Sunday, May 27, 2012

Geocaching Adventures: Tunnel Rat

Today  I headed out to find a cache that on a map is in the middle of the road... without crossing any lanes of traffic.

Another way to look at it is that I decided to beat the heat wave by heading underground.

I can report success for both these goals.

The cache in question requires traversing a storm drain tunnel under a 4 lane divided boulevard.  I have never done a cache like this, and being a large sized dude, storm drain spelunking seems to go against the general comfort zone of confined spaces, but I figured, whats the worst that can happen?
The entrance to the tunnel
I was able to walk upright in the tunnel, but it didn't give me a lot of headroom.  The floor was dry and cracked.  At several points other 2 ft pipes joined the tunnel - I assume these lead to grates in the road way above.  Surprisingly one cannot really hear the traffic driving above.

The cache was half way down the tunnel - a small bison tube hanging from some wire - and once found I continued to the far side to see what was there.  So if you've never seen the far side of a large storm drain tunnel before... here is one example:
The other side - definitely more "urban" scenic.


My sample size of one says: always go to the other side - you never know what you will discover.