On the first part of day one we had visited a hot spot movie location, an ailing bus, a two storey outhouse, the alleged world’s biggest piggy bank, managed to hit 88km/h, attended a car show as well as eaten a massive ice cream cone but the day was far from done. In the second half of the day, we enter a fruit growing area nestled between mountain ranges, climb a grueling mountain pass, visit an old haunt and race for our dinner.
There are still mountains of farms, vineyards, and fruit stands that dominate this region.
An old tractor was on display at a fruit farm where we looking for the ugliest fruit or vegetable as part of the challenge. The strangest looking would net their team some points and perhaps be used in the evening’s BBQ dinner. My sons found some good contenders in the “free bin” at this fruit and vegetable stand attached to the tractor’s farm. Edit – Ed Stembridge identified it as a Ferguson TO-20 (or -30).
In the town proper, we came across a 1992 Dodge Stealth and year-unknown Geo Tracker at the side of the road. They wanted an ambitious $11,500 for the Tracker. The Dodge Stealth was also for sale but I did not catch the asking price.
An old Ford pickup truck was spotted passing a pair of grain elevators.
As per tradition for most years my friend Rod and I stuck together along the route. He brought his son along with a green Honda Civic sporting an Acura EL rear end. Also as per tradition his car was equipped with mismatched rims and sizes on each axle.
Next, we tackled the grueling Creston Salmo pass which is a long, steep climb that tests the cooling system of any beater. We did this in the reverse direction with the Dodge Aries on the first challenge and it barely survived. This approach felt less steep and we had a miles better car. There was one potential failure point however as the Elantra had a replacement radiator a few months ago which sounds like good news. The less good news was that I could only find a radiator for an automatic car which meant I had to loop the lines to the transmission cooler the manual transmission variant did not have. I used the fuel line in a pinch as it was the correct diameter. The fuel line while not rated for high heat was still there as it had not failed yet and I would have to drain the radiator to swap it out. This section would be a good test for that bodge.
We managed to pass the Honda Civic CX on the uphill section. Unusual for us as we are usually (always) one of the slowest cars.
So this is what GBC speed feels like!
For our efforts, we were rewarded with a check engine light which luckily went away later in the day. With no code reader, the cause will forever remain a mystery but my money is on an O2 sensor or similar.
There is a rather nice lake at the top of the Creston Salmo pass. We had made it with no issues. Score one for laziness in not replacing the fuel lines carrying hot coolant (actually I did check shortly after the repair and those lines were on the colder side of the radiator so they never really got that hot).
There was a high-mileage Toyota Camry that arrived shortly after with a boiling-over radiator (not part of our group). My friend Rod came to their rescue by donating his spare coolant.
I also got an unexpected compliment from an unexpected source in the restroom.
The way down would be a test of any beater’s brakes. I had replaced the front brakes over the summer so I was not worried all that much. I just hoped not to warp the semi-new rotors.
The descent went smoothly and we did not have to use one of these runaway lanes.
We cast a rather unusual shadow with the time machine equipment on the back.
This year the route included Ymir which we made an unplanned stop at on the first year and it ended up being a highlight of the trip.
The Ymir Hotel was such a part of our good memories as it had been unexpectedly filled with character. The old building was choke full of antiques and artwork of all kinds. We were one of the later teams to arrive and were advised that the older gentleman who ran the place was not happy about the influx of visitors. Given that we settled for swapping stories, viewing the outside and a short walk around town.
Slightly disappointed that it was not the place we remembered we left Ymir to press on.
The sun was starting to set and so we had to get a move on to avoid missing the BBQ dinner and setting up our tent in the dark.
Next up was Nelson which I am told is one of the most interesting places to visit but I would not know as, just like last time in 2016, we rushed through it to get to our overnight destination. I would love to visit again. Or really for the first time.
Nelson has a large number of alternative culture residents and we did manage to catch sight of a very “Nelson-like” Volkswagen Westfalia van. Whatever your vehicle the claimed by a sticker 400,000 miles is quite an achievement.
The “Big Orange Bridge” or (BOB for short) was our route out of town and is quite spectacular. The bridge was opened in 1957 and has a length of 627.9 metres or 2,060 feet and gives an amazing view over the Kootenay River.
About this time it was getting rather late, we were getting hungry but had passed the last open food stores in Nelson. Surely we were too late for the promised BBQ at the campground. We contemplated that we would need to eat our breakfast for dinner instead which did not get positive reviews from my boys. We could have stopped at this boat turned restaurant if it had been open.
Luckily the BBQ had started very late making us just in time! We also managed to set up our tent with the last of the daylight fading after gobbling down our dinner. The whole group stayed in the common area of a motorcycle campground.
I would have liked to have seen more of the campground in the daylight as it appeared to be a characterful place but we had an early start the next morning to catch the first ferry of the day which seemed prudent as we were always one of the stragglers year after year. Tune in next time to see what day two brings.
The 2023 Great Beater Challenge Series
Splendid scenery and travel accounts. No dropouts on day one I gather.
There definitely were a few but I have to admit given our late arrival we did not keep up with this as well as previous years.
I believe the 1977 Mercedes Benz 300D and 1992 Ford Explorer suffered mechanical issues and did not make it.
1978 Ford E250 Econoline van encountered ignition problems from what I understand but were able to buy replacement parts on route.
The little Suzuki LJ pickup truck made it quite late in the evening despite earlier cooling issues.
Great write up today and yesterday. As usual, the scenery on this rally is amazing. I’ve got to get up there sometime.
I now feel bad about dissing the unicorn pool floaty on top of the 6-door Caprice in your “Meet the Teams” post. Unlike the same exact floaty that my stepson’s family brought to my pool a few years back that popped the very first day of use, that thing is hanging in there I see, on top of a car! Maybe abuse by adults trying to act like kids in the pool is harder on that type of toy than having one perched on top of a Chevy at 88kph.
An interesting experiment.
The Challenge is a funny thing as you tend to see the same few teams all day and some others not at all. I don’t recall seeing the limo at all during the event so it is possible that they took the pool off the roof for the driving portions and then re-installed it at the campground. I seem to recall seeing (the pool) for sale at Walmart and it was not expensive so I bet your experiences with its quality are likely to be true in this case as well.
The funny thing is about the floaties that day. My stepson brought two of them over that day, this unicorn and a round one that looked like a watermelon slice.
The basic round one lasted for 3 years, holding its air the entire time! I never had to re-inflate it.
I think you may be right about the inconsistent QC on such products.
I am happy to see that the little Hyundai gets another salute for finishing another day.
It’s too bad you didn’t get to spend a little time in Nelson. For a town of 10,000 in a pretty isolated location it has an amazing quality of life. Baker Street is the kind of vibrant downtown main street many towns lost decades ago – an urbanist’s dream. 🙂
https://www.google.com/maps/@49.4915901,-117.2951388,3a,75y,64.04h,96.18t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sUhqZ6VVDL7IwtvjklDaa3Q!2e0!5s20121001T000000!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu
I do plan to get back there one year for sure.
Really enjoying this David, beautiful part of the country there for sure. I’ve stayed at that campground on one of my KLR 650 trips through the area.
I was thinking of your articles recently on a trip to Prince George, one of my very few road trips in recent years. I encountered a collection of what appeared to be all British vehicles coming back from the Alaska highway according to some signs on the cars. Seemed like a UK version of the GBC perhaps.
Happy to see your Elantra doing so well. We have a 2008 Accent as one of our cars for employees to use and despite most of them learning to drive a standard on it, it being based all over with no one looking after it, it’s endured all these years with one shop visit, ever for a damaged ignition switch.
Did the CEL come on during the ascent? There used to be one particular mountain that would trip the CEL on a car that I used to have, but it was only when I coasted downhill in 5th gear without touching the gas for a few minutes. It was a 1988 model with Bosch Motronic engine management, and I think the O2 sensor tripped the code after the engine had served as a fresh air pump for too long.
Yes, it came on near the top of the hill. I think it was a function of load.
Sounds like a blast! I had a very similar Elantra, a red 04 model, right after graduating college. Not exactly the face that launched a thousand ships but it was a pretty tough little bugger!
So much fun ! .
Great images to boot .
I’ve owned a few cars that required the heater to be on when ascending steeper hills .
Not much fun in the Summer but still beats walking .
-Nate
The tractor is a Ferguson TO-20 (or -30).
Thank you!