View Full Version : Superfund sites, abandoned bases, alternate places
Wise Old Owl
02-11-2010, 13:06
Yes I said it, some of my friends go to strange new places that offer solitude that cannot be beaten! At your own risk of course. The parks I go to are swamped with people, dogs, screaming kids, and good folk that just make too much noise, or too many rules... Just within my county by asking around I discovered large places to hike and mountain bike that are very questionable, but are unlikely to be enforced. We have nearby abandoned quarries, and super fund sites that have been cleaned up and are covered in trails. Large old military bases that have been abandoned are just as interesting. West Chester University has a large piece undeveloped wooded property that mountain bikers have been using for a few years.
Here is one super fund site that I know about with loads of trails:
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg275/MarkSwarbrick/superfund.jpg
max patch
02-11-2010, 13:29
The parks I go to are swamped with people, screaming kids, and good folk that just make too much noise, or too many rules...
Sounds like the smokies.
Wise Old Owl
02-11-2010, 13:39
I felt that way on my last visit to Shenandoah too. Rediculous dry counties....:mad:
I love abandoned sites. Spooky and interesting.
WOO, those places are interesting If that's where you seek solitude and adventure great. i sometimes like exploring these kinds of places as well. As far as saying these places offer solitude that can't be beat I would say, WOW, you need to expand your horizons by visiting the mid west, west, Canada, Hawaii, and Alaska.
sasquatch2014
02-11-2010, 13:56
WOO, those places are interesting If that's where you seek solitude and adventure great. i sometimes like exploring these kinds of places as well. As far as saying these places offer solitude that can't be beat I would say, WOW, you need to expand your horizons by visiting the mid west, west, Canada, Hawaii, and Alaska.
Took an old BLM road west from Rawlings WY heading north in to the Red years ago. After many many miles of just a track through the sage brush I came out onto a newly paved black top Rd right near some big metal buildings surrounded by high chain link fence and not very inviting wording on the signs. Never know what you will come across out there. still trying to figure out if the CTD comes near this or not.
Wise Old Owl
02-11-2010, 14:08
WOO, those places are interesting If that's where you seek solitude and adventure great. i sometimes like exploring these kinds of places as well. As far as saying these places offer solitude that can't be beat I would say, WOW, you need to expand your horizons by visiting the mid west, west, Canada, Hawaii, and Alaska.
I have hiked five of the Hawaii islands, most National Parks, today its a financial issue. So I do with what I can achieve.
Would love to Alaska - Thank's for the post.
wcgornto
02-11-2010, 14:11
This area would make an interesting though perhaps dangerous hike.
http://villageofjoy.com/chernobyl-today-a-creepy-story-told-in-pictures/
Here in Canada we have literally millions of acres of Crown Land, meaning goverment land or in other words public land and is completely undeveloped aside from old trade route trails. These lands are different from national park lands, and are free for the general public to roam. I do 90% of my hiking on crown land as it's everywhere and free from people. I can spend weeks hiking these areas with no sign of others. N fact the winter I spent living in northern Ontario was on crown land and in the entire time I was there the only people I saw where two RCMP officers who stopped in for hot tea while doing a patrol on snowmobiles after seeing smoke coming out of the chimney of the abandoned cabin I was living in. Endless tracks of land everywhere up here.
Wise Old Owl
02-11-2010, 14:20
You have the right idea, today scientist's visit the city because the levels are safe now and it showed us how quickly life took back the concrete jungle. In less than 20 years trees, grass & animals moved back in and are slowly erasing mans mark in the area. Promting the NGeo show life after man.
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_dlkAw43cLC0/ScyxoorBMTI/AAAAAAAAEGY/ewfu2Av0TXc/s800/Chernobyl-Today-A-Creepy-Story-told-in-Pictures-buildings1.jpg
The Will
02-11-2010, 15:00
Here in Canada we have literally millions of acres of Crown Land, meaning goverment land or in other words public land and is completely undeveloped aside from old trade route trails. These lands are different from national park lands, and are free for the general public to roam. I do 90% of my hiking on crown land as it's everywhere and free from people. I can spend weeks hiking these areas with no sign of others. N fact the winter I spent living in northern Ontario was on crown land and in the entire time I was there the only people I saw where two RCMP officers who stopped in for hot tea while doing a patrol on snowmobiles after seeing smoke coming out of the chimney of the abandoned cabin I was living in. Endless tracks of land everywhere up here.
DAJA,
I canoed the Peace and Mackenzie River systems in 2001 and we saw some very nice cabins located on crown land--obviously privately funded and built--with doors unlocked and a guest book inside. Is it true that these cabins must be accessible and available for public use if they are located on Crown land?
Snowleopard
02-11-2010, 15:09
This area would make an interesting though perhaps dangerous hike.
http://villageofjoy.com/chernobyl-today-a-creepy-story-told-in-pictures/
Young woman travels Chernobyl on a motorcycle: http://www.kiddofspeed.com/chernobyl-land-of-the-wolves/
WOO - you might be interested in SGL 252 near Allenwood. It's an old magazine area (+ some others) from the WW2-era Susquehanna Ordnance Works.
I used to have a job where I was paid good tax money to hike over U.S. Army environmental restoration sites. I wasn't there long enough ago to find football-shaped rocks of off-specification TNT though.
DAJA,
I canoed the Peace and Mackenzie River systems in 2001 and we saw some very nice cabins located on crown land--obviously privately funded and built--with doors unlocked and a guest book inside. Is it true that these cabins must be accessible and available for public use if they are located on Crown land?
Yes that is true.. Often times these are built by canoe/hike/atv/snowmobile clubs, and are free to use for anyone. In other cases, these cabins are old fur trading stops along a fur line or trade route and are also open for anyone to use. In other cases they are built by research and scientific teams for use while working on specific projects and once they're done, they leave them for the public to use. In other cases, such as the one I built while living up North they are built by private citizens for their own use, but left open for others to use as they see fit. Building such sites is not encouraged or technically legal, but rarely enforced.. Rather the one I built was used several years later to house firefighters fighting a massive forest fire. Once they extinguished the fire, Natural Resources came in and burnt it down and restored the site to its natural state.. There are many of these shelters/cabins spread all over the country in the north, and make a great shelter in severe weather..
You might also be interested in Forgotten Pennsylvania (http://forgottenpa.blogspot.com/) - seems wandering around abandoned sites is often called "urbex" for "urban exploration" even when it's rural.
Out here old forts became state parks, military bases became city parks. One of the biggest stretches of urban wilderness in the US is in Washington State and is a county park now - the entire area is a day hiker's paradise. The old NIKE sites are still on the top as well. The biggest issue there isn't the old NIKE sites but rather down lower where all the old mines are - they are quite dangerous and must be avoided.
Johnny Appleseed
02-12-2010, 23:04
elenafilatova.com chernobyl-also the girl on the motorcycle.
Wise Old Owl
04-01-2010, 21:13
WOO - you might be interested in SGL 252 near Allenwood. It's an old magazine area (+ some others) from the WW2-era Susquehanna Ordnance Works.
I used to have a job where I was paid good tax money to hike over U.S. Army environmental restoration sites. I wasn't there long enough ago to find football-shaped rocks of off-specification TNT though.
Hey yes, can you convert that to easy Lat long the google doesn't clear it up...
Wise Old Owl
04-01-2010, 21:24
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg275/MarkSwarbrick/DSCF3020.jpg
Great time, I could not get into the site but it was surounded by hundred of acres and halfway I got right under an adult male Bald Eagle. Wow. Great day huh?
This link came up on the first page of Google search for "SGL 252": http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/pa/alvira.html
And here's the general area:
<iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=allenwood+pa& sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=28.749334,53.4375&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear =Allenwood,+Union,+Pennsylvania&ll=41.107582,-76.898297&spn=0.026637,0.052185&t=h&z=14&output=em bed"></iframe><br /><small><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=embed&hl=en&geocode=&q=allenwood+p a&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=28.749334,53.4375&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear =Allenwood,+Union,+Pennsylvania&ll=41.107582,-76.898297&spn=0.026637,0.052185&t=h&z=14" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">View Larger Map</a></small>
Well that didn't work. Let's try this (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=allenwood+pa&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=28.749334,53.4375&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Allenwood,+Union,+Pennsylvania&ll=41.127276,-76.94232&spn=0.026637,0.052185&t=h&z=14)
Wise Old Owl
05-27-2010, 19:51
WOO, those places are interesting If that's where you seek solitude and adventure great. i sometimes like exploring these kinds of places as well. As far as saying these places offer solitude that can't be beat I would say, WOW, you need to expand your horizons by visiting the mid west, west, Canada, Hawaii, and Alaska.
Hawaii is great, only the locals appear to know where the trails start...
Surprised nobody mentioned this. Of course travel here is entirely at your own risk, if it is even allowed:http://www.offroaders.com/album/centralia/centralia.htm
Wise Old Owl
06-09-2010, 17:04
Surprised nobody mentioned this. Of course travel here is entirely at your own risk, if it is even allowed:http://www.offroaders.com/album/centralia/centralia.htm
Been there many times... Because of the lack of trees and the high ground the cemetary provides the best UHF Amateur Radio Location in the state. I could make phone calls to a repeater in Coatesville.