Yearly Archives: 2009

What’s That Blue Thing?

On the last few urbex camping trips, we kept noticing something on the side of route 3 that looked huge, abandoned, and very, very blue. After a bit of research, I figured out that it was Benson's Mines, and no one had really bothered to explore it yet, since it's in the absolute middle of North Country nowhere, and no one from the 'establishment' thought it was worth the trip at all. And they were so, so wrong. I left this place with a very profound feeling of 'coming out' as an explorer: this was my first find worth anything…

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Beatlemania

Just some non-exploring shots from the Adirondack campout. How not to light paint Cascade Peak Brian, the tetherboat and a bit of fire! You may be wondering by now about the title. Strange things happen when you get enough explorers in a small enough space, and keep them awake all night. At some point we began communicating only in Beatles lyrics, and then only in oblique rewordings of them. I forget if this was before or after taking out a boat on a 100 foot rope, propelled only by a frying pan and a jet of expletives. I'd suggest all…

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The Lonesome Crowded West

Frontier Town was one of the first theme parks ever to open in the United States, in 1952, capitalizing on the old west folklore that was then so popular with American children. (There were amusement parks since the turn of the last century, but not themed to one particular canon.) It finally closed long after Westerns fell out of fashion, in 1998, and most of its contents were auctioned off in 2004. This was a particularly strange exploration for me, having been there and vaguely remembering it from a day there in 1996 (I didn't like it much at the…

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Buffalo!

Fall couldn't come soon enough; another semester of college, the Bills have a chance again, and it's UER season! First place of the day was an orphanage school whose days are numbered Painting the tunnels before graduation seems to have been a tradition here Next was a boring old furniture factory that isn't worth much of a mention here. Then, somehow, we decided to attempt this iconic site This was about as far as we got before paranoia took over... cops on the brain are the (second-)worst! At least we weren't caught...

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The Confuse-A-Cat

Who ever knew one drain could give me so much trouble? With the search for the drainwhale going full speed over the summer as the combatants counted down the days to a new semester and return to Rochester, it was only a matter of time until someone lost, and lost big. Concrete creek or open-top drain? Worth a follow The entrance, for all you UER ethics fascists Attack of the mutant cave spiders 14 bars, even down here. Can you hear me now? Ancient brick orifices Fishing for CHUDs

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Apollo 14

Climbing mountains is such a strange affliction. Almost everyone who has tried it enough times, knows that it usually ends in freezing, exhausted misery... then counts the days until they can try again! This trip started innocently enough, warm, sunny and perfect midnight hiking conditions Every mountain has its vengeful side, this one had four! This is no ordinary snow. Under the brittle white crust is a few feet of air space, then a frigid creek. The pouring rain only made the creek run higher and the snow lower. We were just too frozen to take any pictures of the…

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