Odd place to find a Comanche

[DirtyComanche]

 

 

This is Baker Lake, Nunavut. Population is roughly 2000 I believe. No road access, most people just own quads, but there's a few trucks and obviously some heavy equipment. I'm not sure how long this SporTruck has been here, but it's been a while.

 

There's some other cool old stuff around, unfortunately the internet sucks here so I won't be uploading many photos.

[jeeppapa]

Looks like a descent truck.

 

 

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[DirtyComanche]

I'd buy it if it was for sale and I could get it home...

[Eagle]

I'd buy it if it was for sale and I could get it home...

 

So would I.

 

Ummm ... where the heck is Nunavut?

[Jeep Driver]

 

I'd buy it if it was for sale and I could get it home...

 

So would I.

 

Ummm ... where the heck is Nunavut?

 

[DirtyComanche]

 

 

I'd buy it if it was for sale and I could get it home...

So would I.

 

Ummm ... where the heck is Nunavut?

Above the tree line in the arctic. Nunavut used to be part of the North West Territory before the split it in half for whatever political reasons. So it's tundra and rock all around here. Everything that comes here did so at a great expense, so nothing ever leaves, if it dies it's just abandoned in place or scavenged for parts.

[Wiggilez]

 

 

I'd buy it if it was for sale and I could get it home...

So would I.

 

Ummm ... where the heck is Nunavut?

Above the tree line in the arctic. Nunavut used to be part of the North West Territory before the split it in half for whatever political reasons. So it's tundra and rock all around here. Everything that comes here did so at a great expense, so nothing ever leaves, if it dies it's just abandoned in place or scavenged for parts.

 

kind of unrelated but I just finished up working in Inuvik, was there for 5 day, I also spent a few hours just outside of tuk at a tower site.

 

also is there no ice road in the winter like to tuk?

[DirtyComanche]

No ice roads here for some reason, we were asking about that. I guess it's possible to make it, but the government doesn't build ice roads? NWT has lots of them.

[DesertRat1991]

The rockers are in surprisingly good condition.  I wonder how far north you have to get before they don't even bother trying to salt the roads anymore.  I suppose at some point studded tires are the better option.  

[87MJTIM]

The rockers are in surprisingly good condition.  I wonder how far north you have to get before they don't even bother trying to salt the roads anymore.  I suppose at some point studded tires are the better option.  

 

Roads? What roads?

[DirtyComanche]

The rockers are in surprisingly good condition. I wonder how far north you have to get before they don't even bother trying to salt the roads anymore. I suppose at some point studded tires are the better option.

There's like 10km of road here in total. I bet in winter they only plow half of it. Speed limit is like 40km/h at most, and that's on the long stretch to the airport. Everyone here has the worst tires imaginable. It just doesn't matter. I should get a picture of the tires on the ZJ we're borrowing...

 

Also, near as I can tell maybe half the vehicles have plates and insurance. It appears the RCMP do not enforce such rules here.

[Wiggilez]

I think that might just be a thing north of the arctic circle, our taho was so muddy after driving the dempster you legitimately could not read let alone see if the truck had a plate they didn't even care. 

[HOrnbrod]

I remember on all those long flights to the Far East Pacific on the northern route we flew over that area. Looked like a frozen wasteland. They must use a lot of rotary aircraft up there Dirty, si? 

[DirtyComanche]

I remember on all those long flights to the Far East Pacific on the northern route we flew over that area. Looked like a frozen wasteland. They must use a lot of rotary aircraft up there Dirty, si?

There's a few, to say the least, especially relative to the number of towns and population. I just switched employers; these guys have 60 or so helicopters, and they're pretty much exclusively used north of 60 during the summer months. And there is a bunch of other operators up here besides them. With current environmental rules everyone is trying to be low impact on the tundra, so running track drills and dragging camps in the summer is out of the question, meaning there's a heavy reliance on rotary aircraft to move things. Plus there's lots of bush planes for longer hauls. The logistics of operating here are rather tricky, fuel is few and far between, and the weather is more than willing to fall apart without warning.

[gogmorgo]

I'll have to go digging. I remember someone on another site spotted a couple MJ's up north somewhere, maybe Iqaluit? They were pretty rough though. Looked like tons of use at low speeds and not much in the way of maintenance.

Edit: found it. Not quite as rough as I remember but not great either. http://oppositelock.kinja.com/cciarat-iqaluit-nunavut-canada-1790572679

[gogmorgo]

Everyone’s favourite, digging up old posts. 

On 8/25/2017 at 9:48 PM, gogmorgo said:

I'll have to go digging. I remember someone on another site spotted a couple MJ's up north somewhere, maybe Iqaluit? They were pretty rough though. Looked like tons of use at low speeds and not much in the way of maintenance.

Edit: found it. Not quite as rough as I remember but not great either. http://oppositelock.kinja.com/cciarat-iqaluit-nunavut-canada-1790572679

At any rate, I’ve been wandering around town for a while now, and can confirm the MJs in the 10-year-old street view photo are no longer parked in this spot. 

Where they went I can’t say but I strongly suspect they’re no longer with us. Not many vehicles around much more than 15 years old, 25 at the most, and they’re all pretty beat at that age. 

[fiatslug87]

But it look like the snow is still there. 

[gogmorgo]

15 hours ago, fiatslug87 said:

But it look like the snow is still there. 

I’m thinking it’s not necessarily the same snow… supposedly everything here comes by boat, but the ocean is currently frozen. So I imagine it’s got to warm up eventually? It’s honestly pretty tropical here compared to where I’ve been. Only about -10°C. Been around -30 with windchill past -40 everywhere else, not necessarily the best time of year to visit the arctic if you were wondering. 

 

I did see a couple pre-‘96 XJs and a 90’s Explorer on the way to the airport, so maybe there’s hope for the MJs. It’s a small town but not small enough to see the whole place in an afternoon. 
Further north and west there’s a lot more older steel running around. Square body Suburban cruising around Resolute. Mostly 3/4 ton trucks though. “Road” is a pretty loose term up here. 

[DirtyComanche]

Is there a dump/scrap area there?  Lots of those places have an area where things just get dragged to when they're done with them.  They might still be somewhere there.  

 

 

If I'd spent more time in Baker Lake I would have tried to arrange getting that MJ backhauled out of there.  It really was in decent shape.

[gogmorgo]

Not sure, but I've been told that the city started a program to get the accumulation of scrap vehicles and junk in general back off the island. I'm not there anymore though, currently not too far from Baker Lake, in Rankin Inlet waiting for another plane north in the morning.

[Car Enthusiast]

Of course it would have a sports bar on it

[DirtyComanche]

14 hours ago, gogmorgo said:

Not sure, but I've been told that the city started a program to get the accumulation of scrap vehicles and junk in general back off the island. I'm not there anymore though, currently not too far from Baker Lake, in Rankin Inlet waiting for another plane north in the morning.

Ah yes, Rankin, another armpit of the world.

[gogmorgo]

I mean I grew up in Manitoba. Can’t really call out anywhere else. Especially not when they’re living somewhere that makes Manitoba winters look short and warm.