jak3bak3

[jak3bak3]

[jak3bak3]

sometimes cool spots aren’t always behind a locked gate

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you can go anywhere you want as long as you don’t get caught 💯

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the narrows. cumberland, maryland

the narrows is a natural river gorge, cut between two mountains now named wills and haystack- both sides of the mountains ridges have rocky outcroppings that make for some impressive overlooks; these photos were taken late october of this past year from the unofficial “cumberland overlook” on haystack mountain, the cliff face west of the river. just over the gap pictured above is wills mountain, the rocky outcropping named lovers leap, and if you squint hard enough- the abandoned artmor plastic factory.

for several decades now wills mountain has been a controversial topic among locals, this is because the impressive natural landmark has been completely inaccessible to the public as a result of landlocking- all sides of the mountain are pressed by privately owned industrial efforts including a quarry, a railroad, and the artmor factory (despite it being defunct). but i'm the type of person to see a no trespassing sign as a challenge, so when i first moved to cumberland i quickly heard about the factory from locals and was excited to check it out- this was only a few years ago so it was already beyond its prime and had seen several fires, many of the rooms were collapsed or covered in charred debris and every time i've been i was genuinely worried for my safety on some of the floors. this past year i visited it again upon hearing the news that the state purchased the previously private property that artmor (and the road accessing the park) sits on, although no official plans have been announced im assuming they're going to demolish the factory in order to install a parking lot for park visitors- i don't really have any complaints because the building is dangerous asf, but it sucks knowing what use to be the best local bando in its prime is disappearing. anyway, my advice to you is to not try your hand at exploring it yourself- not even because of physical risk but because they have a ranger patrolling the factory regularly while the property is being surveyed, i know because he chased me out last time.

screenshots from the videos i took last time i visited artmor ^^^

western maryland is so slept on, just cumberland itself has a handful of abandoned factories and it’s a busy hub for freight transport- you can actually watch the trains pass through the gorge from either mountains overlook, when they approach you can feel them rumble the mountains before you even see them come around the bend, the view from in a intermodal well looking up at the cliff faces while the sun is just hitting them just right is insane; i’ve included a video i recorded of the wmsr train down at the bottom of the valley on the same day as the overlook photos.