As I mentioned in the last installment this year’s Great Beater Challenge is little different due to its route which follows part of the historical Red Coat Trail rather than going west into the mountains. This promises ghost towns, varied prairie landscape, gravel roads and a few surprises along the route.
Source – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:RedCoatTrailMap.png
The Red Coat Trail (in red above) goes from Ford MacLeod, Alberta to Winnipeg, Manitoba. The yellow line is a the Trans Canada highway #1 which is the main highway spanning the whole length of the country. The Red Coat Trail is the approximate route that the North-West Mounted Police took in their “March West” in 1874 concluding with established Ford MacLeod. More information is found on Wikipedia.
As mentioned above our route for a section of the Red Coat Trail from Lethbridge, AB to Cadillac, Sask. Ironically, the three or so Cadillac cars that were registered did not materialize at the start line. There was a short jaunt down Highway 4 before turning west but otherwise it was all secondary highways.
As in previous years there was a quick driver’s meeting before heading out. As we were making a move to leave we discovered the hatchback no longer opened on the Mustang. It looked a little crooked and I later discovered that I had left a 13mm socket on the edge when I had closed it somehow jamming the mechanism. This certainly complicated taking items in and out of the car.
Less than thirty minutes in we had some kind of wing failure that saw the wings flip backwards. I suspect in our haste we did not fully attach the front section correctly and this combined with a sideways gust of wind created the issue. This put a few dents and scratches in the roof unfortunately. I did not want to chance another repeat so the wings were stashed at the side of the road for retrieval at the end of the weekend.
The first item on the list was finding a wooden grain elevator. In recent years we have lost a lot of these in Alberta as they are torn down for the reclaimed lumber or as a safety hazard. Saskatchewan seems to have a bit more forethought around this practice and there would be plenty to see there. Despite this most competitors stopped at the first one along the route in Wrentharm, Alberta.
The challenge offers interesting scenes like above in which it could be mistaken to be the year 1989.
The 1960 Valiant V200 was saddled with some tough to solve on the road cooling issues. We caught up with them in Skiff where they were attempting to add an overflow bottle to the system and replace the lost water. We heard later in the day that they had to call it quits but at least they managed to limp it home. A real shame as this one was decorated to perfection.
We drove by several instances of a large number of oil rail cars just sitting on a side line being stored. Alberta is a big oil and gas producer but has had huge issues getting its product to market due to the politics of getting pipelines built. The government came up with a scheme to ship by rail cars a few years ago which I do not believe was massively successful so I wonder if these are the rail cars from that endeavor.
Small rural towns often mean a chance to spot classic vehicles, usually of the truck variety. Here is a matching set of Ford truck and tractor.
The town of Foremost was the last chance to fuel up for a few hundred kilometers so the heavy fuel drinkers like this classic 1955 Oldsmobile 88 needed to fill their tanks. This station was a unmanned self service one. The Oldmobile’s owner mentioned he had owned this car for a long time and was happy to find an event that allowed him to get out and use it. Maybe he bought it in 1986 to get under budget? Perhaps the one advantage of owning a four cylinder version of the Mustang was our fuel consumption was fairly reasonable.
Foremost was one of the bigger towns along the route so it contained a few CC worthy finds including this lovely looking Ford Thunderbird.
As well as this 1950 Studebaker which oozed patina.
One of the things I find appealing about small towns is they often have very unique signs including unusual objects on top of poles. This golf course advertised via a full sized golf cart on a stick.
Next up was Etzikom which had an honest to goodness windmill museum. Well, the title of the place was Etzikom Museum & Canadian Historic Windmill Interpretive Centre but the main focus was their large collection of vintage windmills.
Probably the most visually impressive one was called “Wild Rose Mill” from Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. It must have been a massive undertaking to move and re-assemble it in Etzikom, Alberta.
There was also an indoor portion of the museum which we did not explore but crucially it also a gift shop/cafe that sold ice cream. I opted for the healthy looking “birthday cake” flavor as we explored a few of the other windmills.
Not being overly familiar with the specifics of windmills it was interesting to see the variety of designs used depending on the purpose and expected wind speed.
Here is a Boss vaneless windmill with a distinctive counter weight that was apparently a target for thieves.
Since this is an automotive focused site how about this one which is partially made from Ford Model T axle? This example was produced by a blacksmith in Leduc, Alberta.
The museum also had a display room filled with a selection of vintage stationary engines.
My good friend Rod is also a GBC veteran from back to its humble origins and usually brings the family and his trusty Honda Civic hatchback. This year he was operating as one of the sweep vehicles on the first day with this Ford Econoline van sporting some prototype aero mods. He blew my nineteen year old son’s mind when he mentioned that this museum was one the location of an early date between himself and his wife.
Like a lot of towns there are a fair number weathered buildings that appeared to be no longer in use including this church.
As we were leaving I spotted a familiar (to me at least) shape. It was a Vauxhall Viva HA or the Canadian badged equivalent Epic Envoy like the one I owned briefly. There is a still a few British saloons out there but sadly a lot are in a similar state to this one.
We hit the road again heading east. The land had different variations on prairie landscape alternating between grown crops and a ranching.
The ice cream / I scream themed minivan had a tire (or maybe rim) failure and they were somehow able to purchase a replacement from a local farm. At least they had a common bolt pattern to work with. There would be no such luck for our Mustang which used a much less common 4x108mm bolt pattern.
Next up was the semi-ghost hamlet of Orion which I had visited previously on my motorbike. The highlight of the town is a trapped in time store run by a character of an owner. It was like walking back in the Sixties. It was, unfortunately, not open on this day but a nice article by CBC if anyone is interested.
The next settlement alone the highway was the hamlet of Manyberries, Alberta which I have never visited. I was amused to see that all the street names were named after berries; Blueberry Street, Gooseberry Ave, Raspberry Street, etc. This again was another classic almost ghost town with the businesses abandoned and only a few residents hanging on. The old railway station situated along the highway has been converted to private residence.
An old travel hotel / restaurant / tavern that had an article in the window about how it had been revived in the Eighties or Nineties by an enthusiastic local. It had since closed however.
2004 Toyota Tundra for anyone? A Curbside Classic bench ad.
This dripping with patina International truck cab sits on an empty lot in Manyberries.
How much does a 1992 Ford Mustang with camping supplies, food, tools and a teenager weigh? 3280lbs apparently. Continuing their tough luck streak the Valiant team lost their exhaust on this scale.
The terrain was a little more natural around here. Less and less signs of life.
The road soon turned to gravel. This Volkswagen Jetta was a little faster than us. The Mustang wagged its tail badly at over 80km/h on the deep packed gravel. Rear wheel drive and a short wheelbase are likely not an ideal combination.
There was the occasional cow about but one could drive for great periods of time without seeing anything beyond fence posts
Check out the height of our majestic whale tail! Take that air cooled Porsche owners.
Highway 501 is gravel for portions and has massive (land wise) ranches on either side. This specific area even has no fences which I suspect was one 50+km long ranch with a Texas gate at each end. In the next installment we enter Saskatchewan to see some classic cars, ghost towns, grain elevators, and dinosaurs.
The whole Great Beater Challenge 2021 series
The Red Coat Trail on Day 1 Part 1
Looks like a great trip. Nice to visit the small towns and enjoy the “middle of nowhere” that 40+ years ago was somewhere. The CBC stories about the “ghost towns’ is definitely worth a look. The Great Beater Challenge looks like a fun event and sounds like a great bunch of people. I liked the “this could be 1989” shot with the Chevette and old Chevy pickup. Looking forward to the other parts of the story. Hope the Mustang made it without any mechanical troubles! :)!
That classic Buick is an Oldsmobile.
Yes, thank you. Its a 1955 Oldsmobile 88. I had changed it elsewhere but forgotten here.
Fun trip I like gravel roads my car behaves very well on them, 4×108 isnt that uncommon both my cars use that bolt pattern now theres one more to add to my memory banks.
It is a bit rare here. There are some European cars that use it like some Austins, Peugeot, etc. Here in North America those are rare so our best bet is some Saabs, Ford Tempos, Focus, etc but those are fwd offset. So really the only thing that fits a Mustang is a Mustang or Thunderbird rim.
1980s Audi 4-bolters did as well but same offset issues (45 or so IIRC). Some Alfas too but likely not too common on the Canadian prairies…It’s been a long time since hearing someone reference a 4×108 pattern, that woke me up this morning!
This does sound like a very cool road trip and I like the idea of taking “beaters” along, but I do not understand the point of the ‘wings’ or the ‘whale tail’ decorations. What’s up with that?
Nice photos too.
Several teams can give their beater a “theme” like the ice cream truck. It adds a bit of extra fun and points for the challenge totals. Our theme was an airplane which unfortunately ended up being sort of half done this year.
Land Shark
That Toyota bus bench is a trip (back in time).
Looks like a fun journey so far. Here’s to hoping the Mustang ends up more Lindbergh than Earhart, looking forward to seeing the next installment!
Now that Mrs.M and I have moved to Calgary, I’m eager to explore more of southern Alberta.
This piece makes me want to get out before the snow flies and do some road trips. Having lived in a couple of small towns, I appreciate their origins and peoples. One could be bored by driving across the prairies but once you get out and explore you’d be surprised what’s out there. My favorite thing when travelling is to check out abandoned cars or trucks. Sometimes I’ll stop into a property and ask the owner if I can have a look if I spot something interesting.
As I was reading this, I was thinking that between your review of the Reynolds Museum, and this of the Windmill Museum, I’m building up some good stopping points if I ever make it to Alberta.
I agree about the prairies — I love the wide-open spaces and small towns that many folks would consider tedious. I’ve had a few great trips to North Dakota, eastern Montana, etc., and have found that the most rewarding places to visit are places just like this.
I like the Curbside Classic Tundra bench… I guess made even more charming since (I’m assuming) the bench is located nowhere near Lethbridge.
Its about 177kms or a 2hr drive away. The Reynolds Museum is amazing. They have everything from propeller driven snow machines to a Canadian specific trim Chevette in there.
The windmill museum looks interesting.
The weather for this leg of the trip looks awesome. My favorite kind of road trip day: partly cloudy skies, but mostly bright blue, with (presumably) low humidity.
Love the Bullet Bird.
The “1989” photo of the Chevette and old Chevy Truck at the RR crossing is great.
Too bad about the wing’s destruction, but I am sure that ingress and egress after its removal was much easier.
As always, looking forward to the next installment!
It’s reminding me that I never finished writing up the rest of our Nevada overland trip. I’ve been really slammed, but that’s not good enough of an excuse. I need to get back to that.
I love open high plains country like this. Great vistas, dry air, and great little towns with interesting stuff to see.
Well you were lucky, not every competition team survives a full speed wing detachment.
I wonder if this was the route we took home on our return trip from Alberta in 1979, all I remember is it was south of the TC and took a lot longer.
Too bad about the Valiant, I just love those things…
Looks like every major food group is included in that ice cream cone. I’ll have one to go.
Fascinating view of the Canadian west, an area I’ve heard about but never visited.
Too bad about the Valiant.
CC effect: I saw not one, but two of this vintage of Mustang yesterday in Oakville, within 5 minutes of each other. Both black, but one with wide tires and a 5.8 litre engine in it ready to get moving.
Thanks for these memories.
I’m looking forward to the Ford Consul sighting in Consul. Though since there was no Ford Orion in Orion, maybe I shouldn’t hold my breath.
You might be disappointed in Cadillac, Saskatchewan on day 2 …
Are those foothills/ mountains I see far off into the horizon? If yes please advise the range name if you know.
I think they would in Montana. If I was to guess probably Mt Brown or possibly West Butte.
Some fun stuff. Except for the tool slammed into the hatch workings – that is not fun.
This looks like tremendous fun. I’m eager to see more.
And you are so correct about those four-cylinder Mustangs getting tail-happy. I’m hoping the rest of your trip was free of any automotive drama.
Reminds me of the tv show “Corner Gas”.