Who Are We But Albatross?

As many of you know, two weeks ago, on June 23rd, I was hit by a car for the first time. Well, sort of hit anyway, the car just clipped the back wheel of my bike enough to send me careening into and over a guard rail, and landing in a lump on the shoulder of 490. The bike was a wreck, basically totaled, after having it for all of 10 minutes; I'd just bought it from Jason at a Euro 2012 soccer party. I didn't know I was a wreck yet. It didn't hurt *that* much for some reason,…

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The Earth Ran Dry

Thirty-four years ago, Star Lake, New York, once a thriving Adirondack town with a population of a few thousand, a golf club, a drive-in movie theater, and everything else you'd expect in rural New England, collapsed. It had always been a company town, ever since the 1890s when the Sykes family controlled most of the logging in the then town of Clifton, and continuing through decades of stability between the paper mill at Newton Falls, and Benson Mines closer to the village, employing hundreds of union workers and quite literally building the town. Then in 1977 the mines closed, never…

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They All Fall Down

Another return trip, this time to the Adirondacks, once again, with UR UrbEx. As one might expect, the place looks almost exactly the same as it always did. I won't bore you with more overview photos of Frontier Town, since it's just what it was last year... I tried to focus more on details this year, as the place falls down there's less and less left to see though. Abandoned pianos are so much fun. Especially when there's no risk of getting caught and you can actually "play" them (which usually amounts to absolute noise, but still...) What's left of…

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Once More To The Lake

I never thought I'd be able to say it about this spot, but it came painfully clear from the first night: the glory days were over. Far from living up to its name, the 3rd½ Annual UR UrbEx Semi-Cold Sesqui-Awesome ExploroCamping Extravaganza felt like hollowly going through the motions of something that once was special. Gone are the hipsters and artists, here are the new order, the engineers. Even when it comes time for the traditions from old Concrete, the sausage roast, the pomegranates, tetherboating -- the rules are what they are, and rule us in our time of freedom…

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Benson Mines

Benson's Mines wasn't anything new to me, I'd already been a few times last year, and seen most of the upper complex. But like any good location, it's full of secrets. This time, those secrets included an entire second complex on the other side of "Lake" Benson (the body of water created by the flooded mine). Much more isolated, this lower Benson would have survived in much better condition except for the out buildings being destroyed by fire in 1974. These leftover mine tracks go everywhere around the property, the particularly circular ones still hosting 4-wheeler racing, and the rest…

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