The Maze

(lost underground for 4 hours)
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While planning the trip to Calgary, I had thought out some places I wanted to visit; The Maze was near the top of the list. A legendary drain in Calgary, the Maze has been explored countless times by many- even I had explored part of it once, with the Ghosts back in Februray 2002. Since then, the drain has undergone considerable renovation, with many new pipes and additions. The new construction has only strengthened The Maze's drawing power- now, more than ever, it lives up to its name.
Note: To make a bit of sense of this convoluted labyrinth of a drain, I suggest you consult THIS MAP (courtesy of UEA)
I planned to cover as much of The Maze as I could in one day, and I was planning for a long trek. Outfall entry was my preferred option, so I jumped a fence into a golf course and walked down to the creek that forms at The Maze's outfall. The outfall itself foreshadows the rest of the drain- it's a triple duct, with three large openings side by side. I chose duct #2 in the middle, since it was taller, and I walked into the pipe.
Square pipes are always a bit of a treat for me, since Edmonton seems to be lacking them. The one I chose was 1800, and the flat bottom made for easy walking. I was searching my memory for any clues as to what the drain held up ahead, but I could only remember scattered bits and pieces from my trip over a year previous. I soon entered a tall, rectangular junction room where the three pipes from the outfall joined up- but now, there were four pipes. To my surprise, somewhere along the way, Pipe #3 had split in two. On the downstream side, where I'd just emerged, there were large metal floodgates open overhead. Ahead, there were four choices- two round, two square. I decided to stick with the direction I'd been going, and chose the second round pipe, which was about 1650.
Not too far along, this RCP lead me into another room like the one I'd just passed- except all the pipes leading out were square. Again, I kept to the track I'd chosen, and took the second from the left. This duct was 1650, but not far in, I came to somewhat of an impasse. The drain literally got cut in half, the ceiling dropping to a 1500 (but 2400 wide!). I ducked in, and crouched through the pipe until I came to the first manhole room. I couldn't see the drain getting any bigger, so I turned and headed back to the junction room.
Once there, I took the next pipe over (#3), a 1650 duct which looked to be showing some signs of age. I crouched through this for a while, until I came upon a 'window' in the wall of the drain. On my left, running parallel to the pipe I was in, was pipe #4 from the junction room. Pipe #4 seemed to have manhole rooms, so I crossed through the window into it in order to stand up. I continued up pipe #4, grateful for the standing room and fresher air provided by the manhole rooms. Eventually, these rooms also had grated manhole covers, which let in rays of light. The drain was fairly straight, and looking down its length, I could see patches of light from upcoming manhole rooms. I love draining during the day, and not expecting so much light in the drain, I was already regretting having left my tripod at the house.
Just when my back was starting to ache, I walked into the Ghosts' room. I actually remembered this room from my previous visit- having watched Toad use spraypaint to fill in her tag on one of the walls. The Ghosts' room is an odd shape- three drain pipes empty into it, two pipes leave from it. Two of the pipes coming in are twins, as are the two which leave (I'd just come out of one of these). Although I remembered the Ghosts' room, I couldn't remember where I was supposed to go. Trusting in a tag UEA had spraypainted on one wall, I trusted them to lead me to the "Cool Shit".
This new duct was 1800, and I was glad to be able to stand upright once again. As a bonus, this pipe was equipped with some cool little "skylights"- small, square holes in the ceiling of the drain let in daylight. These were actually the drain holes in the bottoms of catchbasins which happened to be located directly on top of this fairly shallow pipe.
I was fairly suprised when the 1800 pipe suddenly emerged into a large junction room; if I remember correctly, there were two pipes leading away in front of me. But I was even more surprised when I looked to my left, and into the gaping darkness of a massive duct. The duct pipe was 3m x 3m, and I couldn't resist following it right away. It was indeed huge, with enough room to drive a car inside. It was also fairly new- I can't recall the exact date Lafarge concrete had printed on the pipes, but I remember thinking it was pretty recent.
This 3m duct took a few turns, enough to disorient me even more completely- but as I came around a bend, I knew immediately where I was. Well, sort of- the sight in front of me was familiar, at least. The 3mx3m pipe was literally cut in half, and the ceiling descended to a pipe with the familiar size of 1500 tall x 2400 wide. I believe that this is the other end of the pipe I'd declined to follow a while back. Confusing? Hell yes, but this is The Maze, after all.
I backtracked to the nearest junction, and walked into a pipe I remembered somewhat affectionately from my trip in Feb 02. This pipe is tall and narrow- essentially perfect for walking through- with nifty walls that have taken on the texture of the plywood used in the concrete forms. As cool as concrete with a wood-grain texture is, it would have been very difficult for me to photograph, so I kept walking.
Up ahead, I came to an interesting window on the right wall of the pipe. Crossing over, I came into a large junction room of sorts- a big RCP was draining in, and a 1650 duct was draining out. There was also a ladder leading up to a manhole. As I was looking around this room, a great and terrible noise started up. It was something rumbling, and mechanical, and it echoed loudly from every direction. It very nearly scared the shit out of me, and my head was suddenly filled with visions of a wall of water thundering down the drain towards me. I bolted up the manhole ladder, and sat in a small chamber at the top, looking back down into the pipe. At any second, I expected to see a sudden burst of water come flooding through the room I'd just been in. The loud noise continued for several minutes, and I started getting antsy, because as far as I could tell, nothing was happening. Then, just as suddenly as it started, the noise stopped. I waited for a minute or so, then slowly climbed back down the ladder. The drain was peaceful, the water still flowed silently and evenly down the pipe. Puzzled, but also very happy that I wasn't in any immediate danger, I decided to go back through the window and continue exploring upstream.
I passed through an odd junction or two, where the pipe hiccuped and switched alignment with another identical (but newer-looking) drain that seemed to run parallel. I came to a spot where there were four huge PVC pipes embedded halfway into the wall. UEA has name these the "Whack-a-Mole", and they're essentially just windows into the pipe next door which runs parallel.
Eventually, both pipes came into a small junction, and I was faced with yet another choice- three pipes lead out from here. A duct to my right, and an RCP and another duct straight ahead. I chose to keep going straight, but headed into the duct, which was bigger than the RCP. Walking through this, the bottom of the drain steadily became filled with more and more sand. The sound of falling water up ahead kept me going, though, and eventually I came to another small junction. Here, a small RCP and a small duct both emptied in- the water sound came from the duct, which had a small waterfall pouring out of it. The body of a dead mouse was sitting just on the edge of the waterfall, and since then I have always thought of this place as "Dead Mouse Falls". But, rather than keep going, I decided to head back.
I had a good reason for turning back. UEA had informed me that the massive drain known as The Hangar is connected to The Maze; and I suspected that I had gone too far and somehow missed the correct junction. On my journey back down the pipe, I took the parallel branch that I hadn't traversed yet, and it was intersting to pass by the same landmarks while following a different pipe: the whack-a-mole, and the screwed up junction rooms.
Eventually, the pipe lead me back into the junction room with the window where I'd heard the very loud and disturbing noise a little while before. Now, I followed the pipe down in the direction the noise seemed to have been coming from. The duct lead me a short way before emerging into yet another junction room- here, two large (possibly 3m dia) RCPs went in different directions. I chose the branch to the left, which led me to The Hangar.

For the sake of keeping this narrative as short as possible, I've decided to separate The Hangar and The Maze into two different mission reports. If you wish, go read The Hangar and come back to finish this journey, or carry on reading.

(Report continues from after I exit The Hangar, from the same pipe I entered)
I decided to go down the large RCP, and hopefully find out what had caused the terrible noise that scared the bejeezus out of me. Walking along, I didn't see any signs of recent flooding, and I passed by a manhole room or two. Then I spotted it- a PVC pipe, about 500mm in diameter, low on the wall of the drain. The surrounding walls of the RCP looked like they'd been sprayed with water, although only the walls immediately across from and next to the pipe were wet. I dubbed this "The Noisemaker", and I wonder what it looks like when it's spewing water.
At the time, I wasn't too eager to wait around and find out, so I quickly stepped past the pipe and carried on downstream. The big RCP led me back to the junction room with the 3m x 3mx duct, and I recognized where I was. I kept going, and once I reached the Ghosts' room I decided to check out one of the curving side branches. I was getting tired, but I had made up my mind to check out as much of The Maze as possible.
The duct was 1650 tall, which meant crouching, and the manhole rooms were nowhere near frequent enough for my back. The two drains were twins, with windows, like previous pipes. Also, there was a surprising amount of graffiti up these branches, usually at the manhole rooms. Stuff like "B. Curtis", "JJ -->" and "Checked, '78". Eventually, I came to a manhole room/window where the pipes broke away from each other. One kept going straight, while the one I'd been following took a turn to the right. Staying on track I'd chosen, I was happy to see the roof start rising until I was able to walk upright in a pleasant 1800 duct. The pipe looked old, and oddly enough, there seemed to be tar paper (?) hanging in tatters from the roof. The paper looked like it had been applied to the joints where the pipe sections met. I passed a wall that sported bright green spraypaint, dated in '82.
At this point, my memory gets kind of fuzzy. I know the drain narrowed to an RCP, probably 1500, that I followed uphill. It changed at a manhole room into a 1650, which then changed again into something smaller. I do remember the last manhole room I stopped at had old concrete walls, embossed where the 2x4 boards used as forms didn't quite meet flush with each other. Amazingly, it had a faintly scribbled piece of graffiti near the ceiling that said, "You are here".
By then, I was getting very tired, and decided to head back and pop the first manhole cover I could. Down the pipe, back into the duct, back past the old graffiti, back through the Ghosts' room, down into more 1650 duct. The fist manhole I came to that I was able to pop was a grated one, that had been letting in such beautiful light during the day. I exited out into an alley somewhere, and after replacing the lid, I walked a few meters before sitting down on the frozen sidewalk to change out of my boots.
I checked my watch- 1700hrs. I'd been underground exactly four hours, (new drain record!) and I'd covered more than a few kilometers of The Maze. I'd love to see the maps of this drain someday, and discover exactly how it's layed out.
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