Our trip from McCarthy/Kennecott to Valdez was an adventure in itself. We could also call this Alaska trip - the saga of the Ford F250... although I was reflecting today that we also had issues with the truck 2 years ago when we did a similar roadtrip. Maybe the truck just doesn't want to go to Alaska???We left McCarthy mid afternoon to head back down the winding dirt road and hopefully get to Valdez around dinner time.
Things were off to a poor start when we had to use the generator + battery charger + someone else's vehicle to jump start the truck after sitting for 3 days in our camping spot.
About 30 minutes down the road the "check engine" light started to flash - don't you just love those??? 30 minutes later, the electrical system started to make strange noises and flash alot (another thing you should not aim for). 10 minutes later the gauges all went - can you guess what happened next?? We made it for 20 minutes and then the power went (yep - that's steering and brakes; great when driving downhill on a windy dirt road!). Tim did an amazing job of being calm, under control and keeping us all safe. We found a small patch of grass to pull over onto and got the generator & battery charger system out (doesn't everyone have one of those that they travel with?). 90 minutes later we were charged up and ready to go again.
That pattern (noisy clicking, flashing lights, lost gauges, power going, roadside charging) continued for the next 4 hours as we went 80 miles to Valdez. We were helped by some amazing Good Samaritans (if ever in Valdez, PLEASE shop at the Prospector as Joe the owner was one of our Good Samaritans).
We spent the night (we got there around 1am) at Mark's Auto Repair and spent parts of the next 4 days there sorting out what was wrong with the truck. $1700 later, we had a new oil pump and a new relay switch to help us go.
This is the first time we have spent more than 24 hours in Valdez and it was well worth it. We fit in lots of great fishing (Pink Salmon were running), glacier paddling at the Valdez Glacier and general wildlife watching at the small boat dock. See next posts for more details :)
