ALASKA HIGHWAY TIPS AND TRICKS.

Byline: Mary S. Hartman Correspondent

If you want to travel spontaneously along the Alaska Highway, you probably can do it, but if wisdom prevails, you'll reserve overnight lodging ahead.

``During July and August, without lodging reservations, you take your chances,'' said Roxanne Brown, whose family operates the Westend RV Park in Fort Nelson, British Columbia, at Milepost 283 along the Alaska Highway.

The same goes for motels, according to Jean Ouderkirk, a road trip travel agent who helps plan Alaska trips.

This is but one nugget of information you'll find valuable before embarking on a road trip to The Great Land.

Others:

Milepost magazine: To ensure you get all the information necessary (and more), buy a copy of this journal, widely considered the bible of the Alaska Highway.

Available at most bookstores, it provides vital information on all aspects of this road trip - routes (and road conditions), lodging, gas stations, restaurants, attractions and ferry schedules. The 2003 Milepost, the magazine's 55th edition, is priced at $25.95 - a bargain.

The route: The Alaska Highway, built in 1942, extends 1,523 miles from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, to Fairbanks, Alaska. Driving time - without side trips - is five days. Major towns along the Alaska Highway include Dawson Creek, Fort St. John and Fort Nelson in British Columbia; Watson Lake and Whitehorse, Yukon Territory; Tok, Delta Junction and Fairbanks in Alaska. Reaching a stopping point at the end of each day is not a problem.

Off the path: From Whitehorse, we detoured north on the Klondike Highway to Dawson City, home of the 1898 Gold Rush. From Dawson it was south to Chicken, Alaska, and to Tok, back on the Alaska Highway. Our route continued through Delta Junction, then Fairbanks.

A few days later, at Haines, Alaska, we put our car on an Alaska Marine Highway ferry for a four-day journey to Bellingham, Wash.

Nomenclature: Highways in Alaska are known by names, not by numbers. If you ask about highway 1 or 2, expect a blank stare; ask about the Alaska or the Glenn Highway, and you are in business.

Vehicle choice: We don't own an RV and decided not to rent one. Checking costs convinced us to drive a car (a small SUV) and stay in motels, inns or bed-and-breakfasts. (Rental cost for a small RV from Cruise America would have topped $5,000. Locally owned rental agencies were comparable.)

When to go: Mid-June through August is the high season for travel on the highway.

Select Reservations: We saved ourselves a lot of trouble by working with Jean Ouderkirk, of Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, who owns a road trip travel agency, Select Reservations.

Spotting her ad in Milepost, we contacted her by e-mail: jeano(at)yknet.ca. Web: www.yukonalaska.com/selectrez. Phone: [phone].

Ouderkirk interviewed us about our traveling preferences and the length of time we wanted to be away. Based on our wishes (and her suggestions), she put together an itinerary, arranged lodging, arranged our vehicle rental and booked us on the Alaska Marine Highway (MV Columbia) for our trip from Haines to Bellingham.

Select Reservations is the only agency that arranges road travel in Alaska, British Columbia, Yukon and Northwest Territories.

Alaska Marine Highway: Road trippers often choose to drive both ways. The Alaska Marine Highway, however, offers a relaxing conclusion to this auto trip.

The route is similar to that of cruise ships, sans the glacier viewing. Don't, however, count on a lot of time in towns. With the exception of Sitka, where we got 2 1/2 hours, and Ketchikan (three hours), the ferry slipped in and out of the docks without affording us a chance to disembark. Some travelers, however, disembark at various points, stay for a while and continue their trip on a later ferry.

Ferry amenities include cabins, showers, coin-operated laundry, gift shop, dining room, cafeteria and bar, as well as a forward viewing lounge. Those not wishing to purchase a cabin can sleep in reclining chairs in the ``dark lounge.'' Truly rugged individuals can pitch tents on the aft deck.

Reservations are required for passengers, vehicles and cabins. Call for information and reservations: [phone]; www.alaska.gov/ferry.

Book well ahead of your trip.

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Booking lodging ahead and carrying the Milepost magazine will smooth your progress along the Alaska Highway.

Mary S. Hartman/Special to the Daily News