Showing posts with label EXPLORATION. Show all posts
Showing posts with label EXPLORATION. Show all posts
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Phalen Drain-Boarding
Mouser Week IX is coming to a close (officially), so its time to head back below ground.
Drain-boarding in Phalen Creek (underneath St. Paul) with Benagain, his girlfriend, and her roommate.
It was cold! Really cold! We parked near some rather shady industrial/commercial offices after driving through some shady St. Paul streets, and walked down a shady-ass road to jump into the drain. and we was COLD! 33 below cold!
The drain was warm though, once we got through the silt sludge shit that just about ate our boots.
Our objective was to find the dry round-concrete-pipe section of drain for drain-boarding, which is a long way from where we entered.
The drain is what used to be Phalen Creek before it was buried, bit by bit over the past 100 years (more on that). The fact that the drain was not built all at once means that walking upstream feels like walking through a scrambled time-capsule. Construction ranges from a concrete box, brick, a section of massive stone tunnel, and the more common eggish RCP. The walls a covered in mineral formations of many different colors, icicles, and stains. In some sections tiny holes on the floor make mini drain-geysers that shoot up several feet.
We even saw a frog float by us down stream.
We finally got to the dry section and hung around for what must have been a long time trying to get some bad-ass drain-boarding shots.
On the way out I dropped my brothers mini-mag that I 'borrowed' in the silt-sludge-shit. Reaching in and grabbing it, and then having to deal with keeping my hand warm was not the kind of thing I wanted to deal with, so there wasn't allot I could do but watch the light slowly sink and fade into the abyss. requiescat in pace
We had a bit of the scare on the way out with a Park-Police vehicle driving along our stretch of road, but we just laid low and didn't waste all of time climbing out.
Dinner was at the Riverside Perkins again, and we ran into what was left of the rest of the Mouser Week crew, and ate Perkins food.
Group photo
This one is from Ben
Update:
So apparently Freak found my light when he and the Perkins crew went to Phalen later that evening, shining from the bottom. Crazy.
Drain-boarding in Phalen Creek (underneath St. Paul) with Benagain, his girlfriend, and her roommate.
It was cold! Really cold! We parked near some rather shady industrial/commercial offices after driving through some shady St. Paul streets, and walked down a shady-ass road to jump into the drain. and we was COLD! 33 below cold!
The drain was warm though, once we got through the silt sludge shit that just about ate our boots.
Our objective was to find the dry round-concrete-pipe section of drain for drain-boarding, which is a long way from where we entered.
The drain is what used to be Phalen Creek before it was buried, bit by bit over the past 100 years (more on that). The fact that the drain was not built all at once means that walking upstream feels like walking through a scrambled time-capsule. Construction ranges from a concrete box, brick, a section of massive stone tunnel, and the more common eggish RCP. The walls a covered in mineral formations of many different colors, icicles, and stains. In some sections tiny holes on the floor make mini drain-geysers that shoot up several feet.
We even saw a frog float by us down stream.
We finally got to the dry section and hung around for what must have been a long time trying to get some bad-ass drain-boarding shots.
On the way out I dropped my brothers mini-mag that I 'borrowed' in the silt-sludge-shit. Reaching in and grabbing it, and then having to deal with keeping my hand warm was not the kind of thing I wanted to deal with, so there wasn't allot I could do but watch the light slowly sink and fade into the abyss. requiescat in pace
We had a bit of the scare on the way out with a Park-Police vehicle driving along our stretch of road, but we just laid low and didn't waste all of time climbing out.
Dinner was at the Riverside Perkins again, and we ran into what was left of the rest of the Mouser Week crew, and ate Perkins food.
Group photo
This one is from Ben
Update:
So apparently Freak found my light when he and the Perkins crew went to Phalen later that evening, shining from the bottom. Crazy.
Sunday, February 03, 2008
MW IX Update
Everyone + Junkyard at Perkins.
[almost]everyone (photo by Ben). Click to view it bigger.
Fun evening, got to meet everyone at Perkins, drank a few cups of coffee and a malt, chilled, and then headed to West Kitts. Ben and I hooked up with GoxKok and his crew and we made it to the top of the third helix. Ben and I wanted to check out some other stuff that evening, so we left them there to wait for everyone else to show up. We both slipped and fell in on the way out, Ben got his leg hurt, and I had to head home, so that pretty much ended the exploring for us that evening. Totally worth it though, I got to meet allot of really cool people that I need to go exploring with more often.
Update (2/7/08):
Ben just sprained his ankle, nothing terribly exciting.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Into the Pit
I've been pretty busy lately, otherwise I'd have posted much more content recently. Archery and theater tech have been taking up all my time after school, and working Saturday and Sunday kills my weekends. Enough complaining though, time for a story...
I signed up for the light crew this year to get myself introduced into the South High Theater. It was a good choice, cool people, fun stuff. One of the best parts is getting to know the theater. I'm not going to go into too great detail about things, but above all the seating is "the grid", catwalks and wooden planks techies walk on to change house lights and CCTs, Parcans, Fernels, and all variety of theater lights. It is an awesome place to be, and provides access to the pits. There are three pits, each located over the three sets of doors that provide access into the theater. To access them from above, you must squeeze under and between cables, pipes, and burning hot house lights. The pits primary purpose is to hold massive folding walls that expand like an acordian to divide the auditorium. They also hold a variety of equipment, dead rodents, and other oddities. Here are a few of the photos taken over the past few days "working" as a light tech and just trying to explore the theater.
A shot of the grid.
Opening the hatch into the commons.
This got us a few surprised looks from bemused administrators and janitors.
The bottom of the Pit.
On the edge.Eventually though, my luck ran out. When I was sliding down a rope, I wasn't watching what I was doing close enough, and slammed my knee into a metal pipe. It hurt like hell at first, but I managed to get out just fine. Soon after I noted a large blood stain soaking through my jeans. Fortunately, we were pretty much done for the day anyways. I went home, and when several hours later it was still bleeding, and I realized how deeply the impact had split the skin, I went in to get it stitched up. The problem was that every time I bent my knee, it would pull open, and start flowing blood. Messy. I had to go to work the next day and be able to move, so something had to be done.
Three stitches and 6 hours later I'm sitting here typing this with one sore knee seeping blood, and some aspirin, just what the doctor ordered.
I can't wait to go back.
I signed up for the light crew this year to get myself introduced into the South High Theater. It was a good choice, cool people, fun stuff. One of the best parts is getting to know the theater. I'm not going to go into too great detail about things, but above all the seating is "the grid", catwalks and wooden planks techies walk on to change house lights and CCTs, Parcans, Fernels, and all variety of theater lights. It is an awesome place to be, and provides access to the pits. There are three pits, each located over the three sets of doors that provide access into the theater. To access them from above, you must squeeze under and between cables, pipes, and burning hot house lights. The pits primary purpose is to hold massive folding walls that expand like an acordian to divide the auditorium. They also hold a variety of equipment, dead rodents, and other oddities. Here are a few of the photos taken over the past few days "working" as a light tech and just trying to explore the theater.
A shot of the grid.
Opening the hatch into the commons.
This got us a few surprised looks from bemused administrators and janitors.
The bottom of the Pit.
On the edge.Eventually though, my luck ran out. When I was sliding down a rope, I wasn't watching what I was doing close enough, and slammed my knee into a metal pipe. It hurt like hell at first, but I managed to get out just fine. Soon after I noted a large blood stain soaking through my jeans. Fortunately, we were pretty much done for the day anyways. I went home, and when several hours later it was still bleeding, and I realized how deeply the impact had split the skin, I went in to get it stitched up. The problem was that every time I bent my knee, it would pull open, and start flowing blood. Messy. I had to go to work the next day and be able to move, so something had to be done.
Three stitches and 6 hours later I'm sitting here typing this with one sore knee seeping blood, and some aspirin, just what the doctor ordered.
I can't wait to go back.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Nicollet Island IV
Its been a while. Have you noticed that it seems like I'm saying that every time I post after I've been exploring? Anyways though, a few days ago Scout asked me to go back to Satan's Cave with him so he could show it to a friend who was interested, and I said that'd be awesome.
[fast forward to the weekend]
We met in a parking lot next to the Hennepin Ave. Bridge in the late afternoon at the back of Scout's unmarked white Econoline van, and I got introduced to Kanskje. From there, we had to do a bit of calling around to let someone know where to find us if we never came back, then down we went. We used an entrance on the side of the Island, trying to make sure we didn't get seen by any of the people out in the 60+ heatwave we had, damn Americans trying to be fit and healthy. After we crawled through the collapsed "room", under the sewer, and into the tunnel, we decided to just head for the "cave", all the side tunnels were were pretty wet, and we were already going to have to walk through allot of black sewer sludge as it was.
Kanskje behind a fire-hydrant pipe
Scout and Kanskje in the brick water-main tunnel that roughly runs-around the north half of the island
Flow-stone at the base of a hydrant
Math
There isn't really a whole lot to see in the brick tunnels, except for some very interesting white fluffy looking mold that we passed by pretty quickly.
We made it all the way to the "cave", took a look at the tags and carvings, met a few bats sleeping upside-down in niches on the walls, but didn't stay too long. The air this time was particularly bad, the worst I've ever had down there yet, really thick and lacking real oxygen. It got to the point that Scout and I were really starting to notice it, so we decided to book before we got to take a look at the shrine again. We ended up going straight for the manhole that opens into the middle of the field.
I popped it without anyone seeing us, about and hour and a half after we went down. Just as soon as we slid the cover back in place, a police car pulled up about 60 yards away. I'm pretty sure they never saw us, but we got out of there pretty quick. We took our time getting back to the parking lot, and split up.
The river was like glass
It's fun exploring with awesome new people, so hopefully, we'll all go do something like this again soon, but somewhere besides Nicollet Island. Its kinda starting to get old now, and conditions down there don't seem likely to get better to soon, so its time to find somewhere new, maybe a grain elevator, we'll see...
Me on top of a light tower next to the Hennepin Ave. Bridge
Preacher or dictator?
rise!
Making a point
Meh?
[fast forward to the weekend]
We met in a parking lot next to the Hennepin Ave. Bridge in the late afternoon at the back of Scout's unmarked white Econoline van, and I got introduced to Kanskje. From there, we had to do a bit of calling around to let someone know where to find us if we never came back, then down we went. We used an entrance on the side of the Island, trying to make sure we didn't get seen by any of the people out in the 60+ heatwave we had, damn Americans trying to be fit and healthy. After we crawled through the collapsed "room", under the sewer, and into the tunnel, we decided to just head for the "cave", all the side tunnels were were pretty wet, and we were already going to have to walk through allot of black sewer sludge as it was.
Kanskje behind a fire-hydrant pipe
Scout and Kanskje in the brick water-main tunnel that roughly runs-around the north half of the island
Flow-stone at the base of a hydrant
Math
There isn't really a whole lot to see in the brick tunnels, except for some very interesting white fluffy looking mold that we passed by pretty quickly.
We made it all the way to the "cave", took a look at the tags and carvings, met a few bats sleeping upside-down in niches on the walls, but didn't stay too long. The air this time was particularly bad, the worst I've ever had down there yet, really thick and lacking real oxygen. It got to the point that Scout and I were really starting to notice it, so we decided to book before we got to take a look at the shrine again. We ended up going straight for the manhole that opens into the middle of the field.
I popped it without anyone seeing us, about and hour and a half after we went down. Just as soon as we slid the cover back in place, a police car pulled up about 60 yards away. I'm pretty sure they never saw us, but we got out of there pretty quick. We took our time getting back to the parking lot, and split up.
The river was like glass
It's fun exploring with awesome new people, so hopefully, we'll all go do something like this again soon, but somewhere besides Nicollet Island. Its kinda starting to get old now, and conditions down there don't seem likely to get better to soon, so its time to find somewhere new, maybe a grain elevator, we'll see...
Me on top of a light tower next to the Hennepin Ave. Bridge
Preacher or dictator?
rise!
Making a point
Meh?
Friday, July 13, 2007
Nicollet Island (3rd Times the Charm)
Weer'e baack! No more silly reports stolen from other sites, its time for some super bad ass urban exploring! I was chatting with a friend I hadn't seen since school ended (Sparkling Wild Berry) and she brought up the idea of going exploring with another friend (Scout) that I had talked about doing something like this over the summer with. Long story short, Thursday morning we were on the way to Satan's cave. Yeah, I know we've been there half a half dozen times before, but there is still plenty of it I haven't seen, and its sort of like a good place to get back into shape.
Every trip we had made before this, we had used a manhole located on a hill in the middle of a field to get into the tunnels, and we were more than lucky no one ever saw us. A few days before this trip, I had spent an afternoon walking around the island, trying to find a better way in. I found one.
Every trip we had made before this, we had used a manhole located on a hill in the middle of a field to get into the tunnels, and we were more than lucky no one ever saw us. A few days before this trip, I had spent an afternoon walking around the island, trying to find a better way in. I found one.
We crawled our way up into a partially caved-in "room" littered with slabs of limestone and sleeping bags, then down a length of sandstone tunnel before emptying into another large space, this one bisected by a branch of the large brick sewer tunnels found under the island. We has two choices, over or under. Scout and I took the high road, and SWB managed to get through underneath. We had to take turns tossing packs and gear back and forth to fit through some of the tight spots, but it wasn't long before we ended up in a brick water main tunnel. We followed that for a long time. We didn't take any side tunnels this time, it was wet, heck, our main tunnel was flooded enough in parts that even by walking on the top of the water main pipe, our shoes were sinking into about an inch of nasty smelling black sludge shit.
Eventually we got to the cave. Out came the cameras, we admired the artwork, and moved on. We took the long way out and headed through the "other cave" that loops into the brick tunnel again closer to our old entrance.
Scout in Satan's Cave
Lick Nuts. If ya haven't figured it out by now, yeah, we're weird
Scout, art aficionado
Sculpture in the cave
SWB documenting
In the belly of the beast.
Check that?... err, still here
Not even alcohol
The shrine
Hugh?
Light writers
Artists
Maybe
Scout BW
Sparkling Wild Berry
Me (thanks Scout)
SWB again
Back into the brick tunnel
It was actually open when we got there. Weired. At the top we found a flashlight someone had left. Double weird. Call us lucky or Scout's got mad skilz, cause no one saw us this time either! Afterwards, we stopped by the Aster Cafe' on the mall there for some lunch and a few rounds of Jenga. Great place. Got to go back there some time when I'm not covered in clay.
Eventually we got to the cave. Out came the cameras, we admired the artwork, and moved on. We took the long way out and headed through the "other cave" that loops into the brick tunnel again closer to our old entrance.
Scout in Satan's Cave
Lick Nuts. If ya haven't figured it out by now, yeah, we're weird
Scout, art aficionado
Sculpture in the cave
SWB documenting
In the belly of the beast.
Check that?... err, still here
Not even alcohol
The shrine
Hugh?
Light writers
Artists
Maybe
Scout BW
Sparkling Wild Berry
Me (thanks Scout)
SWB again
Back into the brick tunnel
It was actually open when we got there. Weired. At the top we found a flashlight someone had left. Double weird. Call us lucky or Scout's got mad skilz, cause no one saw us this time either! Afterwards, we stopped by the Aster Cafe' on the mall there for some lunch and a few rounds of Jenga. Great place. Got to go back there some time when I'm not covered in clay.
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