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 | Back to the church and new location for the newbie
entry by Dragonwings
5/29/2007 11:44 PM
| Last week, Thursday the 23rd, it was morning. 11:30 something, to be ridiculously vague, and another friend and I were walking the roads of St. Henri.
The previous day, I had gathered up my photographs (or the files, at least) and had shown her the church Peanut and I had visited digitally. After explaining to her the fundamentals of the visit, the "do's and don't's" of UEing as well as the ethics, she thought it would be interesting to check out. Gryph and I decided on going to check the area out, both our cameras handy as well as any materials we may need. We had things ready for the next day and slept on it, knowing we had to get going early on in the morning to actually make it into the city due to the STM strike which had the buses into the city only running for a few hours.
A hectic morning awaited us when we awoke.
Forgotten items, lack of breakfast and a multitude of other problems dogged us until we headed out the door and into the streets. And once there we were loathe to see our bus, the 211 Board-du-lac, rushing past us to continue its route which would end at the Métro station, Lionel Groulx. It looked like we wouldn't be exploring that day at all until what I figure to be some sort of divine intervention kicked in. Gryph's mom decided she'd give us a lift to Lionel Groulx out of the kindness of her heart. For all of you who don't know how this is divine intervention, you also don't know that this woman is seriously lacking in the "heart" department. Trust me when I say this was either an act of God or karma really liked me that day.
We arrived downtown and started walking towards our target. I further explained to Gryph what awaited us if some prodigy of a child decided to light the place on fire again. If there was even sign of a patrol, we were going to have to come back later and check it out. If the patrols were frequent, we might have to move on. She agreed as we came in sight of the steeple. Our hushed talking suddenly gave way to a louder conversation as we talking frivolously about other subjects until we actually came in full view of our objective. That's when we began to hush ourselves once more.
The church was looking dustier than last time I had seen it, but what got my attention first were the work crews. At first it looked like the adjoining park had been taken over by surveyors, carefully measuring the area leading up to the church. I didn't know why it took so many people to do such a simple looking job. I started a conversation on the subject and the two of us talked about it (not suspiciously, just loud enough and curious enough to sound like a couple of locals chatting) as we crossed the street and headed past the crew. We walked past the church and cut through the back before moving to the side door I had gotten in through. Much to our dismay, the entry point Peanut and I had used last time was boarded up nice and neatly. Also to our dismay could we see that there weren't any other openings along that section of the wall to speak of. Just a few steps from it, the cornerstone (the date "1958" clearly printed on it last time I was there) had been ripped from the building and toppled over to where its date was illegible. There was a small cavity in the back of the stone, a place where I suspect there had been a time capsule at one time. Had someone come back for it? I also noticed that half of the shrubs from the side entrance had been removed as well as there was a large piece of side board leaning up against one of the walls, as new as can be.
Unwilling to give up, the both of us hurried around back to see if there was any way to get in from the other side of the church, looking for cracks in the walls, broken boards and the like. Gryph tried a door and a vent, I saw a crack in a board and beckoned to her to to come over to see. We both looked through the crack in the boards curiously, half hoping there to be something of interest on the other side like a clue as to how to get in or maybe something picture worthy like a discarded bathtub or a leprechaun. Sadly the only thing on the other side of the boards was the enclosement I had seen last time I was there from the nicer rooms on the first, second and third floors. In the middle of that enclosement had come to rest the spiral stairwell I had take a picture of the last time I was there, torn clean off its hinges and now situated on its side in the long grass.
"Well, I don't see how we can get in this way," she said after peaking through the viewing hole left in the boards, "this place looks to be sealed up quite nicely."
Grudgingly, I had to agree; The place was locked up tighter than the family cookie jar when I was eight. There didn't seem to be any way in or out, the only possible entrance not facing the street boarded and the only possibly pliable boards facing the residential area not four feet away. Plus the state of the building itself seemed like it was being prepared for something. Those work crews, the new boarding, the removal of the stairs, cornerstone and shrubs gave me reason to suspect that either this place was slated for demolition or the city was going through the process of renovation. Snapping a few pictures around the other side of the building, I figured that whatever the verdict concerning the future of the church, we couldn't enter now so it was time to move on.
With nothing to do until the buses started running again and without a place to explore, Gryph suggested we check the next place on our growing list: the Canada Malt plant. Looking up locations the other day in preparations for our exploration had turned up a few interesting leads, a few good places for beginners to try their luck. One of those places was the Canada Malt plant. Now, we had a vague idea on where it was (a site said it was somewhere in the vicinity of Notre-Dame, but aside from that, we had next to nothing), but nothing very definitive at that point. We crossed the St. Henri railroad tracks and made our way to Notre-Dame. We walked until we hit the St. Zotique church and decided to go over our map of the region in the neighboring park. Fifteen minutes of sitting on a park bench pouring over a map really didn't help much in the long term, so we decided to wing it and head to the canal. Maybe we'd get a better idea of where our location was if we went that way? That was our hope.
We hit the street at the end of the park and turned to our right, Gryph was the first to take notice of the structure on the horizon. She pointed it out enthusiastically.
"We should try that place." she said quickly. I nodded. Even at this distance you could plainly see the broken windows, the trails the rust had made over the years, the graffiti that spread about the many surfaces of the building like a colorful rash. Seemed like as good a place to start as any. We started walking toward it while making our usual amount of small talk along the way. Slowly but surely, the building we had seen on the horizon started to grow taller and taller, details began to make themselves known and the silos had come into view. Soon, we were at its base looking up. The place was big, an industrial site that lay forgotten in the hot May sun. We kept walking, trying not to look suspicious, past the building and towards the parking lot of the next building. I was about to walk in when Gryph stopped me cold as she pointed to what looked like a motion sensor (I don't know what it was for sure, but it looked like trouble so we stayed away). I wasn't really paying attention as I tried to enter and if she hadn't noticed the high tech looking gadget thingamajig lying in wait for me, who knows what I might've set off?
While there, I quickly looked up at the building and smiled. On the side of the brick lay a large "D.A." tag, a tag I had seen while researching possible locations we could check out. It was exactly the same angle, structural shape and look as the building we'd seen before on the internet indicating the location we sought, identical down to the large fading "D.A." tag. We had found the Canada Malt plant and not a moment too soon.
We went back around the building and, after giving the all clear, we made our way past the work trailer stationed not far from the dusty front entrance. I think it's time to admit something about ability and lack of ability on my part. I can do the research, I can be sneaky, I can be confident and flash a self-reassured smile on my part... but fences are my single greatest fear. Besides ax-wielding maniacs dressed in women's clothing singing Bohemian Rhapsody, I mean. I can't climb to save my life due to my fear of climbing heights. I know that sounds weird and kind of wimpy, after all, I'm not afraid of flying or anything like that. So that's one thing I need to work on when it comes to urban exploration training. Anyway, I bring this up because there was only one way to get over to the interior of the property; by climbing the half downed section of fence past the work trailer, one gains access to the old facility. Gryph was all set to conquer that dilapidated chain link until I told her that I wasn't sure I could make it back over once we were in. So we settled on a simple agreement; we'd check the canal side for another entrance and if there wasn't another way in, we'd come back and hop the fence.
We got back onto the road and headed over to the side path that led directly to the water, looking at the little cement mural in the ground right next to the path we trod. It was then Gryph whispered to me, barely audibly "We've got company." I glanced back and saw an old man watching us intently. How long had he been watching us, I had no clue but I thought maybe this guy was just some onlooker that would turn away as soon as we spotted him. I waved back at him, as friendly as a tourist might, shouting a warm hello to that old crotchety looking figure on the bluff across the way. He didn't move or give a reaction, just kept staring at us with those eternally suspicious eyes. Gryph grabbed my arm and we kept right on walking towards the water.
"Why did you do that!?" she mumbled to me as we walked, "Old people are the worst when it comes to suspicion, you know! They always think teenagers are up to something! Chances are he's going to call someone over-"
"-Nah," I mumbled right back as we got to the water's edge, "We didn't do anything but walk on by. He can't say we did anything illegal. Everything's alright."
As soon as the words "alright" left my lips, a security guard walked past us and we both froze without thinking. But the guard didn't turn around and start talking to us at all as we thought he might. Instead, the security worker walked over to a nearby bench and started opening his lunch bag. We both relaxed a bit but I sighed, disheartened. There, in between us and our objective, was a security officer calmly enjoying his lunch break and the sandwich his wife had probably packed for him that morning. The decision to head off in the other direction seemed a good one at the time, so that's exactly what we did.
So the count was now two locations, two failed attempts. I was feeling a little more than simply cheated but there was always the opportunity we might run into something else along the way so I kept hopeful.
On the way back from the Malt, we took a different route and wound up near some renovated apartments. We were talking about the attempts, how we could come back later with Peanut maybe at early morning when Gryph saw something on the road by the curb. We both blinked in surprise when she grabbed the piece of paper and it revealed itself to us as a myriad of green.
"That has to be counterfeit," she laughed as she looked over the American twenty, "and a bad one at that. It looks too sloppy to be real."
"If it's genuine, I'm so splitting it with you!"
"Yeah, sure."
Half jokingly, I looked over the place she had picked it up, wondering if maybe some poor sucker had just lost his wallet. Then I saw another piece of paper.
"Oh, wow!" I laughed as I grabbed another twenty from the road's edge, "Now I know we've either got extremely good luck or we've uncovered a counterfeiting ring."
"I'm going for the second one, personally."
Laughing, the two of us headed back across the tracks and to the nearest bank we could find to see if the bills were real. Our jaws hit the floor when the bank teller tested both bills with a marker and told us that they were indeed real. For the rest of the day we hung out, walked around (past an abandoned theater whose name escapes me at this point in time, but it was the one whose wall crumbled one year on St. Catherine's street. Either York or Seville, I think...)and finally hit the closest Chapters store after exchanging the bills. As quick as you please I was down in the travel section harassing a sales clerk for a copy of 'Access all areas'. With the dollar I had found while scoping out possible locations with Peanut a few weeks back (certainly a full week before we first attempted the church) and the twenty one dollars I now had in my possession, I bought the book without any real cost to me and set to reading it immediately.
After I got home I was tired to say the least, but I had found another place to check out and had a great deal of reading ahead of me... quite the day, all in all.
[last edit 6/2/2007 2:47 AM by Dragonwings - edited 2 times]
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