Octoberfast 2013 - Saturday Oct 12

[butters68]

byron, henk is in the shot. if you look to the left of jordan way way back on the road there's a blue dot . its henk.

DSC00337%20(Small).JPG (52.79 KiB) Viewed 4498 times

[bertvorgon]

Here I am, standing high on the bank, cold wind blowing, clouds right above my head, and it is SNOWING! We are at the high point on the Logan Lake section, right at the edge of the snow line, some 4,000+ feet. It is freezing, or just above it to be correct, my intake temp to the engine showed 40F, so cold my engine had a hard time idling when we stopped.

My worst fear was realized when I got up at 3:15 A.M., it is absolutely pouring out, the weatherman was spot on. I had made my decision though, so Matt and I trundled down to the 510, the engine lighting off on first crank. Off we went, windows starting to fog till the heat built up, forged pistons rattling away till they got some heat in them. I'm glad my 73's has the rear window defogger, the glass clearing in a few minutes.

It rained on us all the way to just past Abbotsford, the car well slimed at this point, as the route we take is also the gravel truck route, so there is lots of crap on the road. Mike was already at the Chevron when we arrived in Hope, which appeared to have stars out above it, ok, maybe it will be ok. Little did we know. We ended up not leaving Hope till 7:00 A.M., as we had to wait for a late person, who's name will not be known, but, has been given 10 demerit points. It really was ok, as ultimately this time of year traffic was not an issue.

We were not long out of Hope when the first rain storm hit us, I was resigned to my fate on this trip, with the rain following us almost the whole way to Ashcroft. As a matter of fact, in all my years of heading up the canyon, specially past Boston Bar, I have never been in such weather, in what is usually the dry part of the country. We did have some open road, the cruise was great, with a couple of good blasts of boost. As I am still unsure of the grip of the Yoyo R888's, I was very careful on most of the wet corners.

Ashcroft was dry, so we rallied up there, and took some photos, and had some snacks. I noticed that just above the highway on the way in, that the snow level was very low, so fully expected that we might run into some, as the whole area looked very socked in the low clouds.

The climb out of Ashcroft is huge, a hill that must go on for almost 10 miles, peaking at the settling pond for the copper mine. This was to be our photo op. Jumping out of the car has me shivering right away, with light snow drifting down, yikes! A few of us goats scrambled up the bank, to get the wide angle shot. Mike is not in the shot due to his carb giving him trouble under load, so it was crapping out on the huge climb and he dropped behind. I snapped a few photos of his car once he arrived, and off we went again. The road was empty of traffic, so we could have a good, high average speed. Once we went past Logan Lake Byron, myself and Chad had a great stretch to open up a bit, carving the corners in fine style. The tires felt better this trip, as I had upped the tire pressure, so they had lost the rubber band effect I felt on the Winthrop trip.

Once we got down to the Merritt valley floor, the day really brightened up. We stopped to wait for those behind, and, when I stepped back and looked at my car, I could not believe how crapped up it was, Holy Cow! We made our plan for gas, then go to Boston Pizza for lunch. Byron led out, with me right behind. All of a sudden he dove to the right, into a driveway, which was a CAR WASH. The three of us gave it a token spray off, but, I could see inside the wheels, etc, that it is really crudded up. At the Chevron I was right on the money for my calculation of 7 gallons of fuel used from Hope to Merritt. From Merritt I was going to see if I could make it back to Richmond on a tank of fuel, which I did.

After a great, hot lunch and coffee, as we stepped out the door, a full on rain storm was bombing us again. I had dread that the next section of cruise was going to be wet, which would have really taken the fun out of the drive, as this is a really windy section of road. Fortunately, a few miles out of town it dried out, almost sunny again. Byron and Jordan got away on their own, then Ron and I had a great drive through the twisty's, with Jason popping up, way back in my mirror on occasion. At one point, as we rounded a corner, there was a heard of horses on both sides of the road, one of them almost in my lane. Ron and I threaded our way by them, only to get chased by a farm dog some miles further down the road. I think Byran and Jordan had pissed him off, for disturbing his sleep on the side of the road, so he had a bit of attitude. I really don't know what he would have done with a 2,200 lb 510 travelling at 60 miles per hour anyhow.

We all arrived safely at the next photo op at Spences Bridge, having lucked out with some good clear roads for our drive. Next stop was home, with the canyon drive done at a good high average clip. Chad peeled off for home after the Aggasiz stretch, with Byron and I heading down #1, pulling off at Clearbrook so Byron could fuel up. I washed my windshield, as we were now heading into the sun, as I have no washer spray on my car. Matt and I said our goodbyes and headed off down the highway, soon to be at a dead stop, due to high traffic volume. To say our highway system here is so antiquated, is an understatement, 2 lanes feeding one of Canada's major cities, go figure. It finally did pick up, so we bailed at 232nd and made our way through Langley and to hwy #99. As we approached the exit for my work, we saw James just ahead of us heading onto the Knight's bridge, in his 240Z.

We switched cars, jumping back into the Infinity, which on the drive back home was so quiet and smooth, made us marvel at new technology.

Thanks for all that came, weather aside it was an awesome drive again, some 500 miles under our belts, for most of us. No major mechanical's at all this trip, Mike just needs to get that carb tuned.

Byron, I will take you up on your offer to help clean my car, I figure I have 3 hours ahead of me. I'm going to take my pressure washer to work next week, to blast the entire underside. I suggest all of you give your cars a good wash. Matt spotted the tell tale sign of salt brine being used on the Logan lake stretch, which would make sense for this time of year, for the high altitude would have black ice on the clear nights.

My GPS numbers:
789 Kilometers, which does not include my drive home in the 510, so if I add another 20KM makes 809 Km, my original calculations showed 811 Km ( 503.9 miles)
8:31 hours moving time
3:54 stopped time
93 Km/hr moving average
63 Km/hr overall average

Total trip time 12:25 hours
Top speed............I'll let you guess that one......

[bertvorgon]

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And that's it!

Another driving season done with a great bunch of friends. We are so lucky to have such a great, hardcore group, to head out on these outings, to share our stories, and have some good laughs.

I will clean up my car next week, run over to Specialty and put fresh oil in it for the winter, do a good nut and bolt check, and plan a few winter projects for the car I have.

Hope you all enjoy the pictures of our 510 world up here, the mountains and scenery we are so lucky to have, and share our adventures with us.

[butters68]

wow this weekend is going to be sunny, hint hint.

[bertvorgon]

Yah.....so who wants to go explore the old gold mine, build a fire, and have some smokies cooked over it...on SUNDAY?

[proflex]

Biz Saturday with stuff but if its Sunday Id be in if its a go ... on holidays for 10 after Saturday....