Suburban Spellunking!

I was hesitant to go out, but after some computer work, Charlie gave me a call and said, yo, I’m near the cache. come find it now! It took a bit of convincing, but I had napped and needed a break, so I figured, why the hell not. He warned me that I would want a good pair of rubber boots as he couldn’t guarantee how deep the water was, so I stopped at Wal-Mart and picked up boots and batteries for the lantern. The adventure has begun…

We headed into the storm drain in search of a Geocache he left quite a ways in. Allowing me to lead the way, I searched for and found his Cache! It was a 5 gallon bucket hidden with in the tunnels. Very cool spot, but the fun didn’t end here. Charlie had grown up in this neighborhood and there were a lot of “legends” about these tunnels having drop-offs, or large caverns, rats, serial rapists, etc… so he decided to traverse the entire length of the tunnels.

We headed on through the tunnels, and realized that it was not going to be an easy trip. We had to remain hunched over as the tunnels were only about 4 feet tall (maybe a bit more, but not much).. Every chance we got we stopped to sit and stretch our legs. We utilized every manhole opening as a point to stand up. The tunnels seemed to go on and on forever…

There was graffiti written for quite a large distance through the tunnel, but eventually we hit the end and the walls became bare. It was almost apparent that nobody had ever been in some of the parts we were in, unless like us, someone else has make the adventure.

About halfway on our trip, somewhere under Hempstead Tpke. we found a larger area where we could stand up freely. This was our first major resting point as we could sit or stand and really stretch out. Even here, there was some graffiti. Thinking that we had passed all the writings, perhaps someone came down a manhole near this point, or maybe someone else had been through what we’ve done so far.

By now, my legs were hurting. Turning back seemed to be the best option, but we moved on forward. Continuing through the tunnels. We had to be careful not to bump the top of the tunnels as there was a lot of condensation, and bumping the top meant dirty water dripping down our heads.

The tunnel changed from the square tunnels that we had been traveling to lard round pipes one could walk through if they were, say, 4 feet tall. I think that the tunnel was taller but the round unlevel surface made for an interesting walk, especially while hunched over still. The pipes went on forever and seemed to get smaller and smaller. Had I been claustrophobic (sp?) I don’t think I would have been able to manage this part of the trip. But I went on.

There came one point that the tunnel took a change for the worse! The width remained, but the actual tunnel went from maybe 4.5 feet tall to about 3.5 feet tall. I was concerned. My legs were already hurting and If those tunnels did not lead out, I would not want to be stuck somewhere I couldn’t even attempt to stand in.

Being in better shape than me, Yoshi went ahead and I followed behind, resting at any dry spots along the way. It was only a few hundred feet, but it seemed like another mile. Finally, we exited onto a private golf course… Exhausted, Hungry, but Satisfied. We had traversed the entire drain, all 1.2 miles (give or take) of it! and it only took around 3 hours!

While through the tunnels we found various items including a 6 sided-die, a golf club and even a switchblade knife… Charlie took the knife and the die, we just left the golf club propped up, a sure sign for anyone else who tries the quest that someone was there. It’s not a quest for the weak, or the weak minded, but the satisfaction of the accomplishment is great!