DrainsofmyCity
Mission: Mckinnon Crouch
June, 2006
The first time I explored this drain, I only had a small point and shoot camera with me, and on subsequent trips I never bothered to take any pictures. This time, I brought my camera and flash along on a nice, sunny day and had a bit of fun. Featured below is the original, unedited mission report from the first time Dogboy and I explored this pipe, back in August 2002. Since then, I've learned that the drain was orginally installed in anticipation of a new freeway that was never built. The creek remains buried and lost; its water doesn't even flow into the river here anymore thanks to a diversion pipe.
Undertaken at night, this mission was supposed to be a routine draining expedition, just to check out a drain I fully expected to be boring.
Entering at the outfall, it started as a long journey up a 1650mm RCP. There was little water in the bottom, and we were crouching a bit as we walked. A few minutes in, a sound up ahead suddenly made us freeze: the regular, repeated sound of water splashing. We whispered back and forth was the noise might be (there was talk of beavers living in drains) and decided to continue, all lights on full and at maximum alertness. Soon, we discovered that the source of our concern was a small pipe leading in that discharged water at regular intervals. Laughing at our unneeded concern, we continued on.
The drain seemed to have a good deal of graffitti that was city construction markings and numbers, but we did see one marking which seemed linked to Dungeons and Dragons. The drain surprised us again further on by turning into a corrugated pipe, which went on for some way. At one point, several large wooden support beams had been installed, which was kinda worrying, considering the drain was oval- as if it was being slowly crushed from above.
We reached a cool slide room, which was shaped like a long rectangular box. From there, the corrugated pipe continued until it reached a nifty Y-shaped intersection room, where it split into two 1500 RCP pipes (picture below). We took the fork to the left, and walked bent over for a while. The 1500 was like a municipal drain; concrete pipe sections connected at right angles inside manhole rooms.
We soon stopped and turned back, since the maps indicated the 1500 didn't go anywhere, and kept getting smaller. We eventually escaped by popping a manhole, and walking back to the car.
The outfall is spotted by bits of crappy graffiti, and its gates are bent out of place but still holding firm.
At first the pipe is a slight crouch, but in this section it grows to a nice, walkable 1800.
Walking, walking. Sunlight spills into a shallow manhole grate.
Three wooden 4x4 beams are bracing the ceiling here, where the pipe goes from concrete to corrugated. Years of water flow has steadily rotted the bottom of these beams. Just past this, the metal pipe is bent out of shape thanks to the ground shifting and settling.
At the end of the corrugated metal, there's a nice slide room. This is about where the aboveground dry ravine ends.
Inside a junction room just beyond the slide (the Y-shaped intersection mentioned above). The manhole grate was located in a roadway, and I could see vehicles pass and idle above the cover, blocking the daylight.
Same junction as above, from a different angle. Thanks to this photo, I've decided to name that dividing wall "The Nose", because it looks like one.