Yearly Archives: 2014

Holy Holy Holy

After the terminal, we continued on to a nearby, reliably open church. Sacred Heart served the Catholic community for most of the century, before ending its useful life as an evangelical church, a pattern that seems to happen often in decaying cities. Despite being almost completely emptied out, or perhaps because of it, the cavernous sanctuary hasn't lost its mystique ...Even though someone took out all the pews, and left all the seat cushions We tried to go on into the convent, but on a hot summer day, the reeking jugs of bum piss and holy, holy, holy shit (seriously…

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Buffalo Will See It Through

One of the best things about going with new explorers is, you can be at a place for the 10th time and it's still an adventure, there's still more to it than going through the motions and taking the same photos over again. So here I was, back at Buffalo Central, and maybe things changed, maybe not... At least there's some new art to take in... seems like Buffalo's graffiti scene is finally taking off! This part here is the departure hall, separated by the tracks and a now missing bridge from the rest of the grand concourse (not included…

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Charlie Says

It took far longer than I imagined, but I've finally ended my exploring drought, going out to Buffalo (and trying to revive the old Concrete Collective) with Hayden, probably the most promising local explorer I've met in years) to see some of the ruins. Our first stop was Wildroot, the factory that put the grease in Grease. Active from 1936 into the early 60s, Wildroot made hair products from the (wild) lanolin root that were allegedly lighter and less greasy than the competition, though the goal was still the same greased-back rockabilly look. As the times changed, Wildroot Cream Oil…

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Forest For The Trees

I'd never planned or intended to go on a solo climb, let alone one of this length. My plans just evolved a little bit at a time, from trying to get one or two peaks closer to my 46, to getting a crew together to finish the whole thing, to what I thought I would do by the time I left Albany last Thursday afternoon: spend about a day going all-out as fast as I could to bag a few on my own then meeting up with the rest of my group. My troubles started even just getting to Albany,…

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The Fire Remains

I've spent far too long wondering if Gary was meant to be my finale as an explorer after all. It was by far my most successful trip, at a time when everything was slowly starting to fall apart for me, one success nearly swept away by a rising tide of failure. I'd been talking about quitting exploring for months, but I knew it was a lie, and most of the people who actually knew me knew it was a lie, and I didn't care -- it made good marketing. I planned a big meet for the end of it all,…

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School of Fail

After our legendary Gary winning streak, the only thing left we were looking for was a school. We tried a few on the east side on the first day, but not with very much luck. It seemed like the boarding crew were there not too long ago, and the only people in since were climbers who made entrances that would probably last a while, but also excluded less athletic explorers. We did some research into why the schools might be so tough, and found that the district and state still somewhat maintain them, even though almost half the schools in…

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