Anybody for Adak Island, Alaska in October
 

Hi All:
I was inspired by a recent trip report from alphaeagle. I made preliminary plans for a visit arriving Oct 11 and departing Oct 14 (AS 160 and AS 161) are the only commercial flight options into and out of ADK).

The housing options also seem to be few. The standard is $200 per day for a 4 bedroom duplex. It is steep for one person but reasonable if shared. From my conversation with a local resident, there is availability for the dates above.

The economy fares run expensive, but if you have some milege with Alaska or it's partners it is reasonable (low to medium levels on Delta). Most suggest that we carry our own food and stuff in, but there is a supermarket, albeit pricey!

Anybody want to give it a go? Please post here or PM me, and we can talk.
Cheers

Likely to be pretty cold and dark in October. July or August might be substantially better....

The temp. etsc is not too bad, but the wind and precipitation is a problem year round.

Here you can find the weather chart and here is the sunrise - sunset data for October 2012.

I want to go some time, but probably can't make it for those dates.

Likewise, it's a very tempting prospect ;).

When I was there in 2003, 1gal of milk costed $18.50 and it was still frozen. They have one grocery store. When I was there, they said there were about 70 people on the island. We lost power multiple times while we were there for 3 days. It came back on quickly so it wasn't that big of a deal but it is common on the island. I was there on a quick trip during the summer. We rented a truck and we were limited to where we could drive because of human ordinances from the war. Many bald eagles out there. You can even drive very close up to them. Lots of other birds. It's about 6hrs of flying from SEA. 3hrs to ANC, sometimes you go through AKN or non-stop to ADK and it's about 2.5-3hrs.AS extended their operation out there for a bit longer thanks to EAS, but who knows how long they will actually have jet service out there in the future. Hope this helps. PM me with any questions.

"Supermarket" would be a very generous term.

Interested for 2, PM sent. Hope others can make it!

PM'd back. Thanks for the interest.

Thanks UF. Tprophet also has an interesting TR here!

Do you have any ideas for a cheap night stay convenient to ANC? I am looking at two overnights on my inbound and outbound from the east coast.

Also, I am a verizon subscriber... which does not seem to work over there. Any idea for a short term prepaid SIM that will work for the period? Thanks in advance.

Cheers

ANC-ADK is 10000 Avios each way if that's your fancy.

Same here. I am already committed to the Chicago Seminars that weekend.

I recommend bringing your own toilet paper. Last time I stayed at the duplexes was December 2009 and using the toilet paper was like wiping my butt with a piece of wood. Other than that, the duplexes are well equipped and actually quite nice. I've been to Adak twice since (June 2011 and August 2012), but thanks to a charter and an Alaska Airlines community event, did not have to stay overnight.

Also, as you may already know, Adak Island Inn also rents out vehicles.

Super compared to Teller, AK ;)

AT&T roams out there on Windy City Cellular. 1x is very slow with high latency - latency with phone service too. You can purchase internet on a daily basis but didn't figure out details. If in a group a good set of walkie-talkie radios would be good to bring (I forgot mine) but this is line of sight based.

7,500 AS miles each way, and can have a free stopover in Alaska too :p (I did ADK-ANC-ADQ one island to another with a couple months in between ;))

Also, bring all food and extra in case your plane can't land. The store is spendy and adds up fast. The place we stayed at (with alphaeagle) had a full kitchen.

Fun place to go and had great weather in July - sunny and overcast. No real rain or wind so kinda missed the true experience.

Hi Beckoa:

Thanks for the informative post. I am definitely on for the trip ANC-ADK Oct 11, ADK-ANC Oct 14. One other FT member has confirmed. If there are others interested, now is the time to drop me a PM.

I plan on carrying food and beverages with me. Planning to boil water to be safe (rather than carry a lot of it). The walkie-talkie is not a bad idea.... had not thought of it. Camera, binoculars are packed, looking for a standard pocket-sized book with pictures that will help me to identify birds if i see any. Ideas???? I am pumped.

Will welcome other ideas...

Cheers!