Yearly Archives: 2009

Further Down the River

These Soviet-era apartments are on their way out; no big loss for the city, they all look exactly the same anyway and go on for at least 1/2 mile All that remains of some sort of Erie Canal infrastructure The historic Genesee Brew House The bridge that carries bike route 1 and the main drains across the river into Irondequoit Your writer, in a cage The destination: a cave entrance, deep into the river bank One soaking wet climb up to the drain section of it! The exit... beautiful daylight!

Continue ReadingFurther Down the River

Army/Navy

The fourth and last UER meet of the spring 2009 season is over... I survived. Somehow. The first two locations were little more than ponder and run from cops, two warehouse looking things in the bad part of the 19th ward. Apparently they just found bodies there last week or something, for once maybe it was a good thing a helpful officer suggested we leave. Busted with nowhere to go, Trent suggested an old World War II surplus in a rotten barn in Gates, which turned into quite the battlefield in its own right. Airspeed calculator? The Jiffy Dog was…

Continue ReadingArmy/Navy

School’s Out Forever

My third time out with the UER group... I'm so impressed with them, epic abandoned places every single time! This one is an abandoned high school about 30 miles away in Orleans county I never would have seen without them. Creepy enough for you? They said all the seats used to be full of stuffed animals too. Any guesses what the shape of this is supposed to be? Most rooms had one of these on the wall Or how about a translation of this (Japanese?)

Continue ReadingSchool’s Out Forever

Diabolus in Musica

In that soggy mess that wished desperately to be the first day of spring, a grey stone church loomed enormous in the mist over endless rows of graves. It was just like Zoë dreamed of, shrouded in bespoke fog. She had spring break, I had four classes I was more than ready to skip. Only one thing could spoil the setting for a perfect explore: a locked door. More about that later... first we had a wide open church to see! A congregation of pigeons formed the only flock remaining in the moldering pews, their flapping wings the only approximation…

Continue ReadingDiabolus in Musica

Drainwhale Hunting

Everyone has that time they think they know it all. These last few days have been mine, looking for the whale of all drains, the deep, giant tunnels of mythic proportions. UER can be a very intimidating place for those it takes in as its own... and I wasn't doing so well at it yet. I thought I might be able to get a few friends together, find ALL the drains, without even a car, and be that underdog story they hoped for. We found drains... tiny, useless drains, long unclimbable drains, drains that brought out the inner DiCaprio --…

Continue ReadingDrainwhale Hunting