Hiking Abandoned Route 95

On an unseasonably warm day this past October Barry and I walked down the center of Interstate 95 in Massachusetts without any regard for traffic. That's because there wasn't any. What was in abundance however were rusted guardrails, faded paint lines, and waves of vegetation that had swallowed the breakdown lane and was continuing inward. Forty years of abandonment would do that to a highway.

For those who have driven on I-95 in Massachusetts, this is not some post-apocalyptic, parallel universe I'm describing. It was indeed I-95.  At least, it's a portion of what used to be I-95. In 1976 this section of road was abandoned and rerouted between Danvers and Newburyport in a widening project, leaving this discarded piece of interstate to the bicyclists and hikers such as ourselves.

Abandoned I-95 is not a place you're apt to stumble upon accidentally as the road itself isn't visible from any part of our modern I-95. But knowing where it began (thank you Google Earth) we found a parking spot alongside some construction equipment and made a quick walk down a trail to start our journey.

In the battle between nature and mans creations, there is no battle - the only question is how long it will take nature to reclaim her territory. We witnessed both the early stages of this takeover, such as these small trees sprouting through the tar,

And the later stages of this takeover, such as this beast lifting apart the road.

Remnants other than just blacktop were plentiful too. I'd forgotten about old fashioned wire guardrails such as these

Not all of the remnants were above ground, either. Here is one of several drainage tunnels which I couldn't resist crawling into.

Maybe a mile into our journey the pavement abruptly ended where it met a hill, but our fun didn't end there. Woods surrounded the highway on both sides, and so we took to the trees for our return trip. As a reward for our curiosity we were greeted with a variety of cool things, such as a rusted old engine,

And this rickety platform that, try as I might, I couldn't get Barry to climb onto.

The surprise of the day was that, unlike so many other hidden places we visit, there was very little graffiti here. It wasn't completely bare of it, and we did see a few rude pictures that I'd have hidden from my daughter's eyes, but for a mile of abandoned blacktop it was relatively untouched.

And of the graffiti abandoned I-95 does have, there are actually more inspirational messages than rude ones.