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Removing a Lada
Nikki Scott
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Nikki Scott
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Nikki Scott
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Nikki Scott
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Nikki Scott
by Nikki Scott
A previous issue of 4WDrive magazine told the story of volunteers heading into the Parry Sound region for a major cleanup campaign where they removed cars and debris from the trail over an entire weekend. But one more relic was waiting to be removed and join the other cars in scrap metal heaven.
On July 13th, jeeps from Hamilton, Toronto, Richmond Hill, and Bolton trekked up to Arbeg with one goal in mind, to remove a Lada from the very popular south trail.
A few of us arrived in Arbeg to hold the camp site and feed the wicked mosquitoes and deer flies. The remainder of the jeeps pulled in around 2am.
By 10am on Saturday morning everyone was raring to go.
The convoy, with the OF4WD maintenance trailer in tow, moved down the trail with ease and made only a couple of stops to pick up litter that was spotted. Our tiny haul included a few cans, a cooler lid, a truck hood (not from the Lada), a lonely croc shoe, and broken traffic cones.
As we approached the Lada site I was relieved to find the previous owner had thoughtfully left it parked in a shady offshoot. We met a camper who was staying in the area and told him what our plans were. He stayed around taking photos of our demolition and talking about the area. He told us that the car had been there since the 1960’s. Later on I decided to try to find out the model of the Lada. My research revealed that Lada started importing cars into Canada in 1979, the first model was the 2106 and then Niva, our trail-side squatter.
After snapping a couple of before shots, we began the breakdown. The doors were quickly removed. Then armed with a couple of sawzalls and blades, donated by Jorge Gaspar, Rob and Adam cut away the roof which allowed others to move in and remove the interior. The hood was carried away to expose the engine block, which was then removed and carried to the trailer on a six foot pry bar. Once the car was stripped to the shell, it was time to hook up a winch and flip the car onto its side to continue slicing it into smaller, loadable size pieces. The OF4WD trailer was loaded and everything fit which was a pleasant surprise. The area where the Lada sat for so many years was cleaned up - filling four contractor size garbage bags - donated by Jeepkings.ca.
With our task completed we slowly worked our way up the trail heading to Logger’s Station House where we could all relax, cool down, and enjoy a bite to eat.
Sunday was our day to play as a reward for the work done the day before. We said goodbye to Adam, Al, and Joe in the morning after having some comic relief provided by Brian as he packed up his tent (they sure do pop up easily, but going down is another matter).
This clean up was the first time I have been to Arbeg and know it won’t be my last. Thank you to the following people for planning and participating in this successful clean up.
Adam Finnochi
Alan McLaughlin
Brian Lee
Gunther Heine
Jason & Nikki Scott
Joe Algudady
Rob Rea
Warren Lee & Mike
Logger's Station House - Rob, Jenny & Laurie