This is part four of a five part series that is describing an epic road trip to Alaska that was made from North Carolina with a Rivian R1S. Please be sure to read part one, part two, and part three of the story before continuing with this post.
The Long and Winding Road…
The time had come for me to start the trip back to North Carolina. Having encountered the issue with the Freewire Chargers in Alaska, there was a little bit of anxiety brewing inside me. There was one section where there weren’t any backup options and the chargers that I needed were Freewire chargers. Without these, it would literally be hundreds of miles that I would need to deal with. The backups of backups, the generator I was packing, may need to be used after all. I called ahead to the spots where I knew these chargers were to see if the staff there could give me any indication of the status. All I received was a “the lights are on and it looks like it is working” statement. It was a good sign but not the solid and confident “Yes!” I was hoping for. I was just going to have to wait and see. As I headed out of Anchorage and stopped at my first charging station in Glennallen, I was treated to this:
Hopefully this was a sign of things to come.
The Pivot…
I was feeling pretty good about the drive home and knew whatever happened with the Freewire chargers was just something that I would have to deal with if and when it happened. As I was sitting in Glennallen charging, looking at that beautiful rainbow, I decided to completely mix things up. I REALLY wanted to visit Dawson City in Canada. To get there I would have to take the northern exit out of Alaska which, incidentally, is the northern most border crossing in both Canada and Alaska. The road to Dawson City was somewhat treacherous as it was mostly an unpaved road (200’+’ish miles) followed by a untethered ferry crossing over the Yukon River. It was also very long. Too long! It was 323 miles from Glennallen, the last spot I could get a charge, to Dawson City. My max range, under ideal conditions, would have been 330 miles which was cutting it way too close. I REALLY wanted to do this trip though. I had to figure out a way. I remember speaking with one of the Tesla drivers that I encountered on the road up to Alaska and he told me about a guy in Tok Alaska that ran a transportation company and had a fast charger in his garage. The rumor was that if you called him, and he was available, he would let you get a charge. Tok was on the way to Dawson City. It was almost too good to be true but it was worth a try! I called the guy and, yes, he actually had a fast charger and he said I could stop by and use it for a bit. He ran a school bus transportation company and one of his buses was electric. Voila! Problem solved. I was going to take the northern route!
The Northern Route…
The drive to Dawson City was amazing although it was mostly unpaved. The Rivian had no problem with this, it is an SUV after all, but you aren’t able to travel very fast on a dirt road. What I lost in speed was made up for in scenery. Every mile was absolutely stunning and made the drive so enjoyable. I was able to get up to about 80% in Tok, AK and the 185 mile trek to Dawson City from there wasn’t going to be a problem; even if the road was unpaved.
The road took me by an amazing little town in Alaska called Chicken, which despite its remoteness, has a gift shop and café that would rival anything in the lower 48.
From Chicken the road continued to the appropriately named Top of the World Highway which followed a ridge, with amazing views going both north and south, all the way to Dawson City where we were stopped by the Yukon River. For some reason, a bridge was never constructed across the Yukon River in Dawson City so you have to cross via ferry…An untethered ferry! The Yukon River is a big and fast flowing river that flows north. Most ferries that I have been on that cross rivers had a tether or cable that keeps the ferry inline as it crosses the river. This one didn’t have that and the ferry just set out across the river and basically beached itself on the other side. I can’t imagine what would happen if the ferry lost its engines in the middle but I drove onboard and successfully made it across. I was in Dawson City in the Yukon Territory of Canada in an electric vehicle! Success!
Dawson City is one of those towns that feels like nothing has changed there in 100+ years. Many of the streets are unpaved and the façade of all of the buildings haven’t changed much since the Klondike gold rush era. I spent the night in Dawson City, became a member of the Sourtoe Cocktail Club, and got a full charge at the fast charger located at the visitors center (which was free!).
An Even Longer Dirt Road!
The next morning I set out with a true spirit of adventure in my soul. I had nothing but the open road in front of me driving through the Yukon Territory of Canada. I ultimately needed to get down to Watson Lake and had a few options to get there. As I approached Carmacks, YT, I noticed that there was a scenic highway that headed east and eventually made it down to Watson Lake. Since I always wanted to take the road less traveled, I decided to take this route versus the main highway through Whitehorse. I had no idea when I started this, that I was setting off on a 350 mile dirt road!
It ended up being an amazing ride and, believe it or not, there was a fast charger about 150 miles into this segment of the trip at a small town called Ross River. I also stayed at a rustic cabin in this area and was treated to this view out the back porch:
It was early August and the temperature at Ross River while I was staying at this cabin got down into the low 40’s. I actually had to keep the wood burning stove going all night in order to stay warm. It was such a contrast to the August temperatures in North Carolina.
From Ross River, after getting a good nights sleep and a good charge, the road ahead was nothing but endless views of rivers, lakes, mountains, and wildlife. Absolutely amazing!
Into The Danger Zone!
Making it to Watson Lake was not a problem but now I was faced with a very present threat and one that was not too far off in the future. The first problem was that this was the section where I was going to potentially run into charger issues. As stated earlier in part 2 of this post, one of the manufactures of EV chargers had gone offline during this trip. While I was in Alaska none of these chargers were available for use. It was unclear if they would be working in Canada or not and these charging stations were absolutely needed to make it through this section of Canada. The other problem that was potentially a few days ahead of me was that wildfires were raging in the region around Jasper and it looked like all roads in and through that area were closed. Yikes!
I took off heading south of Watson Lake heading towards the town of Iskut. It was a 210 mile stretch of road and I really needed the charger in Iskut. The next one beyond that, in Meziadin Junction, was 154 miles past Iskut (a total of 364 miles….WAY past the range of the Rivian). To complicate things even further, both the chargers in Iskut and Meziadin Junction were associated with the company that had recently shutdown. The next reliable charger that I knew was going to work was 130 miles past Meziadin Junction.
As I pulled into Iskut, I was pleased to see that the charger appeared to be online and working. I plugged in, gave it my credit card, and the vehicle started charging. Whew! I breathed a major sigh of relief as this would have been a difficult challenge to quickly overcome (the generator would have taken a long time to recover the range I needed). I felt good about the next charger in Meziadin Junction which was also still working when I arrived. I am not exactly sure why all of the Freewire chargers in Alaska went offline while all of the Freewire chargers I encountered in Canada were still working. Maybe I should have scrutinized this a bit further but honestly, I didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Wildfires!
Unfortunately, it became clear that the return route I had planned through Jasper was not going to happen. Wildfires had ravaged the town closing all highways in the area. The news and rumors I was hearing were terrible and, at the time, it sounded like the entire town was gone. This fortunately wasn’t the case but the town was significantly burned and it will take years for them to rebuild and recover. I could easily find another road so it wasn’t that big of a deal for me but this news was absolutely heartbreaking. Jasper is a beautiful town with a unique charm to it. So sad!
I decided to head south once I made it to the town of Prince George and enter back into the US through Washington (the original plan was Montana). It was a fresh road for me. One that I had never been on before so it was enjoyable driving through this section British Columbia. I drove down to Kamloops and then onto Midway where I entered back into the good ‘ole United States of America…
Back in America…
After crossing back into the USA, I stopped at the smallest state park in Washington, the Ranald MacDonald’s Grave State Park, which was just over the border. It was very small and there wasn’t much to see except, as you would expect, the grave of Ranald MacDonald but now I could say that I have been to the smallest state park in Washington State. And, yes, the name is spelled correctly. Ranald was known for many things but he wasn’t known for Big Mac’s. That would be Ronald McDonald who actually may be a fictional character. Ranald was the real-deal and was an explorer, adventurer, sailor, writer, and Japan’s first English teacher among other things.
At this point in the trip I was really getting tired of being on the road and was looking to get back as quickly as possible. That plan lasted all the way until Bozeman, Montana where I decided that I would drive through Yellowstone. Why not? I had stopped to see just about everything else there was to see on this trip. I had been to Yellowstone before but had never entered through the north entrance. It also just so happened that there was a series of fast chargers just short of the North Entrance and, quite possibly, the nicest gas station/convenience store I had even been to. This place had everything including this view:
Not a bad place to hang out for a bit!
I entered into Yellowstone park and took the norther route over to Tower Junction and then down to Canyon Village and onto Cody, WY. Driving by Mount Washburn I reached a new max altitude on my Rivian (the Rivian keeps track of the min/max altitude the vehicle has been to). At 8,883 feet, this was much higher than anything I would reach in North Carolina.
The drive through Yellowstone was beautiful and I was glad that I had taken the detour:
Challenges…
After exiting the park I was in Cody, WY where I decided to stop for the night. There was one fast charger in Cody and my plan was to visit it early in the morning, get a good charge, and be on my way. I am not sure what it is about Wyoming, but all of the “challenges” or close calls on this trip, were in Wyoming. As luck would have it, when I woke up in the morning and ventured to the charger, it was not working. I called the support number listed on it but the person on the phone was not able to help. It was obviously going to need someone to physically look at the charger and fix whatever was broken. So I went to the next fastest charger in the area (which at 17KW was not really that fast) but was only able to get about 9KW off the charger. Needless to say, this charge took a long time, a very long time. Much longer than I wanted it to take but at this point there was nothing I could do about it. I entered “home” on the computer to see which way it was going to route me and it was recommending heading south through Wyoming towards Cheyenne and hopping on Interstate 80. The computer wanted me to stop at a fast charger in Lander, WY, and then continue onto Cheyenne and charge again there. I charged enough at the slow charger in Cody to cover the trip to Lander and headed out. It wasn’t until I made it to Shoshoni, WY that I realized that the charging station the onboard GPS was routing me to, was offline. It too was broken! Shame on me for not double checking but shame on the computer for routing me to a clearly non-functioning charging state (I actually opened a case with Rivian on this one). I was in a bind…big time! I was about 100 miles short of the range I needed to get to Cheyenne which would have been the next closest charging station. It was even farther to get back to Cody and the charging stations there were only slow chargers (come on Wyoming…get some fast EV chargers in your state!). My initial thought was to break out the generator and I had driven to a local gas station to stock up on fuel for the generator. I did, however, notice that there was an RV park just down the street. I called over to the RV park and asked if they had any spots with electric hookups available. These are usually 220V with decent amperage. The guy was super nice and said that he had a 50 amp spot I could plug into and he wasn’t even going to charge me the full price (which was $75/day which I would have gladly paid at this point). I drove over, he showed me the spot and said to stay as long as I needed and to just leave something in the checkout box on my way out. Whatever I thought was fair. This guy was beyond nice! This got me out of the bind I was in and, thus far, the generator stayed in the back of the car. It did, however, take several hours to get the charge that I needed.
The Journey Continues…
Wyoming is a beautiful state but after the issues I had there, I was glad to be back on the road and into Nebraska where I was making good time on the Interstate. From here the trip was somewhat uneventful until I made it to Benton, Illinois where I learned, thanks to a mural on the side of the Interstate, that Benton, Illinois was the first US town visited by a Beatle. Apparently in 1963, before the Beatles hit it big and were known in America, George Harrison and his brother Peter visited their sister in Benton, Illinois. He was able to walk around like a normal guy because nobody knew who was at the time. It would be several months later, in 1964, that The Beatles made their big debut appearance in America on the Ed Sullivan Show and then everyone knew who they were!
On August 9th, I rolled back into North Carolina. The trip took a total of 25 days and exceeded 10,000 miles. Every inch of it was done with an electric vehicle, a Rivian R1S. Despite some challenges, the trip was a success and for the record, the generator I had carried through multiple states and two countries, was never used. A trip from the East coast to the extreme West coast of the United States was completed solely with electric energy. While I hoped for the best, I planned for the worst and while the generator made a great safety blanket it was fortunately never needed. Did I know what I was in for when I started this trip? I thought I did but it turns out, not really. Did I figure it out along the way? Absolutely!
Back To Normal…
Now the Rivian is back in the fleet and busy servicing the needs of our customers. Most people that will ride in this car will have no idea the places it has been. Perhaps that is a good thing. You too can book our electric vehicle for your next adventure and clearly it will have no problem handling whatever you want to throw its way. We love the Rivian slogan and agree completely that folks should “Keep the world adventurous forever!”
Be sure to read the final post about this trip for a post-trip analysis of where we are in America with EVs and what could be improved. It won’t be as long as some of my other posts but definitely worth a read; especially if you are also an EV owner with an adventurous spirit.
