Alaska 2018 - Let's Share Plans / Logistics

Question about the dorm rooms in Fairbanks: Is it necessary to reserve the rooms ahead of time or will there be plenty of rooms for walk-ins?

To be safe you need reservations. I lucked out and got “the last room” or so they said, just doing a ride up request. I doubt it’s getting less popular. My 2 cents- good luck!

They are set up for on line reservations and i wouldn't take a chance on not having one when you arrived. Also don't forget to get a parking permit at one of the kiosks on campus.

Three of us stayed there this past July. I booked it in February online, like fastpast said why take a chance. They sold us our parking permit at the office when we checked in. It was great and free laundry room. Really the only downside was that you have to park a long way from the rooms. There is a great restaurant called Sam’s sourdough cafe within walking distance from the dorms. There was a lot of road construction on campus that was a pain but hopefully they’re done with that.

Just to the right of where the check-in is located for the dorms is a door that goes out to a kind of hidden lower parking lot. The road was closed to it for construction but you could ride up and down a little dirt path from the upper parking lot to access it. Also, no parking pass was required for there.

Wow. I'm glad to see that this thread that I started back in October of 2017 is still being used by folks heading up north this year! Maybe I should change the title to "Alaska 2019 - Let's Share Plans / Logistics". There's also another good thread going for Alaska 2019 planning.

This thread was very useful for us as while we were planning our Summer 2018 ride to Alaska. Lots of great knowledge in this community with folks willing to share their expertise. I had two prior trips where I rode from SoCal to Alaska and shipped the bike back, which turned out to be a big hassle and expense on our 2015 ride. I wish I had been able to ride both directions. Well, for the 2018 trip we still only had three weeks for the trip so we shipped the bikes from SoCal to Spokane, which allowed us to ride up the AlCan and back on the Cassiar. It turned out to be an epic trip!

I wrote a ride report after the 2015 trip, but no plans for a write-up on the 2018 trip. My buddy Don (Maldos) is slowly working on putting together a video (or series of videos) for the trip, which I'll post when it's done.

For those going up this year, enjoy the trip planning and have a wonderful and safe trip!

Rick