tentative schedule thus far?

 

Thanks, You Rock (anyone tell you that?)!!!!

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I suspect we will not get out of Gwennies until close to noon.  We will probably need to drop some gear at your place and with a trip to the grocery for lunch stuff we may need to make Tuesday an ANC day and keep any foray down Turnagain Arm fairly close in.  The Whittier run would be a majorly rushed deal within the time constraints.

Gwennies specializes in quick breakfasts for travelers, so we could be in an out of there within an hour and it's only a half-mile detour out of the way to the Cache Casa.

 

Gwennies also doesn't have to the on the itinerary. If you'd rather sightsee/geocache more quickly, the Huffman Carrs has a deli counter folks can fuel up at while getting provisions for the rest of the day. For those wanting a more cardiac breakfast, McDonald's is just down the road from there as well.

 

If the weather is nice, I suggest heading down Turnagain Arm to Portage and Whittier (1 hour drive) and then caching back to Anchorage. That could be saved for Wednesday, but I think I saw a post about Wednesday being spent with Globalgirl's daughter in the Palmer/Wasilla area. Portage/Whittier could also be done on Thursday before you leave, but you're looking at a two-hour drive from Palmer/Wasilla. Given that time frame, if the weather is clear on Thursday, an open-jaw type of trip over Hatcher Pass to Willow and a hop up to Talkeetna for a great view of Denali could be well worth the trip.

 

Bottom line---ya'll let Northwes and me know what your priorities are and we can help streamline things from this end. Sometimes too much information and choices are "too much" so I'll pipe down for now.

 

Yes, colors should be nice when you get up here. They are peaking in the Interior and usually follow two weeks later in Southcentral.

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OK, I'm a little fuzzy on which day we are doing what.  I had thought we were going down to Turnagain Arm and Whittier on Wednesday.

 

Cent5, would you please post a tentative schedule thus far?

 

Thanks, You Rock (anyone tell you that?)!!!!

The only schedule we have so far is:

 

Meet at Alaska Airlines ticket counter SEATAC at 4:15AM for a 6AM departure

Arrive ANC 8:49AM

Gwennies 9:45ish or so until, call it 11:00AM

We can probably forgo the grocery trip till Wed AM (Or I'll send a check to NW with a list perhaps.) (Now theres an idea.)

The Turnagain Arm run has always been planned for Tuesday if it's doable within the time we have.

ANC Event at 6PM till 8PM or so

Night cache till whenever we run out of gas then off to NorthWes Casa to pass out.

Wednesday is still wide open for suggestions.

Wednesday night at weizguyz (globalgirl's daughters) home in Palmer.

Thursday is still open with the need to be somewhat cleaned up and back at the airport by 7PM for a 9PM departure.

 

Thats it so far in a nutshell.

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I'm game for however you'd like to set up in advance - I've 'expedited' for travellers before & would be delighted to cut out downtime in advance for you guys w/advance shopping etc. It's not like I won't be shopping between now and your arrival - I can just add yours to the list & store it all here. Just think of us as your Alaska Cache Logistics Specialists!

 

By the way - the Northern Lights were absolutely awesome last night... incredible streamers of light from directly overhead coupled with green banners waving above the mountains to the north and east...

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By the way - the Northern Lights were absolutely awesome last night... incredible streamers of light from directly overhead coupled with green banners waving above the mountains to the north and east...

There was a solar flare the other day. A big one. Expected to disrupt sattelite communications and GPS etc. Expected to last for 11 days. If we get decent weather we may get some really good Northern Lights.

Edited by CENT5
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By the way - the Northern Lights were absolutely awesome last night... incredible streamers of light from directly overhead coupled with green banners waving above the mountains to the north and east...

Totally AWESOME! One of my life-long dreams is to witness the Northern Lights. Indeed, my very first TB placed was "Love of my Light" - the love bug that's been trying (in vain!) to catch up with her honeybun "Northern Light" (not my TB, but whose mission is to view the Northern Lights in MT.) Unfortunately (as TB's often go), her honey seems to have been lost here in WA, whilst my precious is presently heartbroken in Iowa.

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The only schedule we have so far is:

 

Meet at Alaska Airlines ticket counter SEATAC at 4:15AM for a 6AM departure

Arrive ANC 8:49AM

Gwennies 9:45ish or so until,  call it 11:00AM

We can probably forgo the grocery trip till Wed AM (Or I'll send a check to NW with a list perhaps.) (Now theres an idea.)

The Turnagain Arm run has always been planned for Tuesday if it's doable within the time we have. 

ANC Event at 6PM till 8PM or so

Night cache till whenever we run out of gas then off to NorthWes Casa to pass out.

Wednesday is still wide open for suggestions.

Wednesday night at weizguyz (globalgirl's daughters) home in Palmer.

Thursday is still open with the need to be somewhat cleaned up and back at the airport by 7PM for a 9PM departure.

 

Thats it so far in a nutshell.

After whittling a variety of AK pocket queries ad naseum, and wading through a gazillion tantalizing AK boxes in GSAK, just my .02 here to say...

 

I think the itinerary looks swell CENT5. I agree that - from what my dd tells me, a run up Turnagain (at least part way) is doable on Tuesday. And I think we can (way more'n) safely leave it up to our esteemed "LACLS" (Lead Alaska Logistics Specialist) NorthWes to hone the boxes down to a well-balanced best-of-the-best along our merry way. The weizguyz are excited about bedding down this bunch of geo-riffraff, and I suggest we head straight for Palmer/Wasilla and beyond on the morn of day 2 'cuz there's lots of boxes in that vicinity. Perhaps NorthWes would kindly devise - yet another - swell bookmark list of balanced boxes in that area. Then Thursday morn, we can head back to ANC and collect boxes hither 'n yon all day - heading ever nearer the airport (i.e. that way we're heading TOWARDS the plane on the final day, rather than pushing ever further - "just 1 more box" - outward).

 

And meanwhile... the weizguyz and globalgirl have teamed up to devise a special treat for the cinco centavo lad - a set of "twin" AK-WA caches (with a twist) coming soon to a neighborhood geosandbox near you.

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Just got wind of this via NorthWes. Looking forward to meeting what sounds like a truely fun group of people! I have the 20th, 21st, and 22nd off and would love to join the group for some Anchorage/Palmer caching. I'll keep an eye out for the posting of the meet and greet. We look forward to having you all up North! ;)

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Just got wind of this via NorthWes. Looking forward to meeting what sounds like a truely fun group of people! I have the 20th, 21st, and 22nd off and would love to join the group for some Anchorage/Palmer caching. I'll keep an eye out for the posting of the meet and greet. We look forward to having you all up North! :P

Should be fun I agree ;) Looking forward to meeting you.

Edited by CENT5
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Just for fun (whilst I anxiously count the hours 'til ACAD lift off...)

 

It's oh so NOT about the numbers you understand, but nonetheless, playing with stats can be kinda entertaining - towit:

 

Among our eclectic bunch of 9 ACAD geozanies, we have:

 

A total of 6,927 finds. That's an average of 769 each, though of course one particular geolad singlehandedly nudges the standard deviation up astronomically! Minimum finds: 160 Max: 3,249

 

And hides? A total of 155 among the bunch - that's an average of 17 apiece, including 3 lads who've yet to place their first cache. No doubt that will change shortly, when we all drop our "ACD I" caches that CENT5 proposed. Personally I've got a somewhat malicious hide gizmo planned - likely dwarfed in evilness only by what the 5 cent lad has up his slippery sleeve.

 

And finally, presently it looks like we should be celebrating a goodly number of milestones on this adventure CENT5 and I have been feverishly grabbing boxes lately, and after manana we each should both be in range of a nice round number (he, his 2nd century and I, my half k.) But there's also LindaLu at close to 700, El Santo near 200, and GeoZuk sure to hit his 2nd century milestone whilst scampering in the Great White North.

 

And speaking of "numbers"...

 

 

Just 5 days, 19 hours and 36 minutes til lift-off...

 

...edited to tweak a couple of the numbers - well duh!

Edited by globalgirl
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And furthermore - things are looking brighter by the moment...

 

ANC/Palmer forecast for Tuesday:

 

cf90e32f-2ac3-4f53-b4a9-4c111ab88424.jpg

 

:)

All right!!! T-shirt and shorts weather. More room in the swag bag for swag instead of clothes. :lol:

 

whilst scampering in the Great White North

 

Fortunately, it's not white below 4000' yet. Should have some great Fall colors, though.

Edited by Ladybug Kids
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With Northwest Airlines and Delta Airlines entering bankruptcy today I'd be remiss if I didn't share some concerns. As of right now the flights look just fine. The number in red below denotes the seats available for our return leg. What I saw between the time I last looked at 9AM today and tonight was a significant drop in those numbers which raised a red flag for me. There are still 82 open seats for the flight to ANC. At a minimum what I see is a need to return to ANC by 2:20PM Thursday. Should we start to get a load shift from NW and Delta those numbers may become untenable for our trip. With a group of this size I need at least 2 flights to have 30 seats available prior to our departure.

884 SEP 22-Thu ANC 10:12 AM SEA 2:38 PM 30

92 SEP 22-Thu ANC 12:28 PM SEA 4:50 PM 31

148 SEP 22-Thu ANC 3:41 PM SEA 8:03 PM 17

124 SEP 22-Thu ANC 4:20 PM SEA 8:38 PM 47

164 SEP 22-Thu ANC 4:48 PM SEA 9:04 PM 46

890 SEP 22-Thu ANC 5:47 PM SEA 10:05 PM 32

112 SEP 22-Thu ANC 9:09 PM SEA 1:25 AM 30

 

I did state early on that we may need to be flexible. Should the situation continue to deteriorate plan B pushes us into the following week which just opened back up for me if needed. I'm sorry this is happening as I am looking forward to the trip as much as anyone. I also understand this is a difficult situation for all.

 

And yes, I have examined every possible option from leaving Monday to going to FAI or JNU ETC. ETC. Inside and out and upside down. This is still our best shot.

 

As a last ditch plan I can convert any of the ACD holders slots into a round trip Guest pass anywhere Alaska Airline flies within the U.S.. They would have to be used by Dec 31 2005. Thats about as good as I can do if it all falls apart.

 

Right now lets keep our fingers crossed and see what happens over the next couple days.

Edited by CENT5
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AHA!!!! These guys at work just came up with a decent plan B. The problem is getting 9 bodies on an A/C at a time. I know some need to be back Thursday night Fri AM. If 4 people can volunteer to stay over another night in ANC if needed. I can run 4 people down Thursday and turn around back to ANC to get the other 4 back on Friday. The vehicles are already rented into Friday so thats not a problem. If thats doable we can run the red numbers down to 12-15 before we need to call it off. Any volunteers?

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AHA!!!! These guys at work just came up with a decent plan B. The problem is getting 9 bodies on an A/C at a time. I know some need to be back Thursday night Fri AM. If 4 people can volunteer to stay over another night in ANC if needed. I can run 4 people down Thursday and turn around back to ANC to get the other 4 back on Friday. The vehicles are already rented into Friday so thats not a problem. If thats doable we can run the red numbers down to 12-15 before we need to call it off. Any volunteers?

No worries here, I just have to come back sometime.

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globalgirl and I had our own cache machine run today to pump up the numbers for the run up north. If I do say so myself, even after a mere 1 1/2 hours of sleep, my geonose was spot on. 16 caches and 1 DNF (And I bet it's gone because it was a 1/2.) in 5 hours. I'm whipped. Have one hot spot in my new boots after 5 hours so another dose of Nikwax is in order and a few more miles.

 

I checked the flights when I got home and was surprised by the fact the 9:09PM flight we had originally planned on taking went from 30 seats to a -11. I called the PSM at work and asked what was going on. Apparently an Alaska school team booked it. Thats actually good news because it doesn't have anything to do with NW and Delta. The rest of the numbers for the afternoon and evening flights were down 1-4 slots which is normal. (Still over 40 seats.)

 

Now I'm going to cook supper, (Meatloaf and scalloped potatoes in the oven.) have a couple beers and pass out.

 

Ahh yes. Thanks to our 4 volunteers to stay over. It opens up ALOT of options.

 

LBK and NorthWes I'm looking forward to the event cache page coming up.

 

Well what do you know IT'S UP and LOOKS GREAT!!!!!!

Edited by CENT5
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All righty now. Things are looking up. No more flight angst. I called work and did some finagling and got 8 confirmed seats on Flt 890 22 Sept. Dept ANC at 5:47PM ARR SEA at 10:05PM Unfortunately they are center row seats on a very full flight but its only 3 hours out of your life. I will take my chances on the standby list or fly jumpseat in the cockpit if available.

 

AND the weather forecast for Wednesday in ANC is SUNNY!!!!!!!!!! :):):)

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All righty now. Things are looking up. No more flight angst. I called work and did some finagling and got 8 confirmed seats on Flt 890 22 Sept. Dept ANC at 5:47PM ARR SEA at 10:05PM Unfortunately they are center row seats on a very full flight but its only 3 hours out of your life. I will take my chances on the standby list or fly jumpseat in the cockpit if available.

 

AND the weather forecast for Wednesday in ANC is SUNNY!!!!!!!!!! :):):)

ARR SEA at 10:05PM

 

That sounds much better than the 1:30 am arrival :)

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I've been a little out of sight in the forums lately as I'm desperately trying to finish up a project for a class that I'm taking so that I can go to Alaska!  :)

 

What is the plan for luggage?  Will we be checking bags, or should we plan to fly light with carry-on only?

Welcome back. Hope your trip was a great time.

 

Plan on checking a bag (or 2 if needed.). We need to bring bedrolls. I've got my big Kelty pack about half stuffed with sleeping bag and pad. Now that the flights are locked in we can be a bit more free about what we haul. And with the weather looking to cooperate I've removed my Artic gear from my list. :) We can plan on wet terrain especially down Whittier way but so far it's looking good.

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If the flight is full, we will probably want to limit the size of our carry-on stuff anyway, and check most gear. I agree, 10:05 PM arrival sounds much better!

 

Don't forget your photo ID!

 

CENT5, do you happen to know Alaska Airlines' policy on GPS usage during flights? (But if we are in the center of the row it won't matter much anyway since you can't pick up the sats from that position.)

 

The clock is ticking.........

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