Another 3200 miles, Overcrest Rally '22 trip report Options

[Optimusglen]

The trip has come and gone and as promised here is a trip report. It was, in a word, wonderful.

My report for last year's OC Rally is here if you're interested, it sets the stage a bit for my, my car, the rally, etc.

Of course, my build thread here with some updates and fixes before I left.


After the success of last year's OC Rally, I was excited to find out what they had in store for this year. It had all the ingredients of a great time: the spirit of adventure, a limited group size, non-snobbery of driver/vehicle selection, and time spent with friends old and new.

The location shifted north, and was now in early September to better avoid potential snow or cold weather. Our starting point: Challis Idaho.

(IMG:https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52357006082_a01667f397_b.jpg)

Just like last year, getting to the start was a battle of it's own. Sure, the car was "proven" now, 3400 miles to Utah was likely to work out most of the bugs, but there were some things I had done in the interim, and old cars are always a mystery it seems.

Now, my schedule the week before was a little hairy too. That Tuesday was my daughter's first day of kindergarten and I wasn't about to miss getting her off the bus. So Tuesday evening I hit the road. Destination: the middle of nowhere North Dakota.

[Optimusglen]

Thursday, September 8th.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-19709-1663187883.1.jpg)

I was up long before the sun. I had about 7 hours ahead of me on the road and check-in started at 1pm. On top of that, I didn't know if it was going to be another boiling day, and early running is cool running.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-19709-1663187883.2.jpg)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-19709-1663187883.3.jpg)
The 914Rubber LED headlight inserts in H4 housings. maybe not ideal for other drivers, but it meant I could see.

Once the sun came up I was happy to see some scenery, actual hills, and mountains!

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-19709-1663187884.4.jpg)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-19709-1663187884.5.jpg)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-19709-1663187884.6.jpg)

On this day I had to plan my route a little differently than the map above shows. There were some wildfires in an area adjacent to my route into Challis and Google maps sent me winding through some alternate routes.

One stretch, I would come to find out, was about 25 miles of a single-lane gravel road.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-19709-1663187885.7.jpg)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-19709-1663187887.8.jpg)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-19709-1663187888.9.jpg)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-19709-1663187888.10.jpg)

On the bright side, it was giving me some beautiful views.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-19709-1663187889.11.jpg)

Over the next hour and a half (roughly), I came across around 8 trucks that came flying up in front of me and pinned their brakes. The single lane meant that both vehicles needed to hug the side to get around each other unless there was a turnoff nearby. In an effort to make my car more visible I had the headlights on.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-19709-1663187889.12.jpg)

It was on this stretch that my driver's door window shattered. Just blew up into a million pieces. The window was up only a few inches from the sill when it went, so most of the glass bits were thrown into the inner workings of my door. I've heard of the window regulators failing on the early 914's and sending the window down into the door to blow apart, but it seemed like mine just went on it's own.

That changed things a little, I rolled the passenger side all the way down and continued my journey.

At 1:00, after one more small stint on a gravel road, I pulled into the kickoff checkpoint for the rally and checked in.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-19709-1663187889.13.jpg)