Waking up for day three, we were surprised to find a thick coating of frost on our vehicles. While a simple reminder that the classic car motoring season is coming to an end, it turned out to be a signal that great scenery lay ahead.
Today’s route took the group from Petawawa through Round Lake, before heading East to Eaganville. Once in Eaganville, we turned West and the twisty roads really began. We enjoyed highway 512 through Foymount, and then explored a touch of Letterkenny. Unfortunately, no locals with problems could be found*, so onward we went towards Combermere and then up to Barry’s Bay. While Combermere to Barry’s Bay was on the day two route, day three featured a new road which instantly became the favourite of many. Tight and twisting, the road was a delight…and had the added bonus of ending at an ice cream shop!
From Barry’s Bay we went around Elephant Lake and down to Maynooth, and then made our way towards Halliburton. Here the morning’s frost was remembered as many of the trees and finally started their fall colour change. As we traveled south of Algonquin park, the traditional fall colours of yellow, orange and red began to overtake the surrounding forests. The sun was out, the tops were down (mostly), and the twisty roads and fall colours entertained us all the way to the finish.
Once sweep pulled in, I presented the traditional Classic Car Adventure’s awards. The Hard Luck award was awarded to Bob Faulkner, who unfortunately wasn’t able to attend to receive it. Bob and Lynda’s gorgeous TR6 decide to quit shortly after a morning gas stop. Diagnosis and repair attempts were unsuccessful, and the TR6 was towed back to the start (where a truck and trailer were waiting). Bob’s unfortunate luck didn’t end there, as upon arriving to the the truck he discovered a tire had gone flat during the event!
Our Macgyver award is traditionally presented to the entrant with the best ‘fix’ along the event. About mid-day, Mike and Catherine Martin began to smell fuel as they were driving. Initially thinking it was probably one of the cars ahead, Mike and Catherine agreed they should at least pull over and check their own car. Good thing, as a fuel fitting had vibrated loose, and they escaped any serious consequences. Our Macgyver award includes tubes of JB Weld, as we think it probably represents today’s classic car emergency repair of choice. We conveniently mount the tubes to the perfect display and mixing tray, lets hope Mike didn’t need to use them on the way home!
Our final award, the Spirit of the Maple Mille, is reserved for the entrant or entrants who best demonstrate the spirit of Classic Car Adventures. This year’s recipients were John and Marci Hinde, who drove their Intermeccanica 356 all the way from B.C. for the event. But the drive alone wasn’t the only reason for their recognition. The pair help with registration, they spent the three days hosting our first-time entrants and convinced friends and family to join in the event, signing up our sweep crew from Bromley Automotive. If that wasn’t enough, this is their fifteenth event with CCA…so they’ve clearly got the same adventuring spirit we have!
Sadly, though, with the Spirit of the Maple Mille award complete…our weekend was over. As we filtered out of the restaurant saying goodbyes, it was clear that next year is going to see the same group returning…likely with many of their friends in tow. The 2017 running of the Hagerty Maple Mille is going to be quite the party!
Photos for the 2016 Hagerty Maple Mille are provided by Ralph Saulnier Photography
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The dew was heavy before breakfast, but by the end the sun was shining. Our group gathered in the parking lot of the morning driver’s meeting, where Dave presented two new pages for the route book. Our closed road of yesterday was going to be re-used, but a simple re-route meant we wouldn’t lose any twisty roads, or have any major delays.
Despite a few hours of trying, ultimately, they were stumped. All was not lost, however, as Hagerty Roadside Assistance is included for all entrants, and soon a tow truck would arrive. While Jonathan enjoyed the Ontario countryside (aka: waited for the tow truck), Dave shoehorned himself into the back of a ’69 Camaro and went ahead to meet up with the rest of the event. 
Our route today began with rolling roads with flowing turns, best suited for the larger cars, before dropping into some tight twisties which favoured the smaller European entrants. After about an hour suited to each type of car, the rest of the day was spent swapping out ideal sections or roads in a somewhat random fashion. We started by heading West out of Renfrew, dropped South for about an hour through long-forgotten towns, and then worked our way West again. Soon we were driving North West towards Palmer Rapids, and then began our “lunch loop” to Bancroft, where groups refueled both body and car. 
Returning from the lunch loop, crossing over the morning path, a few groups of cars were surprised to find Dave standing on the side of the road no car in sight. “I know Paul is driving solo in the Mustang,” he’d explain, “so I’m just waiting for him to pass so I can jump in.” An odd thing to come across, perhaps, but a reminder that anything can happen when you take classic cars 1200 kilometres in a single weekend!
The finishing roads for today took us through Barry’s Bay, and then turned North East towards the town of Petawawa. The route book instructed a specific time to meet in the lobby, and warned that missing it would mean no transportation to dinner! We boarded the bus, a simple roll-call was taken, and were soon whisked away to the Petawawa Golf and Country club. Once there, we enjoyed a fantastic dinner with friends old and new. The tables were alive with stories of carburetors, great roads, and the sharing of adventure stories…traditions where ever car people seem to gather, and the perfect ending to a day of great driving.
Particularly excited to start the event were John and Marci Hinde, having driven their Intermeccanica 356 all the way from Vancouver BC to run the Hagerty Maple Mille, their fifteenth event with Classic Car Adventures!
Our start out of Peterborough was grey, and the roads damp. We had some rain overnight, and a slight mist in the air. Perhaps Dave should have just left the ‘lucky flannel’ at home?! But as we ventured out of town, winding our way past the Warsaw Caves, the weather began to improve.
Classic Car Adventure routes are always kept a secret until you receive a route book, and once you do there are easy to follow turn-by-turn directions. While we do print maps in the book, they are more to show you ‘where you’ve gone’, vs ‘how to find something’. A closed road, with a less adventurous crowd, could leave you stranded.
The sun was out, the roads were still winding (a little) and we all arrived at the hotel without problems. True, we may have missed some twisty roads that were in the original route, but it didn’t matter. There were two more days to explore, and time before dinner to enjoy a post-drive beer with friends. Some old, some new, but all of us equally adventuresome.
With the driver’s meeting out of the way, we departed the hotel and headed south towards highway 20. Typically the organizer doesn’t depart in the first half of the group, instead staying to ensure cars get fired up okay. Today, as I closed the driver’s meeting, I almost went for a Le Mans-style dash to my car…I had to be near the front! Leading most of the group onto Highway 20 West, it soon became quite evident why. The climb from Okanogon up to Twisp via the Loup Loup pass is fairly steep. One might say “very steep”, if you find yourself with only 60 horsepower behind you. It wasn’t long before I was using every pull out possible to let our entrants by. I may have started in the front, but by the time we arrived in the town of Winthrop, I was very nearly the last car in the group. 
Winthrop, though, was a planned stop for the group. The route book tells us that in 1972 the town residents agreed a ‘theme’ should be created to attract visitors traveling the soon-to-be-finished Highway 20. An “old-west” theme was chosen, and bylaws written requiring every business and building to appear period correct. The sidewalks are boardwalks, even the gas station appears as though it was one of the first in the early 1900’s. With tourism thriving, it makes the perfect morning stop for coffee and pastries, and/or simply walking around to take in the sights. Having once again caught up with the group, I used it as my opportunity to lead the charge towards the finish. 
For the first thirty miles I began to wonder if i had left too early. Even with just 60hp, the Beetle simply rocks along the flats, easily wrapping the speedometer needle into the police-issued ‘performance award’ territory. But soon enough, the climb towards Washington Pass began. This would be the steepest, longest climb of the entire weekend. It wasn’t long before I was passed by an E-Type. The gang of Mini’s appeared in the rear view mirror, with a Mercedes mixed in for good measure. Our speed differential made it seem as though the whole group was escaping a bank heist. A pair of Alfa Duetto’s went by with a Citroen DS, followed soon by a Spider Abnormale. About halfway up I pulled over to check the engine temperature on the beetle (if you can hold the dipstick for more than 30sec, you’re okay!), and was passed by the rest of the group, including a 1950 Jaguar XK150. Oh sure, it has a bazillion more cylinders than I do…but it was all those aluminum body panels that did the trick. 
You would think that crawling up the hill in 2nd and 3rd gear, being passed by all your friends, would be a disappointing part of the day…but in truth, it was absolutely incredible. I got to see each of our entrants today, enjoying the roads together and in new groupings of cars. It wasn’t just the Alfa’s traveling with the Alfas, everyone had been mixing it up and driving with new friends. And while I may have been the slowest one to the top, I did make it! And that’s probably the most important part. I did my best to make up some time on the way back down the passes, but between the speed limits and the swing-axle rear end, I was destined to enjoy the day alone.
Arriving at our Golf Course finish, it turns out I was ‘just’ behind the group, and many of them were still unloading having just parked their cars. The row of cars, each plastered with insect remains, sat otherwise gleaming in the sunlight. The weather had held out for us on day three, the perfect ending to a weekend of driving. Together we dined outside on the patio, overlooking the Skagit Valley. 
I awoke for Day 2 of the Hagerty Fall Classic at about 5:15am, roughly two and a half hours before my alarm. The anticipation for today’s route was too much, suddenly I was awake and the next moment I was reviewing each road for the day in my mind. While we’ve done remote routes and destinations in previous events, today’s roads put a whole new meaning into “out there”. Fuel and food was widely spaced, and careful planning had gone into working out a route that would ensure cars, and their person contents, wouldn’t run out of fuel. Despite weeks of going over the timing in my office, here I was lying in bed at 5:30am doing the math all over again
By our 8:45am driver’s meeting, I had nothing but pure anticipation and excitement in my head. Often, when creating a route for Classic Car Adventures, the process begins with a single road, or destination in mind. When we find brilliant road, the puzzle becomes whether or not we can mix that road into a three day event, and do it at just the right moment. Leave the road too late in the day, and your entrants could be too tired to appreciate it. Start the event off with the best road, and you’ve potentially wasted the ‘wow’ moment before there could be any buildup. For us, designing the perfect event is far from simply booking a few hotels and drawing a squiggly line through the map. As the moment of the ‘perfect road’ nears, the anticipation of having it all work out is like a big adrenalin rush. And so, with that rush in my head I opened the drivers meeting…
At one point this morning, I was looking out the windshield of my ’58 Beetle, following a pack of Mini’s and a ’58 Alfa Romeo Spider. I was being passed by a Mercedes 280SL working it’s way up the pack, and as I looked in my rear view mirror a Jaguar XK120 had just come into view. You simply can’t spend a Saturday in any better way!
With lunch over, the time for our chosen road had come. We’d be heading West, through the highland mountains back into the Okanogan Valley. To find the turn the route book simply described a ghost town, gave a mileage estimate and then marked the lone road sign you hoped your co-driver didn’t miss! Fortunately, everyone seems to have made the turn. Our signature road combined every element of the “perfect adventure” into one road. There were mountain passes, tight twisting sections, open flowing sections, lake side driving with cliffs right next to you…this road had it all. 
…and besides, this particular road is just as good in the opposite direction but for a whole different reason. It slowly builds, as you travel West to East. Tempting the driver first with a corner set here, a corner set there. But as it nears the Kettle mountains the driving experience becomes like a symphony racing towards the crescendo. It tightens and twists into a brilliant mountain pass before crashing down alongside a lake in a ribbon of turns to the finish. And that, will one day be a feature road of a future Hagerty Fall Classic.
Typically for me, when a CCA event starts all of the stress (or worry) of organizing disappears the moment the first driver’s meeting starts. At that point all of the planning, spreadsheets, bookings and selections are done and finalized. I find that moment to be a relief, I am as much participant as organizer, ready to see if people enjoy the details as much as I hoped they would all through the planning stages. Why then, was this event different? Why, after the driver’s meeting, did I still feel the worry and stress of wondering if it would all go well?
It could be the car. Yes, we could blame the car. My 1958 Beetle is fresh from a restoration, hitting the road for it’s first extended road trip. The furthest the car has travelled in a single trip is to the start of the event…not typically the way you want to ‘test’ it. I shouldn’t be worried, the restoration was completed with the help of RWM&Co and Airspeed Custom Werks, and it appears to be simply brilliant. Outside of a slightly more powerful engine (60hp over the original 36), it’s basically stock. But it’s been a long time since I drove a stock Beetle, can I keep up with the group? The organizer can’t be the last one to the hotel at night. Truthfully, though, the new car only counted for part of my worries. On today’s route, we chose a road which some might think was a little questionable.
I can’t say whether it was the great roads, fantastic time spent with classic car friends or a flawless drive in a car that reminded me just how much fun ‘stock’ can be..but whatever it was, by the end of the day I felt my usual stress-free self, with nothing but a weekend of great driving with my closest car-nut buddies and friends ahead of me. You can’t dream up anything better!