PanzerGirl

About the scariest of places I've been is out on the scarcer/darker side of a smaller airport. It was all industrial buildings and not a lot of good lighting out there - and this was while I was out at around midnight - so keep that in mind as well. Just about any area can be scary to me if it's too dark and doesn't have potential witnesses to anything weird going on. I've also been to North Hollywood on my bike and that was a trip in and of itself. =o)
-Jen

Michigander

I was in a bad area of detroit today because of missing a freeway exit. I'm talking about some seriously nasty gang territory. Granted I was in my car, but I was still quite on the edge of my seat.

The worst riding experience I've had was half a decade ago on the Michigander when I got stalked by angry hicks and almost got in a fight with them. (Please don't mess with locals while touring. I didn't learn my lesson from deliverance, but you can.)

here and there

There is a short section of a bike path I sometimes take on sunday/saturday mornings that connects to other roads and paths heading east towards some hills. It's only about half a mile but there is dense shrubbery on either side of the path and nothing but a big field on either side beyond that. Shady activities are known to go on in that area. The path ends and meets some roads that go through business complexes and neighborhoods that have seen better days....it's a rather isolated area until you come up to more business complexes next to a freeway on/off ramp. Plenty of traffic around by then.

It's not that scary riding through this area, just a bit unsettling as in the early morning (6:15-6:45 am) on a weekend I am usually the only one around and the only sounds are the birds and my bike. The return trip through this area alright as there are usually plenty of cyclists around.

Sporkinum

That reminds me of a funny thing.. Way back in 1995 I toured solo across the US. The weather was turning to crap just as I was getting into Huntington WV. I decided to pop for a motel since I hadn't showered in a while and didn't want to set up the tent in the rain. Get checked in to a divey no-tell motel, settled in, and watched Deliverance. Got on the bike the next day and proceded to ride right through scenes from the movie. Beautiful country, but I swear I saw a kid with eyes that were too close together that was carrying a banjo.

KnhoJ

Did it look nice? And not too expensive?

roadfix

I avoid riding through MS-13 territory.

MarkS

Well maintained cemeteries may be peaceful, but older cemeteries near run-down sections of town (as often happens) can be gang hang-outs.

hjduck

South side of Chicago on a solo cross counrty tour. I made sure I rode through during daylight, and was ready to ride through stop signs or red lights if I had to. I didn't have to.

hjduck

South side of Chicago on a solo cross counrty tour. I made sure I rode through during daylight, and was ready to ride through stop signs or red lights if I had to. I didn't have to.

here and there

Looks nice and overgrown.

Alekhine

When I lived in Buffalo, Forest Lawn Cemetery was by far the nicest, quietest, largest (269 acres), most car-less place to ride in the city. It was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, who also designed Central Park in NYC. Very beautiful place.

sentinel4675

Sometimes riding at night I will go past corn fields and it can be spooky hearing the corn rustling in the wind. It sometimes sounds like someone if running out the field after you. Also, the reflections of the little eyes of creatures in the corn is spooky.

james Haury

I love riding through cemeteries but only during the day.A local cemetery has mulberry trees ,the berries are delicous. .At night i do not ride thruogh cemeteries, they are locked up .

ken cummings

Skyline Drive on the west side of Canon City, Colorado is no place for Acrophobes. Either a WPA crew or labor from the local state prisons built a scenic one way one lane road down the knife edge of a Hogback ridge. Visualize a narrow road with no shoulders or guard rails and a 70 to 80 degree drop off on either side of the pavement for several hundred feet. The Colorado Springs bike club used to offer that road as an option on their Tour De Hardscrabble century.

unkchunk

The park next to my apartment was an old IOOF cemetary. Seems when they built the apartment complex they just bulldozed the tombstones down the hill, others planted in the pavement. It was a road for a while and then two years ago the town blocked it off and turned it into a park. I guess sometimes the living are creepier than the dead.

sentinel4675

How in the heck did they get away with bull dozing a cemetery? That is sad.

Michigander

Bull dozing cemeterys is common. Do you actually think that you get a grave forever? Bill Ford or Julia Roberts might, but regular dead folks get dug up and burned up after a couple hundred years or so. If that wasn't the case, the world would be covered with cemeterys.

dannyq

Seriously?! They just bulldozed the tombstones! Crazy!

sentinel4675

The world is covered with cemeteries. I don't think cemeteries are bulldozed as easily as you imply. There are hundreds of cemeteries in the US with graves 200-300 years old. In my town we have a grave for a veteran from the Revolutionary War.

Silverexpress

Hmmmm.....must have something to do with the type of fertilizer they use.........

silversmith

Tell me about it! I LIVE in the middle of a cornfield. I'm completely surrounded by a cornfield. I've got six miles worth of cornfield each way on my daily commute.

My "backyard."

7rider

Riding through the Baylands at night - after watching the Blair Witch Project.

bbattle

When I lived in New Orleans, I worked over on the West Bank. I rode my bike to the ferry for a nice, free ride across. Then I'd ride on the levee next to the river to work. There was one section where a lot of hobos lived. Most of the time they were asleep but every once in a while one would be standing there, looking at me with a crazed look on his face. Maybe he was trying to figure out how to ask me for money, maybe he was taking a dump in his pants. I learned to put a crazed look on my face, too and ride by real fast. Riding down Tchoupitoulas or Magazine towards the warehouse district at 6 am wasn't the nicest place to ride in New Orleans, either.

edp773

When just out of high school we used to go to the local cemetery looking for a lady who supposedly stabbed her father's grave. Her father had locked in in her room and would not let her marry the love of her life. This act made her crazy. To make the story shorter we saw her one night and she chased us out of the cemetary. If you ever looked this lady in the eyes you could see she was not a friendly person.

Bikes-N-Drums

I know that area. It seems everyone has a cruiser-style bike over there.