2017 Hagerty Spring Thaw – Day Three

Having finally made it home to a couch, I can barely keep my eyes open. I know the feeling is shared amongst many of my fellow driving friends, as we all sit at home unwinding from the weekend’s adventures. Whether it’s finding a spot in the garage for a newly received award, an assessment of just how long the road grime will take to clean, or a laundry list of ‘tweaks and upgrades’ the car might need before the next event…the final day never feels “over”.

The morning in Kelowna was held in sunshine, and after a quick “shady section” where driving expectations were reinforced, the driver’s meeting commenced in earnest. Amazingly, today’s roads would be clear and we could all enjoy the route-book as originally intended. The route would take guests out of Kelowna, through to Penticton before darting west along Apex Mountain Road. From there it was onto Princeton, via the event favourite of Old-Hedley Road. It doesn’t matter how many times we travel along Old Hedley Road, it seems everyone comes off raving about it’s curves and cadence.

New for 2017, instead of going all the way through Manning Park and down to Hope, we opted to gather the group and finish at the Manning Park Resort. Considering the rest of the weekend, and our history with Manning Park, this was a pretty risky decision! In the previous eight years of CCA events, we have never passed through manning park without rain and snow. To park and finish in Manning Park must have seemed simply diabolical…but here were were, in gorgeous sunshine enjoying the early afternoon.

Our finish party seemed a little like a successful ascent of Mount Everest had occurred. Our travellers were certainly exhausted, but the joy and excitement of what had been accomplished over the weekend was palatable. We had endured flooding, crazy route changes, and uncertainty.  We had driven 1,476 kilometres, arriving windburned and sunburned, but along the way made new friendships that will last a lifetime.

The finish of any Hagerty Spring Thaw includes the presentation of three coveted awards. First up, is the MacGyver award. This is usually given to the entrant(s) who perform the best or most amazing fix during the weekend. Perhaps it’s using mosquito netting to create a fuel filter, or modifying the windscreen washers to fuel the carburettors. This year, an entrant suggested our own Dave Hord receive the award for “MacGyvering all the route changes”. We decided that was an exceptional choice, especially since Dave hadn’t had anytime to actually assemble the award for 2017!

Our next award is the “Hard Luck” award. Jordan Rodier was certainly in the running, having arrived in an SUV when the fuel system on his Fiat couldn’t be diagnosed. Our own Dave Hord was up for this one as well, having abandoned the Rally Beetle in Abbotsford on Day one with fuelling issues. But it was Chris Beck and Sue Schneider who will be taking the award home with them to Switzerland. They had, you see, flown in to enjoy the event with friends from Calgary. Early this morning they offered to switch their borrowed Pantera with another set of friends, so they could enjoy the V8’s rumble for a stretch. What they also enjoyed, however, was the rumble of a wheel bearing which was quickly destroyed, leaving the Pantera stranded in Kermeos. Rather then finishing the event in the Pantera, it was a ride with Sweep through to the finish.

Our final award, and perhaps the most important, is the Hagerty Spirit of the Thaw award. This one is reserved for the entrant or entrants who best exemplify the Spirt of Classic Car Adventurism that Dave and Warwick set out to establish nine years ago. This year’s winner has been trying to get into the Hagerty Spring Thaw for three years. Even their 2017 entry was listed on the wait list for many, many weeks. But it wasn’t just their entry, they had roped three of their friends to enter the event as well. Amazingly, all three found spots on the ‘Thaw, and they were quickly making friends. Despite being a first-year entrant, Greg Long was the one holding spots at his table for new found friends. They heard about special car rotting away in a field, and instead of going off to find it themselves…they convinced other entrants to join them on the hunt. His cars, while certainly precious, were offered to new friends to try, simply because he wanted them to experience why he enjoyed them so much. Greg’s enthusiasm was contagious, his love of classic motoring obvious, and we couldn’t think of a guy more deserving of the Hagerty Spirit of the Thaw.

And so with that, we head to bed for some much needed sleep. Tomorrow’s route for us consists of relaxing and unwinding…and will not be be re-routed!

Special thanks, once again, to Andrew Snucins for providing us with amazing imagery from our weekend’s adventure.

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2017 Hagerty Spring Thaw – Day Two

We awoke this morning to sunshine, and the promise of fantastic road ahead. The driver’s meeting covered the usual items; yellow-cards, lunch options, and (new for 2017 it seems) the alternate route which had been prepared for the washed-out highway. Our original plan was to take the group along a CCA favourite, highway 8 from Merritt to Spences Bridge, but a highway closure necessitated a re-route.

Our new route would take us first along Highway 5A, before turning north on highway 97C towards Logan Lake. Here, we turned left and enjoyed a section of yesterday’s route in reverse, this time running down the hill into Ashcroft instead of up it. Our group of 95 cars basically dined together, in one of two places. Half of the group descended upon Cache Creek, where we enjoyed Herbies Drive-in…a famous burger joint which has been in operation since the 1950’s. The other half of the group continued on to Clinton, where I suspect the restaurant of choice was the Cariboo Lodge, famous for it’s country fare. I had just settled into my Herbie’s Milkshake when the first text arrived…

“Flooding on highway 97”, it read from living near by, “barely got my truck through” was the next text. A phone call quickly followed, and I pulled Warwick and Andrew in for a speakerphone conversation and a roads consult. Between the three of us, (Andrew Snucins, Warwick, and I) we quickly determined that my route book was no longer going to work, that two of the main options for getting to our evening hotel were closed, and an emergency plan would need to take place.

Warwick and I went car to car and table to table in Cache Creek to give the best information we could on the “new route option”. I suggest that in quotes, as at this stage it consisted of “drive the route book to this town, and then google your way to this other town.” While we gave Cache Creek lunch guests these vague directions, Andrew was dispatched to Clinton to provide the same for those folks. The group would still be following the route book for a good 2-3 hour loop, which would buy me time to determine a solution.

While the classic cars headed North, my co-driver Greg and I headed back to Kamloops to find a spot the cars would cross on their way to Kelowna. Greg drove, while I scoured road reports, closure reports and the maps to try and give our guests the best option possible. We parked on the road-side, created the best “CCA STOP” sign we could muster with the supplies we had, and I hand-wrote two copies of the new route instructions.

As each car came into our impromptu checkpoint, we handed the sheet over and asked them to take a photo of the notes on their cellphones. Directions were confirmed as understood, and guests were waved off with a laugh and hopes they’d find the hotel without too much trouble.

Despite three major route re-routes, pulling off in a somewhat-questionable checkpoint location, and having to drive off with only a small cellphone photo of the route instructions…every one of our guests, to a tee, was smiling and laughing and having a great time. Flooded roads, questionable new directions and roadside re-routing just didn’t seem to matter. Sometimes “getting there” is the adventure, and today our guests were living it…and loving it.

Our previous loop through highway 24 from Green Lake to Little Fort had proven to be a favourite of the weekend. Little traffic, phenomenal curves, exceptional elevation changes. By the time cars rolled into the re-route checkpoint they’d had a wonderful sunny drive. Our re-route allowed them to skip some of Highway 1 and Highway 97, and instead sent them south on the twisty Salmon River Road. If you’re going to re-route your entire event, you can do a whole lot worse than a twisty road which would make a great trip on it’s own!

All 95 cars made it to Kelowna for dinner, and while certainly exhausted from the day, everyone was clearly enjoying themselves. Behind me at dinner was a prize and give-away table literally stuffed and overflowing with gifts. Thanks to Dave Koszegi, Ted Wilkinson and RWM&Co, almost every car will be heading home with a new automotive related item in the trunk tomorrow.

The day may have been an organizing challenge, but as one guest suggested to me at dinner; I don’t even have to worry about a route for next year, we’ve barely used this one that was printed in the route book!

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2017 Hagerty Spring Thaw – Day One

Gathering in Squamish this morning, the air was filled with anticipation, the joy of seeing old friends again and the excitement for the start of the 2017 Hagerty Spring Thaw. Usually the organizers are greeting our guests, enjoying a coffee and checking out the wonderful cars that appear in the parking lot. This year, however, I’ve been told I was looking slightly more stressed…typing away on my laptop.

You may think the weather, slightly raining in Squamish was to blame, but no. I was on the phone and laptop checking weather reports, avalanche reports and road closure reports. Our main road for the day, Duffy Lake Road, was closed the night before by an Avalanche. By 7:30am it was open, and avalanche dangers were lowered from high to moderate. Perhaps the event could travel as planned? At 7:45am, however, the text messages started coming in. “Mud slide closes highway 99”, “Have you heard…Duffy’s closed.” Where I would normally spend the morning greeting and catching up with guests, instead I was typing out new instructions to replace almost the entire day in the route book.

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2017 Hagerty Silver Summit Entry Opens!

Entry for our 2017 Colorado Adventure is now open! The Hagerty Silver Summit explores the best roads Colorado has to offer, and these roads are some of the best driving roads in the world. This year’s adventure will start in Golden CO, with a finish planned for Grand Junction…or the surrounding area. Full event information can be found on the Hagerty Silver Summit information page. We’re looking forward to seeing our Colorado and area friends once again, and meeting new entrants in 2017. If you haven’t yet explored Colorado, now is the time!

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ST2018 Entry List Letter

Hello Hagerty Spring Thaw Hopefuls!

Knowing that everyone is experiencing heart palpitations with the agony of finding out whether they are “in” or “on the waiting list”…I thought I’d take the moment to highlight a couple of details or things I really need to you know. It takes a couple of weeks for me to put all the email addresses into our system and start emailing you as entrants, so this seemed like the most efficient way to reach all of you before that’s ready to go!

Start Location
The starting location has been confirmed, and this year we’ll be starting in Kamloops B.C. We have hotel space blocked on Thursday Night, and we’re currently working out the dinner details. Once that’s complete, we’ll be sure to update everyone as quickly as possible. But the basic details are:

Thursday Night – Coast Hotel, Kamloops B.C.
Thursday Night Dinner – expect a 7:30pm dinner time -> So you may want to arrange an early day from work, or *cough* that sudden 12hr flu before the Spring Thaw weekend.
Friday Morning MANDATORY meeting – 10:45am. All cars must be registered by 10:30am. Technically you can make it from Vancouver to the start in time for Registration (9:45am)…but we hate early mornings, and suggest you enjoy a Thursday night with us instead.

Finish Location
The Finish location is still a floating point on the map, but the possible circle is getting smaller and smaller. At this stage, with this being our ten year anniversary, you can be sure we’ll be doing the Duffy Lake road to the finish. Finish will either be Pemberton BC, or Whistler BC.

10 years of Photographs??
We would _really_ appreciate it if you could take some time between now and March to look through your photos from year’s past. What we’re most interested to find is photos of guests who have been on tour with us over the last ten years. We have LOTS of photos of your cars, but photos of our friends are going to be pretty fun to see after ten years. Warwick and Dave look like teenagers in year one, while some of you haven’t aged a day. If you have 1-5 great photos we should include in our Saturday slideshow, would you email them to info@classiccaradventures.com?
Bonus points for anyone who has a great photo of the 2011 Bonfire at 108 Mile House!

The 2018 Entry List
The 2018 Entry list will be posted shortly…after a latte and an arbitrary amount of time to add to the agony(!). Hmmm…maybe I should post it 10 cars every hour? Stay tuned…it’s bound to go up, or at least some of it, soon…

ST2018 Wait List Letter

Dear Waiting List Members…

It’s with heavy heart that I write this letter to you, as your name is found on the waiting list for the 2018 Hagerty Spring Thaw. Some of you have become fantastic friends over the last ten years, some of you I am hopeful to get to meet for the first time in 2018…

I know the agony I feel at having limited spaces is only a fraction of what you’re feeling today, having found yourself on the waiting list. I am writing this note to remind you that it’s FAR from over!!

In 2015 we moved ten cars up from the waiting list…
In 2016 we moved nine cars up from the waiting list…
In 2017 we moved twenty-one people up from the waiting list. (it was something like 17 or 18 cars, and the rest of the people joined in as co-driver’s in cars listing a TBA)

We’re talking about classic cars here, and just a hair over three months to the start of the event. Heck, even getting the organizer’s car to the start can be a challenge!

The best thing you can do right now, is not panic. The second best thing you can do is look at your schedule, and work out for me how much notice you’ll need in order to go on the event. Some of you are booking flights, and may need 4 weeks notice. Some of have jobs that require a week or two notice, some of you may pack the car and be ready to go if I call you on Thursday night. Whatever your scheduling requirements are, make sure you have dave@classiccaradventures.com in your email contact list, and 604-849-0076 in your cell phone contact list. If a space opens up, my first call is to your cell phone. I then call your day time phone number, and lastly I shoot you an email. Usually there is a 24 period to claim the spot, unless we’re in the last week before the event in which case I may go down the list by phone numbers until I get someone who can take the spot.

With luck, I’ll be ringing your phone soon enough.

Cheers,

-Dave

(if you’re wondering why this is posted on Jan 22nd 2017, it’s simply because by ‘back-dating’ the letter, it doesn’t show on the homepage of the website)

2017 Hagerty Spring Thaw – Registrations are Open!

The entry form for the 2017 Hagerty Spring Thaw is now posted, and entries officially open at 10am PST. You can find the entry forms by going to the Hagerty Spring Thaw information page. We’re looking forward to watching the entry list grow, and seeing all our classic car friends once again.