With but a few hours sleep, the alarm was going off to begin day two of the Hagerty Spring Thaw. Problem though, was it the correct alarm or the other alarm? The event, you see, had traveled from the Pacific time zone into the Mountain Time zone, but just for the night. The route book explained the event would run on Pacific time, and to simply ignore the local time. It all seemed so reasonable and simple before an early wake up!

The CCA entrants, though, are a hearty bunch. I think a few people had an extra hour to polish their cars in the morning (some were suspiciously clean), only one driver’s meeting was needed (8:45am Pacific time) and all were in attendance. That in itself might be impressive considering the time issues, but even the Mini crew who swapped out a head gasket after dinner were all accounted for. Every car that started the event, was there at the driver’s meeting.

Today brought sunshine, some cloudy periods and a touch of rain if you were at the tail end of the group. The weather in the mountains can be rather unpredictable, and while some of us were enjoying finishing beers in the sun at the hotel, a mere 36km away other entrants were experiencing a deluge of water. As the organizer, who was conveniently at the finish point sun by this point, I could claim today was a sunny and rain free day of motoring. Unfortunately our amazing photographer Andrew Snucins was standing in that deluge of rain getting his final photos for the day!

The route brought us east of Cranbrook for a series of figure eights and loops roads never before touched by a CCA event. Whether it was the gentle sweeping highways favouring the touring cars, or the very narrow twisty back roads for the sports cars…there was something for everyone. The entire first half of the day was played to a backdrop of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, and then we ventured over the Kootenay Pass to settle into Nelson for the night.

At dinner we welcomed in the newest members to the “Five Year Club”, celebrating those who have attended five years of Hagerty Spring Thaw events. We followed up with the generous prizes and gifts donated by sponsors, and amazingly sent every car home with a prize from the mountain of gifts we had.

Tomorrow promises more good weather as we head back East towards our finish.

Teaser pics from today courtesy of Andrew Snucins Photography.

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