Pikes Peak, Again

[Old Henry]

I did this trip 4 years ago with Pepe, a son and a daughter. That story is here: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19141. That one had no video. This time I took some that I think are pretty good. Here's the story.

AnnaRae went to her sisters for three days so I decided to climb Pikes Peak again. Since Pepe's not much good traveling any more (anxiety) I invited my dad and his wife. He just turned 90 the week before we left. You'll see them in the pictures and video.

One of the first events of note shortly into the trip was Old Henry turning a quarter of a million miles (250,000).




That's not much of an accomplishment for a modern car but says something about the tenacity and longevity of Old Henry now 68 years old.

Then there wasn't much to note until I decided to pull off the freeway at Price for gas. I gave the right turn signal with my arm and veered toward the off ramp when an 18 wheeler passed me on the left and threw something up from the road that smacked into my left arm that I was holding up. It hurt pretty good. I looked at the spot and some skin was torn off. (top picture) It didn't bleed much but I put a Band-Aid on it to cover it because that was the exact spot I rested my arm on the window sill to drive. After two more days of driving it looked like the bottom picture with a big bruise that spread around it. Ah, the price we pay for our fun.



After crossing the border into Colorado we decided to take the little detour up onto the plateau at Colorado National Monument. Dad had never been there before. Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpU2NKCV7nU The biggest hairpin turn in the video and road through the two tunnels are on this stretch below Dad and his wife Laura at a lookout point.



We stopped at one other spot for a picture of Grand Valley with Fruita on the left and Grand Junction on the right.



Here's one of my favorite shots from my previous trip coming out of one of the tunnels.



As we went on down the road toward Montrose the engine started to act just like a fuel filter was plugging up, stumbling and stuttering at higher RPMs. The only filter in the fuel line is the one attached to the electric pump between it and the gas tank. I decided it may well be plugged since I had just emptied a bit of sediment out of the settling bowl on the mechanical pump.

But, what to do about it? I had no spare filter (among all that spare parts I was carrying) and didn't know how I'd put one on if I did since all I had was one bottle jack and I wasn't climbing under the car supported by that alone.

As we pulled into Montrose I spotted a Car Quest store and pulled in. I tried to find a picture of the filter on my phone to show the guys what I was looking for but couldn't so I just told them "I've got this Airtex pump that I need to replace the filter on. Can't give you a part number or even show you a picture of it." Before I was even done saying that much one of the guys said, "I think I know what you're looking for" and headed back into the shelves and brought out the very thing. "This thing has been sitting back in the shelves for years and its the last and only one we have." Ah, for those little miracles. But, now, how to get it on?

As I was at the counter I saw Dad hobble toward the back of the building on his crutches. About the time I bought the filter he came in and said there was a guy at the back that could put it on. Here he is raising Old Henry into the air for the job:



This is the pump showing the filter to be replaced.



It took him quite a while to get the filter off. I was waiting anxiously for that moment for him to blow into it to confirm that it was plugged. He did. It wasn't. So, that wasn't our problem.

He put the new filter on and we went on down the road with the same stumbling and stuttering. But not for long before I pulled off, lifted the hood, and found a loose spark plug wire. Yeah, that was all. Sometimes we get lucky. Sometimes we don't. I squoze the end a bit and pushed it back on tight and it solved the problem. At least I know I don't have to worry about the filter an the pump for many more years.

We stayed in the first little dive motel we got to in Salida for the night and headed for Pikes Peak the next morning.

The lower section of Pikes Peak Road is not very steep and was lined with yellow quaking aspens. Just gorgeous.



Here's the video which I did not take last trip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-mBMj7xSq0 The music for the lower calmer section was composed by Dad and produced by me. I think it fits the scenery quite nicely.

Here's another shot on the side of the road looking up at Pikes Peak.



After the previous trip when we fought vapor lock all the way up I installed an electric fuel pump back by the gas tank. Last year we drove to the top of Mount Evans, even higher, without any problem at all so I really thought we'd do the same on Pikes Peak. No dice. The road was steeper and more strenuous on the engine.

I was watching the temperature gauge thinking I could go as high as usual with my 4# radiator cap - 222°, but when it hit 210° it stated sputtering water out and the engine started to stumble and stutter again.

Not knowing what else to do, and realizing that the problem with the engine was something to do with the heat, I decided to try propping the hood open 8 inches and see what happened. Such dropped the temperature of the engine 10° to 200° and solved the stumbling problem immediately.



When I got home I did my arithmetic and realized that the boiling temperature of water at 14,000 feet is only 186° and with my 4# radiator cap it was 199°. So, that's why the water started to sputter out when the engine got above 200°.

So, we climbed the mountain with Old Henry's mouth gaping open.

The big W taken on our previous trip.


As we climbed higher the road got steeper. The average grade is 7% and the steepest over 10%. I can do 7-8% in second gear but when we got steeper than that it was 1st gear going 10-15 mph the rest of the way up.

We finally reached the top where the there is only 58% of the air that there is at sea level. Quite an experience. Some of the bystanders applauded as we arrived at the top with Old Henry's mouth gaping open. This time I got a nice picture of Old Henry with the summit sign showing the elevation of 14,110 feet. Comparing this picture with the one after illustrates the PhotoShopping I sometimes do to improve the looks of a shot. They were both taken the same place with all the same distractions, including people around the sign, that I removed for the top one.



Dad was pretty scared all the way up, particularly because I was doing all the filming seen in the video and navigating the steep winding road with one hand. (Gotta watch the video to see what he's talking about.) His wife kept trying to comfort him with, "He does this all the time. He's OK." Here they are with Old Henry at the top too.




Airplane pilots start feeling the effects of lack of oxygen over 12,500 feet altitude and passengers must have oxygen above 15,000 feet. So, as you can imagine, we felt the effects of the thin air up there, mostly very rapid fatigue with any exertion, like the muscles had no fuel to burn. Also a bit of imbalance and a little feeling of disorientation.

We headed back down the mountain without incident. Going down is easy, just put it into low gear and crawl down. They have a brake check station about half way down where they check the temperature of your brakes to see if you're overheating them and instruct people about low gear. Of course, Old Henry's brakes were nice and cool.

Dad was still pretty scared going down, even though I wasn't filming any more, especially when I'd suddenly pull off the road to let the line of cars behind me go by. I had to start warning him before I did that.

At the bottom of the mountain we stopped an this quaint little ma and pa diner called Mildred's Café for lunch. Had the best green pepper Philly steak and cheese sandwich I've ever had. Good fries too.





On the way up over the mountains again headed home we drove through the highest incorporated city in North America, Alma at 10,578 feet elevation.



And the continental divide at Hoosier Pass, elevation 11,539 feet.



After passing back into Utah we pulled off at Thompson Springs that I'd photographed and video taped before. Here's a photo of the great old Thompson Motel from the previous trip. Here's the video including the train coming through town that used to stop there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF2EKYuQUlw



This time we drove north of Thompson Springs three miles up Sego Canyon to see the ancient rock art, both petroglyphs and pictographs, created by the ancient Indians. Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRZwHayxauQ



Starting our climb up from Green River to Price the engine started doing its stumbling and stuttering again. This time I decided to see if it was the coil failing as it heated up. So, I stopped and drizzled a gallon of water on it to cool it down. Didn't help at all. So, I stopped and propped the hood up again and this time taped it down with my trusty role of duct tape so it wouldn't blow up. (Didn't need that on Pikes Peak going 10-15 mph.)



At Soldier Summit I put the hood back down thinking we could make it home without the gaping mouth since it was all mostly down hill. We did pretty good until just a few miles from home on the freeway it acted up again and I had to pull onto the shoulder of the freeway and prop up the hood and tape it down again to get home. That is a bewildering mystery I've go to solve.

Total distance 1,058 miles over the three days. Only tool needed was a screw driver to replace a brake light that burned out and needle nose pliers to squeeze the end of the spark plug wire to secure it to the plug. Oh yeah, and duct tape.

Previous Trips:

Uinta Mountain Range, Utah, September 2015: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=173539

Mount Rushmore and Devils Tower, July 2015: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=173539

Pony Express Trail in April 2015: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=166241

Mexico and around in February 2015: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=162633

Ghost towns of Modena, UT and Pioche, NV in November 2014: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=155331

Million Dollar Highway, Durango to Montrose, Colorado in June 2014 https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=142975

Transcontinental Railway Grade in May 2014: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=139471

City of Rocks, Idaho in April 2014:https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=137684

Capitol Reef National Park in March 2014: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=133018

Grouse Creek and the AAA garage in February 2014: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=130966

Grand Canyon in January 2014: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=128820

Moab, UT in December 2013: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=127222

Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument November 2013: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123694

Across Nevada on US 50, "The Loneliest Road in the Country", October 2013: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=120098

Mount Evans (the highest paved road in North America) August 2013: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=115013

Canada in June 2013: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=109872

Monument Valley in March 2013: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=99523

Bryce Canyon in February 2013: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=97822

Milford, Utah in December 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=93137

Nevada and Idaho in November 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=89080

Rocky Mountain National Park in September 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=83966

Yellowstone National Park in May 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=72864

Death Valley in February 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=62705

Pike's Peak in July 2011: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19141

Route 66 in April 2010: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57511