Bass Lake to Mount Shasta Oil Leak - 2023

 And so to the last day of the 2023 Bass Lake to Mount Shasta Oil Leak... The survivors (4 cars and 7 participants) met up at the Best Western hotel in Mt. Shasta for the last leg of the tour.  Michael and Vikram ready to start the final day's drive Glen and Sharon led the 4 cars up the North Stage Coach Rd. to Gazelle. After a short-lived alarm when Vikram's Aston Martin had to pull off the road due to a scraping noise which turned out to be just a stone wedged in his rear brake pad/caliper, the group were back under way.  At Gazelle we took Hwy 3 to Callahan. This turned out to be one of the best drives of the tour. Twisty, turns; up and down mountains for about 30 miles. We then headed south on Hwy 3 to Whiskeytown Falls with a stop for lunch at the Yellow Jacket Cafe.  Olga and Sharon at Whiskettown Falls Mike and Phill and Whiskeytown Falls Tom at Whiskeytown Falls The route then returned north to Mt. Shasta where the traditional final dinner was held at the Dun...

Before continuing with the story of the intrepid Oil Leakers I'll finish the accoun tof Debbie and David's adventure: Following the confirmation that the oil pressure gauge was not lying I decided that the best course of action was to flatbed the car to Monterey. We got lucky and AAA were able to oblige faster than we had expected, and by 8am we were on the road. Earl finishes the trip on a flatbed Meanwhile, back in Chester, Bill and Carolyn both decided to return home, in Bill's case influenced by the forecast for rain in Shasta and a concern about ineffective wipers. The surviving members (now down to 4 cars and 7 particpants) set off for Mount Shasta. A nice drive on Hwy 89 was followed by a detour around Mt Lassen due to road works. It seems that recent Oil Leaks have been jinxed by Mt Lassen, as the 2021 V2VOL also had to detour around the park due to the wildfires that year. Just so you can see what it looks like, here's a photo taken when Lloyd, myself, Jerry an...

At the start of the day Lloyd headed for home. With both headlights out due to the earlier accident he decided that it was the best plan to avoid getting further from home. This way he good still get home in one day's driving. This was also the departure point for Mike Humphries though in his case, this was always the plan. We wish them both safe travels home. Lloyd says his goodbyes in Truckee - safe travels home The plan for today was to visit the National Auto Museum in Reno, and then drive to Chester. Since Debbie and I had an urgent errand to perform, we left the hotel early with the intention of rejoining the group at the museum. Unfortunately, as the car warmed up on the freeway heading to Reno, the oil pressure dropped steadily from its normal level of 40+ psi to around 20-25 psi. We pulled over to check the oil level which was OK, but added another quart more in hope than expectation. We proceeded on to Reno but the gauge continued to show around 25psi at 3000 rpm, droppin...

On trips such as this it's a great treat to spend two successive nights in the same hotel. No need to repack the suitcases and find a way of jamming them into the limited space available in the E-Type. There's less pressure to keep to a schedule and more flexibility in the route taken and time spent at stopovers. On this trip, Glen managed to incorporate no less than 3 such 2-night stopovers - great job! Today's drive was a loop from Truckee to Nevada City and Grass Valley on some great back roads. First, the convoy headed north on CA-89 to Sieraville, and then turned westwards on CA-49. This road was just the sort of road the E-Type was built for: lots of twisties and changes of elevation in a setting of canyons and forested mountains.  Spectacular views as we drove CA-49 The road surface was smooth (hard to believe we were in California with its neglected major roads) and virtually no traffic. Twice we were warned by road-side signs to expect delays due to road work, but ...

It's worth mentioning at this point that the weather has been very kind to us on this trip so far. We've enjoyed clear blue skies and reasonable temperatures. E-Types, of course, are always warm inside whatever the weather, but are much more tolerable if the outside temperature doesn't reach the 90s or above.  One of the highlights of today's drive was to be the ascent to the summit of Ebbetts Pass and descent on the other side to Markleeville. On the 2012 California Oil Leak we had driven over the pass just after it opened in the Spring, and celebrated at the summit with an impromptu snowball fight. I was looking forward to reviving those memories as we headed up CA-4 from Murphys. Since the pass is closed during the winter months there are permanent signs alongside the road that indicate whether the pass is open or closed for more than 60 miles before the summit. At this time of year, they all confirmed it was open. Just after we left Murphys there was an electronic s...

Today started with considerable attrition to the group. Glen and Jan had experienced untoward noises from the rear of their car that had been diagnosed as problems with the half shaft UJs, and decided to head back to Portland before things got worse. Phil's Mark X voltage regulator problem returned, so he ordered a flatbed truck to return the car to the Bay area, and later he and Tom returned to the group in Phil's Jaguar XK8. Meanwhile, Milton and Carolee were having fuel starvation problems that had started the previous day, and by this morning were preventing the engine running for more than a few seconds at a time. Group members set to work trying to diagnose and fix the problem, and came to the conclusion that rust particles in the tank were causing filters in the tank, and the pump to clog. Though we could clear them temporarily and get the pump to run, the problem returned very quickly. So, Milton and Carolee also returned to the Bay area with their car on a flatbed. Oh ...