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UER Forum > Rookie Forum > What's the story behind your first location? (Viewed 91385 times)
jtan 


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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 60 on 6/5/2014 5:19 PM >
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also, progress on that first site.
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Hertz 


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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 61 on 6/16/2014 4:26 PM >
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First site visited was actually under the guise of a Paranormal investigation.
The location - known to a very very many - is probably the most famous in MD. Went with 2 other friends. To give a rough date when we visited... the theater was already dozed by the time we had our first visit.

We definitely overpacked.
Brought many EMF detectors, IF thermometers, cap flashlights, cameras, lots of water, change of clothes... did I mention we overpacked?

A short visit wound up becoming a 6+ hour trip in the dead heat of August. Found next to nothing in the way of paranormal anything. (An EMF jumped a few times, but was determined it was when we got it too close to a cell phone.) We were entirely too amped when night fell, some regulars managed to be a floor above is in the main huge building and it scared us quite a bit. We ran out of there scared to death, kicking an unseen can outside and making as much noise as a blind newbie could make.

A heck of a rush, but an absolute fail on our parts.
(Over the years we would visit the place time and time again to see more of the roofing bricks kicked off.) We enjoyed visiting it again and taking more photos of the place, but I have to say I would use it as a cherry popping site, and nothing else now. Too much wrecked.





http://forgottenplaces.shutterfly.com
mookster 


Location: Oxford, UK
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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 62 on 6/28/2014 9:24 AM >
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My first was a very well known and well-loved Asylum in the South of England on a summers day in June 2009. I had been browsing various forums for years beforehand until one day a mate of mine I know through a totally different hobby told me he had been exploring stuff since the late 1990s, and he asked me if I wanted to go on a trip out with him one weekend so naturally I jumped at the chance!

The goal was Hellingly Asylum and we rocked up totally under-prepared after a godawful journey to get there, as it was literally in the middle of nowhere. No maps, no tripods, no proper gear but I still remember the feeling I got when I climbed through a missing window for the first time and stood in whatever room it was. We had a few hours relaxed wandering around before it was time to leave, I returned later in the year to finish exploring the place because by then demolition had begun at the far corner of the site - that explore is one of my all time favourites in all my time exploring places.







95% of the place was demolished a few years ago, even the tower was brought down as it had severe structural cracks running through it from 20 years of abandonment, and houses are being built on the land now.




CooperArt 


Location: Lansing
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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 63 on 7/1/2014 2:31 PM >
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My very first location I don't remember. My parents were realtors, and they often took me along. So I got to see a house where they carted the owner off to a nursing home... while she was cooking dinner.

My first photographed location: I scoped it out subconsciously, because it was on the bus ride to school. It was a bunch of dilapidated farm buildings and a shed.

I have an anxiety disorder--which is why a lot of people don't understand my UrbEx habit--but I found UrbEx to be more like a roller coaster than a panic attack. That's the best way I can think to describe the thrill that hooked me. I went back to that place a few times, and have debated going back again now that one of the buildings has collapsed. I have to be careful though--there's a well I've found that I do NOT want to fall down.




ChristopherColumbust 


Location: Vernon
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My second time jumping out of a perfectly good plane.

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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 64 on 7/2/2014 5:28 AM >
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My first real location was a couple years ago at an old abandoned village based around a mental institution and a Tuberculosis hospital. We went at night, half of us took it seriously (me being one of them) and the others were drunk and being idiots. Luckily, there were about 40-60 buildings so the more serious people could seperate from the idiots(for the record the idiots weren't invited, they just showed up and tagged along). We drove along back and started walking in when a truck flipped its lights on. Everyone just about pissed themselves, then the truck turned around and drove off. The caretaker was just heading into town so the place was our playground. It was empty for the most part, but still fun. For some reason I expected there to be tools and blood and stuff still around but apart from the odd piece of scrap metal it was fairly bare. After exploring the underground tunnels that connected many buildings (local legend goes they were used to transport bodies) the caretaker came back and chased us away when the drunk girls were being obnoxiously loud. And there you have it, my first location AND very first post. Yeah I'm new blood so any tips or anyone in the Okanagan area that wants to meet up send me a message Happy exploring




Light__ 


Location: Where ever I am is where I'm at.
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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 65 on 7/3/2014 9:21 PM >
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My first legit explore, and not using that in terms of legality, was an old saw mill. I was just driving around looking at places and wound up finding it by turning the wrong way down a road. I went back a second time, didn't really get up the courage to get anywhere near it because there were people EVERYWHERE, the first go-around. On this second journey though I went closer and got some good pictures. (#1) Taking a broader definition of urban exploration I couldn't really narrow my first time down to one specific instance. I've always had an interest in my surroundings, in particular buildings and other infrastructure. I’ve also liked to find out how things work, like elevators, dams, drain systems, things of that nature. Before I found out there was a technical term, urbex, I was working at an old Navy yard. There was an old water treatment facility on the property – the guts long since removed. One night while hanging out on the boat, bored out of my mind, I went for a walk and checked it out. Recently I took some pictures of that too. (#2) **Disclaimer - When shooting the water treatment plant I wasn't shooting in RAW... Since then that's all I'll shoot and I have become better at editing; or I think I have anyway***

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Damn the man, save the empire!
EmsXXVII 


Location: British Columbia
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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 66 on 7/4/2014 5:39 AM >
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Mine involved a party in which there was an abandoned house next door. A couple friends and I decided to check it out, we didn't have to break in as the door was already hanging open with the lock broken off.

Truth be told, I found it much more fun than socializing at the party. It was just so fascinating to see through all the rubble and imagine that it was once someone's home.

A few months down the road I met some people that also enjoyed this sort of stuff who told me about UER!



[last edit 7/4/2014 5:39 AM by EmsXXVII - edited 1 times]

DescentOnARope 


Location: Long Island, New York
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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 67 on 7/4/2014 10:24 PM >
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A few years back a friend told me about an abandoned house near him. It had been empty for about a decade, and we decided to check it with another friend. It was in a bad part of town, so we all brought weapons (stupid), but luckily nothing happened. We knew of a homeless guy in the area that we're pretty sure had set up shop in there, though we never saw him inside.

A couple of years later the town tried to have it demolished, but someone bought it and fixed it up, and it's currently occupied again. Personally I'd have preferred to keep the site, but it's better than being demolished, I suppose.





stickbeat 


Location: Peterborough
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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 68 on 7/14/2014 11:18 PM >
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I got into exploring when I was in high school. I was a homeless teen for a little while, and this older punk rocker took me & some others under his wing, and taught us how to find, secure, and set up a squat. My favourite part was the exploring & securing: making sure no one else was there, and seeing what might be useful for us in the house.

My first was just an empty house - not too exciting.

Years later I was caught out in Seoul, and needed a place to crash for a bit. All of those skills came back and I found myself a spot in a construction to stay till sunrise. The thrill was back and this time, I wasn't gonna let it go. I've been exploring since, though in more interesting spots. I'm only just starting to incorporate photography as part of it.




- A.
skrimace 


Location: Denver
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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 69 on 7/15/2014 4:00 PM >
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Earliest I remember, myself and some other kids wandered from soccer practice and ended up in a drainage tube. Coach was pissed.
Construction sites were a no brainer - they were all over the neighborhood when I was a kid. That's pretty much all we did, ride our bikes and fuck around in construction sites. A friend showed me a drainage tunnel by his house that stretches under Monoco Pkwy (I've no doubt those familiar with Denver know it.)
Then came middle school and I started smoking pot. Exploring became a necessity. We established little 'club houses' in forgotten sheds, garages (and the areas betwixt), and abandoned vans and school buses.
I went to high school downtown during a period of much abandon. Dozens of abandoned old victorians, schools, a VFW that turned into a school, and auto factories just minutes away by foot.
It's hereditary. Ma tells me stories about exploring the Windsor hotel with her mother, and running around tunnels as a child looking for the mythical hobo's gold under the capitol, and breaking into the abandoned mansions up and down eighth avenue with her mother and her grandmother... I sometimes grow a little jealous.




romainpp 


Location: I'm in your area
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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 70 on 7/16/2014 1:12 AM >
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My first exploration was the Paris catacombs. Before I was going to leave for San Francisco, I thought it would be a shame not to go down there at least once. It's a unique location, I was sure I couldn't find something similar in SF, and the fact that people have been visiting this massive underground network for centuries in the middle of Paris has fascinated me.
So I started asking looking for ways to get in. Shouldn't be so hard for a centuries-old and 100 kilometers-long network described in several books, right? Not quite, because a large number of convenient and previously well-known entries have been closed. In fact, an entire public service team makes sure that people don't go there too often, of course you get (sometimes) fined if they catch you.
I did manage however to find a way in by reading several stories online (journalists tell way more than they should) and reading through http://ckzone.org/, a french equivalent of uer.ca which has a specific section about the catacombs. I even found an entire map of the catacombs online! It was very accurate, zooming on rooms to visit and warning about some dangerous tunnels and floodings.

I got down there for the first time two months ago with my cousin and two of his friends who took amazing pictures (see below). He already visited it once, but I did so many research and map study before that I basically guided the group the whole time, even if it was my first time exploring!
We stayed down there for 9 hours. We met several other "cataphiles", all very friendly, some of them even brought sound systems and had parties in the large rooms.

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PS: If any of you goes to Paris and wants to go down there (I know you do!), I will be happy to help, send me a PM.



[last edit 7/16/2014 1:13 AM by romainpp - edited 1 times]

TheSwanStation 


Location: Western New York
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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 71 on 7/22/2014 10:23 PM >
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I have been interested in abandoned places for as long as I can remember. I remember seeing all the abandoned grain silos along Lake Erie when I was a kid. I never really thought about going into such places until last summer. Me and my girlfriend at the time were hanging out at her friends house. She told us about some abandoned train cars nearby. There wasn't much to see, especially at night. But it started me thinking about other places I had heard of in the area.

The next day both my girlfriend and I were both off work, so I set out finding a place to explore. For years I had heard about a abandoned mental hospital in the middle of nowhere about 45 minutes away. After doing some research I found out that it had in fact been a tuberculosis hospital. The next day we drove out there, it was much larger and more amazing than I had imagined. Unfortunately I had not planned very well and just parked my car right by the fence. I was nervous of a patrol rolling through and seeing it so we only explored the power building, which is fenced off separately from the rest of the complex. We only stayed for a hour or so.

After that first taste I was obsessed with seeing the rest of the complex. After more research and talking to a fellow explorer who had been there me and a friend made a return trip a few weeks later. We spent all afternoon exploring and I have been back 3 more times. Since then I have explored other places across New York State and I hope to see more this summer!




Bang 


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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 72 on 8/12/2014 12:13 AM >
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My first exploration has been a mall in the small city I live. The mall is abandoned, because of the economy crisis 2008.
A friend told me that you could enter the building through a broken window. Me and my friends I was hanging around with all wanted to climb on the roof. I have been the only to be against climbing up there, because it was in the middle of the city and the tallest building around. Everybody could see us. My friends and me entered through the broken window our friend told us about. And inside there were big empty halls. Only some shopping carts that were kicked around and some empty fire extinguishers. We took the turned off escalators to the highest floor that has been available for customers when it was still open. Then we entered the "Personnel Only" Area and looked for roof access. Suddenly we found a room that had still furniture in it and looked like somebody would live in there. That's when we thought we should leave until the resident comes back. I still don't know who lived there. Maybe someone homeless. "We had come that far we should at least go on the roof," we thought. We found a ladder that led upstairs, but it didn't lead to the roof. We had to crawl through a ventilation shaft to finally access the roof.
Unfortunately I only took pictures of the view from the rooftop.
348994.jpg (79 kb, 720x960)
click to view

348995.jpg (54 kb, 720x960)
click to view

A few weeks later I met somebody on a Party who told me that also went up that roof and got caught by the police. He had to pay a fine for trespassing... We went really lucky. And that guy wasn't the only one who got "busted".

Today all entrances are sealed with wooden boards. That's why I didn't enter again to take more pictures. Also this building is getting demolished by the end of the year to make place for a new mall.

That's how my UrbEx story started...




Aran 


Location: Kansas City
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 1826 likes


Huh. I guess covid made me a trendsetter.

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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 73 on 9/9/2014 2:14 PM >
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My first location was an abandoned riverside warehouse. I saw an article in the local paper detailing some proposals to renovate it, and decided to check it out. I scouted the area, and found a POE around back, as well as some gang-related graffiti. The POE was a gap in the fencing.

The entire fence was a psychological barrier at best- tall and imposing chain link in the front, but go around back and the fence there is nothing but stakes and chicken wire- with a gap where it meets the building. From there, I just had to climb through a window on the first floor, right next to the cargo lift.

I friend of mine came with me, and we had done some research beforehand- we had tennis shoes, thick clothes, gloves, hats, and cameras. We climbed through, and took a look around the first floor. I took some pictures of the cargo lift, boilers, boxes of chemicals, and so on. We also discovered that the front door was alarmed, though someone had cut the wires and the owners never fixed it.

Now, we were nervous, and had a few reasons to be- while scouting, I encountered three gang members, one who flashed a knife at me when they saw me hanging around. Furthermore, the graffiti around town indicated a possible gang dispute. Also, there was human activity outside before we went in.

When we reached the second floor, we decided that perhaps we had overstayed our welcome. The second floor showed signs of water damage, and every step we took caused the entire floor to creak. A barn owl took off suddenly, and scared us rather badly. The fact that I whipped around towards it with my fists up indicated what kind of mentality our nerves were putting us in.

We went back to the POE, and attempted to climb out, only to encounter two middle school- aged kids- they were more scared of us then we were of them. They apparently thought we were gang members- (heavy clothes in summer, faces obscured, etc) and asked us if they could go inside. We told them we didn't own the place, and left.

I soloed the place a week or so later, and now can walk around the building without a hint of nervousness. The second floor was sturdier than I though, and seems to be safe as long as you test your steps. I've been back 2 times since then, and took a lot of pictures.

An article ran in the paper detailing a plan to turn the warehouse into low-cost apartments, and the area is well known and graffitied, but it was a pretty cool place to start, even if it won't be up for much longer.



[last edit 9/9/2014 2:15 PM by Aran - edited 2 times]

"Sorry, I didn't know I'm not supposed to be here," he said, knowing full well he wasn't supposed to be there.

Piecat 


Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 97 likes




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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 74 on 9/25/2014 4:24 AM >
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My first real location: the radar building and barracks of an abandoned NIKE missile installation, formerly protecting the Milwaukee area industry from the Soviets.

For those of you who aren't familiar, "Project Nike was a U.S. Army project, proposed in May 1945 by Bell Laboratories, to develop a line-of-sight anti-aircraft missile system. The project delivered the United States' first operational anti-aircraft missile system" http://en.wikipedi.../wiki/Project_Nike

So, I was introduced to Project NIKE in my HS freshman American History class. We were doing research about various cold war topics, and mine was project NIKE. Now, at the time I was already interested in cold war era military/industry, as well as abandoned buildings.

I was doing my research, when I stumbled upon a Wikipedia page with a list of each NIKE installation, along with location, condition, and ownership. As it turned out, there was a former base right by my house, at a local park that I had been to hundreds of times.

So, one day after school, me and a friend trekked through the park forest and found where the buildings were according to Google Maps. In the middle of a bunch of trees was a paved area surrounding three buildings. The whole place was half surrounded by rusted chain link and razor wire. No one was around, and save for one building, the place looked like it hadn't been touched in ages.

Here's what the place looked like: (Sorry for the poor picture angles, I wasn't very good at photography at the time).



It was peculiar, because all of the contents of the buildings were outside, including some army cots, some old power supplies, and some boxes full of children's toys



This was my first successful Urbex mission, and by far my favorite one. The thrill of finding a piece of history combined with the adrenaline and feeling of success is unmatched by any other location I have found. Here is the full album of pictures I took: http://imgur.com/a/RdjuV#0 (Sorry for the picture quality, I wasn't great at photography at the time).


There is, of course, a sad ending to the story. As I'm sure you might have seen from the album, there were signs for asbestos removal in one of the buildings, and all of the other buildings were being emptied. Me and my friend came back the following spring to an empty field of dirt and grass seed- they had been demolished.






[last edit 9/25/2014 4:25 AM by Piecat - edited 1 times]

chauster 


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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 75 on 10/1/2014 3:24 AM >
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Hi guys, I've been a long-time lurker on this forum. I recently started a photo-blog with some of my adventures, and since my first big "adventure" was an urbex one, I figured you guys might like it. Basically, my cousins and I spent a night exploring an abandoned hotel ...definitely one of the creepiest things I've ever done. I think I pissed my pants more times in that hotel than when I was a child. Here's the link to the story:

http://thatsolitar...he-decrepit-hotel/

It's pretty photo heavy so I didn't want to just dump them all on here...hope that's ok! Let me know what you guys think, and if you have any ideas about what that cross we found could be from.



-JC




NOX534 


Location: British Columbia
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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 76 on 10/4/2014 5:14 AM >
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I had a friend who moved away when I was a little kid and someone bought the land and was planning on putting a mall where his house stood but it never happened. It was suppose to be demolished but that never happened either. A few years ago I went with a few of my buddies to check it out. The place had been abandoned for quite some time and the windows are broken and the place is very run down. The place is still standing and I hope to get some pictures of it sometime soon.




wolfdragon88 


Location: Stevens Point, WI
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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 77 on 10/12/2014 6:26 PM >
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My first explore that I categorized as "urbex" was yesterday night in an old farmhouse that was two stories and almost ready to fall down. I mentioned to a buddy I was into exploring stuff like that, he told me he would take me to a location nearby. It was down a dead-end country road, with no real houses nearby thankfully. We shut the lights off, pulled over...and jumped a fence to get to this house and a barn a couple yards away. I snapped a few cell-photos when I was peeking around on the porch and in the doorway of the first floor but they came out very shitty.




Salty Trees 


Location: Utah
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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 78 on 10/14/2014 4:48 AM >
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1. As they say "pics or it didn't happen"


2. Looking into the cellar


I live in Salt Lake City and as many of you probably know, Ted Bundy used to live here back in the 70s. He had a house up Emigration Canyon and up until some years ago his house was just left standing up there. It has since been torn down and the only thing remaining is the cellar.

I wish I could say that I had gone to the house while it was still standing, but that's not quite the case.
My two buddies and I were staying the night at the Grand American Hotel and just messing around and it came to be about midnight and we decided we wanted to go explore some old creepy stuff. The first place we decided that would be creepy enough was the old Salt Lake City Cemetery. We parked near the east side of the cemetery and went through the gate and explored. It was pretty creepy, lots of old graves dating back to the 1800s, full moon, cold air, all the stuff that's in a cliche creepy movie. That wasn't enough though.

We decided then to go Ted Bundy's cellar since it was close and a place that belonged to one of the most notorious serial killers ever. By the time we finally found the place it was about 2a in the morning. I forgot to mention this, but this all happened in January so there was a good amount of snow in the ground and it was really cold. We went around the green gate that says "no trespassing" and onward to the cellar. We found it with the large hole busted through the plywood that had been put up to keep out young hoodlums.We kept hearing an owl up in a tree right next to cellar. After a minute or two of acting like a bunch of little girls, we decided who would go inside first. We all filed inside one by one. It's a pretty small cellar, not much to explore, but it was covered in graffiti with beer bottles and cans tossed around the floor. There was an old boiler/water heater in the bottom left corner of the cellar and a hole through the right wall that went to who knows where. After a couple of minutes of looking around and speculating on what happened down here, we bounced.

Looking back on the night, there was nothing really to be freaked out about. But the vibes we got from that place were just really bad and evil. I've heard stories of Satanists sacrificing dogs down there and all other types of crazy stuff. I heard this story of this guy who went there and when he shined his flashlight down the stairs of the cellar he heard the most terrifying voice yell up to him "GET THE F*** OUT OF HERE!" and he just booked it out of there. I don't blame him either.

This was all a long time ago, but it was the first time I ever remember going onto private property to explore a place that had been abandoned. I had never even heard of this website back then (even up to a week or two ago) but since I went to Ted Bundy's cellar I've been hooked on exploring old forgotten places and can't wait to keep finding more.




Starve the Ego, Feed the Soul
amy atomic 


Location: Baltimore
Gender: Female
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top banana of the baltimore bunch.

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Re: What's the story behind your first location?
< Reply # 79 on 10/26/2014 11:38 PM >
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I grew up in a coastal New England town with a lot of retired military forts and bunkers, and I used to love climbing around them as a kid. The first abandoned building I ever explored was a hospital in the Boston area that used to be a cancer research institute. I went one night in probably January with two friends whom I'd met online, and it was freezing and I was terrified but also excited. Then we went to a state hospital a few towns over to wrap up the night. I've been back to the first location many times and it holds a special place in my heart even though not a lot of people enjoy it. I never did make it back to the state hospital before it was demolished, and I'll always kick myself for that.



[last edit 10/26/2014 11:39 PM by amy atomic - edited 2 times]

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