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2016 Hagerty Maple Mille – Day One

The anticipation in the hotel lobby was palatable. 2016 is the second year for our Hagerty Maple Mille Ontario event, and the field is full of first-time entrants. The opening pages of the route book, describing our style and important details, were being scrutinized, and discussions about odometer accuracy were overheard. There was no fear, however, as multi-tour veterans were busy ensuring everyone a working odometer isn’t needed.

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 driver’s meeting covered the usual items, including our style of driving events, the yellow card system (used to keep driving styles ‘in-check’), Hagerty’s roadside assistance program and some suggestions for lunch stops. Nearing the end of the driver’s meeting, a time when Dave traditionally puts on his “lucky flannel”, the group was introduced to the lucky flannel, carefully sealed in a plastic bag. In recent years the lucky flannel has become the ‘unlucky flannel’, bringing rain and snow whenever it has been worn. So, for the Hagerty Maple Mille it is safely sealed in a bag, hopefully keeping the weather at bay!

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.

By lunchtime, in Madoc for most of the group, the sun was beginning to shine and convertible tops began to find their proper place, folded up under the boot. We drove for a couple of hours, enjoying tight twisty backroads and open flowing roads through historic fields before turning north on “Buckshot Road”. Here the event came to a surprising halt. Unbeknownst to the route master, Buckshot Road was closed this week for culvert replacement!

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.

But Classic Car Adventure’s guests aren’t ones to be defeated. If a carburetor clogs, five cars will stop to diagnose and repair. Electrical problem? Six repair kits will be opened up to keep you going. Closed road? Well, we’ll just sort out a re-route. Some cars turned around to help others avoid extensive back tracking, while a re-route was determined. Once Dave had confirmed the re-route, friends were text messaged, cars were sent back to re-direct those still coming and a double sweep system was formed. The true adventure spirit of the group was instantly visible, and together everyone ensured no car was left behind.

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.

Photography for the Hagerty Maple Mille is provided by Ralph Saulnier Photography

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2016 Hagerty Fall Classic – Day Three

We awoke in Omak Washington to a beautiful fall morning in the desert. Across the valley the mountains were tinged with golden light, and while a little chilly on our shaded plateau, you could tell the weather was just going to be fantastic. A few of us checked the weather radar, and while they were calling for rain to hit the west-coast, it looked as though we might finish the event without getting wet.

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.

Highway 20, on which we were travelling, is known as the “North Cascades Scenic Highway”, and for good reason. Starting in desert scrub, you climb up into the most majestic views of the Cascade Mountains towering above you. Moving West through the mountains there are crystal blue lakes, stunning waterfalls and view, upon view, upon view. The highway twists and turns for two and half hours, all the way to the town of Concrete. Here our route turned onto the old Skagit highway, where the trees are so tight it’s like driving through a tunnel all the way to our finish.

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.

Geoff Akehurst, in the 1950 XK150 was the “hard luck” award winner, his Jaguar having shed one it’s spats along the road…it’s going to need a wee bit of a paint, and possibly more attention from RWM&Co. His co-driver, Tony Bradwell, won the “Macgyver” award, our way of giving the two a hard time for being the only car needing the hood up during the weekend! Our final award, the coveted Hagerty Sprit of the Fall Classic, was awarded to Deanna Kitchener in the Mini Pickup truck, for her endless enthusiasm in getting others involved with the event.

And with that, we closed the 2016 running of the Hagerty Fall Classic. Once again our incredible images come from Andrew Holliday, who spent the weekend jumping around the maps and route in his collector-plated Mazda Miata.

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2016 Hagerty Fall Classic – Day Two

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…

Together as a group, the route book map was consulted, and the suggested lunch location was highlighted. We worked out the vast areas of “nothing” we would travel, so fuel and snack plans could be roughed in before departure. With a promise of good food in a remote town you might not find on a traditional map, we hit the road. Rarely does a drivers meeting get backed up so perfectly in the first hour of driving. As we made our way North we turned off onto a short winding road to warm the group up. The winding road is fantastic in it’s own right, a short six mile jaunt the twists and turns before dropping you down into the valley through a series of switchbacks. In a curious case of coincidence, the road was littered with tumbleweeds. Nothing says ‘you’re leaving civilization’ better than dodging tumbleweeds on a forgotten highway!

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!

The route today traveled up the Methow Valley, across the Okanogan Valley and into the Kettle Mountains, where we turned North towards the Okanogan highlands. As we traveled into the Kettle mountains the temperature dropped, and a touch of rain fell here are there. Chilly enough that convertible tops went up, wet enough that the wipers were turned on, but mild enough on both accounts that the driving and enjoyment wasn’t dampened. We arrived for lunch, having passed through the rain, in the small town of Republic. Here the group overwhelmed a local BBQ joint, and in true Classic Car Adventures fashion simply rolled with the punches and helped the staff to see the humour in being so swamped for lunch. One entrant was heard explaining that he would have called ahead, but until this morning had no idea even where he was going!

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.

I can hear you now, saying to your computer screen, “What road was it?!”, “Where could they have gone?”. I would love to tell you, but now you can appreciate the level of anticipation I had about how much everyone would enjoy it. That burning question which cannot yet be answered. That, my dear friends, was what my morning felt like.

…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.

Today’s images are once again provided by the talented Mr. Andrew Holliday.

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2016 Hagerty Fall Classic – Day One

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.

But, I think we should start at the beginning…

We met this morning at DirtFish Rally School, for the registration and the start of The Hagerty Fall Classic. A Rally School, where they go sliding around on gravel all day, might seem like an odd choice for a classic car gathering…but DirtFish lives and breathes cars. The office is decorated with a collection of driver’s racing suits from F1, rally and other series. inside the main lobby there is a genuine Ford RS200, a genuine Audi Sport Quattro, and Colin McRae’s actual Ford WRC car. It’s a car enthusiasts dream office, and we were excited to have our group invited to explore it.

Once the driver’s meeting was over, we hit the road exploring back streets and highways up to the Steven’s Pass Highway, where we turned East and went up over the pass towards Leavenworth. The group took a quick detour through Plain and Chumstick, before arriving in Leavenworth for a lunch stop. Following lunch, the route book devoted a whole page to explaining the ominous road choice which lay ahead.

Heading south on highway 97 towards the Blewett Pass, the route book described the Gold-Rush history of the area, and the original pass cut through mountains. Entrants to our event were given two choices, follow the route book up and over the original pass, or “chicken out” and head south along the newer pass. The original pass offered a road which has become mostly one lane, either taken over by the forest or having simply slid down the mountain side. The pavement was rough, the bumps and dips plentiful, but in the end one would have the badge of honour in being able to say that they had indeed driven their car over (what’s left) of the original pass.

Apparently I shouldn’t have worried. We don’t call it Classic Car Adventures without a reason, and every single one of our entrants took the old pass! At times you needed to be doing 5mph, mostly you could be doing 20-35mph. At the end of the day, the smiles and words of approval were clear. “It wasn’t too rough!”, some cars exclaimed, while other simply said “that road was incredible.”

The rest of today’s roads were what we would class as “touring roads”. Not the twistiest roads in the state, but the type of roads where you can cruise at a good clip, enjoying fantastic scenery, with enough curves and hills to keep you interested. We explored the Northern Cascade Mountains, dropping into just a bit of interior desert before heading back into the last of the Cascades. We finished the day, arriving in Wenatchee, for our overnight and a group dinner.

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!

We’re back at it tomorrow morning, the number plates suggest we’re staying in a town just 45min away…but the route book says we’re going to take seven and half hours to get there…I think the entrants are going to enjoy the route we have planned.

Awesome photography this weekend is provided by Andrew Holliday, and a preview of his shots are available in the gallery below.

-Dave

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Fall Event Entries Opened!

Are you looking for another driving adventure? Good news! Our Fall Driving experiences are ready to go, and the entry forms are now live! Don’t miss your chance to join one of our September Driving events, spaces can fill up quickly and entry lists are limited.

The Hagerty Fall Classic is our Washington/Oregon event, starting September 16th 2016 and ending three days later on September 18th, 2016. This year we’ll be starting in Snoqualmie Washington, and we’ve cooked up roughly 700 miles of twisty, mountain backroads and highways for you to enjoy. This year marks our fifth year for a West-Coast Fall driving adventure, so you can be sure we’ve got some celebration plans in store for the event. Full event information, including entry forms are now posted on the Hagerty Fall Classic Event Page!

Our second September Event happens on the other side of North America, in beautiful Ontario Canada. The Hagerty Maple Mille is running September 23rd to 25th 2016, and explores all new new roads in the Ontario countryside. This year we’ll be starting in Peterborough Ontario, and our three day adventure has roughly 900km of phenomenal backroads and byways for our guests to explore. This year’s route book is being planned with optional road additions, which will bring the total mileage up to 1200km for guests who absolutely love the twisties. This late fall event is late enough for quiet roads without tourist traffic, but just in time for the early fall colours. Full event details, including the entry forms, are now posted on the Hagerty Maple Mille Event Page!

2016 Hagerty Silver Summit – Day Three Photos

Day Three of the Hagerty Silver Summit opened with sunshine, a fantastic breakfast, and a slightly stressed organizer. The clutch cable, you see, had snapped just as I arrived the night before in Mt Crested Butte. With no spare on board, there was only one option…drive without. Park the car? Trailer the car? These are not valid options, where is the adventure!?! At home, which is sea level, the car will roll on the starter in first and get going without any issues. Up at 8,000+ feet, however, was going to be an adventure indeed.

With the Driver’s meeting concluded, some of our group stood with cameras and video cameras. The whole group waited for my car to leave first, so as to give me the best chance of getting going without impediment. As I reached down to turn the key and see if it would go, the real reason for my stress was finally here. I wasn’t worried about driving without a clutch, but I was worried about getting it going the first try with an audience! We rolled for a moment, it coughed and sputtered and then suddenly the rally bug came alive and day three began in earnest!

Soon we were traveling along, below the posted speed limit so the rest of the group could catch up. We drove from Crested Butte to Gunnison with Erik and Andy in the Oldsmobile 442, another car which was not expected to arrive at the finish. Coming out of Gunnison, West along Highway 50, we lead a pack of Porsches and a Pontiac GTO before letting them pass for the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

The route book took us along the North Rim of the Canyon on CO-92. As the road winds and twists its way along the Canyon edge, you get the unique opportunity to see your fellow enthusiasts as they motor along ahead and behind you. With almost zero traffic, and the sounds of our classic machinery around us, it was very easy to imagine a time when the roads were only filled with classic cars.

With the tight twists for the sports cars taken care of, it was North through Crawford, Hotchkiss and Paonia on touring roads best suited for big engines. We then wound our way through Bowie and Somerset, literally driving underneath the Coal-Mining equipment on the highway. We then wound through red canyons cut by rivers, and finally broke through the West Elk mountains via the 8,755 ft high McLure Pass.

Our group gathered to end the day just shy of Glenwood Springs, at the Ironbridge Golf Course. Our parking lot party, and following lunch was no longer a gathering of entrants, but rather a gathering of friends. Following lunch, we awarded the traditional Classic Car Adventures awards. The Macgyver award, for best fix on the event, was awarded to Jacob and Ross for their record fuel filter swap times. The Hard Luck Award was given to Kevin Lewis, as he had to switch from his gorgeous Bug-Eye Sprite to a rather modern looking S2000 when the transmission in the Sprite died. And the Hagerty Spirit of the Summit award? That was given to Nathan York, of Oklahoma City. Nathan heard about the event from Randy Kaplin (Spirit runner-up!), and promptly began roping a whole crew of cars from Oklahoma into joining him. Sharing a love of driving and adventure is a sure way to earn a nomination for a Spirit Award!

Sadly though, it seems all good things must come to an end. After an amazing weekend of great cars, amazing roads, brilliant weather and fantastic friends…it was time to say goodbye. The 2016 Hagerty Silver Summit was complete, but not before we were asked for the 2017 dates. It would seem our Colorado Family is all ready to gather again next year, and hopefully introduce a whole new wave of enthusiasts to our brand of adventure. We can’t wait, it’s only been a few hours and we miss our friends already.

Andrew Snucins and Dan Evans were able to snag some amazing early Day Three photos before rushing to the airport for their flights home. A preview of today’s work: [print_gllr id=3733]

2016 Hagerty Silver Summit – Day Two Preview

Day one of the Hagerty Silver Summit was dominated by tight, twisting roads with multiple switchbacks going back and forth. With fantastic weather and new driving friends, the group awoke excited for what day two would bring. The Driver’s meeting was held outside in the sunshine, with a promise of perfect driving weather ahead…

Normally, when we dismiss the driver’s meeting there is a small version of a LeMans start as driver’s and co-driver’s try not to look like they are running for first position on the road. Our group today, however, was interestingly different. Despite cars being warmed up before the driver’s meeting, despite bags packed and washroom breaks taken, the group wasn’t jockeying for first spot on the road. No, instead it seemed road-groups were forming, everyone making sure each car was ready before heading out.

Today’s route was designed with the ‘bigger’ cars, in both size and engine, in mind. We looked for highways and byways which we consider to be great ‘touring roads’. They meander through the countryside, offering elevation changes and sweeping corners. Rather than rowing between 2nd and 3rd gear in the switchbacks, driver’s were predominantly moving between 4th and 5th gear throughout the day.

We certainly didn’t forget about the twisties though! Each hour of faster touring brought a section of twisting corners or a mountain pass to challenge both car and driver alike. Whether it was carving corners through the canyons on CO-114, or climbing one of the many mountain passes…the route found something for everyone to enjoy.

Especially enjoyable today was the way in which the whole event seemed to spend time hanging out with each other. The first group stop I came upon in the Rally Beetle was at the summit of Monarch Pass. Here, over 11,000ft up, a group of cars were building snowmen from the snow on the side of the road. We had our usual meet ups at the Petrol Stations, but it was in the town of Del Norte that the group really found a bond.

The first cars to arrive at Del Norte decided on an outdoor patio and wood fired pizza for lunch. Just as they were finishing their meal, the next wave of cars arrived. A third wave arrived, just in time to see the first set of cars off. Just as the 2nd and 3rd wave were preparing to leave, the final set of cars from our group pulled in. Throughout the course of an hour the entire event enjoyed a well organized, but completely spontaneous, lunch together.

The afternoon continued our mix of touring roads and mountain passes, climbing to over 10,000 feet on Spring Creek Pass, and then over 11,000 feet on Slumgullion Pass. In the late afternoon, climbing through one of the passes, the view suddenly opens up and the West Elk Mountains, completely snow capped, suddenly dominate the horizon. For the rest of the day we drove towards them, eventually arriving in Mt. Crested Butte for the finish of day two.

A preview gallery of photos from Andrew Snucins Photography is available below:

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