McLean's Salvage is a large car graveyard/junkyard located out in the great white north of Canada (I can't actually remember where except it was about two hours north of the border). An old friend of mine from Buffalo was friends with the owner so we got allowed in to have a look around, however the only problem was the weather. February and March 2015 saw one of the coldest deep freeze winters to hit the north-eastern USA and Canada in decades, and the night before we went a huge snowstorm had dumped a few feet of snow all over a wide area of northern New York state and southern Canada, which made us question the decision somewhat but the three of us decided to press on anyway. What followed next was an adventure I've never forgotten.
On arrival we met up with the owner and had a chat, then were allowed to roam free. The air temperature must have been hovering at around a chilly -8 degrees C, and the ground was blanketed in a good 2-3ft of snow and deeper drifts, which would have been bad enough on it's own, but the sub-zero temperatures had caused a thin layer on top to freeze solid, meaning every step involved breaking through the frozen top layer of snow then sinking to my knees in the stuff. This had the added bonus of making my shins and knees impact the sharp exposed edge of the frozen layer at every step which, after only a short while, got very tiresome and rather painful. I was, actually, surprisingly warm as I had wrapped myself up like an Inuit and also just the sheer physical exertion and the effort it was taking to move around was enough to keep me snug. We ended up spending a long time here, longer than probably was wise considering the conditions, and after maybe five hours spent trudging around in the snow I made the mistake of taking a breather with the others inside an old school bus. It was at that point, after I had stopped moving, that I realised just how absolutely soaking wet my socks and feet were, and my jeans were frozen rock solid up to my knees and packed with snow. After that realisation all of us agreed it was probably time to make tracks back to the car and get warmed up, which was still a fair walk away, but getting back to it and being in the warm again was blissful.
I have meant to go back here ever since, as most of the really cool stuff was either partially or totally buried under the snow, but for one reason or another it's never worked out and tbh I don't know if I will ever make it back!
Right at the very end, just as we were heading back to the nice warm car, I spotted the bus in the above photo. I'm not a huge fan of buses in general however I've had a love affair with the GMC 'Fishbowl' bus ever since I was a kid, they are in my mind the coolest bus ever made and I'd never seen one in person until I went here. You may recognise it as the same model of bus that featured in the film Speed, but I loved them way before the first time I saw that film.
After that little detour we made it back to the car and headed home, and I had just about dried off and warmed up by the time we got back into the USA.
Cheers for reading etc.
On arrival we met up with the owner and had a chat, then were allowed to roam free. The air temperature must have been hovering at around a chilly -8 degrees C, and the ground was blanketed in a good 2-3ft of snow and deeper drifts, which would have been bad enough on it's own, but the sub-zero temperatures had caused a thin layer on top to freeze solid, meaning every step involved breaking through the frozen top layer of snow then sinking to my knees in the stuff. This had the added bonus of making my shins and knees impact the sharp exposed edge of the frozen layer at every step which, after only a short while, got very tiresome and rather painful. I was, actually, surprisingly warm as I had wrapped myself up like an Inuit and also just the sheer physical exertion and the effort it was taking to move around was enough to keep me snug. We ended up spending a long time here, longer than probably was wise considering the conditions, and after maybe five hours spent trudging around in the snow I made the mistake of taking a breather with the others inside an old school bus. It was at that point, after I had stopped moving, that I realised just how absolutely soaking wet my socks and feet were, and my jeans were frozen rock solid up to my knees and packed with snow. After that realisation all of us agreed it was probably time to make tracks back to the car and get warmed up, which was still a fair walk away, but getting back to it and being in the warm again was blissful.
I have meant to go back here ever since, as most of the really cool stuff was either partially or totally buried under the snow, but for one reason or another it's never worked out and tbh I don't know if I will ever make it back!
Right at the very end, just as we were heading back to the nice warm car, I spotted the bus in the above photo. I'm not a huge fan of buses in general however I've had a love affair with the GMC 'Fishbowl' bus ever since I was a kid, they are in my mind the coolest bus ever made and I'd never seen one in person until I went here. You may recognise it as the same model of bus that featured in the film Speed, but I loved them way before the first time I saw that film.
After that little detour we made it back to the car and headed home, and I had just about dried off and warmed up by the time we got back into the USA.
Cheers for reading etc.
