Karen & Mako's Further Flat Bedding Adventures

[Craig Naylor]

Bingo ... note the icy marbles

I said that way back up in post #6! :unimpressed:

Anyway... glad all are ok.

[Bob Beamesderfer]

Bingo ... note the icy marbles

Talk about burying the lead!

So the woman with the Nissan in the ditch is Karen's relative and despite AWD, the Subie went off too. Or, at least that what it seems like from all the photos and the bits and pieces of text.

[Mako Koiwai]

Moments after landing ... our big concern was getting warning flares up around the downhill corner so that no one would slide into us. btw. 15 year old flares still work.

Note the completely clear road in the background. You can see how suddenly the hail covered curve would have come up

[Mako Koiwai]

We slide in sideways, just missing a drop-off on the left, tore the back tire off on the slight curbing, the front tire lost some air but didn't come completely off ... rotated around and went part way up the embankment backwards. In this shot I've already tried driving the car down and out but there was no traction once we were flat.

[George Schilling]

P5 ... this surface looked just like El Toro ?!

Karen is smiling so I assume you weren't getting a ticket.

[Mako Koiwai]

The Royal Canadian cop was very cool. He said that almost any accident results in a ticket but our situation with both cars spinning as soon as then hit the hail showed that it was an unusual situation and he wouldn't ticket us, even though others, lots of locals passing through, made it through safely.

The smile on Karen's face at the point when the photo was taken was simply relief that we survived relatively unscathed! A few seconds earlier and we could have hit head on with Sarah's (not a relative/friend) car spinning down the hill.

[Max Hayter]

I still have no idea what the heck happened here. Mako - post the complete story in one post!

[Mako Koiwai]

The cars where flat bedded to the local gas station near where we were going anyway and left there over night. Sarah's car needed to be checked to make sure it was OK ... cost her $20 plus mom paying for the towing.

We paid $60 have the wheel and tire cleaned up and remounted. They reseated the front tire also. Clean out the muffler and checked the car out. They said that we might end up needing an alignment. In fact the front left end is now making a slight "throbbing" noise at around 60 and the car pulls slightly to the left on a crowned road. So we'll have the alignment checked when we get to a larger town.

I'm worried that the bearings on the right took a hit which is going to shorted their life?

[Steve Lepper]

Moments after landing ... our big concern was getting warning flares up around the downhill corner so that no one would slide into us. btw. 15 year old flares still work.

Note the completely clear road in the background. You can see how suddenly the hail covered curve would have come up

Two words: Scandinavian flick.

This looks to be the point where you should've gone all Makkinen on it, rotated the car, and got on the gas. When in doubt, power out. }:)

Seriously: glad everyone came out okay and we can laugh about it.

[Pete Loney]

Since I have yet to see a reference to whom was driving....

We should take bets on who was at the wheel }:)

[George Schilling]

Since I have yet to see a reference to whom was driving....

We should take bets on who was at the wheel }:)

Doesn't matter who was driving........the car is possessed. }:)

[Steve Lepper]

If Mako was shooting, then Karen must have been driving.

[Craig Naylor]

Pete brings up an interesting point.

Though he posted a photo of Karen driving....
P3 looks to have been taken from the left edge of the left lane, and he commented he hadn't noticed the car on the left when he took the photo.

Was he paying more attention to photography than driving???????

Makes you go hmmmmm

[Greg Peng]

P3 ... I'm photographing the car in front of us, trying out some high iso settings in the gathering gloom. Karen has just moved into the passing lane.

Sorry, reading comprehension FTW!

[Pete Loney]

P3 ... I'm photographing the car in front of us, trying out some high iso settings in the gathering gloom. Karen has just moved into the passing lane.

Sorry, reading comprehension FTW!

Good catch, missed that.
Now I want to see the action shots of some flying elbows from Karen since Mako had his camera at the ready.
A slow spin should have given him time to shoot away

[Mako Koiwai]

I seriously didn't want the camera in front of my face when the air bag went off ... otherwise you know me ... I would have been shooting!

I was hoping Karen could get a shot of me avoiding a Moose Apex Cone this late afternoon approaching Jasper. The Park (Banff and then Jasper) bulletin said to pay attention to the special white speed limit signs ... as that's where animal crossings are especially active. They are re-doing a lot of the freeway ... building animal over passes plus high fences to keep animals off the road. It must be pretty bad.

We did a GoPro time lapse going along this amazing road with mountains and glaciers all around us ... but the weather was pretty socked in.

[Steve Ekstrand]

You don't want to hit Bullwinkle. Trust me.

[Arthur Grant]

Part 2

Looks like foam not snow.

[Mako Koiwai]

Not snow, pea size hail ... completely covering just 200 yards of road. Melted away in 15 minutes ... very weird.

[Mako Koiwai]

So after Karen's Off and around 2,500 miles (out of 5,500 total miles on our road trip), the Legacy Outback still has a slight "buzz" felt occasionally through the gas pedal. Alignment seems better then spec ... toe is + or - one MM from zero.

Island Tires in Pasadena re-balanced the tires, they needed it ... and rotated them ... AND did an oil/oil filter change ... for $28! Those guys are Great! (They do all of our race tire mounting, etc) We also checked the bushings to see if any got torn on the right side of the car where the tires/wheels hit that slight rounded curbing.

[Max Hayter]

Canada looks almost civilized!

[Mako Koiwai]

VERY! Calgary is still booming. Extremely low unemployment.

Nice "cow girls!"

[Mako Koiwai]

We saw LOTS of weddings ... some a bit ... odd:

We meet the only unfriendly Canadian in Canada. One of the photographers said we weren't allowed to photograph their very public event.

[Bob Beamesderfer]

Canada looks almost civilized!

Almost as civilized as Scotland.

[Michael Palero]

We saw LOTS of weddings ... some a bit ... odd:

We meet the only unfriendly Canadian in Canada. One of the photographers said we weren't allowed to photograph their very public event.

Guess he knew your photos would turn out better!
Looked like you had fun! How is Reijo doing?