To see a slideshow of popular Baton Rouge urban exloring locations, click here. Colleen Kane explored an old abandoned asylum in Edison, N.J., observing patient files scattered over the floors, a wing too dark to navigate with a mysteriously spongy floor and a room where metal adult cribs had been pushed into the empty swimming pool.”It was scary, fascinating and huge, and you never knew who you’d run into there,” Kane said.Urban exploration — touring abandoned, off-limits buildings or tunnels — has been around since cities have existed, but the term was coined in 1996, according to the Urban Explorers Network. Explorers examine storm drains, buildings, rooftops, transit tunnels, college steam tunnels, old ruins and other man-made structures.The popularity has exploded, leading to thousands of Web sites allowing members to share exploration stories, photos and tips. Kane, a Rutgers University alumna and Baton Rouge resident, began urban exploring with her friends in high school, stemming from boredom and curiosity.View Baton Rouge Urban Exploring in a larger mapKane’s brother led the pack and would often come home announcing an abandoned house he had stumbled upon.”Then us bored teenagers would go there and see what we could find, which was usually just graffiti, bottles and other evidence of bored teenagers who came before us,” she said.Kane moved to Baton Rouge nearly two decades later and picked up the hobby again when she noticed the interesting buildings left to rot around the city, she said.”I’ve always had a taste for the morbid,” she said. “I’m a horror fan, and this hobby plays into those interests.”Kane stops at any abandoned building, pokes around, looks in the windows and takes pictures.”If the places were open, we might be tempted to go in,” she said.One of Kane’s favorite places to explore in Baton Rouge is The Bellemont Hotel, formerly Baton Rouge’s premier motor lodge where movie stars stayed when filming in town. The plantation-style hotel and convention center was built in 1946, according to a Yahoo travel listing.”Now it’s mostly in ruins and getting overgrown by plants and mold, although some of the rooms there are still lived in,” she said. “I took so many pictures; I had to go home for another memory card.”Kane said for the most part no one bothers her on her explorations.”I rarely go out alone anymore and really should be taking more precautions than I do,” she said. “I do frequently encounter someone sitting in the shade at a site, and then I usually just quietly turn around and go the other direction.”Today, Kane maintains a blog to document her excursions. She said she usually tries to explore at least a few times a month.Baton Rouge is home to many popular sites including old plantations on River Road, drainage tunnels under Government Street, The Real Superstore and the Lincoln Theater Complex near downtown.One popular site was the Geodesic Dome, built by R. Buckminster Fuller in 1958, according to one urban-exploring Web site.The dome was the 9th largest in the U.S., sitting on a stretch off Scenic Highway, but was closed and left in desolation in 1983. The dome was demolished in 2007, but still remains a popular site for exploration.UNIVERSITY TUNNELSRunning under the Quad and three miles throughout campus, with dozens of access points, the University houses a maze of tunnels that have been popular for students to explore for decades.”We call them utility tunnels because they carry all the campus’ utilities,” said Bobby Pitre, executive director of Facility and Utility Operations. “They carry electrical power lines, data cables for the Internet, compressed air and all domestic water for drinking.”Some of the tunnels are more than 70 years old and range from large passageways up to 6 feet tall to tighter squeezes of only 18 to 20 inches high.”You can crawl through there if you are small,” Pitre said.Pitre said he’s only been in the tunnels a few times to repair leaks, and he must carry a flashlight and dress properly because of asbestos.”There used to be a lighting system, but over the years, no one has ever put the money into fixing it,” he said. “But since I’ve been here, they’ve made a tremendous amount of progress repairing [the leaks].”Pitre said he’s currently in the process of applying for a grant to receive stimulus money to repair the tunnels.”Some of the areas are really old, but the bigger issue is the energy,” he said. “The insulation on the piping is 50 to 60 years old. It’s falling off the pipe and wasting a lot of energy.”Students may notice a warning sign on an unlocked gate under the stairs near Subway in Foster Hall or the large steel doors scattered around the Quad with a ladder leading into the pitch-black, musty tunnels.”They’ve tried to secure some of the tunnels when they can, but we really hesitate to put locks because we don’t want anyone doing work to get locked in,” Pitre said. “None are locked, but the doors are pretty heavy.”Pitre said students exploring the tunnels has lost its popularity in the past 10 years, but he still finds clothes, trash and graffiti from current explorers.Associate Dean of Students and Director of Judicial Affairs Eric Norman said he’s only heard of the tunnels and was unsure if they really existed.”I usually get a few folks that walk into H.P. Long a handful of times a year,” Norman said. “Usually, a small group of folks go in.”Norman said the sanction for trespassing varies. But he usually assigns disciplinary probation, an ethical decision-making class and possibly community service or restitution if there was any damage.LEGALITIESSgt. Don Kelly, Baton Rouge Police Department spokesman, said going onto private or public property without permission could be considered trespassing, and violators could be cited under city or state law, depending on the circumstances and location.”Not to mention, it could be very dangerous,” Kelly said.According to East Baton Rouge Parish law, trespassing includes the unauthorized and intentional taking possession of any tract of land or structure thereon without the consent of the owner or the unauthorized entry upon any enclosed immovable property or lands belonging to public institutions.Individuals found guilty of trespassing could be fined up to $25 and imprisoned up to 20 days.But urban exploring usually includes only taking pictures — not vandalizing, stealing or breaking in, according to the Urban Explorers Network.—-Contact Leslie Presnall at [email protected]