Urban Exploration

[berlitz23]

Anyone engage in the activity? any thoughts? photos? experiences

[ellipsis]

Not currently but I have been in the past. Getting onto roofs w/o stairs is fun. I also explore former homeless encampments. Is this what you are interested in or more like exploring abandoned buildings?

[A.R.Amistad]

what about rural exploring?

[ellipsis]

do that pretty often

[berlitz23]

Not currently but I have been in the past. Getting onto roofs w/o stairs is fun. I also explore former homeless encampments. Is this what you are interested in or more like exploring abandoned buildings?

yeah abandoned buildings in general all across the spectrum from hospitals to factories? anything interesting happen/

[Glenn Beck]

I checked out an abandoned movie theater with some friends a couple of years ago, shit was pretty cool. The roof was caved in in several parts. We got in by going through one of the roof holes that lead down into a ground floor bathroom, using the shattered remnants of a toilet as a foothold. We checked the whole place out, it was spooky and awesome as all hell. The theater itself was great, all the old musty chairs, many of them long since fallen apart. Overall the place didn't smell as moldy as it looked, and a good time was had by all. We got to see the night sky through the biggest caved in roof section, and also made our way onto the roof itself so we could see the hole up close. A little scary but the roof held. Also I was coming down off of a bad salvia trip where I had convinced myself for about 10 minutes that I was eternally trapped running through a universe that consisted entirely of woodgrain pattern, so that added to the otherworldly feel of the place.

Later the same night we went out into the country and checked out an abandoned factory of some sort. The security office at the entrance we managed to get into looked pristine and there were lights left on, so something was clearly being done there, but everything on the factory floor was clearly long untouched, and we couldn't figure out what the place was for. One of us speculated that it was a Superfund site. I nearly stole a 1987 nudie calendar from the locker room as a souvenir, but our self-appointed guide insisted that I not do so, so I didn't. There were creepy warning signs all over the place about chemical hazard this and that, and we were all a bunch of 18-19 year olds out in the middle of nowhere at like 4 in the morning, so we were a bit jumpy and when we heard a motor nearby and saw some lights turn on we flipped and booked it out of there as quietly and stealthily as we could. We made it out, seemingly without getting caught, and that was that.

[ellipsis]

Stories eh?

Urban: During the summer of 06, I got to explore Oaxaca city under APPO control. Exploring an abandoned police station for the 1950s that was being converted to a squat/social center was pretty cool. Everything had been stripped pretty much except in the officers quarters where there was still some would paneling, a dog skull and a toilet which you had to haul water in to flush (beats paying 3 pesos everything you think that those tacos are coming out.) I also found scraps of porn and some women's underwear on the roof, which I hope was taken off consensually. I had the door closed in on my in the solitary confinement cell, about 4x6 with a concrete bench and a real high ceiling with a small window on the side, the only source of light.

It was pretty cool to just walk around at night and check out all of the fortications that the protester had set up. I wrote about in on my blog. (http://therevolutionscript.blogspot.com/2008/01/lessons-from-appo-or-strategic.html)

I do a fair amount of rural exploring too. Except I bring an gun along and call it patrolling. It is cool to find old farm foundation and eat from apple trees planted long, long ago. I also find old cabin and new cabins and check them out/raid them for cool shit. There is lots of stuff in the woods if you look hard enough.

[Bitter Ashes]

I did a lot of this sort of thing when I was little. These days I do it little by little every now and again. If I've got some time to spare and I spot something that looks intresting then I'll poke around and take a look. There's something about ladders that just demand climbing. It's actaly come in pretty handy now because I realised all of a sudden that I now know every back street, derelict and what's behind every fence in the area I live, which makes me feel a lot safer if I'm walking at night and I know a few tricks to shake off a pursuer if I ever needed to.

btw, one thing I learned the hard way. As tempting as exploring this stuff is, make sure nobody sees you entering/climbing, or you may find a bemused looking policeman waiting for you as you climb down again 5 minutes later. Especially dont do it if you have anything incriminating on you.

You're braver than me Redson. I would be scared stiff of rumaging around in farm buildings in case some farmer shot me or released the hounds!

[ellipsis]

btw, one thing I learned the hard way. As tempting as exploring this stuff is, make sure nobody sees you entering/climbing, or you may find a bemused looking policeman waiting for you as you climb down again 5 minutes later. Especially dont do it if you have anything incriminating on you.
Fuck dude, one time I was going to climb a fire exscape at like 2am, which was a stupid idea when the bars let out-> more cop foot patrols. So I jump up and climb a little to the point where I can see over a divider into the parking lot and there is a cop right there. I guess he didn't see me because I immediately dropped like 8-10 feet on to concrete and got out of there.


You're braver than me Redson. I would be scared stiff of rumaging around in farm buildings in case some farmer shot me or released the hounds! Well I usually bring an assault rifle along. Also they are isolated in the middle of the woods, so nobody to see us. Even if there was, you cannot be charged with trespassing on land that is not posted in VT.:rolleyes:

[Rusty Shackleford]

can you get in trouble for carrying around a firearm? or, would you know about laws regarding firearms in "public" in CA?

Anyways, when i was a kid, i loved exploring construction sites. i aslo went to a cement factory and climbed the ladder on the tallest silo which scared me a bit but it was cool ^^

i would definitely like to get into rural exploring because recently i loved going with my friends our to the levee and wandering around the bush there.

[ellipsis]

As long as it is not hunting season, no. Vermont has open and concealed carry without a permit. Besides we never see anybody else in the woods so it is not an issue.

CA used to have open carry, which the BPP took advantage of. Looks like they make it more difficult these days. (http://www.californiaopencarry.org/faq.html)

Rural exploration can be dangerous, just make sure that you don't get lost.

[Rusty Shackleford]

As long as it is not hunting season, no. Vermont has open and concealed carry without a permit. Besides we never see anybody else in the woods so it is not an issue.

CA used to have open carry, which the BPP took advantage of. Looks like they make it more difficult these days. (http://www.californiaopencarry.org/faq.html)

Rural exploration can be dangerous, just make sure that you don't get lost.

thanks for the info. and i can imagine rural is a bit dangerous. i would like to do it in the upper coast of CA but i can imagine there are a lot of pot farms so that is an added danger.

[ellipsis]

Yah Mexican cartel grow in state forests in CA and are known to shoot hikers who stumble across their plots.

[El Rojo]

yeah, rural exploring is pretty sound. there is a real pretentious memorial to some dead lord from the 1800s near where i live. like a short, fat egyptian needle/obelisk. cept you can go up some narrow castle-like stone spiral stairs up to a viewing level. loads guano but sweet views. i scratched an anarchist A into the sandstone and nearly wore down my car keys...

[Red Saxon]

My friends and I managed to lockpick the backdoor of a Dairy Queen that had been abandoned since the 1960's. We found a hella old ice cream machine and a box full of white hats for the employees to wear.

[An archist]

So actually it's just walking around in old buildings, but with a fancy name to it?
;)

[Red Saxon]

So actually it's just walking around in old buildings, but with a fancy name to it?
;)...avoiding security, picking locks, taking pictures...

:p

[Rusty Shackleford]

im guessing it doesnt have to be old buildings either. exploration could also mean just touring where you live. free-running could fall under this urban exploration.

but, exploring old buildings sounds much more fun :D

[ellipsis]

sewers and tunnels and catacombs count too. BUMP

[Bitter Ashes]

sewers and tunnels and catacombs count too. BUMP
Oh lawd. You just reminded me of quite possibly the stupidest thing I ever did when I was little.

I couldnt have been older than about six and I saw a manhole left open. I couldn't resist it and thought I'd go searching for the Ninja Turtles. So, I went home, got a pair of marigolds and tied a rag around my face and went climbing down with a torch. I did get to the bottom of the ladder, but I pretty much took one step, realised that I should in fact be terrified and scrambled back up the ladder again smelling abolutly awful. lol

Would have been a field day for social services and indeed the local paper. "6 year old girl found in sewer. Mother at home was drunk"

[ellipsis]

well, i don't much fancy wading through shit, I guess I was more talking about storm drainage tunnels. but some old sewers are dry.

[Pavlov's House Party]

i went rural exploring with a mate in real deep woods up in the mountains in quebec, once in the winter on skis and another time in the spring

the time we went in the winter we found an abandoned logging camp that was filled with ancient porn and empty bottles from the 50s/60s that aren't made anymore:D

when we went in the spring the guy i was with got his boots suck off his feet in a marsh, but it was worth it cause we found a lake that looked like it had never had people visit it, it was really beautiful

[Code]

How do you find these places? I know some but I've explored them to death. Is there some google earth community that points out abandoned stuff? If not there really should be.

Also take a look at: http://www.artificialowl.net/
It's pretty awesome.

[Bitter Ashes]

How do you find these places? I know some but I've explored them to death. Is there some google earth community that points out abandoned stuff? If not there really should be.

Also take a look at: http://www.artificialowl.net/
It's pretty awesome.
I've found them by doing the following with my computer: Start -> turn off computer -> shut down and then installing a good pair of boots and starting the application. ;)

[El Rojo]

amen to that. boots on the ground and all...

[entfaltend]

I've done a fair amount of UE... Mostly ex-military stuff that's been closed since the 60's or 70's, a lot of NIKE bases in particular. Couple of old industrial sites too. It's all fairly well known sites though, only one in particular that I know few other people saw before it was torn down, the rest are long standing places that every newb has cut their teeth on.

Unfortunately I don't really live in the right sort of area for a lot of abandonments and I haven't had the ability to just burn a day searching new parts of town for stuff to check out in entirely too long. It limits the amount of exploring I'm able to do, and the apparently non-existent UE community here in Portland doesn't help things since I generally have to rely on word of mouth to find out about places.

If you're in an area that has had a lot of historical military activity, it's worth it to crawl the web and look for sites put up by people who were posted at now closed sites back in the day. There's a wealth of information about locations, times of operation, and the types of stuff you might find at any given site all over the internet. While a lot of closed sites are still on active military reservations, there are a fair amount of large facilities that closed up shop entirely, as well as satellite facilities that are on now public land but were never torn down.

[Steve_j]

Do squat parties count?:rolleyes:

[MolotovLuv]

I've always wanted to but it just wouldn't be safe for me to go it alone. If there's anyone else in the Bay Area interested in UE it would be great get together and go on some adventures :cool: