Two adventure-seeking septuagenarians set out early Saturday on a 7,000-mile round trip from Cambria to the Arctic Ocean.
Jay Burbank of Cambria, California, and South Carolina resident Charlie Enxuto will travel about 1,400 of those miles on the graveled Dempster Highway, driving a 1931 Model A Ford, a slant-window town sedan converted to look like a U.S. Army Air Corps General’s staff car from World War II.
The men are 77 and 75 years old, respectively.
For the rest of the trip, from Cambria to Prince George, British Columbia, and back, the men will tow the antique auto in a 14-foot car hauler behind a Cadillac SUV.
The trailer also will provide a place to mount a Cascadia Vehicles rooftop tent for camping and room to carry filled fuel cans.
The back-up supplies aren’t optional.
“There are long gaps without gas stations” on the way to the edge of the continent at Tuktoyaktuk in the Canadian Northwest Territories, explained Burbank, who owns the vehicles.
“The Model A gets about 15 mpg with a 10-gallon tank,” he said, “and the Caddy gets about 15 mpg with a 25-gallon tank.”
Man Known for Travels in Antique Vehicles
Burbank has lots of experience doing other long, international drives in the 1931 Ford now known as Military Maxi and another, smaller Model A.
Since taking a 2001 trek through Germany, Switzerland, Austria and northern Italy, he’s done antique car tours, runs and rides along the West and East coasts of…
