Well, since I've seen pretty much all there is to see in the abandoned Army camp by the house, Camp Livingston, I decided to do the "dual" part of dualsport and make the trek out to Camp Claiborne. Its quite a drive from my house (about 30 miles) but I could spend days on end in the place.

Wiki page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Claiborne

Its over twice the size and probably 10x the road mileage of Livingston. Almost every single road is still wide open with only a few barracaded road failures. I know next to nothing about what's in the place so its pretty neat just adventuring. Its only 2 miles from the town of Forest Hill and gas, so one can spend hours on end without having to bail.

At one time it was the 3rd biggest city in Louisiana, I do know that. SGT York spoke to the troops there in '43, there's a plaque at the location of the division headquarters spot. Along with Livingston and Fort Polk, it was part of the Louisiana Maneuvers.

There are also ATV trails AND a motorcycle/horseback rider singletrack trail... but its too damn far from the house to dualsport out there and ride... gonna have to hook up with a truck/trailer if we decide to ride trails.

GPS track / waypoints (IDK what's up with it.. but you can't view waypoints and track at the same time... maybe its just my GoogleEarth... but if you can't see waypoints then try disabling the track).

http://cliff.darby1987.googlepages.com/claiborne.gpx

Here's some of the more interesting pictures.



Some old buildings.. I guess some type of warehouses / storage because there's a loading-dock type ramp on the edge... not sure...



Theatre on 4th Street


Large theatre on Claiborne Ave (now LA Highway 112)


Guard shack at the main gate:


Large drainage canal on First Street:


Fenced-off area marked as "Division HQ" where the plaque about SGT York is... the original sidewalk around the flagpole is still there, too.

 

More pics:

One of the MANY chapels...




SUPER creepy buildings on the south side... not sure but it may have been the train station... people are OBVIOUSLY inhabiting these SOO I snapped my pics and didn't stick around. Probably a homeless axe murderer. The grass was freshly mashed down from tire tracks so IDK...





Sports Arena. Obviously a standard issue design... its identical to the arena in Camp Livingston



Another set of fenced-off buildings. A bunker, maybe?


Building off 4th street... something was inside it SO I didn't poke around very long. Probably an animal but I was unarmed today... so better safe than sorry.




Another large drainage canal:

 

And last but not least, here's a map circa 1943 with some of the points of interest marked. This, combined with the USFS maps, helps ALOT when you're miles from anywhere... though now that I'm using my dad's GPS, I have the trail of breadcrumbs to follow.

 

Very cool man. It's amazing how quickly the earth reclaims.

 

Old abandoned bases like that are fascinating. Must be a ton of fun exploring.