This is my first post here, I have lurked on this site without an account since my early teens however only recently do I feel that I am starting to gain experiences and photos enough that I can contribute-just a little bit anyway but that will change.
This is a paper mill. Really there is nothing unique about it. This region used to be peppered with them, at one point it was just one of dozens in this county alone. The only thing that makes it stand out these days is the fact that it is the only one of these
former mills that has yet to be demolished, it's sat unused since 2000-almost as long as I have been alive. As such it's a wreck. There's not a lot to see but there is a ton of floor space and plenty of hidden nooks and crannies which is something I like. There is also a power plant on site that still has tons of machinery left inside but since I work at a power plant and that kinda thing is right up my alley I spent more time drooling over prints and drawings in the control room than I did taking photos.
These photos were taken over three visits.
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I only include this photo because I shot it while on my way to the gate I came in through. This photo ties into my little tale which I'll explain below. 
Hopefully this isn't too long and hopefully you'll get a small kick out of it. I made a few trips here. There's not a ton of equipment or anything eye catching to see here but there's a lot of floor space. It's one of those buildings where you can come back 2-3 times and still see somewhere new which is what I did.
Upon arriving this time I noticed that one of the gates was open and the hole in the fence which I had previously used to get in was sealed. It also looked like the township that owns the property had been inside with equipment clearing brush but since I didn't see or hear anything going on I walked right in the gate, it really doesn't get much easier than that.
After a few hours inside the sun started to head down and I headed back for the gate but stopped about 150' short. It looked like it was closed now... not good considering the freshly repaired fences topped with barbed wire which I was NOT prepared to traverse in a T shirt and shorts. I started back onto the property remembering that there was still one breach in the fence which had been sloppily sealed up, not with new fence like the other hole but by taking a bulldozer and pushing a 7 foot tall mound of brush and tree trunks up against it from the inside. My new plan was to climb up this brush pile, jump down between the pile and the fence and hopefully make a stealthy escape back onto the road.
While making the somewhat lengthy hike to this botched fence repair job I started to hear some pretty loud voices accompanied by the sound of diesel engines. How could I be so dumb? The gate was open and they had clearly been in here working at some point over the weekend. Why did I even go in knowing this? I stopped walking and started slowly ducking behind piles of gravel, stopping behind each one to peak up and try to get a view of where all this noise was coming from but I couldn't see anything. My heart was pounding and I was trying to piece together what I'd say to these people when they finally caught me.
After 15 minutes of ducking behind piles and walls I finally reached the mound of brush that would be my ticket back onto the public road outside. Completely worked up at this point I sat behind the brush pile for a moment waiting to hear if there were any cars passing by on the other side while I tried to bring my heart rate down to a more reasonable pace.
Once I decided it was go time I started to climb the pile which was much harder than I thought it would be as the brush was soft and my feet would start to sink into it every time I took another step up. After clambering my way to the top-getting scratched the whole way-I realized this was going to get even harder. The gap between the pile and the fence was just a little to big to be safely jumped without catching the barbed wire but the gap at the bottom narrowed down so much that I would be sandwiched between dead trees and chain link while I crawled to the hole. I couldn't think about that for long though because I was now 7 feet in the and air clearly visible to these guys and their heavy equipment wherever they were. I jumped into the gap. My backpack caught a branch, my shirt caught another one and my face was mushed right up to the fence like some kind of caged animal. I started crawling toward the hole stopping every few seconds to grab dislodge my clothing and my bag from the jagged brush. A car drove by. They saw me struggling no doubt and I started to feel really stupid. I made it to the hole and started crawling out, again stopping to dislodge my shirt and push my backpack out in front of me. Another car drove by. I finally got out and stood up on the side of the road trying to collect my thoughts about this crazy ordeal I just put myself through while yet another car drove by seeing me standing there dirty and looking like a lunatic I'm sure.
Here's the kicker. Walking back down the road I noticed that at the school across the street there were a couple of mechanics outside working on busses, one of which was sitting outside idling. THAT was the "heavy equipment" I had been hearing. The voices? Just two bus mechanics pissed that they were working on a Sunday evening. As I was mentally beating myself up for thinking these school bus guys had been after me I walked past the gate and guess what? It was still just as open as it had been earlier. No one was inside working and no one locked me in. If I had looked at that gate just a little bit longer when I thought it was closed I would have realized that it was just my odd vantage point making it appear that way. If I had just stopped and thought for a minute when I started hearing all those noises I probably would have been able to figure out they were across the street and not lurking on the mill grounds. As worried as I was when this was all happening by the time I got back to my car I realized that little escape, as pointless as it had been, was the most fun I had in a long time and I laughed it off.
Be cautious, be suspicious when things don't seem right but take a minute to think instead of letting your mind get the best of you.
