I just saw this YouTube vid of a guy on a dirtbike riding down an abandoned mountain pass. This seriously adds to the kind of creepy, post-apocalyptic looking stuff that fascinates me.
I apologize in advance for the typical Dance Dance Revolution music. 
Somewhere up around Scranton PA area, where they've done a lot of strip mining, there's a spot like that.
I pulled over on a mountain top just to look around. As far as the eye could see in any direction, there was no sign of life. Just rocks and coal and bare earth, and all sorts of weird colors . Got me worried about my tires and what might be happening to them.
Proof that everything returns to nature eventually. Dust to Dust
I assume that was in Japan. As crowded as that island is, it's surprising that such a place exists there. At the end, well, yeah I've been in that situation a couple of times. Once slid to a stop and teetered on the edge, then fell in. Thankfully it was only about 8 feet deep.
Babel Fish says it's Japanese. This is the first sentence that pops up in the video.
Dan
Babel Fish said: While being close, it is the old national highway it may return naturally and.
foxtrapper wrote: Almost everywhere up around Scranton PA area, where they've done a lot of strip mining, there's a spot like that.
FTFY
The last coal mine closed 50yrs ago but the scars are taking a very long time to disappear. When we were kids we used to play in the abandoned buildings, on old equipment, and ride motocross bikes over the shale piles. They mostly have woods grown in on them where they didn't build a Walmart or Lowes but all it takes is a hard rain to make it smell like sulfur.
I had the sound off, so it wasn't bad. Neat ride.
There are quite a few roads like that in PA where they run along side a creek and a storm washes away a big chunk of road. Depending on where it is, how 'needed' it is (access to a house or something), alternative routes and who would be responsible to repair it (PennDOT or local), it'll sometimes just get closed and abandoned.
Ian F wrote: There are quite a few roads like that in PA where they run along side a creek and a storm washes away a big chunk of road. Depending on where it is, how 'needed' it is (access to a house or something), alternative routes and who would be responsible to repair it (PennDOT or local), it'll sometimes just get closed and abandoned.
Heh, now the gas drillers are destroying the countryside with thousands huge pump rigs but fixing all the old dirt roads to accomodate tanker trucks full of chemicals and frack waste.
Have you been on the abandoned PA Turnpike? I ride it on my bike a few times every summer. Really cool experience being up inside the old tunnel control rooms.
Curmudgeon wrote: I assume that was in Japan. As crowded as that island is, it's surprising that such a place exists there.
I was thinking the same thing. Even farm land there is crowded as hell.
Agreed, much of the scaring around Scranton has scabbed over. It was this one area that was so weird. It was like I was on an alien planet.
Twas some years ago, may have scabbed over by now, and I've never been able to find it again.
jimbob_racing wrote: Have you been on the abandoned PA Turnpike? I ride it on my bike a few times every summer. Really cool experience being up inside the old tunnel control rooms. http://www.abandonedturnpike.com/
Ganassi leases a tunnel out there for testing, Somerset County IIRC
there's a video floating around online
The Francis Marion NF down here was logged to hell and back around the 1930's and it was sold to the gummint after that. Ya think there was a sweetheart deal there? 
So when you go there you are actually seeing the aftermath of a huge logging operation. Ya know something? It's not bad, looks pretty nice.
fasted58 wrote:jimbob_racing wrote: Have you been on the abandoned PA Turnpike? I ride it on my bike a few times every summer. Really cool experience being up inside the old tunnel control rooms. http://www.abandonedturnpike.com/Ganassi leases a tunnel out there for testing, Somerset County IIRC there's a video floating around online
I'm playing at a music festival in Somerset County in late summer...might need to check that out.
The original video is pretty sweet, too. Makes me think of a chapter of a book I read a year or two ago called "The World Without Us," about what would happen if humans simply disappeared tomorrow. There was a chapter about nature's natural "reclamation" that happens with stuff like this. It would take a surprisingly short amount of time for most buildings and infrastructure to be completely overgrown, collapsed, or unrecognizable. Like something on the order of 25 or 30 years. That road he's riding on might be only 10 or 15 years abandoned.
So long as your not building things on top of the soil, mother nature is pretty good at recovery.
It's once you put up a Lowes, Walmart, and a few thousands homes that she'll take a hit.
The Ganassi tunnel is the Laurel Hill tunnel. It was bypassed separately and has no easy access from a secondary road. You can see the tunnel from the current turnpike however, if you stop there and attempt to walk to the tunnel you will be quickly greeted by the state police. His lease specifies privacy and the state gives him what he wants. I stopped to get a picture and there was a trooper behind me before I got out of the car. Had to tell him that I dropped a CD on the floor and had pulled over to retrieve it.
http://nascar.speedtv.com/article/cup_the_mystery_of_the_secret_laurel_hill_tunnel
Ray's Hill and Sideling Hill are both accessible and somewhat open to the public. It's a very unique experience to ride through a 6800 foot, pitch black tunnel on a bike.
There was a program on PBS awhile ago about the Chernoble(sp) disaster and how the affected area had rebounded. Buildings going to dust, ample wildlife, forests etc. Quite interesting.
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Heh, now the gas drillers are destroying the countryside with thousands huge pump rigs but fixing all the old dirt roads to accomodate tanker trucks full of chemicals and frack waste.
I don't even know where to begin with this statement. Sigh.
HiTempguy wrote:Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Heh, now the gas drillers are destroying the countryside with thousands huge pump rigs but fixing all the old dirt roads to accomodate tanker trucks full of chemicals and frack waste.I don't even know where to begin with this statement. Sigh.
I know where this is going. I'm not a moderator or anything, but we should probably knock it off and post about what the thread is about. Friendly suggestion
All you have to do is go to Volcano national park in Hawaii to see how quickly nature takes back totally devastated land. Hell, Hawaii itself is just blobs of old molten rock that nature has taken back.
PHeller wrote: So long as your not building things on top of the soil, mother nature is pretty good at recovery.
For some reason I always think of these when I hear things like this.
The Oregon trail ruts. The last time these were traveled on was the 1860's. Pretty cool stuff.
Twin_Cam wrote: I know where this is going. I'm not a moderator or anything...
Are you a soothsayer?
Google Centralia, PA. We love to embrace a cash industry to our own detriment.
There are whole massive areas here that look like Mad Max was filmed nearby. Scorched earth and subsidence was all the rage with coal barons. I think the gas industry is oly interested in poisoning the water supply. :)
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:Twin_Cam wrote: I know where this is going. I'm not a moderator or anything...Are you a soothsayer? Google Centralia, PA. We love to embrace a cash industry to our own detriment.
It's particularly sad, because Pennsylvania is full of some really gorgeous countryside.
This is the private planned community I live in. It is built on reclaimed strip mined land. Wherever it was really deep they made little lakes, sold lakefront lots, and made tons of money.
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