Posted by yokes
I'd love to hear more about the hide n seek game played, if you want to share.
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They REALLY don't want people trespassing. Signs everywhere. Off-duty cops doing private security in sync with their on-duty cop buddies patrolling the perimeter. Internet says they press charges every time now. Get caught, you're done shooting for the day, bailing yourself out of jail, and have to drive back to town for court a month later. No second chances and no friendly conversations about the history of the site. Sooooo...we decided to be super careful and it paid off.
Two of the entry points we tried were being watched. Had to park really far away, hike WAAAAAAY around up the street, through an industrial park, through the woods, past some guy on a crane moving junk, through mud, rivers, and escarpments, through fences, and THEN into the site.
First building POE was crawling through a broken door window. No way to avoid stepping on broken glass and making a little noise. Heard someone walking through as soon as we put cameras on tripods. We hid in an open closet opposite the door and they checked around RIGHT NEXT to where we were hiding, stood there a while listening, and finally left, dead quiet the entire time. So close I could hear them breathing. We thought maybe it was another explorer, but then I heard a heavy door slam and a car start. Better to assume it was unfriendlies than walk out and risk getting caught before we even got any pictures.
Patrol drove through as we were going around through the woods to the next building. It was a good thing we took the safe route or we would have been out in the road exposed and definitely gotten caught.
Finally got into the first building undetected and shot for a couple hours. Right as we walked out, a buck charged past the door at full speed, then a doe, then a coyote, then another deer. Holy shit...
Ducked through the woods along the perimeter to the biggest structures, heard another car, waited, went through the noisiest gate ever, past a gigantic wild turkey, and out into the courtyard, exposed to a dozen blind corners where a patrol could drive through. Every building looked locked tight with aggressive signage on every door. A couple chicks with cameras walked out from around a corner, saw us, and bolted. Not a place where explorers stand around in the open and chat.
We found a door that would open and ducked inside as another car patrolled through. That was really close. Shot in there for hours, headed back towards the car, and a cop was sitting in the parking lot right where we wanted to exit. Lucky again. Didn't see us. We ducked back the other way, through the woods, mud, hills, streams, down the street, and back to the car just as it started pouring out.
Worth the risk and I'll be back soon, but only with 1-2 experienced ninja-style explorers—packed for a long day and ready to be inside shooting before dawn...
