Sierra BARF - June 7 & 8, 2003 Well, I am just returned from the Sierra BARF run. First the numbers: (YMMV) Days: 2 Hours on the road: Saturday 11:45, Sunday 8:30 Miles 594 door to door Gasoline burned: 27 gallons Mileage: 22mpg Top speed: 95mph+ Max revs: 7,200 Tickets: none! Sunblock: SPF 30 Martinis: 2 Beers: 6 or 7 Breakdowns: 1 (minor) Pictures! This BARF was an awesome run. Hats off to Barfmaster Dan Loomis who chose a great route. We met at 7am on Saturday in San Francisco. Tanks full of gas we headed off under foggy skies. The over cast held all the way to Folsom, where we met Mike M. and Joe W. Chatted for a few minutes and then we headed on. Mudge to work (bummer!) and us off to Placervile in the Sierra foothills. Joe accompaned us in his Focus wagon (shades of Rich Stevens) then headed home to chores and honey-dos (bummer!). We zoomed off into the boonies under a clearing and warming sky to to Patrick and Lucy's place up in the hills. We had a nice visit and looked at Patricks 914 V8 (327 Chevy) project. (Patrick-it looks a little dusty-back to work!) Patrick has lots of room at his place and lots of Fiats, cars and motorcycles stashed there. He and Lucy joined us in his original owner '78 124 with early bumpers, lowered suspension, Beta wheels for a run up to Downieville where we got our first really beautiful scenery. We had lunch together overlooking a river. Very nice. Patrick and Lucy went off mountain biking and we continued on. We found some clear road with lots of high speed twistys along a river, 70-80 mph stuff. We were just screaming along, I even got to the point where my shocks were getting soft (new Konis) and my tires were getting greasy. After running in the lead for a long time I missed a downshift into third locked up my inside front slowing down into the turn and finally managed to grab third gear and add some power to bring the car around. At this point I decided to let Dan Loomis run first and concentrate on my shifting! Later after a gas stop in Truckee, we were headed towards thunderclouds over the pass to north lake Tahoe. Dan felt prudenced dictated that we go back to Truckee, stop at his FAVORITE bar there (get him to tell you why it's his favorite, it's a good story!) to have a beer and let the rain pass. This we did, then headed back out. In the end we still got caught in a brief down pour and had to make an urgent stop to put up tops. Good thing we weren't driving MG's the car would have been filled with water by the time the tops were up. Hopefully Brian has a picture of Dan, the original top Nazi, in his car, top up! We finished with a beuatiful but slow (traffic) ride along the west side of Tahoe. We stayed at the White Trash Inn in South Lake Tahoe, right on the boarder of California and Nevada. The Casinos were a gambling tokens throw away. We all took a dip in the pool, grabbed some BBQ for dinner, had a few drinks and hit a couple of bars. This morning we launched around 8:30 and travelled though dazzeling scenery. Snow still on the ground, soaring mountains, roads lined with Quaking Aspen, passed riviers streams and lakes still partially frozen over and partially covered with snow. We crossed 7 and 8 thousand foot passes on roads just barely wide enough for two cars. It was incredible. We had one minor mechanical incident. Dan reported a rattle/banging noise and we discovered his timing cover was held on by one bolt. Those of you that have been on BARFs before know that Dan's timing cover falling off is something of a tradition. After some bad words, burned fingers and general greaseyness we were off again. We stopped and took pics of the Fiats in the snow-my car got stuck and I was fortunate to find a couple of Mules, named Dan and Brian to push me out. The driving was great. We covered hours at 80-95 mph with little traffic, great roads and no law enforcement. This was by far the hardest I have ever driven my car. All the work held up well with just a bolt or two loose (but one minor clunk detected in the front end 2 miles from Home-hafta check it out, damn). I did notice that the panel between the rear quarters, top and trunk is showing much longer paint cracks than it used to. With the speeds were were able to sustain and the quality roads allowing a lot of g loading cornering it was a real work out for man and machine. Just an awesome trip!!! Good work Dan and it was good running with Brian in the Alfa tailgunner (hot rod Fiats were too much for a stock '82 Spider-great looking car though!) Gotta catch up on the threads now! PB Pictures!
back to upcoming events
back to Home