Anything Goes

It seems like I have the most exploring success when I try the least. Right as I was ready to stop putting any effort into it at least until after Christmas and bonus time, I heard from a TV producer who was thinking of including me in his show. Of course technical difficulties got the better of us for a while, and a video chat and photo slideshow turned into a phone call, but it seemed promising. Then the next day I got a very frightening email saying that they wanted to see a sample of a 10-minute documentary by…

Continue ReadingAnything Goes

The Mountain Wins Again

I woke up the next morning to Jake shaking my tent, reminding me that we had a lot of climbing to do. Everything about the day was odd, from the unsettling rain coming back over the pond, to the sudden gravity of what was about to happen (after I'd already given up on it once just two weeks ago, I was actually on my way to #46?!), to an uneasy feeling of confused, incompetent leadership. I'm not one to value experience much when it comes to exploring, but the facts were there, I'd climbed more peaks than the entire rest…

Continue ReadingThe Mountain Wins Again

Sunset Mills

We continued on to the North Country, a merry band of adventurers, overwhelming the Five Guys in Watertown for dinner and soon wandering along route 3 to Deferiet. This place has been something of a curse for me: it's my fifth time there, and I've never once gotten to it more than an hour before sunset, so I've always seen little bits and pieces of it at a time. This time was no different, getting there almost too late to matter. But I wasn't about to let all those gas masks we bought go to waste, and there was already…

Continue ReadingSunset Mills

Sweet Science

This was one of those rare times that everything just happened to work out. It was unlikely enough that we managed to save the North Country trip at all, even if it's a few weeks early and none of the people I invited actually showed up, Hayden pulled it off and got not only the biggest meet in a few years, but a way to get there too, and off we were! After a few stops on the way to pick up food, beer and gas masks (mostly intended for the paper mills later on in the trip), we found…

Continue ReadingSweet Science

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…

Continue ReadingHoly Holy Holy

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…

Continue ReadingBuffalo Will See It Through