Buffalo State Hospital (February 2001): Liz and I arranged to meet up with some of our comrades at Dark Passage and attempt to conquer the Buffalo State Hospital, an extremely imposing former psychiatric hospital. Liz and I arrived in town early, so we made a trip to the hospital in the afternoon to do some reconnaisance and picture-taking. After pretty much circumnavigating the joint, we concluded that building was very photogenic, but not at all easy to access.
       When we returned later that night with Julia and Aaron, our hopes for getting inside were low, particularly since it was several hundred degrees below freezing. But in fact Aaron's instincts led him to what was probably the building's only entry point almost right away; a tiny little hole in a wall underneath some sort of former loading dock. This hole let out at the top of a 10-foot-tall tunnel, and Aaron and Julia quickly hopped down and reported that it looked promising. Unfortunately, I was feeling sick and Liz and I were both a little less confident about lowering ourselves into the darkness than Aaron and Julia, so we had to bail out while they went ahead and had a great evening of exploration. Alas for us!
       To console ourselves, we (yet again) visited the Buffalo Central Terminal the next day. We didn't get anywhere we hadn't been before, but it was pretty beautiful to see almost the entire inside of the building coated in ice. (Liz has some good photos at Viewing Hole Gallery.)

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