Ian Curtis
Senior Member
I recently finished a several months of Model A down-time while redoing my brakes (mostly related to dragging my own feet. In retrospect, the job was really pretty straightforward!). I can't recommend a brake job enough if your brakes are marginal, being able to stop makes a BIG difference in how enjoyable it is to drive the car.
I had wanted to take a longer trip across the Puget Sound, but my wife had to work Sunday morning so that wasn't in the cards. Instead, when she got off work on Sunday afternoon we took a trip up to Spada Lake, the water source for much of the area north of Seattle.
We set out from Snohomish along the Snohomish Monroe road, which runs along the river valley & is a popular road for cycles (both pedal & motor), and has some great views (of which I did not take any pictures). We then continued along the Ben Howard Road along the Skykomish river, which is a very popular motorcycle road. When we reached the town of Sultan we stopped for gas, which we didn't really need. Over the winter the carburetor had a nasty tendency to leak which made me paranoid, but after a spring break in it hasn't happened recently. That said, better safe than running out of fuel way up in the mountains.
We headed north from Sultan along the Sultan Basin Road, and you could tell you were leaving civilization. Houses and fields gave ways to trees. About 10 miles outside of Sultan, the pavement ended and we were off onto the gravel (true Model A territory!).
Shortly thereafter, the slope really took off. Where the pavement had been maybe 3-5% on average, we were staring down a 10%+ incline. The Moto-Meter tiptoed up to the warning line, but it didn't climb higher. As we started up, I did wonder what I was getting myself into on the trip back down, since the gravel was pretty loose & Model A tires are not very big. After a while it flattened out, and we crested the pass and started down towards the lake, which was few miles of steady descent. Coasting down hill in 1st/2nd got the Moto-Meter back comfortably below the warning line, and then we came to a boat launch where we stretched took a few pictures. There was an aluminum skiff out on the water and a truck with a trailer in the parking lot, the guy who drove that up & down the pass is braver than I. While we were there I added a little more water to the radiator, and adjusted the brakes a click, just in case.
The way down turned out to be much less eventful than I thought. The engine braking from first gear resulted in a very comfortable coast down all by the steepest parts, and tapping the brakes did the rest without the tires breaking free from the gravel. I was worrying for nothing! We stopped for BBQ on the way home (as seen on TV according to the sign!), and that was the end of a successful trip. We passed many other vehicles along the way, got many thumbs up and quite a few pictures taken as well.
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