Jack Wade Dredge abandon in 1942
Chapter Seven - Alaska to Victoria
Go to Home or Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
The next day we headed over the "Top of the World" Highway that leads from Dawson City back south to the Alaska Highway. Just outside of Dawson we stopped at a campsite to hike down to the Klondike River to the where the old sternwheelers were pulled up on the shore each winter. I guess one winter 60 or 70 years ago was the last and they have sat there since, rotting away. We took some nice 3D photographs with our Rolleidoscops which are about as old as these paddlewheelers but luckily in much better shape.
"...switch backs mean "take it easy" in a rear engine Tatra. "
Now the Canadian part of the "Top of the World" highway is a fairly good gravel road with great switch backs and sheer drop-offs without any guard rails. This translates into "Take It Easy" in a rear engined Tatra. The highway actually follows the top of a mountain range so you can see for miles and miles. There is a little border crossing to cross through and then the road gets terrible. Potholes and washboard meant very slow speeds of about 40 km/h. Along the road just before Chicken is a huge abandoned Gold Dredge that was fun to look at and to figure out how it worked. We spent a few hours panning for gold but only found a few flakes. Gold panning became a serious fascination with the family and the gold pans would come out at any creek that looked possible.
Jack Wade Dredge abandon in 1942
The village of Chicken has a small restaurant, bar, gas pump and gift shop for the bus tours that come up this way. My favourite bumper sticker sold in the gift ship was "The last one out of Chicken is a rotten egg". We continued on this badly maintained road until we hit the Alaska highway at Tetlin Junction and headed west to Tok for the night. On the Alaska Highway is the Burnt Paw Lodge where they have a fun dog sled demonstration in the summer months and lots of huggable Huskies. More playing with the dogs for Geneva and Erik.The next day was an easy drive into Fairbanks. The Alaska highway, as I mentioned, is paved and driving into Fairbanks is like driving into any medium sized US city with lots of fast food places, MacDonalds, Burger King and KFC. I guess we drove back into middle America even though it was on the 65th parallel. After Fairbanks we drove to a very nice Bed & Breakfast called the Denali Dome House B&B. The house is actually an isometric dome with a very welcoming and friendly host family. They let us leave our Tatras at the Dome House while we went into Denali National Park for a three day stay at the Denali Backcountry Lodge. You are not allowed to drive on the road that leads through the park and so you take a very enjoyable bus ride to the lodge. On the way we saw an awesome amount of wildlife including lots of grizzly bears and moose. The scenery was very nice but we never did see Mount McKinley as the weather was a combination of rain, snow, cloud and the odd clear sky. The Denali Backcountry Lodge is composed of small cabins and a central dining room. We did almost everything that was offered gold panning, fishing, hiking and in the evening going to the very interesting lectures, my favourite was on ravens. The scenery in the park is fantastic and it gave us a nice rest from driving each day.
From Denali we retrieved the Tatra's and headed to Anchorage. Since the time it happened in 1964, Gary had been interested in the huge earthquake that took place in Alaska. This great earthquake and ensuing tsunami took 125 lives, destroyed downtown Anchorage and completely decimated a number of small coastal towns. It was the largest earthquake ever in the United States. It left a vivid memory in Gary's 10 year old mind and now almost 40 years later we wanted to see what was left of this event. We drove out to Earthquake Park, where a sub-division was destroyed by the earthquake. You can still see the power of the earthquake in the undulating earth throughout the park. From there we drove to Seward to catch the Alaska State Ferry for a four day ride back to Prince Rupert. The trip across the Bering Strait was smooth and the weather very nice. It was great sitting out on deck and see the glacier covered mountain range of the Robinson Mountains and away in the distance Mt. Logan. We stopped in Juneau late in the evening and looked around downtown and then headed by boat to Ketchican and finally Prince Rupert. From Rupert we got on a BC Ferry which took us along the inside passage back to Port Hardy and then did a quick drive back to Victoria. In Victoria I realized that even though we had spent time on the Pacific with the Tatra I hadn't take any shots of the Pacific Ocean and so I took the Tatra down to the waterfront at sunset.
Chapter Eight - Victoria to Los Angeles and home to Vancouver and Toronto
Go to Home or Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
While in Victoria I realized that the front wheel bearings were making a grinding sound so I dismantled the front suspension to find that most of the bearings where quite worn out. I found a great machine shop in Victoria (Altech Machining) and proceeded to replace all the radial ball bearings in the front suspension with tapered roller bearings. We quite easily matched all the bearings only having to order one set from Vancouver. The front axles came out easily, which enabled us to heat fit steel tubes on the well worn axles. Then we machined the steel tube to create new bearing seats. While it seems easy enough it entailed a great number of trips to the machine shop and a lot of removing and installing the front suspension until everything was just right.
Gary, back home in his own garage, decided to change engines between his two Tatra 87's as the other engine had more power. We spent a few days happily swapping engines, the hardest part being the hauling of the extremely heavy engine hoist up from the basement. The engine was put in, tuned up and both Tatras were ready to start the next leg of our trip.
This part of the journey started in Victoria and then traveled down the coast through Washington, Oregon and finally California. From there Gary and Karoline headed back to Vancouver while Helena and I planned to drive quickly back to Toronto.
We took the ferry from Victoria to Port Angles, we had to get up really early to get a spot for both cars as there are no reservations. The drive along Highway 101 was beautiful and the cars were running wonderfully. We stopped and looked around the Quinalt Rain Forest which is spectacular with moss and lichen hanging from the trees.
That night we drove into Aberdeen and stayed at the Aberdeen Mansion bed and breakfast. Aberdeen seems like a town going through an extended recession, the glory days were during the turn of the century when huge homes like the Aberdeen Mansion were built. It has since been converted to a nice B&B where we stayed the night. The next day we headed out of Washington State over the bridge to Astoria and down the beautiful Highway 101. I can't describe the beauty of his highway with lots of open stretches of beach.
We stopped at the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area to walk along the paths and venture onto the dunes to photograph them. This highway is perfect for leisurely Tatra travel, twisty two lane road with lots to see. Most of the time we opened the sunroof to let the sun and ocean smell in.I was getting a vibration from my brakes so I stopped by the side of the road and sanded them down. This seemed to work for a while but soon the vibration came back. Tatra 87 brake drums are stamped metal and so with a hard stop they deform a small amount to become oval and then touch the brake shoes. In the Czech Republic owners have tried a number of ways to solve it by reinforcing the drum and most recently casting instead of pressing the brake drums. I'm sure these cast brake drums would work a lot better but having disk brakes would be the best of all. OK, they wouldn't be very original but they would work real well. Brakes problems were a common problem for both of our cars.
From Oregon we headed into Northern California taking mostly 101 and drove through the fantastic redwood forests. There are a lot of great hiking trails from the road, so it is easy to see these giants. We took the smaller Highway 254 which was a nice way to enjoy these forests. OK, we couldn't travel through California without driving through some of those "drive through trees". Both Gary and I had seen lots of pictures of cars driving through the tree and we just had to find where it was. We actually found three of them and paid the entrance fee since they are on private land, and parked the Tatra's for a photo opportunity.
Drive Through
Redwood in Northern California
At Leggatt we left the 101 for Highway 1 that cuts very close to the coast. The first 10 miles of the two lane road are full of very tight switchbacks that started to make Helena a bit car sick. On the other hand, I was thoroughly enjoying throwing the big Tatra around the corners feeling like a rally driver. As Gary was ahead of me it was a great catching a glimpse of Gary's Tatra just slipping behind the next corner. That night we stayed at the Griffin House B&B, with little 1920's cottages that overlooked the cliffs of Greenwood Cove. What a great place, as it had old bathtubs right in the front window so you could have abath and enjoy the scenery. This B&B also had a restaurant and pub that served Czech beer on tap, which of course I couldn't pass up. The next day we drove in a very round about way to the winery district and in the afternoon stopped at Niebaum-Coppola winery in Rutherford to check out one of the Tucker automobiles that were on display.Tuckers are very similar to Tatra in design and both Gary and I wanted to look more closely how one American manufacturer took the basic layout of the Tatra and changed it. The Tucker is a very big car, it's 33" longer, 13" wider and 1" higher but the passenger room seems about the same. As you would guess it is also a lot heavier by 1200 lb.. The engine in the Tucker is a 166 hp, 5.5 litre, flat 6 while the Tatra has a 75 hp, 2.9 litre, V8, so the Tatra is slower off the mark but I presume they cruise at 75-85 mph on the highway about the same. Both have a fastback type design and three headlights. Front luggage space in the Tucker is a lot bigger but has a very small rear luggage space compared with the Tatra. There were about 3,000 Tatra T87 produced while Tucker made just 50 cars. All in all we had an interesting visit and decided that while Tuckers were interesting automobiles, the Tatra were more to our liking.
From Rutherford we joined the very crowded highway out of the wine region to Sausalito and tried to get a nice picture of the San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge and the Tatras. There is a park on the hill and the composition would have been great but the bridge was completely fogged in so we headed south to connect with my brother Greg who lives in San Carlos. Greg owns and drives a beautiful Citroen Chapron convertible that had once belonged to Gary, which demonstrates the close connection between these two marquees. Most Tatra owners have a Citroen and most Citroen owners at least know and appreciate Tatras. Our local Citroen club in Toronto has three Tatra owners as members. Greg got an email on the Citroen DS newsgroup from a Citroen owner who was amazed that he saw not one but two Tatra T87's driving down Highway 1, but couldn't get turned around to chase them. "Did anyone know who owned them?" he asked. Greg replied that the two Tatras where over at his house and that the two drivers also owned and drove Citroens. Small world.
The drive down Highway 1 south of San Francisco was wonderful, we stopped in Carmel to look through all the photography galleries and little shops. The drive through Big Sur was great and we stopped a lot to photograph. We toured Hearst San Simeon Mansion, which is very much worth the visit then headed to Cambria to check out a store called Vintage Automobilia. The owner Peter was very nice and phoned a few locals to come and check out the Tatras. He took a picture of the cars to hang on the wall next to photos of all sorts of very interesting cars that have driven into his gravel parking lot. Then it was on to Santa Barbara and a hellish drive through the dense traffic of Los Angles to Riverside to attend an annual 3D photography meeting . After Riverside California we split up to go in different directions home, I went east to Toronto and Gary and Karoline headed north to slowly return to Vancouver.
Gary drove up to Salinas to see the Steinbeck museum and house but unfortunately it was closed. Steinbeck bought a Tatra 87 in Europe in 1947 and used it for a number of years around southern California. No one seems to have any information concerning his car and so if you know any rumours or stories please email me.
They slowly drove north through California, over Mount Shasta and ended up at the Crater Lake National Park. There is a road that circles the entire way around the lake which is the second deepest and second bluest lake in the world. During one of the stops around the lake a van pulled up full of Czechs on holidays and the driver was none other than the Czech guy who we met in Iskut in Northern BC. He must figure there are lots of Tatra T87's all around North America because he seems to keep on running into them.
After Crater Lake Gary stopped at a machine shop, removed the drum brakes and had them turned since they had become seriously out of round again. While they worked well for a while they slowly got worse and worse on the way back to Vancouver. Gary and Karoline liking small roads tried to find one around Mount Hood that had been washout a few years before. From there they headed to Mount Saint Helen but the weather was bad and so decided to drive straight back to Vancouver.
Meanwhile, Helena and I left Riverside in an attempt to cross the USA in seven days. Getting out of LA was OK but we stopped close to Barstow to gas up and found the front left tire was nearly flat. I changed the tire and drove over to an old garage to have it fixed with one of the two new inner tubes I had packed. With the tire fixed we headed off Highway 15 to Las Vegas through the Mojave Desert.
It was HOT... not just HOT... unbelievably HOT,I have no idea what the temperature was when we stopped at 10 pm in the village of Baker, California in the Mojave Desert to gas up and get some air conditioning. We had been told that just outside of Baker was a long hill that many cars overheated while driving up and this drive should be done in the "cool" night air. After sleeping for five hours and getting up at 3 am we looked at the big sign in the middle of Baker, it was 121 F (49.5C)! So much for cool night air. To try to cool ourselves down we had brought a little cooler with us and filled it with ice and a wash cloth. All during the following six days we would eat the ice cubes and wipe ourselves down with the cold wet washcloth in a vain attempt to stay cool.
The 32 mile long hill leaving Baker thankfully didn't overheat the Tatra, and as a bonus the weather did get marginally cooler as we drove over the 4700 ft mountain pass. Unfortunately it got hotter as we descended into Vegas. Las Vegas was a cooking 119F (48C) degrees when we rolled in at 7 am and went to a nice air conditioned casino for breakfast. The Tatra engine was running just fine, but the fuel system would occasionally heat up and create a vapour lock which would lead to starving the engine for fuel. Unfortunately the extra fuel pump I replaced in Victoria was an american one and so put out too much pressure which would overflowed the float needle valve and flood the engine in gasoline... not a good idea. The engine oil thermometer would read about 90C degrees on the flat but quickly rise to just over 100C degrees when we would climb mountains. To keep the engine cool, I would shifted into a lower gear to work the air cooling fans faster and reduce speed. A few times I pulled over to stop the fuel vapour lock by pouring a little water on the fuel pump, it worked but only for a while.The heat continued relentlessly through Nevada, Arizona and into Utah where we drove to Zion National Park to take in the fantastic scenery. We didn't do much hiking as it was a record temperature of 112F (44.5C) in the Zion Canyon. From there we headed on little roads over to Bryce Canyon National Park for some more awesome scenery and a number of pictures. We took a small two lane road built in the 1930's that had a number of small thin tunnels carved out of the rock. A number of times the police would stop the two way traffic to let some of those enormous motorhomes go through. We got lost a few times on these small back roads but finally made it back to the I90. We continued into Colorado and slowly climbed up the Rocky Mountains to the Vail Pass at 10,666 ft and through the Eisenhower tunnel. In all this climbing I was continually plagued by the vapour lock problem and had to keep the speed down, I never needed to shift into first but it was a very slow climb, keeping up with the fully loaded trucks. After the pass I finally found an auto parts store and bought a fuel pressure regulator for the electric gas pump but from then on didn't really need it. From Colorado we flew across the flat lands of Nebraska doing 70 mph (115 kmph) or better, real nice and all of a sudden... WAM a blow-out on the front tire. The Tatra handled nicely as we got to the side of the road, and I changed the tire for the spare... in 105F (40C) degree weather. A police car pulled over to ensure I didn't overheat myself changing the tire and Helena leaned in the open window of the police cruiser to get some nice cool air.
The front right tire had a slow leak that I noticed during the drive to Los Angeles, as mentioned we replaced the tube in Barstow. The original leak was caused by little stones from gravel roads actually getting between the tube and tire and rubbing little holes into the tube. The tube we replaced was full of about twenty small holes. The moral of the tire story is to ensure you have proper pressure in tube tires when traveling on gravel roads. Unknown to me, the tire guy in Barstow pinched the new tube and that caused a second slow leak. We fixed this problem in Nevada this time with a patch, and drove off. After the Nebraska blowout I examined the tube. It had completely exploded, huge holes in about five places, it was hard to recognize this had been a tube. The tire guy at the truck garage checked the Michelin tire and told me the tire was ruined as there were big bubbles from torn steel belts on the inside. This was caused from driving on the tire with low pressure (from the slow leak) and the intense heat. The internal temperature of the tire heated up from the rubbing and the tube finally exploded, vaporized may be a better word. So now we had gone through two tubes and one tire. No one locally had any tires that would fit. I phoned Coker Tires, they had one in stock but I was 30 minutes to late for a next day deliver and by then we hopefully would be out of the USA. I ordered two Michelin X 185R16 and three tubes to be delivered to Toronto. From Nebraska we just hoped and crossed our fingers that we would have no more tire problems as we had no spares. To keep the tires as cool as possible I increased the pressure to 32 psi in the front and 42 psi in the rear and kept our speed down to about 60 mph (100 km/h). We drove through Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and finally Ontario without incident.
Seven days from LA to Toronto in a Tatra 87 in weather that didn't go below 100F (38C)... not sure I would do it again, that fast and in that heat.
Next time a more leisurely and cooler drive. Gary is suggesting Newfoundland and Labrador for our next trip... sounds cool enough to me. Stay tuned.
If you have got this far, thanks very much, hope you enjoyed the story of our Zigmund and Hanzelka inspired Tatra trip. Feel free to email me with any comments.
History of Tatra 87 on "International Streamline Tatra" site
Technical information on Tatra 87 on "International Streamline Tatra" site
History of Tatra 77, 77a, 87, and 97 Tatras on the "Unofficial Tatra" site
Tatra Websites
Austrian Tatra Site - Tatra-Freunde-International
Canadian Tatra Site - Unofficial Tatra Automobiles
Dutch Tatra Site - International Streamline Tatra
Germany Tatra Site - Tatra Register Deutchland
USA Tatraplan Site - Mike's Streamlined Garage
Tatra 87 and 1935 Bowlus Road Chief trailer
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