Culvert Ops II: Under Warehouses
“You know,” he said, his voice echoing off the flat concrete surfaces encasing us, “You are probably the strangest person I’ve ever worked with.”
I laugh and continue to line up a photo in the darkness. As I held my breath to take the long exposured shot, I wondered what’s so strange about venturing into a dank drainage tunnel during your lunch hour to kneel in two inches of water and one inch of algae just to capture a few pictures. “Well,” I concluded silently by the time the camera shutter closed, “what’s strange about that is probably that I don’t find it strange at all.”
As promised in the original Culvert Ops post, my network admin, who I shall refer to as Trixalot, and I returned to the cavernous tunnel. I had no idea where it could lead and was dying to explore. And a few of you have recently expressed your lingering curiosity as well…so it was clearly time to do some urban spelunking.
As we walked down the angled concrete culvert toward the dark opening, I swear I felt thirteen again. I found myself laughing as my feet slipped into the water and caught myself ducking slightly to avoid being seen by the various employees of the warehouses on either side of the ditch. Sadly, I was not as ninja-like as I thought.
“Whatcha doing?” asked a voice from my right, just 20 feet from the entrance.
“Um…taking some pictures,” I answered vaguely while waving my camera in his general direction. I was hoping that would satisfy the man with the cigarette long enough for us to escape into the darkness.
“Well I can see that,” he responded…not accepting my brush off.
“Just want to get a few pictures of the inside of that tunnel.” I just kept on marching. Not to be antisocial…but I didn’t want to risk a conversation that might wind its way toward “I don’t think you should be going in there.”
“Hmm,” he said thoughtfully. “Guess you gotta be creative to get interesting pictures.”
I agreed with an “uh-huh” and didn’t explain that the camera was mostly for my web readers. I’d have been going into that tunnel one way or the other. I mean…it’s a hole in the ground…how can you not be curious where it leads?
As we entered the damp space, the temperature dropped instantly and the cool humidity clung to my skin. The sounds of dripping water and chirping birds surrounded us in a web of echoes. I didn’t look back to see if Smoke Break Guy was still watching.
About thirty feet in we found an access chute leading up to a manhole cover. I guess the service folks who occasionally go down there don’t like using the front door for some reason. A steady drip from the surface above made photographing up the chute a bit messy…but the otherwise flat walls gave me little else to point the camera at so I kept at it.
The occasional bird zipped past our heads, most likely protecting nest that we were never able to locate. There were countless little pipes leading into the tunnel from the sides. I suppose there could have been nests in some of them…but I hope not. I can only assume the pipes are occasionally gushing water…which wouldn’t be quite the environment Mamma Bird was expecting when she built her nest.
One especially large side pipe emptied into the system. It was plenty big enough to crawl through, but I thought better of it since I couldn’t see anything down there that might give me hope of it opening into a larger space. But don’t think I wasn’t tempted.
For my first few pictures, I tried to keep myself as dry as possible. I squatted instead of kneeling. I avoided brushing against the damp walls. However, I quickly realized the long exposure times required for such lighting needed more than my unsteady hand. I wished for a tripod but had only a monopod to lend stability. I started leaning hard against the walls and kneeling directly into the water.
Trixalot waited behind me, shining the flashlights about in a search for rats, snakes or any other living things that could threaten to crawl or chew on us, but nothing attacked.
Our progress was slow as I attempted shot after shot, but eventually the slow curve of the tunnel took us away from the glow of daylight behind us. Sadly, almost as quickly as the light faded behind, light became visible ahead. It seemed the tunnel simply formed a long S-curve to cut between the warehouses above and probably dumped out behind them.
Another curve brought full daylight streaming in and soon we stood triumphantly at the other side. Concrete behind us…wooded creek before us. It wasn’t the exciting destination I had been hoping for…but then again, I’m not exactly sure what more I could have hoped for.
We turned around and slogged our way back through the tunnel. By the time we reached the original open-air culvert, my shoes were too wet to hold traction on the concrete slope. I almost wished Smoke Break Guy were there to wonder again at my sanity as I waded through the center of the sometimes foot and a half deep drainage. Trixalot…having forgotten to bring shorts for the excursion, opted to climb out of the culvert rather than follow me.
We had successfully charted the water’s path through the tunnel. Trixalot said that was sufficient for his daily adventure and headed back to the office. I figured I was already soaked and in full exploration mode, so I opted to see what waited upstream from our office. Only forty feet or so down, the concrete disappeared…replaced by creek bed, tangled vines, and stagnant pools of mucky water that I had no interest in wading through even in my pre-funkified condition. I pushed as far as I was comfortable, unable to climb without risking the camera and was able to snap one good shot of an abandoned bridge through the twisted foliage. It was overgrown and forgotten and I have no idea why it was abandoned nor why it was even built in the first place. But it made for a mysterious conclusion to my journey.
I returned to my office, changed back into my dress slacks and sat my wet clothes outside the warehouse to bake in the sun before taking a business call. As I chatted with Experian’s tech support group about a glitch on their website, I considered Trixalot’s claim. I don’t know where I fit on the continuum of workplace weirdness…but I was pretty sure the friendly IT guy I was talking to had not just returned from an underground lunchtime photo shoot.
(All photos can be clicked for larger versions)
12 comments:
Wow, I get first comment on "Culvert Ops II." As I thought, it held it's own with any season finale I've seen on TV this spring. (Ok, it's not quite as good as Supernatural. But what is?)
I love that Moksha is the kind of kooky lovable guy who would want to explore a drainage ditch. Number 1 brother in law, that's him. :) I'm a little bit jealous..the most adventure I ever get at work is fending off overly-friendly street people while waiting for the bus.
Great work, Moksha. Those photos looked pretty steady to me, so nice job there, too.
What a cool adventure. The best thing near my work is a set of train tracks (you've seen them in my depth of field tutorial last Friday) that lead into a narrow, dense wood. I followed them long enough to get sweaty, and had to go around or over several trees down across the tracks. When I got back to the office, I hadn't been logged back into my computer more than five minutes before I found a tick crawling on me.
Nonetheless, office lunch hour adventures rock!
Does Trixalot know he was so dubbed? Because that's funny. I like that last shot of him, eyes cast up. "Dear God, I can't believe I work for this guy."
You should have seen the look I got this morning when a co-worker asked me how I was doing and I replied with, "Well, it's really overcast out there today, but my disposition more than makes up for it!"
Very steady pictures, all other things considered. Now I'm wishing for a tunnel near my work. We have train tracks, but it's kind of obvious where they go.
I guess it would be fun to have something to explore near work, but then again I am a girl and quite content with working next to a shopping mall. :D
I did take the stroller through the new street construction zone, to the park they're building down the neighbourhood. Oh, hey! Maybe I'll try the wood trail I've seen just before there, though. Hum...
Great post! It's a refreshing change from usual blog posts (and the makings of a unique meme?!)
This was a great post Mokker. Usually I wince when I see that many feet of text on a screen ;-)
You're very good at narrating. Glad you satisfied the cave crave. Anxious to see what you decide to share next.
Great story and adventure! I loved reading it. Good thing a gully washer didn't come along!
Ha ha!!!
I just now got the extra bit of funny in this post's title.
Sorry Moksha, I'm normally a sharper tack than that.
It's a strange thing to publish a post and then walk away from the blog for four straight days. A bit like setting up a keg in your house and handing the keys to your friends on the way out. But, I figured the post was done...no reason to make folks wait for the conclusion. I'm glad the conversations went on in my absence.
Mouse - "kooky lovabe guy"...as apt, I suppose, as any description I've heard. Well..so long as you only count the positive ones.
Mark - Some of the shots are a bit blurrier than I would have liked, and I certainly threw out several...but overall I was pretty happy with the way they came out. The one of Trixalot aiming the flashlight into the side tube feels really cool to me..but isn't as crisp as it should be. But, I love the one right after that. The water ripples make me smile.
Don't let the ticks ruin your fun. Get some spray and do a lunchtime hike. It's good for the soul, dude.
Si - Not only does Trixalot know he is so dubbed...he picked it. Whenever possible, I pick nicknames someone has already self-applied. That's his XBox gamertag. We usually refer to him as Trixie while we're playing..but that seemed too effeminate without the guns and carnage to balance it out...so I stuck to his full tag.
Trixalot may often shake his head in disbelief at working for such an oddball...but he loves it. He just has to act cool so folks don't think he's actually enjoying himself.
Yeah...the title's horribly cheesy, but I put it there cuz it made me laugh and I figured either you or Mark would get a kick out of it. Glad someone noticed. :)
Emilie - I totally understand that not everyone has an interest in wading through the sewers...but take your adventures where you find them. Wooded trail sounds like a fun change of pace. Hype it up with a bunch of over-blown melodrama and you've got the makings of a swell post ;)
Linda - Thanks for wading through the text. I know I can be an overly wordy fellow...so I try to throw in pictures to make it look a bit less scary. Thanks for coming along.
Mike - Believe me...I was well aware of the flood threat. There were indications everywhere down there that the water level occassionally reached around 6 feet or so and I've seen that culvert raging a time or two. One of the main reasons for delay between Culvert Ops I and II was waiting for a day with no chance of rain. I'm all for quasi-dangerous adventures...but I ain't going out like that. Nor do I plan on being that schmuck who has to get rescued from a drainage culvert with only a flimsy story about pleasing his blog readers as an excuse for being down there in the first place. Even I'd laugh at that guy when I read about him on someone else's blog ;)
Another nice post, well written.
I think there is still some boy left in all of us (all of us males, anyway)that jumps at the chance to explore. I think that as adults we either ignore it or become self-conscious of it. Maybe we just don't find the time to induldge that part of our nature because we are all 'grown up.' I'm glad you indulged.
I'm think I'm going to go dig that underground hide out I fantasized about as a kid. :)
I totally lost it when I read your comment to me on the "f'ing fan" image...I am still laughing at that one! Thanks so much for your compliment and I so glad that you liked it so much despite its " severe ordinariness"....is that a word? Oh well...thanks again!
:)
I also meant to say that I really like some of these tunnel shots! Very nice...the fifth one os my favorite!
I can just see my husband and sons going on an adventure like this. . . I don't get it, but thank you for your post.
Post a Comment