I finally got my Hummer back on the road on Thursday. The $2000 engine I had hoped to get was sold by the time I got the money together, so I had to search again, and the only decent one I found was 1500 km away in Alberta, and priced at $3000 CDN, plus $400 to get it shipped to my mechanic. He had to source a few extra parts as the one I bought didn't come with the fan clutch, which I needed anyway, as that was the item that failed and toasted the original engine, and the battery had died while the truck was parked for 2 months, and wouldn't recharge, so his bill came to $2400. All in, the replacement came to $5800 CDN (about $4250 US)
The new(used) engine had lower mileage than mine, and tested full compression on all cylinders, so I expected it to run well, and it certainly does, as I took a 300km road trip this Saturday to meet an old friend who called me Friday night to say he was camped at one of my favourite hunting spots over on the rain shadow side of the Coast Range. We spent the day cruising the extensive maze of logging and fire roads on Placer Mt., covering about 120 km, with several stops for hikes off road of 1 or 2 km each. I was very pleased that I have recovered enough from my hospital episode to be able to do those hikes at 6000ft elevation.
Some of the area was dramatically beautiful, with the aspens and poplars in full golden foliage, while several very large tracts were depressing moonscapes after this summers unprecedented wildfires. The hunting was unsuccessful, with only black squirrels , snowshoe hares, hawks and ravens sighted. We never saw a bear, deer, moose, grouse, or hairy biped during the entire trip.