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UER Forum > UE Photography > Abandoned Road in the hills of Western Pennsylvania (Viewed 1398 times)
autodidact 


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Abandoned Road in the hills of Western Pennsylvania
< on 7/22/2014 1:34 AM >
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There is a few mile long windy back road between two major towns in my area. The road was closed over 10 years ago because it was primarily being used to traffic heroin. I went up there today to see how well nature had reclaimed it.

While not the inside of a building, it's always smart to take a police scanner with you. The locals often will call the police when they see people near it due to the drug stigma. There are jersey barriers on each side of the 3 mile long road with no trespassing signs. If you get caught there, you will have your gear confiscated and be searched. Cops are often rough on camera equipment (at best) or try taking apart your lenses for hidden compartments (at worst.)

Without the scanner we would have had real trouble. Someone DID call it in that they saw a "suspicious vehicle" in the area. As soon as we heard the name of the road, I grabbed the camera - still connected to the tripod - ran to the car and we peaced it.



[last edit 7/22/2014 1:57 AM by autodidact - edited 2 times]

randomesquephoto 


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Re: Abandoned Road in the hills of Western Pennsylvania
< Reply # 1 on 7/22/2014 4:52 PM >
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Doesn't really look worth it.




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midnightshadow 


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Re: Abandoned Road in the hills of Western Pennsylvania
< Reply # 2 on 7/22/2014 5:58 PM >
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Great photo It certainly doesn't need to be an abandoned building to tell an interesting story. I would enjoy following the road, see what's on it.




autodidact 


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Re: Abandoned Road in the hills of Western Pennsylvania
< Reply # 3 on 7/23/2014 5:05 AM >
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Posted by randomesquephoto
Doesn't really look worth it.


There's a lot more shots I want to go back and take, but sunset snuck up on us too fast yesterday.




JKuhnss 


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Re: Abandoned Road in the hills of Western Pennsylvania
< Reply # 4 on 7/23/2014 5:48 AM >
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That is a pretty crazy story. I can't believe cops give so much trouble for this road alone. I mean of course they want to find drugs, but it has obviously been quite a while since the road was used.

Seems pretty neat though.




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Ground State 


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Re: Abandoned Road in the hills of Western Pennsylvania
< Reply # 5 on 7/23/2014 10:00 AM >
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Posted by pgh_explorer
http://gtwy.net/png/do_not_enter2.png
If you get caught there, you will have your gear confiscated and be searched.


In a world of geocaching and other outdoor hobbies, this is absolutely absurd. Roads are public property - even old road allowances that have been closed down.






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sleeperspirit 


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Re: Abandoned Road in the hills of Western Pennsylvania
< Reply # 6 on 7/23/2014 11:39 AM >
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I thought this was going to be the turnpike.




autodidact 


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Re: Abandoned Road in the hills of Western Pennsylvania
< Reply # 7 on 7/23/2014 3:26 PM >
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Posted by Ground State

In a world of geocaching and other outdoor hobbies, this is absolutely absurd. Roads are public property - even old road allowances that have been closed down.



The small town cops pretty much do whatever they want because they have very little training when it comes to constitutional law and they think EVERYTHING is suspicious. I have almost been arrested 3 times in the month of July alone for setting up tripods and taking photos with my DSLR from PUBLIC PROPERTY. We are talking sidewalks, non-posted grass fields, etc.

It's extremely frustrating. I have to waste 20-40 minutes of my shooting time to explain to the officer that I am a photographer, go through photos I've taken, etc. Some lady apparently had called the cops and said I was trying to "break into the church" near where I was shooting because she saw me out there in the evening.

It's just frustrating. I don't want my gear manhandled and I don't want to sit in a holding cell until someone with a higher paygrade releases me (as they will - because they know the law.)




autodidact 


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Re: Abandoned Road in the hills of Western Pennsylvania
< Reply # 8 on 7/23/2014 9:23 PM >
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By popular demand, I went back today and got photos of the walk from the bottom of the road to the top. I didn't document every single part of it, just the parts that I thought would make good photography. I'll do my best to narrate as we take a journey together.


At the end of a small housing complex is this gravel road and sign. It doesn't say no trespassing or anything, but there is a marker to try and dissuade you from entering.



There is a couple miles of this. You can drive it since there isn't anything stopping you - aside from the "DO NOT ENTER" sign in the previous photo.



There is a coal mine entrance at the end of the road before the road blocks, so they do keep this part somewhat maintained. I'm not sure if the coal mine pays the bill or if the township does.



Eventually you get to a barrier. This is where you have to park, the next 3 miles are on foot.



To the left of the barrier in the above photo is the mine entrance. It is fenced off. This is not the way I went today, but it IS the way I came back. I will explain that more later on.



About a half mile from the barrier. Same perspective as my original post, but this time taken landscape with a fisheye.



This guardrail feels so alone.



Looking back down the road.



Headed up another hill.



Another hill. Took this photo from the top, looking back down.



When you get to a certain point, the guard rail turns into the old cable type. Ancient. I liked the log in this photo.



End of the road. This is the barrier that prevents cars from accessing it from the neighboring town.



There were bones on one of the barriers. Don't know enough about bones to identify which animal.



This is where you may think the story ends, but it doesn't. We had noticed a bright orange lake when we we were walking up one of the hills. The entire time we were hiking, we were looking for a way down the hillside to eventually get back to that lake. I just knew I had to photograph it.

So, we went beyond those barriers in the above photo and found a section of the hillside that could be hiked. There wasn't a path to be found, so we blazed through the weeds and held onto large trees. It took us about 20 minutes to descend into the valley.

Once down there, we got these shots of the lake. As this is near a mine entrance, I assume the lake is polluted with Sulfur.













We hiked out of there via the lower access road, which brought us past the coal mine entrance (sorry - had hidden the camera gear by this point so no photos) and then back out through the fence.




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Re: Abandoned Road in the hills of Western Pennsylvania
< Reply # 9 on 7/23/2014 10:25 PM >
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Screw the road. Check out that mine!




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autodidact 


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Re: Abandoned Road in the hills of Western Pennsylvania
< Reply # 10 on 7/23/2014 10:28 PM >
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Posted by relik
Screw the road. Check out that mine!


It's still staffed....




UER Forum > UE Photography > Abandoned Road in the hills of Western Pennsylvania (Viewed 1398 times)


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