NOTE: This was written by me on a message board which had a finite character allowance, so you'll find aabbreviations and punctuation kept to a minimum. I hope they're not too distracting. Also, it's likely I'll add more to this when I can.

Hey everyone. I just joined today and was wondering if anyone had some stories about their trips to places around town.

It seems I have a brief message length so here goes.

My biggest story to date would have to be the 3rd time I went to the former Rochester Psychiatric Hospital, about 4 weeks ago. The buiding was abandoned completely in 94 and is a great place to explore.

On 4 prior trips (2 successful) I had intended to never go with fewer than three people but I and a friend decided rather suddenly to go on our own one night. We arrived at about 10pm. For those who are unfamiliar with the layout of the area, the structure is located at the northeast corner of a campus which used to house several county health buildings, including at one time an orphanage (at the SW end of the complex) and presently a Hi-security rehab facility, which faces south av. near the Elmwood intersection.

The hospital itself faces Elmwood and is about a mile from S.Av. across the entire complex. The approach from S.Av. allows the most cover but you have to walk through the thick of the security patrols which frequent the facility especially now when there have been 4 break-ins in the past 6 months (3 of them mine)

Anyway we parked on a sidestreet opposite Rochester Science Pkwy which is the last light before S. Av. becomes E.Henrietta. We crossed between two abandoned houses which backup to staff rd. one of the sidestreets on which there are 6 identical abandoned houses. Great setting for a B zombie movie. Anyway that backs up to a field on which there is a new construction facing Roc.Sci.Pkwy which leads to more open grass with a thin treeline between us and the patrolled area on the hospital campus. Bear in mind that there is also an open road behind us which I know from experience is also patrolled. Anyway on this particular occasion there was no guard presence whatsoever. We thought this was peculiar but paid it little attention.

We reached the back of the hospital and used the same entrance we had on the two previous occasions. That entrance is located near the S.E. corner, in back of the bldg. If you want details on how to gain entrance, either PM or email me. We entered quickly, and were inside at about 11pm. It takes about 20-30 minutes to enter just because silence is a key issue.

Once inside we went to the lobby level. This is the first floor which doesnt have boarded up windows. This is more or less on the third floor of the building (2.5 floor) We opt to go up toward the roof. I knew from previous trips that the buildings various utilities are located on the top three floors. These were the floors we wanted to spend the most time on. We took a break a few times and explored about every 4 floors until we got to the 18th the first utility floor. This was where we found the mammoth elevator pulleys, as well as some other various ventillation mechanisms. The next floor had cages for various electrical relays, like humongous circuit breaker boxes. I assume many of these were for the facilities many phones. The next level held only two large, single car garage sized tanks, assumably for the building's AC/Ventillation system. The rom they were in was accessible only from a door accessed by the stairwell, at the top of which was a ladder, which lead up to the roof. We climbed the ladder, my friend going first, and then I after him. As I was reaching the top of the ladder, just as I poked my head out onto the roof, he turned to me, and said "There's three cops at our entrance"

I looked over the side, and sure enough, three of the police SUV's that patrol the coplex were at our entrance. Being 20 stories above them, we couldn't hear a word they said, but they were obviously hard to miss. A few minutes later, two cops unlocked a door near our entrance, and entered the building. This would be the time that we started freaking out. However, we were quite sure that there was no chance that they were going to scale the 42 flights of stairs that led up to where we were waiting though.

Anyway, we see the two cops finally make it to where we entered, and then, turning around, we assumed they were on their way out. It was at this point that we saw a car start up at the back of a maintainance building across the complex. They drove to where the cops are. Now having a good look at the truck, it was pretty clear that he was there to seal the entrance. He got out of his car, and after yelling "God Dammit!" he got out some tools, and got to work. Finally, the two cops who had entered the building came out, and one of them left. As the maintianance guy was working, another cop left, and as he finished, they last cop, and the maintainance truck left. It had been about 45 minutes that they had been at the entrance, and that we had been lying on the snow covered roof, waiting for them to leave. As they left the realization hit us that we had just been sealed into an abandoned insane asylum.

Now, we faced the dillema that there were cops outside, who would be looking for us, and that we had to forcibly exit, which would either make enough noise to bring one of the security guards back around, or two, find another window or door that may not be sealed.

The first option was most likely, but we knew that there would have to be added suspicion placed on that exit, as they knew that there were either people still in the building, or that someone else may intend to tamper with it that night. The next option was hopeless, because we soon found that all of the boarded up windows were openable, but only with the aid of a sledgehammer or something else that would make as much noise. We had tools but we knew we couldnt draw any additional attention.

We then tried to exit through the sub-basement which was a crawlspace accessed from the outside by dug-in windows covered by an extremely heavy grate. We couldnt budge the grate and were now out of options. Then it hit me. I brought rope. Of course we faced yet another dillemma. We would have to rappel out of the bottom-most floor that wasn't boarded up--The lobby level.

The problem here was that the floor above the basement, which ends about 6 feet above ground level, then the first floor, which is about 10 feet high was boarded. All in all, we were climbing out of a window that was about 20-25 feet up. Also, the windows were sealed with a heavy screen. Fortunately though, in the chapel, which directly overlooked our original entrance, we found that one of these screen panels had been pulled open, and that the window was broken, but the bottom pane could still be lifted. I took a lot of convincing to finally try and go first, at which time, as my hands got just below the windowsill, the tread on my gloves scraped off and I dropped onto the asphalt. Fortunately, from laying on the roof for all that time, my legs were completely numb and more than a little limp and so I executed a paratrooper landing, unintentionally. I looked down at my legs, moved them a little, and then ran for nearby cover. My friend came out behind me, a somewhat seasoned rapeller, and we ran back into the woods.

As we got back onto the field area a state trooper sped down Roc.Sci.Pkwy but we dove into some brush and he drove slowly past us, toward the asylum from the back. We made our way back to the car avoiding another guard and then made a clean getaway.

Theres more but I'm out of room