What I do on the weekends. (Pic Intensive) *update*

Urban Exploration: Exploring abandoned buildings, drains, tunnels and other places where flashaholics get to play.


Some friends introduced me to this property a few months ago, as told to me the school was a technical/high school that was abandoned in the 50's and is remarkably graffiti free for such a long time of sitting empty.

here is a crappy map of the property. (Note: this map is for orientation purposes only and is nowhere near any scale. The property itself is huge, there are three buildings, a baseball field, a football field and a partial junkyard spread around.) I have numbered the pictures and shown where they were taken on the map for further reference. I apologize for the crappy lighting situation, I have never taken pictures at night before (it seemed so much brighter in person!) I am trying to return to take some daytime shots but have been unable to so far. Most of the pictures show the streamlight propolymer in use.


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my gear for this trip. The backpack carried the extra batteries, lights and a little food/water.


I do drains too but those pictures are really boring.

Re: What I do on the weekends. (Pic Intensive)

very very cool, thanks for the neat photos!!!!

Re: What I do on the weekends. (Pic Intensive)

I'm thinking you need a bright light with more flood for those photos. Would be handy in many different UE situations as long as you weren't under observation. Or a big flash unit if you plan on taking lots of pics. I'd probably also bring some basic first aid stuff, just in case.

What's boring about draining pics? No good sites on your area?

Re: What I do on the weekends. (Pic Intensive)

very cool. looks liek a creepy place though.

BTW, questions:

1) whats that on the topright corner in your gear pic? markers?

2) Is that a Benchmade knife on the bottomright corner?

Re: What I do on the weekends. (Pic Intensive)

:kewlpics:

Thats pretty cool. Are all these pics taken inside or are some outside at NIGHT pics?

Re: What I do on the weekends. (Pic Intensive)

Do you have to obtain any special permission before entering these buildings? Aren't you worried about running into someone that may be "camping" out in the buildings?

Curtis

Re: What I do on the weekends. (Pic Intensive)

ABTOMAT said:

I'm thinking you need a bright light with more flood for those photos. Would be handy in many different UE situations as long as you weren't under observation. Or a big flash unit if you plan on taking lots of pics. I'd probably also bring some basic first aid stuff, just in case.

What's boring about draining pics? No good sites on your area?

Click to expand...

I realized that very fact the second I saw the pictures. I should have used my X3 or 9P but I was being cheap on batteries.

So far I'm working my way in from the periphery of my town and haven't seen anything too fun. I do expect some cooler stuff the closer I get to town.

Re: What I do on the weekends. (Pic Intensive)

my name is fake said:

1) whats that on the topright corner in your gear pic? markers?

2) Is that a Benchmade knife on the bottomright corner?

Click to expand...

1. Those are 123 battery carriers from bugoutgearusa.

2. Nope, it's a black oxide leatherman charge.

Thats pretty cool. Are all these pics taken inside or are some outside at NIGHT pics?

Click to expand...

All the pictures are at night, the building has no lighting itself since all the wiring was pulled out for scrap long ago. Check the map to see which pics where taken outside.

Do you have to obtain any special permission before entering these buildings? Aren't you worried about running into someone that may be "camping" out in the buildings?

Click to expand...

I imagine if there were an owner I would need permission but all the sites I have visited have been literal ruins so I haven't worried about it. I make a fair about of noise and emit a fair amount of light once I enter a building so anyone who is present is not suprised and so far I have only encounted one person living in an old store who seemed uninterested in me after I told him that no, I was not the police.

Re: What I do on the weekends. (Pic Intensive)

A tri-luxeonIII setup would rock for that. Or a SF L4 to bring out a wall of light!!!

Re: What I do on the weekends. (Pic Intensive)

Wow. I think the discovery channel had some folks who do the urban exploring a few months ago. Man, that has to be creepy. I too would be worried about coming across some folks running a meth lab or something and want your lights or something.

Re: What I do on the weekends. (Pic Intensive)

I personally wouldn't be too worried about running into a meth lab as I would guess that such people would be too paranoid to do business in such an environment.

I will say that when I was younger (I think about the fifth grade) we lived in an area of Houston, TX and there was a store similar to Lowes or The Home Depot called Homer's that closed down. Me and two or three of my friends used to sneak in through the dismantled incenerator at the back of the store, mostly for riding out bikes and skidding like crazy on the smooth floors. My mom used to constantly warn us about what type of people might be hiding in such an abandoned area and what grisly type of things some of those people might be interested in doing to little boys but of course, we never listened.

One day, there were a two police officers waiting for us (or whomever) inside. They weren't too hard on us, just trying to scare us on two fronts - First, on the illegalities of trespassing and second that the Houston homeless population was about the highest in the country. But they didn't do anything to really block our physical access to the place so we let a few days pass and went back to our old ways. Maybe three trips later, my friend went in, then I went in and as my third friend was coming in, a guy grabbed my first friend and acted like he was going to be agressive in some manner, then basically told us not to come back there because not everyone would be quite as nice as him and just give us a warning.

My friend litterally dirtied and wet his pants and we NEVER EVER went back to Homer's again.

I'm sure a MUCH more rural area should be a bit safer but my advice would still be to at minimum, be in a defensive mode when exploring any abandoned property and if you see or hear someone, either retreat or procede assuming they might mean to cause you harm.

And enjoy!

Looks all kinds of creepy! Kind of reminds me of the movie about the abadnoned psych hospital with David Caruso.

Re: What I do on the weekends. (Pic Intensive)

Session 9 was the movie and creepy isn't the word for the place.
Danvers Asylum is (was, they've started demolitions) the definition of utterly creepy!
http://www.jivemagazine.com/column.php?pid=691
or here for more history
http://www.danversstateinsaneasylum.com/home.html

The Danvers Asylum is often credited as giving HP Lovecraft the idea for the Arkham Asylum in his stories.

Re: What I do on the weekends. (Pic Intensive)

Now that's a cool spare-time activity for a change! oo:
bernie

Re: What I do on the weekends. (Pic Intensive)

Nice. Gald you didnt forget to add the customary UE toilet shot.

Re: What I do on the weekends. (Pic Intensive)

Cool! And creepy.... i was half expecting something lurking in one of those many photos you posted.. :laughing: i'm glad there's none.

Re: What I do on the weekends. (Pic Intensive)

Cool pics...

For those interested in this sort of thing, flickr has lots of pictures in this vein:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/urbanexploration/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/urbanexploration/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/ue/

Re: What I do on the weekends. (Pic Intensive)

Wow, that's neat! I especially liked that old Ford. The shoe was neat, too. It looked like an old football cleat. Any 5w lights with you? An HID headlamp would be sweet!

What state is that in?

Re: What I do on the weekends. (Pic Intensive)

thanks for sharing. that's definitely a place for a flashaholic. the place reminds me of the Portland Shanghai tunnels. supposedly haunted, it runs through part of downtown under currently running places of business. I was'nt much into flashlight then but if I were I probably would have spoiled the creepiness of the place for the other people by throwing a great wall of light down there.

A little update:

I went back to the school last month with some friends and found out that the property has actually been sold to someone. Turns out the gentleman who bought the property is a very very eccentric artist who was quite friendly to a male with two females in tow who knocked on his door at 11pm on a sunday night. We talked for some time about the school and his plans and so forth, and then had a bonfire. He also showed me how to get under the school through the boiler room since I told him I had missed that the first time.

I LOVE adventure, I LOVE exploring, I LOVE imagining peoples lives in these places when they were being used productively...Some VERY NICE pics as well...

HOWEVER:

Having worked in the environmental field of "Hazardous Waste Response, Classification, & Disposal" (one of my past lives)...there are so many different hazards (physical, chemical, electrical, etc) that could exist in these sites it isn't funny at all.

Just kicking up asbestos dust can of course cost you your life (and anyone you're with - as well as your family when you take the dust home on your clothing) in the long run.

Stepping in a hazardous chemical and tracking it into your car or home and then having a small child, family member, friend, or pet exposed...no, no, no....no, no, no...Is the "fun" worth it?

I just can't approve of the "hobby" at all...not at all. The rules of hazardous waste investigation, classification, mitigation, & disposal are written in blood (as a result of someone getting hurt or worse - having died from sites like these!).