Sitka Stuff:
Expedition 1: 12-2-98
Operatives: Freak and NinjaBoy
I won't say which building this is, just that it's fairly public and we were able to pursuade a worker there to let us stay late. We used this time to go around popping ceiling tiles untill we found a small trapdoor. Much rearranging of furniture allowed access to the attic, where we immediately went. As no light source had been brought, an emergency floodlight was liberated from the wall and its self powered twin bulbs let us see the entire large, windowless attic. Eventually we discovered an extension cord, and were able to activate a pair of antique 200 watt bulbs which lit the place up nicely. NinjaBoy just happend to have some paint, so large messages were written upon the ceiling beams. I doubt if this space is ever used, since the layer of dust upon the coiled extension cord was thick. During our artwork, NinjaBoy had a near-death experience. While tagging up, he stepped off the wooden beams and went straight through the plaster with one leg, almost puncturing the ceiling tiles in the room below. He managed to escape with minor injuries, but I hope no one lifts those ceiling tiles anytime soon! Another room revealed a simmilar attic, in which a light switch turned on not lights, but a sparking, noisy ventilation fan which caused us to flee in fear of discovery.
Expedition 2: 2-8-99
Operatives: Freak and NinjaBoy
I'm still embarrased over being caught at this one,
someday, when I've left the area and the people who know my real identity
are less likely to remember this, I may post the whole story, but for now,
I can only offer some tips on how not to get caught. (this applies to buildings
as well as steam tunnels).
1. Don't fuck with the lights! If they're on, don't turn them off!
It may provide less cover, but it looks suspicious to see them go off in
an "empty" building or tunnel. And, naturally, if they're off don't turn
them on (unless in a sealed room or attic as we were in expedition 1)
2. Always have an escape route: We got ourselves cornered when we could
have had a perfectly good escape route with some planning.
3. Keep a lookout posted: When trying to jemmy open tunnel doors, don't
just concentrate on the job.
4. If caught, tell the truth if possible, and be respectful. If you
admit being somewhere you shouldn't be and promise to be good, they'll
sometimes let you go.
5. Leave everything as it was: It looks a lot worse if you broke or
pilfered something. If you were "just looking around" it's only tresspassing
and not theft or vandalism.
Infiltration.org has some
excellent tips on how to avoid capture in tunnels and buildings, I suggest
you check their site as well.
Expedition 3: 4-20-99
Operatives: Freak and NinjaBoy
Previous attempts to penetrate the only good drain
in Sitka had ended at deep water, which consistently ran cold and dark
at a level greater than our boots. We did not want to wade further, as
wet boots are heavy, cold, and chafe, and we didn't like the idea of walking
knee deep in water on an uncertain surface. We vowed to return with some
kind of hip waders, but put off buying any.
After about a week from our last failed drain expedition,
we were able to borrow some small, short kayaks from a freind. We headed
for the drain at high tide, with several flashlights, a camera, and some
other supplies in case we needed to pursuade a manhole into opening. I
strapped my waterproof flashlight to the front of my kayak and gave NinjaBoy
one of my other lights (which the bastard would later lose).
We were able to paddle directly into the outfall,
a 7ft diameter corrugated steel pipe coming out of the hill beneath a parking
lot. We rode the small wavelets up to the first shape change, beneath a
circular surface grating just at the top of the tunnel. We had reached
the deep part that stopped us before, and could hear the sound of rushing
water around the turn ahead.
Paddling slowly up the tunnel, now a 7x7 ft square
concrete tunnel, we rounded several curves and passed a small downpipe,
the source of the rushing water sounds. the water at this point was still
about 3 feet deep, and the walls were 7 ft apart, leaving us plenty of
room to paddle through the drain. We passed under several sets of stalactites
suspended from cracks in the cement ceiling. strange pipes and metal rods
protruded here and there from the walls, and at one point we passed a pair
of breifs snagged on a rusty nail. At one point the drain's angle changed,
forcing us to exit the boats and drag them over a small sandbar(!)
Soon we came to a small room in the drain, extending
12 feet up to the surface, where a square hole had been blocked with peices
of wood. A 2 ft diameter culvert led off to one side at an angle, and the
upper part of one side of the shaft appeared to have a small bricked up
door or hole of some kind. Ahead, the tunnel became a low, half flooded
corrugated section with a waterfall coming down from the top. We carefully
manuevered past the stream of water, getting slightly wet, and came upon
a 2nd room, identical to the first, but with a square grating set in the
ceiling above. We decided we must have passed under a road of some sort,
with the two rooms being gutter-box like structures. The section passing
under the road had been the deepest, at about 15-20 feet below the surface.
Continuing up the driain, we passed a jagged, 6
ft long log stuck between a change from the square concrete to the round
metal-type drain. Seems those lazy city engineers don't often check the
place. Also there was absolutely no graffiti in the drain, which we attempted
to remedy but had only brought a Sharpie brand marker which was crap. We
glimpsed light ahead, and the drain took a steep (to us in the boats) turn
upward towards the surface. after much clawing and jamming of paddles into
the sides, we managed to get up the slope against the moderate current
that flowed down it. This led us to another segment of concrete squares,
which boasted a pool filled with rusty scrap metal, car parts, and small
logs which was barely navigable.
Finally, we emerged into the light, out into a marshy
stream and someone's backyard! A woman showed up and wanted to know what
the hell we were doing in her yard, so we just said "Oh, you know, we paddled
up from the ocean, we're doing a study on runoff and how it affects fish
migration." She failed to immediately summon authorities so we quized her
about other area drains. She reported a small culvert further up the stream,
but it sounded like a waste of time (and we were too lazy to haul the boats
throught the bushes and marshy ground). I climbed a small hill to see where
we had emerged, the slope segment had seemed much longer than it really
was, and we were sure that we were at least a quarter of a mile inland.
Surprise! a survey of our location revealed that we had gone only a few
hundred yards straight in, and only another fifty yards or so with all
the twists and turns. Deciding it was dinner time, we slid back down the
sloped
pipe (fortunately plastic kayaks are sturdy), missing the Sharp Log of
Doom, but decided to take a break at the grating chamber. After climbing
up on some narrow concrete ledges, the grating proved lift-proof, and sticks
thrust through faild to attract the attention of pedestrians. We continued
down the drain, faster than before, and NinjaBoy realized he had somehow
mislaid my 2nd best light! also his only light source, so we had to rely
on my fading waterproof light and a smaller penlight I had. We exited the
drain, returned to the dock, and called it a day.
Later surveys revealed that the drain passes under
several stores and a laundromat, and that the grating we were at is farther
from the sidewalk than we thought.
To see a map of our drain, click Here. Pictures can be found here.
Expedition 4: 4-30-99
Operatives: Freak and NinjaBoy
Censored until the statute of limitations runs out
Expedition 5: 11-29-99
Operatives: Freak and Pirate
The bridge... long a target
of exploration, it has been climbed, jumped from, and fallen off of. But
apparently no one has gotten onto the catwalk beneath it, probably left
from it's construction. A manhole in the roadway leads to this catwalk,
but can only be popped safely at night, and then the only way to escape
without being caught would be to jump off and be picked up by a freind
in a boat. (The Coast Guard station is right at one end of the bridge,
and the forest service ranger station dock is at the other end, both in
full view of the manhole!) However, one can see, as they drive by, some
small square hatches in the sides of the bridge beams marked with stuff
like "High Voltage, Stay Out" "Confined Space, Toxic Fumes May be Present"
and other propaganda to keep people out. Fortunately, while on an unrelated
trip, I noticed that on the far side of the bridge (The Japonski side)
the hatches were open...
An expedition was formed, this was a source of much
excitement, as the hollow part was thought to exstend along the entire
length of the bridge, accessing the catwalk and possibly the towers.
Upon reaching the site, we climed up the hill to
the overhang just below the bridge, where it became an earth ramp down
to the island road. The steel supports were indeed hollow, and some suspicious
looking sleeping bags and blankets were strewn about, along with rotting
jars of smoked salmon and books of philosophy. Entrance into the bridge
proved moderately difficult, on one side, all the hatch bolts but one had
been removed, so the hatch hung loosely under the opening and was hard
to use as a climbing aid. Eventually we got in, and discovered more blankets,
books, and a bag of dogfood. (At this point we were really hoping not to
run into any dogfood eating drug junkies). The close end of the 6x3ft hall
was welded shut, and was an excellent spot for some tags, including our
aliases and e-mail address. (White-board dry erase markers work great on
steel, don't rub off, and come in a variety of colors). Walking up the
hallway led to a bolted section which seemed to be holding the bridge together,
and which contained some odd stains and old fireworks (I would'nt want
to be setting off fireworks in a confined space like this) Farther along,
the bridge passage came to an end. A welded panel covered the place where
the first cable support entered the structure, and blocked any attempt
at access (the support on the other side is theorised to be solid steel
as well). We tagged up discretely behind a beam so as not to ruin the decor
for the homeless people, and got back out to check the other side.
The south side of the bridge was easier to access,
as a large water pipe facillitated climbing in. This side contained more
used fireworks, a rotten rope, and a 70's era coke can. Same story with
the welded panel, so we left.
Eventually my overpowering curiosity will probably
lead me to do something silly like seeing what's on that catwalk late at
night. I suppose a 60 ft. drop into 40 degree (F) water wouldn't be all
that bad...
Expedition 6: 4-23-00
Operatives: Freak
I figured that no one would be working at the old pulp mill on
Easter, so I biked out to have a look around. Unfortunately I wasn't able
to infiltrate the main complex, since there were two security goons giving
me funny looks as I rode around the former office buildings. I noticed
a dich running alongside the road which ended in a chunk of concrete with
a hole in it. Hmm, I wonder what's under there? After stashing my
bike in the woods I climbed down to have a look. At first glance
it seemed to be only a small 4ft diameter RCP, but I could see a chamber
of some kind at the very farthest extent of my light. I pulled out my headlamp
and started wading down the narrow drain, which had only a minimal flow
of water.
Upon reaching the chamber, I found another 4ft RCP
going at right angles to the first, and at a lower level. The second section
went off to the right of the first, the opposite side of the chamber had
a dry 1ft pipe, and there was a rusted manhole in the top of the rectangular
chamber. There was also a pool of water about a foot deep in the bottom.
I didn't have boots on, so I stashed my backpack in the side pipe and climbed
over to the other RCP. After going several meters down this pipe it became
too uncomfortable due to the rocks and gravel at the bottom. The debris
reduced the height of the pipe to about 3 feet, and I ended up crawling
through the water on slimy rocks, brushing cobwebs out of my hair. (There
were LOTS of spiders in this drain, I'm glad we don't have any poisonous
ones here).
I turned back after seeing only more of the same
ahead. I took some pictures and wrote my website address on the wall. The
concrete was coated with some sort of dust or paint that made it hard to
write with board markers, but I left a computer disk in a plastic bag as
well.
I knew from library research that this drain went
under most of the complex before turning again and dumping out under a
pier. I decided to find the other end, figuring it would be bigger after
draining more of the mill site. I climbed down on the beach and wandered
around a rusted fence with a no trespassing sign ("Really, officer, I thought
that sign only meant to stay off the dock"). I scared an otter which
was sleeping on a rock, but otherwise encountered no resistance in going
under the dock. The beach under the dock was coated with some kind
of decaying rubber mat, and the dock was supported by metal pilings driven
into the bottom of the cove. I was attempting to take a picture when my
camera broke (Yes, that's the second one in a month, maybe I should stop
buying cheap cameras from second hand stores). The shutter release button
jammed and then the camera spontaneously rewound, so at least my other
pictures should be OK.
After this I headed back into town, I'm going to try and get copies
of the drain maps so I can locate a better entrance, or a larger drain.
Minor Infiltrations
Other minor infiltrations have included a flooded bunker near the dump, a polluted death swamp formed by an overflowing sewer manhole (It didn't look like sewage, and the concrete column was so rust-coated that I think the flow has been going for a long time) and some houses and a bomb shelter in an abandoned neighborohood.
Research in our freindly local library has revealed that yes, salmon do migrate up the storm drain! also, there is supposedly an underground communication base somewhere around here, physical evidence of which remains elusive. Sadly this bunker is probably just another urban legend or something that the army never got around to building, but which still got listed on the facilities description sheets. We went around popping every manhole we could find in Millerville and the surrounding woods, but only found an old oil pipeline and 1940s sewers. (And this)
Steam Tunneling at the University of Alaska Fairbanks:
Expedition 1 - 3
Operatives: Freak
I checked out the construction at the Duckering building, the first
time without a flashlight, so even though I thought I had located an entrance
to the tunnels I didn't want to investigate without at least one light.
I took lots of pics of the construction and got into most of the rooms
on the basement level. The next day I returned with a light and camera,
and went a little ways through the tunnels, up to the point where I could
see into the library mechanical room area, I then headed back since I was
worried about running into security near the library. A few days
later I returned, and explored most of the three main tunnels accesible
from my original access point, via the library junction. Urban Exploration
is much more intense when alone, especially with clanging pipes, dripping
water noises, and the constant fear of running into someone, whether an
employee or some crazed drug addict (You think of some pretty strange things
when tunneling alone!). After this I decided to either ask some seniors
about the tunnels or get a few people together to go exploring.
Expedition 4
Operatives: Freak, Mutton
We went the length of the Rassmuson - Bunnell tunnel, but didn't go
further due to seeing a new set of lights turned on in the power plant
tunnel. We both ran around in Duckering some more and looked at the progress
being made on the foundation repair. I took more pictures (Gotta love digital
cameras, at that time the library was still renting out Sony Mavicas).
Expedition 5
Operatives: Freak, Mutton, Labb, MT
Grabbed a larger group of freinds, and headed back to do the main tunnel
system. We explored the full length of every open tunnel, including the
cramped ones leading to Signers Hall and Gruening (which were sealed at
the ends). We also managed to find a way into part of the library mechanical
rooms. The first space we entered was a large, noisy, cold (compared to
the tunnels) space about 7 feet wide, 50-60ft long, and 20 feet tall. There
was a big aircon duct at one end and a set of fans at the other end. In
the middle of the room was a passage into a round corrugated steam tunnel
coated with tar, leading to an impassible crawlway into the Brooks Building.
Also in the middle of the room was a ladder up to a balcony, which we used
to climb onto some pipes 8feet off the floor (never do this) and get into
the aircon duct, which we hoped to use to access some more of the mechanical
rooms. The duct ended about 15 feet in and around a corner, where a screen
blocked a large fan blowing air through the duct (someday we're going to
hang a model plane in there, there's enough wind to make it fly on the
end of a string). Returning to the balcony, we cautiously opened
a door that we had ignored before, and found ourselves in a long dark room
above the round steam tunnel. This room contained large unused transformers,
and a vent to the outside of the library. A door at the far end led to
a number of smaller rooms with piping, fans, and more outside vents. One
room had a ladder down to a lower level, where we found more electrical
panels, the main fire alarm control, and a computer terminal hooked up
to a sewage pump of some kind. We could have gone into the library from
here, but it was after hours and we figured that the library itself would
be patrolled by the campus safety officers. We also could have gotten into
more ducts through some small doors, but we left that for another trip
(which never happened).
Expediton 6
Operatives:
This time we intended to access the air ducts we had skipped before,
but when we reached the library junction we found that the gate into the
other mech rooms was unlocked. We quickly took this opportunity to investigate
the excellent utility area, containing many huge machines, fans, pumps,
etc. We found 2 more steam tunnels, one of which we went down. After passing
several side passages and sealed manholes we were able to take a side passage
to Wickersham Hall, where we found a nice little map drawn on the wall
with marker pen, and some graffiti about "Alan's cool car". Returning
to the "main" tunnel, we ran into difficulty, as this tunnel quickly became
shitty. It became aproximately 3 feet by 5 feet, with only about a foot
of clearance to squeeze by the pipe supports every few feet. After about
10 minutes of hot backbreaking travel through this passage, the way opened
up a little, but was filled with steam! We got past this obstacle, finding
the way straight ahead into Chapman blocked by pipes. The side passage
here was nice and open, and a little cooler than the previous tunnel, so
we set off down it. However almost immediately Labb sustained injury when
he ran into a sharp obstruction in the tunnel. We headed back in search
of band-aides, or at least some duct tape, and managed to find something
when we finally reached Duckering again. (We joked with the unfortunate
victim about him leaving DNA samples all over the floor). Thus ended our
expedition of that night.
Final Expedition 7
Operatives:
Special appearances by: Officer Steve and Officer Sam
We returned to the library mech rooms in search
of coolness, and got into most of the little nooks and crannies of the
off limits basements. We found a tiny door leading into the concert hall,
where a night class was in progress, and a tunnel that led through the
foundation supports of the library. We went back into the tunnel we had
been in the day before, and headed up the first side passage, a 6ft diameter
corrugated metal pipe with pipes and wires on each side. After trudging
up this for a long time, we had to crawl under / around a poorly placed
pipe leading to a fire hydrant on the surface. A few yards further there
was a pool of icky, oily water which we had to cross on a thin pipe.
Another of these pools (fortunately shallow) was further up the pipe, and
a concrete side passage led past the Police station to a locked gate
into one of the dorms. Farther up, the main tunnel turned back into the
normal rectangular concrete and a series of short side passages lead to
the various faculty houses on either side. We talked about finding the
tunnel to the frat house and closing the valve on their sewer pipe, but
first of all we didn't really want to mess with anything and also we couldn't
find the frat house. Many of these houses seemed to have direct access
to the tunnels through their basements or in some cases the basements were
part of the tunnels. Talk about a great place to live! In one basement
/ tunnel we found a rug lying across the pipe to dry, and a little door
which seemed to lead into someone's bathroom, we could hear voices so we
didn't stick around. Eventually we came to a split in the passage, each
end being blocked about 20 yards past the split. We headed back down the
long, seemingly endless tunnel to the original concrete passage that started
at the library. From here we continued to where Labb hurt himself last
time, and went as far as we could south from there to another security
gate.
At this point there were no other tunnels that we were able to access anywhere in the current network without breaking something, so we decided to go out through the Wood Center (it was sort of a spur of the moment descision). We managed to get into the basement, and started running around taking pictures of various cool air vents and piping. We even found a tunnel to the strange grating under the Wood center stairs, which you can see from above in the lobby. This was our undoing, as unbeknownst to us there was someone working late in the Wood Center (it was close to midnight), who heard us walking around and whispering, and called the cops.
We were about to leave, and had stopped for a final picture when the door to the stairs opened, and in walked two uniformed officers and the Wood employee. From that point it was: "Hands at your sides, put down the camera, kneel facing the wall, hold out your wrists, where's your ID?" After cuffing us and removing our wallets and pocketknives, the cops took us upstairs and wrote out tickets for trespassing, as well as giving us a lecture on why we shouldn't have been there. One cop wanted to take us to jail on the spot, but the other was very decent and simply let us off with a court summons. Each of us were escorted out and given back our wallets, flashlights, water bottles, cameras, and knives (they never completely emptied our pockets or packs). We were also told to see the chief of the campus police department before returning to the Wood Center or Duckering building.
Thus ends the steam tunnel expeditions of our still unnamed group (and hotel infiltration, and rooftopping, and most everything else for the rest of the year). Now we have to look harder for storm drains, of which there seem to be none here.
Mine Reconnisance (Juneau, Alaska)
5-13-01
Hiked up basin road behind downtown Juneau. Went to small mining museum
and hung out for a while, then climed up the hill behind it and looked
at the rail yard and old mine cars. hiked along the tracks out to the dual
portals of the AJ adit, one is collapsed and the other blocked with tin
roofing, wouldn't bee too hard to open up if I had a crowbar. Saw lots
of porcupines and got a pic of one close up. Climbed down the hill from
the last portal and slid down part of an avalance pile of snow from snowslide
gulch. Inspected the AJ drainage tunnel but found it to be full of water
and blocked off. Again crowbar or boltie accesible but there were some
electrical boxes inside which may be alarms. Walked back to the bridge
over Gold Creek and past the Ebner adit up Perseverance Trail. wandered
past Ebner Falls into Silverbow Basin (eventually) after taking an unnecesary
detour on a side trail. Finally got into Silverbow Basin and got to the
end of the trail, nothing but brush and water. Got wet feet, crashed through
brush and into a lower valley inside the basin. (which I now know is an
open pit mine type feature called the "Placer Pit") Found a flooded shaft
and an adit that was blocked 6 feet in with chicken wire, easy to bust
through but I didn't feel like exploring it with just a mini maglite (it
didn't look too stable either). Found the Glory Hole just over the hill
(the adit probably exits into it). Looked around and took some pics, then
hiked the rim to a concrete tower and some ruins. Found a sloping tunnel
under the ruins leading down parallel to the glory hole but didn't explore
that either. Hiked along tailings piles past old mine cars and a flume,
then down into the valley again at the north end, where a stream disappeared
into a partially collapsed tunnel. This could be the upper end of the Gold
Creek Drainage Tunnel but I'm not sure. Took pics and walked back to town.
(I now think the flooded tunnel in the placer pit is a drain merely for
that pit).
5-16-01
Went across the bridge to Douglas and wandered around the Treadwell
mine ruins. Found two glory holes with a thin rock bridge between them
carrying a flume and railway, plus a big arch/hole in the rock bridge wall
connecting both glory holes. Hiked down to that, kind of unsatisfied with
automatic camera, as the lowest zoom is not wide angle enough. Climbed
back up and poked around more, walked the beach to an eroding concrete
box/tower with a pipeline leading into the channel, then back along the
roads and trails to the water filled glory holes. Someone went to a lot
of trouble to make the main glory hole safe, the cliff of dead cars is
fenced off and the two tunnels I remember from years ago are collapsed
on the trail side and cemented shut on the glory hole side (although someone
has tried to dig under the concrete and hit rock). Climbed down into this
one and took a picture of the pile o' cars under the cliff. Climbed back
up and noticed bubbles rising to the surface all across the lake, plus
several oil slicks. Tasty.
Fairbanks, Fall semester 01
9-14-01 Biked out to a place where there was supposedly an old mining
dredge (near Ester) Found a large dredge that I couldn't get to and a smaller
dragline crane of some kind, as well as a big tractor that looks like a
Jawa Sandcrawler from Star Wars. Climbed around on the dragline and tractor
(apparently a mobile ore crusher). And took some video with a school camera.
9-15-01 Tried to get a ride with some people out to the dredge, however they went off to a party somewhere so I borrowed a bike again. I had to wait a while at Ester for some construction workers to leave the gravel pit (which the road to the dredge goes through). Then I just biked in and hiked around the pond to the big dredge, scaring a bunch of beavers. I got on board via an unsafe ganplank, it looks like the dredge pivots around a spud (piling) and so the gangway isn't always touching land, it would kinda suck to get stranded on the dredge if the wind shifted, although I could probably make a raft out of planks and oil drums. I climbed up all the gantrys and towers, explored the main deck and the tailings conveyor, but didn't get to the sub-level holds or even all the internal decks. Took more pics with a school digital camera and tested out my new LED headlamp (pretty good for close range). Hiked back to my hidden bike and rode out the same way, I wanted to scout a possible back route to the dredge pond but by then it was getting dark.
9-19-01
I was supposed to get a ride again but the guy with the car went somewhere
else. I biked out again with another guy (a fellow tunneler from last year).
We didn't have time to go the the large dredge (and it looked like it was
floating around randomly), so we checked out the dragline and sandcrawler
again, and took some pictures (I forgot disks for the digital camera, D'oh!).
I think the dredge was at one time anchored, but the beavers built a dam
and raised the water level enough so that it's now floating, and drifts
around with the wind and currents. We may have to buy a small inflatable
boat for next time.
10-something
I got back to the dredge this sunday, I hadn't had a chance before
now and I was itching for some exploration. I tried riding my bike
in by a different way but soon resorted to thrashing through bushes and
crossing streams, etc on foot. I did find a less conspicous way to the
pond at least, I've been bothered about going through that gravel pit when
people are around.
Once I got there I noticed that the
dredge had moved with the wind, although it seemed to be farily well stuck
aganist the shore. It was in the opposite orientation from last time I
was there, the tailings conveyor stuck out over the trees and I boarded
from a ramp at the rear. I explored for about an hour checking out parts
I hadn't seen before and getting pictures with both a borrowed digital
camera and an old SLR with black and white film. After starting to climb
the rear ganty I noticed that the wind had shifted and the dredge was moving,
in fact the ramp I had used to get on was now over the water! I contemplated
spending a night huddled in a corner against sub-zero temperatures and
decided that I'd rather try to make a raft out of old oil drums and wood.
Swimming wasn't an option with two cameras and a scanner, plus I didn't
want to ride my bike for 4 miles while wet.
Fortunately it turned out that I didn't
have to resort to my half-assed boat building skills. Another ramp which
had been over the water was now approaching land, and even though the door
to it was boarded up I was able to crawl through an ore chute and get to
it. I got back to land and took some photos from a hill above the dredge,
then left since it was getting dark (another problem with winter at high
latitudes).
October and November
Returned to the Dredge a few times, did some filming for a possible
amatuer film and brought some other people on one trip. Its getting too
cold for much outdoor exploration.
Return to UAF steam tunnels
12-20-01
In order to releive stress from the finals from hell (TM) I went
on a UE spree, and along with another guy got into various library utility
rooms, saw the cargo elevator in Gruening, and did tunnels again after
a year away from them! First we tried to get onto the under-construction
5th floor of the library but failed due to chained doors. We then headed
to the unlocked roof hatch where I climbed up and took some crappy photos,
I wanted to jump down onto a series of succesivley lower library roofs
and leave that way but I decided against it due to the library still being
open and staffed. After this we cruised the rest of the library and
then Gruening. Checked out the graffiti hallway and found an open door
on the 2nd floor (one level underground) that revealed the mythical utility
elevator and some antique electrical junction boxes. The brain store room
in the psych department was looked at, but not entered. Then we went over
to Nerland and bugged the film club crew and some other people. We rounded
up more criminals and went into the tunnels, on past Lathrop, Stevens,
and the cafeteria, to the power plant where we probably set off an alarm
in the student trap for that tunnel (we noticed a magnetic sensor on the
other side of a door after opening it). We hauled ass back to Latrhop,
popped out and went back to Nerland where we attempted to explain to the
front desk attendant how we entered the builidng twice in an hour without
apparently leaving.
12-21-01
Had another string of good luck. I went to renew the digital camera
rental and opened the padlock on 5th floor with my masterlock padlock key.
After entering and locking up behind me I couldn't get it to open with
my key again, so I have no idea what happened there. I must have some kind
of padlock karma. Checked out some of the new mechanical rooms and holes
in the wall (new air vents), then left by another stairwell and propped
the door, intending to return (but never did). Returned to the tunnels
via Nerland hall with some people. Got into the SRC through a miniature
elf door and cruised the mech rooms briefly. Found a window into the pool
that I'd never known about, maybe if I swam more I'd have seen it. Traveled
up under the sled hill towards West Ridge, but turned back somewhere between
the greenhouse and the supercomputer center. Traveled all the way back
and then went towards Wickersham hall. We got to the other side of the
gate that stopped us last year, and then when at Wick some noise seemingly
associated with a flood alarm made us scram back to Nerland. Probably nothing,
but it may be a good thing that we quit while we were ahead.
Remote semi-abandoned lighthouse (southeast Alaska)
8-7-02
The Cape Spencer lighthouse is a US coast guard lighthouse that was
built in 1925 and manned by coast guard crews until sometime in the 1980s
when most of the lighthouses around Alaska were automated. This one has
a short, square tower topped by a round light room, under which is a square
"Art Deco" building where the crews lived. On the same rock as the lighthouse
is a helicopter pad, a boathouse, and a crane used to launch boats, as
well as some radio towers and telecom trailers.
I’d had my eye on this for a while, I’ve been working
on a fishing boat this summer and we’ve been in the area of the lighthouse
for the last few days. My first attempts to kayak to the rock failed, although
a friend of mine managed to do it with exactly the right combination of
tide and wave action. I finally got a chance to go with two other people
who had an inflatable skiff, and who I’d mentioned the lighthouse to. We
got dropped off by a larger boat near the lighthouse rock and rowed in,
landing on a ledge below the cliffs and hauling the skiff up above the
tideline.
After climbing the cliff, the first building we looked
at was the crane winch house. There was no dock here, so crews had to launch
boats with the crane and pick them up the same way. At the top was a platform
to put the boats on with a boathouse and tram rails on which the boats
could be slid into the boathouse. When we looked in there we found that
the boats were gone and there were only some tools and lumber. An old sign
recommended safe and courteous behavior for visitors or “visiting privileges
may be revoked”. (There were a few humorous signs like this, my favorite
was the “Goggles must be worn while operating this machine” posted over
the toilet)
The tram rails led up a boardwalk past the helipad
to the main lighthouse. There were also some equipment trailers from the
phone company and fuel tanks for the generators which power the lighthouse
and radio equipment. Previous visitors had told me that nothing was locked
up, so we entered the lighthouse by the front door. As we came through
the first door into the entryway I could hear a beeping noise from inside,
but there were no alarm sensors on the door so we decided it was something
else. The second door did have a magnetic sensor on it, and when we got
in we found the following sign: “Welcome to the Cape Spencer Lighthouse,
when you entered an alarm was activated and a response team was notified.
You are trespassing on government property, if you are in distress, a radio,
food, and water are (locations given). Damage to equipment can result in
a $250,000 fine” (this isn’t the exact wording, I’ll have a picture of
it eventually). We located the source of the beeping as a carbon monoxide
detector, and since the last visitor a few days ago hadn’t caused a response
we figured the alarm wasn’t hooked up.
The main room we came to first was the lounge, with
couches and tables, a kitchen, and some paintings and maps on the walls.
Three bedroom/offices were off to one side, and the bathroom, a storage
room, and an electronics room were on the other side. There was a surprising
amount of stuff left; food, magazines, files and papers, bedding and clothes
in the lockers (along with graffiti from the crews about how much the place
sucked). In the back were the generators and a stairway leading up and
down. We ascended the rough concrete stairs, which were in poor condition,
up to a square room filled with weather monitoring electronics, and then
up a spiral staircase to the glassed-in light room. The light itself was
a new addition, the original rotating mechanism being rusted solid in a
shaft which led all the way through the structure. The lens on the new
light was spinning slowly but the light wasn’t on (It was still daytime).
A video camera was duct-taped to the window, pointing out towards the fishing
grounds (probably to monitor the sea conditions for the weather service).
After getting some photos up in the tower, we went down to check out the
basement.
In the basement we found a pool table complete with
cues and balls, and some graffiti that looked like it had been done with
the cue chalk. More miscellaneous equipment like portable generators and
cans of fuel and paint were down here, but mostly it was empty. Parts of
the basement were floored with the natural rock of the island, which was
very uneven in places, but most of it was a concrete floor.
After we’d photographed and examined most of the
lighthouse we messed around outside for a while, one person climbed to
the top and posed standing on the roof of the tower. I looked around and
found some foundations from former buildings and fuel tanks, as well as
a lot of metal scrap and other trash that had been thrown over the cliffs
and into crevices. We finally decided we’d seen everything and returned
to our boat, launched off the cliff “SEAL team style” as someone commented,
and left without encountering the mythical “response team” which would
probably take at least an hour to get there by helicopter anyway.
More UAF stuff
1-12-02
I'd scouted the fine arts complex a few days before, and found a relatively
easy way into the section that was under renovation. After checking out
some of the catwalks and passages around the concert hall, I found a way
back into the section of tunnels I had been in two years ago. I left this
for later and checked out some more of the building before my camera ran
out of memory, then decided to return later with more people.
The next night I got a crew together, but one guy dropped out, so there
ended up being only two of us. We got into the building the same way, and
moved straight to the tunnels rather than looking around the building again.
After traveling through some tunnels and air vents, we came to the Library
mechanical rooms which are a major tunnel junction for the Eastern campus.
First we went west, then north past the police station through the round
corrugated tunnel. We reached a point just past Walsh hall which had a
new bulkhead door installed, this was locked with a combination padlock
which aside from a few tries we didn't feel like hacking. We went back
south to the junction with the square concrete tunnel between the library
and the Wood Center. I didn't feel like going through the cramped part
towards the wood center, so we went back to the library junction and then
into the southern tunnels. We looked for the supposed new tunnel section
between the library and Signers hall, but didn't find it. Then we went
through the generic library-Bunnell tunnel and exited Bunnell just in time
to mingle with people leaving a movie there.
We took some photos with my new digital camera and I tired some time
exposures.
12-19-02 West Ridge tunnels
Operatives: Freak and <hasn't come up with an alias>
On almost exactly the 1-year anniversary of my first forray into this
tunnel system, I managed a return and sucessful exploration. Due to some
Asbestos abatement the security gates have been left unlocked lately, I
hope that this trend continues as it makes accessing different sections
through diferent buildings unneccesary. Basically every tunnel on campus
is now open to me, except for the three or four sections I have never been
able to get to.
I first noticed the lack of locked gates a week ago while visiting a section I hadn't been to since being arrested. I immediately decided to return to the West Ridge area through the long uphill tunnel past the gym, which was now open. Unfortunately I could not get anyone I knew to come along with me, all citing more pressing issues such as final exams, alcohol consumption, and social lives. I pestered three or four people that I could usually count on for the rest of the week, and finally got two to agree to a mission. One dropped out at the last minute after discovering some unfinished christmas shopping, so it was a two-man mission only.
We set out with full gear, although only I had brough water (knowing how long the trip was). At the gym we visited the pool window and found a crawl-tunnel around the base of the pool which was left for later. I heard something about an alarm on my police scanner, so we left the area and went up under the sled hill towards West Ridge. Thes are some of the bigger tunnels, but are also very hot, so we stopped under the several vents to breathe in cool air. My legs hurt from crawling through a 4ft drain the night before, but I kept on knowing this might be the only chance to see these tunnels before the gates were locked up again. After what seemed like miles of the same tunnel, we came to the side tunnel to the museum, which I hadn't explored fully before. WE went up this and came to an odd junction with a tunnel above us, which lead into a greenhouse nearby. there was no ladder and I ended up burning my hand trying to climb the pipes, so we left that for later. The museum was bricked off from the tunnels, although several manhole exits were nearby (some are locked from above).After returning to the main tunnel we passed the escape / equipment hatch (good entrance now that I know how the lock works) and finally passed the point I had turned back last year after my team got tired and paranoid (myself included).
As we neared the supercomputer center I thought I saw a locked gate, but it turned out to be open! the computer building had a ladder into the mech room, which we looked at but didn't explore further. I found two keys on a nail in the tunnel, and contemplated stealing them untill I realized that I already had a copy of one! (another story). The other was some wierd electrical box key and didn't seem worth it. Just before the computer building there was a stairway at right angles leading up to another tunnel, this one going north under the Arctic Health building. We passed beneath this strange, biohazard-filled building and eventually reached the Irving complex (seperate page on the crack-induced architecture of that one). We looked around the maze-like subbasement and found the pipe chase that leads to the roof penthouse, but couldnt' find a way in. One room of the subbasement looked like a ship's engine room, with large engines and machinery. I thought I heard someone in the area above this, so we scooted back to the tunnels. Farther north, near O'Niell, the tunnel changes levels with a two-layer catwalk/ladder switchback and a door into O'Niell. Westward the tunnel goes down again, and sort of wraps around the bottom of the three Elvey Buildings. I got confused with all the switchbacks and probably messed up my map, but we found a way out at the end of the tunnel and decided to called it a night.
1-22-03 West Ridge buildings
Operatives: Freak
I've been visiting West Ridge in search of new explorations for a while,
but the buildings tend to get locked up around 5 or 6 (they're all on different
schedules). Since I got tired of the messed up schedules I eventually just
decided to go up early, spend the afternoon wanderin around, and explore
after security had locked up and the grad-student organisms had either
gone home or passed out in their offices. This made me a bit conspicuous
as I wandered around, but the Onie'll and Irving buidling system is complex
enough that I rarely had to pass the same area twice. I got into some of
the mech rooms and interstitial levels, looked around the tunnel area but
found things locked up, and went back to look at the small crawl-tunnels
under Irving II (or is it Irving I? I can never keep those buildings straight).
I crawled around in there for a while, even though I had new clothes on
and hadn't intended to get too dirty. I then climbed as far as I could
up the interfloor shaft, but couldn't get to the top level. I went over
to Oniell and checked for ways into the mech rooms on the first floor,
I thought I found a way in through an air vent in the 1st floor interstitial
level, but almost fell through the floor in an air shaft into a tunnel
of some kind. I couldn't find a safe way down into it, so will have to
return with climbing gear sometime. I tried finding a way back into the
Irving engine room in the sub-basement, but as I messed with the lock one
of the grad student creatures appeared and gave me a suspicious look. I
figured it was a good time to leave since it was getting late and I hadn't
really found anything new, so I left the area.
When I got back to my room I turned on my scanner just in time to hear
the police respond to a report of a "suspicious person, dark clothing,
hanging around Irving". I had a good laugh about that, since it had taken
quite a while for the student to report it, and longer for them to respond.
I listened for a while but they didnt' say much more about it, maybe it
will be in the police blotter next week.
4-20-03
On Saturday I set out on my bike for Fox and points north, the original
plan was to find the Dome Creek Dredge and camp there overnight, as well
as possibly locating the Davidson Tunnel under the intersection of the
Elliot Highway and Old Murphy Dome road. After getting into Fox I
biked past Dredge #8 ( the tourist attraction and historical monument one)
a few times, climbed a tailings pile, and took some pictures, then headed
out another road past the back end of a “keep out” sign. I also stopped
briefly to photograph the Alaska Pipeline where it came out of the ground,
it burrowed under to the south to pass beneath some roads, and to the north
to go over and through a hill. I circled around the Steese highway and
Goldstream road to look at a closed “mining camp” tourist attraction, they
had part of a rail loop and some tour train cars, plus some kind of tunnel.
Then I continued up the steese past the NASA station (a log-cabin checkpoint
with razor-wire fencing blocked the road to the big dishes) to look for
a turnout where I’d seen some kind of tunnel last year. After biking a
few miles up this I hadn’t seen it, so I turned around and went back to
the junction with the Elliot Highway. I took a few photos of Fox on the
way through, it just confirms my theory that the entire town is composed
of gravel pits, salvage yards, and open pit mines. The place must have
the most dead cars and old mining equipment per square foot of any place
near Fairbanks.
I stopped off briefly to fill up my water bottles at the Fox
springs, then follwed the Elliot highway (mostly walking the bike due to
my heavy pack slowing me down too much) up to the sharp left-hand turn
where my map showed the Davidson tunnel ended. I went down the bank and
followed a road a way, but stopped when I appeared to be walking into someone's
front yard. Then I went back, biked farther up, and went down through the
trees to the road past the house, I saw the end of it from this side and
walked closer, it turned out to be a storage shed full of junk. I then
followed another road down to the real house (cabin really) which seemed
to be unoccupied judging from the lack of tire tracks in the road snow.
From here I followed a ditch, which the tunnel was supposed to supply water
to, around to a sereies of collapsed timbers and a promising dark spot
in the side of a small embankment. I found the tunnel, which even had rails
going in (I'd thought it was only a water tunnel) but it was collapsed
severely, it even had collapsed every few dozen feet back from the adit,
with pits and subsidences showing its path towards the hills. Dissapointed,
I headed back up the hill to my bike and continued up to the summit of
the road.
At the top I passed Old Murphy Dome road, then another two miles
down the other side of the hill I spotted the probable road down to the
Dome Camp area (I’d lost my map printout that showed this area). I bounced
down this through the slush and mud to a gate at the bottom, which I easily
lifted the bike over (there were four padlocks in a chain arrangement,
apparently 4 different people have access to whatever is down there, but
none had bothered to put up any trespassing signs).
I’d seen some water and dredge-like ponds off to the left on
the way down, so I first headed in that direction, I got stuck in bushes
so I went back and followed the road farther. This brought me to
a gravel pit area with a tunnel into the hillside across a creek, I stashed
the bike just off the road and headed down to take a look. First I climbed
a tailings pile to check for the dredge off to the right (towards the Pedro
Dome radar site), but no sign of it. I checked out the tunnel briefly,
it had some freaky ice crystals and a sloped floor coated in ice that could
have sent me skating to the bottom if I’d gone past the berm partway up.
(this separated the first, corrugated-metal section from the excavated
section, and trapped some frozen water in the corrugated part). I didn’t
go further than the berm, but I plan to come back sometime (although it
looks like this is an active mine at least part of the year, there’s a
cabin and some old sheds and a bus).
I then headed up the hill behind the tunnel, and after getting
nearly lost in a series of odd intersecting and crosshatching trails and
old roads I found a small cabin and another gravel pit. I followed the
gravel pit north, past another active open-pit mine and another cabin,
until the sun started to go down over the ridge to the west. I then gave
up on finding the dredge in that direction and set up camp in a small stand
of trees. I cooked my chili and went to bed, read for a while and then
went to sleep.
Woke up early and tossed around, repeated this several times
throughout the morning from about 5 to 10:30. Got up, broke camp and headed
back. Found the mine and my bike again withough too much trouble, after
crashing through some more woods. Decided I had time to follow the dirt
road past the mine a little farther, so I set out. I dropped off the bike
and most of my gear part way since it was weighing me down, then kept walking
past the apparent end of the dredge tailings towards some dirt piles. Rounding
one I finally spotted the dredge in the distance, I eventually reached
it and found the hull and half the lower deck entombed in ice. This didn’t
stop my boarding and exploration, in fact it made for some really cool
photos. As I explored the upper decks some pissed-off ravens screamed at
me, I later saw their nest on the bow gantry. I spotted another bus parked
near yet another gravel pit to the east, up towards Pedro dome. It must
be a law of nature that you can’t go for more than a few miles up an Alaskan
dirt road without finding an old bus that some redneck, hippy, or miner
has lived in.
After checking out the dredge pretty throughouly, and running
the digital camera’s batteries down, I returned to my bike, pushed it back
up the hill, and had lunch at Hilltop Truckstop (a "Gold Dredge Cheeseburger"
and enourmous slice of chocolate pie). I then rode and pushed to the real
summit of the highway, and spent the rest of the day on the way back to
campus.
Saturday 4-26-03:
A freind of mine wanted to go tunneling with some of his freinds (most
had been in once or twice before, so we did a bunch of small sections in
various areas of campus. We started with the construction on West Ridge,
heading in through the trench and cut-open tunnel in front of O’niell,
then proceeded past the worthless security gate (lock is long enough to
allow squeezage) where I ripped open another crappy pair of pants. We then
played with the lights a little and left through the AHRC elevator since
it was a long hike to anywhere else and they didn't bring water or good
flashlights. Then we went down towards the gym to look for a way into the
pool window area, we looked at the homeless cave briefly while waiting
for two cops to leave the area, then I <censored>. It opened, but there
was no ladder in the vent shaft. After that we went from Ducking to the
library, ran around the side vents area, then went through the main mech
room and the vents to the fine arts center. We had just come out of the
small door into the aucoustic baffle area and were getting ready to leave
by the main door when <> spotted someone outside the one-way mirror
cloth. We all froze as a janitor walked down the aisle of the concert hall,
it seemed almost certain that he would hear us, but he started up his vacume
and we left back through the air vents.
We still wanted to do the pool window, so since D&D geeks
were blocking the best way in we used another route. Unfortunately the
damn bike lock was back on the gate, so I took us through the narrowest
tunnel on campus (enhanced with fiber-optic Christmas lights for a nice
glow effect) and out one of the dorms, where the front desk attendant was
confused by 4 people leaving without signing out. Headed home after a successful
mission, the others were willing to go further but we decided it wasn’t
really worth it since there was a gun show at the gym which would mean
increased security.
Sunday 4-27-03
I biked out to Ester again to take better photos of the Sandcrawler
and dragline crane. I left the bike in the usual area and hiked over the
stream and hill, then walked around the dredge pond to the machines and
started climbing around and taking photos. I was up on top of the sandcrawler
when I caught a flash of light out of the corner of my eye, it looked like
the reflection off a car window coming through the trees around the curve
down to where I was. I ducked behind a motor, then slid down the ladder
and hid under the sandcrawler. I could see part of an SUV across the small
stream, but I couldn’t tell if anyone had gotten out. I thought about just
walking out and saying hello, since there were no signs around and it wasn’t
clear that I was trespassing. However, I wanted to see if they’d leave
so I could finish exploring. I could have walked back from the sandcrawler
through a pond, keeping it between me and them, but the pond had small
trees growing in it and I would have made too much noise. After what seemed
like too long, they eventually turned around and left, and I proceeded
over to the dragline crane. I explored the inside first, looking out the
occasional window to see if the car was returning, then finally went outside
and climbed the support gantry. I got some good photos, but didn’t stay
long since I’d be instantly visible if anyone returned. The dredge was
still frozen into the ice, but the ice didn’t look safe to walk on. The
skiff had been moved, it may come in use once the lake thaws.. After finishing
up my photography (part on my backup memory card in case anyone demanded
to see or erase them) I hiked back to the bike and returned to campus.
Anchorage, Alaska (Summer 2003)
Mid May, 2003
Arrived in Anchorage, did some scouting of local UE opportunities even
before getting an appartment or shopping for food, ah priorities... Discovered
a few drains, but nothing even equalling the small ones around Sitka, apparently
the rains here are too infrequent to require much drainage, and the streams
are kept in a more "natural" state rather than being piped into culverts
and paved over. I was able to biek out to the Nike Point base and do some
recon of the Laucnh bunkers, unfortunately they've been turned into a golf
course and ski area and all the bunkers and tunnels are welded shut. I
got on a few rooftops and into some sewer manholes, and found some blueprints
of the bunkers and tunnels in one of the launch structures that's being
used as a ski chalet. I then biked up to the control area, but all the
buildings had been bulldozed. A few crawlspaces and steam tunnels were
leftover, but nothing that was worth spending the effort to fully explore.
In general the area makes an easy trip for anyone interested in seeing
what a Nike Base looked like (if you ignore the golf course and parking
lot and picture more razor wire) but there isn't much for the Urban Explorer
to do without resorting to vandalism for access.
5-26-2003
Just returned from Whittier, a small town connected
to the road system through a single lane tunnel that's shared with the
Alaska Railroad. I took the train there for the weekend and spend
two days exploring the area. I meant to do some kayaking and/or hiking
as well as investigating the many tunnels and the large abandoned building,
but the weather prevented me from doing much (I could have on the first
day, Sunday, but I delayed untill Memorial day monday when the wind and
rain were too bad). The train ride from Anchorage was fun, I was able to
spend a lot of time in the rear RDC control cab, including the ride through
both tunnels. Once we arrived I spent a little time around town, visitited
the Begich tower where most of the town lives to see if I could get on
the roof or into the tunnels, but found the place too unfreidnly and spooky
to hang around (cameras everywhere, no decorations, wierd smells, wierd
people, and most of the interesting parts locked up tight). I then walked
over to the Buckner building, the large abandoned Cold War relic that I'd
mainly wanted to see. I circled the structure once, it's quite large, then
entered and looked around briefly on some of the lower floors. My full
pack was getting heavy, so I decided to stash it in an out of the way place
and continue exploring. I went up to the top of the building, past the
highest full floor and up two floors of an elevator penthouse, where I
found a place to leave my gear behind a motor. I then got what I thought
I'd need (camera, headlamp, and survival kit) and explored the building
floor by floor from the top down.
I tried to methodically examine the building,
and after the two days I think I'd seen everything, but the first full
exploration was the most inteteresting. I found most of the interesting
areas mentioned on websites and elsewhere, and saw that the place was not
as "stripped" as I had somewhat expected. Most of the furniture was gone,
but there were a lot of remaining bathroom fixtures, pipes and utilities,
and built in fixtures like bars and kitchen equipment. The vandalism was
pretty heavy, almost every window was smashed and there was grafitti everywhere.
Water damage was also very extensive. All the roofs are flat, with raised
lips that collect large ponds in some areas. The drain pipes are cracked
and broken, letting water run down through the building and soak through
every level. Decaying sheetrock makes a calcium sludge on the floors and
creates stalactites and other cavelike deposits on the levels below. The
elevators are all stalled on various floors, some of the doors have been
pried open to reveal the dark shafts filled with water at the lowest level,
and a few of the elevator cars have been broken into. 4 elevators and 4
main stairways provide paths through the building, along with fire escapes
at each end of the side wings that extend out from the main building. A
large hallway runs down the center of each floor serving as a main street
of sorts, although in some of the areas reserved for officers this is blocked
by double doors. The building is actually made of 6 independent sections
with a 6in gap between each, allowing protection from earthquake damage.
A lot of the wood and metal panels covering these gaps are missing, allowing
a view down 6 floors to the basement. The floor numbering system is rather
odd, the upper 4 floors are called 1,2,3, and 4, but the floor below 1
is the ground floor, even through it is only at ground level at the rear
of the building. The "basement" is at ground level and has exterior doors
on three sides, and below that are several sub-basements and standing-height
crawlspaces connected by small utilitiy tunnels. Some of the steam tunnels
likely extend out of the building to other areas of town, a book about
Whittier described twin pedestrian and steam tunnels connecting the Buckner
and Hodge (Begich) buildings, and a manhole between the two is stamped
"steam". (Update: this was found to be a vault accessing buried steam
lines)
I searched for the connecting pedestrian tunnels
with at first little luck. I found one tunnel, which seemed intended for
public access by it's size and the setup of stairways and handrails, but
it was at the wrong end of the building away from the rest of the town.
At the bottom a large cluster of pipes seemed to deny the public access
idea, but a welded and bolted door led out under the street, and a camera
pushed through a hole showed a wide tunnel beyond. I later talked to a
few locals about the potential tunnel under town, and from what I was told
it seems that this tunnel led to the power plant near where a boat yard
is now (I found a large concrete column or shaft in a cliff crack near
here, it seems the tunnel parralells a road above it, then drops down to
the flat area where the power plant was). The pedestrian route then branches
off under the rest of town, a store clerk traced out an unlikely-looking
web of tunnels on a map, saying they were partly from WWII and partly from
the 1950's when the two buildings were constructed (there were supposed
to be 10 large buildings, all connected by tunnels). I wasn't able to get
into the one that I'd found without better tools, although it looked like
the local kids had tried in a halfhearted manner.
I looked around the eastern areas of town
a little more, at the docks and trails and a couple old rail cars being
converted into gift shops. I went back up to my gear and sat in the doorway
of the mechanical penthouse for a while sorting through my digital camera's
photos and deleting or resizing some to make room for more. While I was
sitting there two people walked out of the next penthouse, glanced my way
and continued across the roof to stand and look out over the town. I walked
over and said hi, they turned out to be a couple from near Anchorage who
were interested in abandoned buildings and tunnels, they'd even explored
some of the same dredges I had while they were living in Fairbanks. We
talked for a while and exchanged contact information, I was excited to
find more people who were interested in UE. They didn't have boots and
so couldn't explore a lot of the building, but I showed them the jail and
some of the other rooms in the basement. After they left I kept looking
for tunnels, then walked around the rail yards and over to the rail access
tunnel where I found a small pipeline tunnel and a few bunkers (I'd scouted
the bunkers by looking at online satellite photos, I was pleased to find
that my interpretation of the imagery was accurate).
While wandering around in town (there's not
much of it) I'd seen two storm drains that looked like they'd be worth
exploring, but they were all difficult to enter without attracting attention.
One had a completely collapsed corrugated entrance, and a grated upper
end, while another had a wooden lattice covering the upper end and the
lower apparently somewhere under the rail dock. The newer pedestrian tunnel
under the rail yard passed along parallel to one drain, with a possible
connection, but I didn't think it was worth spending too much effort to
get into them.
After exausting myself hiking all over town
and up the hills a little way, I went back to Buckner and found a place
to camp in one of the upper common rooms. I'd wanted to try the roof, but
it was starting to rain and there were few dry areas. I found a dry protected
spot on the 4th floor (actually the 6th in any normal numbering system)
and secured the tent with a line to a support pillar and one to a heavy
light fixture that had fallen from the ceiling. I cooked my chilli and
read some local brochures, then went to bed. Aside from a few odd dreams
and the occasional sound that could have been a local kid I spent an uneventful
night. I slept somewhat late in the morning, then decided to get up and
see about renting a kayak for the day. Unfortunately the weather had become
very bad, even with my previous experience the rental agency was reluctant
to let me go out on my own and didn't think I'd get my money's worth ($40)
so I hung around town the rest of the day instead. I had lunch at a small
tourist cafe on the shore, then looked for a museum without luck. I checked
out Begich tower a few more times, and did another walkthrough of every
floor in Buckner. I got pretty bored waiting for the 6pm train, I ended
up sitting around reading tourist literature in the penthouse doorway again.
By the time the train got there I was quite ready to leave, it came early
so I waited for a while inside various harborside stores, then just got
on board and sat around untill the rest of the passengers showed up from
cruises and other local tours (mostly curises, there's nothing else to
see). I spent the ride back primarily in the rear RDC cabin again.
5-31-2003
Summit Missile Base II
operatives: Freak and Spartacus
I'd kept in contact with the people I ran into in Whittier, and this
weekend we decided to check out a local missile base. "Spartacus" came
over to pick me up around 10:30 on Saturday, and we drove up to the ski
area near the missile base. There were a few hikers in the area, and we
saw some people doing maintenance on the somewhat abandoned ski lifts (another
possible exploration). We parked and started hiking up to the top of Mt.
Gordon Lyon, along a trail that appeared to be partly military road and
partly park trail. We saw a black bear running along the side of the mountain,
he was going somewhere fast. We also came close to a moose with two calves,
which avoided us.
When we finally reached the top we checked
out a few utility manholes first, since they were along the roadway to
the site. One seemed to be communication cables heading down to the launch
area (we went to the radar area first) and another set of manholes and
a small building turned out to be the small sewage treatment facility.
After poking around this for a bit we walked up the rest of the way and
entered the main IFC (Integrated Fire Control) building. We explored the
entire building and all three radar towers, the towers were identical inside,
although one was higher and had a tighly curving spiral staircase inside
a concrete column for access. The building was in poor shape inside, with
paint peeling (6 or 7 layers of different colors), asbestos hanging off
of pipes, toilets smashed and some parts with burn damage. The small utility
tunels under the floor led into crawlspaces and would have gone to another
nearby building if not for a flooded and frozen access vault. I found a
gunnysack labeled "Rhodesian Asbestos" and an old soda can, Spartacus found
some edible MREs probably left over from military training excercises.
All the barracks areas were pretty simmilar, and the only remaining equipment
was the heavy stuff like the large boilers and diesel generators. Newer
radio towers were nearby, and two of the old buildings had been converted
for some modern use (possibly as generator rooms for the radio gear). When
we emerged onto the roof we found that fog (actually a cloud) had rolled
over the summit and the radar towers were almost invisible. I couldn't
get any good overview pictures of the site, but the atmosphere was very
cool.
After exploring everything we could find,
and poking into some manholes without finding more than small vaults, we
walked down towards the launch area. When Kujo and Labb came up here in
2001 they'd missed that part of the base, and their pictures hadn't shown
much of the IFC area either. We detoured a bit to look at the view, once
out of the cloud we could see Eagle River and part of Anchorage. As we
came down the road between the IFC and launch area we found piles of belted
.308 ammo from an M60 machine gun, it looked like there had been several
machine gun posts set up along the road as part of the excercises. We collected
some of the belt links and the spent blanks, ammo belts are hard to find
and expensive in surplus stores, and there were enough so I didn't feel
that taking them would detract from the enjoyment of future explorers.
Later on we found some live ammo and a pocketknife that must have been
left behind during a nighttime training excercise.
We continued down the road, stopped to look at the
two explosives storage bunkers along the way, and then entered the missile
area through the wide open gate. We first went to the top of this small
hill to look at the two launch bunkers, I found a spent smoke grenade in
front of one and we saw used fireworks all over the ground and the floor
inside. The lower level was flooded, but we got into the small tunnels
under the missile rails and saw the cables and rail cart transportation
system. The second bunker had a few murals inside, it's lower level was
dry but in neither bunker did we find any of the extensions out to excape
hatches that seemed to exist at Site Point (the Nike base near the airport).
We checked out the nuclear warhead magazine bunker (empty) and a tiny bunker
identical to one at Site Point that I'd thought was a tunnel entrance.
It was a small chamber with a smaller one next to it, a vent led out of
the bigger chamber and a stencil on the door listed a loading limit of
two people. We figured it must be some kind of ammo storage, although you'd
have to squeeze hard to get two people into the chamber. Down the hill
from this was a building which turned out to be kennels for guard dogs,
and a small utilidor that was infested with squirrels. The utilidor turned
into a red metal gantry that led out of the hill and into the power plant,
I walked along it onto the roof and then down a ladder while Spartacus
looked around inside. We chased a squirrel through some pipes in the floor
and I tried to take a picture of it, but no success. We contemplated salvaging
the huge wooden ceiling beams and the working vehicle repair crane, then
looked at the fuel tank and the vehicle repair shop just up the road. A
third building seemed to be a warehouse of some sort, it had two vehicle
doors, a high celing, and another overhead crane, but no obvious function.
After seeing everything here and realizing
we'd been there most of the day we started down the mountain, taking a
shortcut down from the launch site instead of the longer road. We found
some kind of military cable strung down the mountain, and some other bits
of metal along the trail we followed down to the gate onto the ski area
road. We walked back to the truck and left, tired and hungry but with full
cameras another successful mission behind us.
6-7-03
Went on a work-related trip to the small fishing town of Cordova (via
bus through the tunnel to the Whittier port and then by boat), then on
a bus up the 50 mile highway-to-nowhere to look at the Million Dollar Bridge.
The bridge and some other relics are leftover from the Copper River and
Northwestern Railway, of which there is still some track between the bridge
and Chitna. Farther north the railway reached McCarthy and the Kennicot
mines, another place that I've wanted to visit for quite a while. I hiked
partway up the mountain above town to look at and infiltrate a ski area
and some radio towers, I also had time to look at an old fuel tank and
some shipwrecks around the harbor, but exploring in business attire isn't
a good idea (I dropped my palm pilot down the hold of an abandoned barge
and smashed it). I looked all over between the ocean and the large lake
that lies just on the other side of town, I felt sure there would be a
large drain but there was nothing. If I ever return I'd like to check out
some of the nearby gold and coal mines, and the ghost town of Katalla which
at one time had up to 3 competing railroads and still has a few leftover
steam engines and rail cars.
6-14-03
Operatives: Freak and Spartacus
Retun to Whittier! A town more pointless probably dosen't exist, but
I keep finding reasons to go back (there's a machine-gun shooting expo
on the 4th which I might attend). Spartacus and I went to the 2nd annual
"Walk to Whittier", a free open-house type event where 300 random people
walked through the 3mile tunnel from Bear Valley to Whittier. I brought
my own hardhat and was the only one nerdy enough to have a headlamp on
it, although there was a Ham radio nerd with an antenna sticking out of
his. We set a failry fast pace through so we'd have time to mess around
in the Buckner building on the other side, although we stopped at one of
the safehouse shelters to look around. I took some nice time exposures
which came out really well in the tunnel lighting, and a lot of flash pictures
which didn't come out at all (reflective signs eat all the light).
When we got to Whittier it was raining sideways,
so we took the bus into town rather than walking and looking at the tank
farm and other areas near the tunnel. When we got to Buckner we decided
to look for the pedestrian tunnels again, starting with the power plant
tunnel. <censored> and the tunnel was magically open! We headed down
this past a third place where an anti-stoner barricade had been erected
and later breached, then found that the tunnel past this point was inhabited
by large boat engines and enough spare parts to make a small hardware store.
I thought for sure that there would be a side passage into Whittier Manor,
but we went all the way to the old powerhouse without seeing any cross-connections
or even manhole entrances. At the bottom was a dead end under the former
site of the power plant, and a stairway up to a concrete lid with a steel
hatch in it. Later we were able to find this entrance on the surface at
a boat yard where the power plant site was. The tunnel doesn't follow the
route I had thought, so we still don't know what the concrete column in
the cliff behind the boat yard is for.
We looked through the basements of Buckner some
more, but found no other pedestrian-size tunnels. We followed the drain
under the railyard on the surface, looking down manholes but not finding
any that could be easily opened without attracting attention. The regular
6pm train had arrived with an extra passenger car to take the last of the
walkers back to the Bear Valley parking lot, so we said goodbye and good
riddance to Whittier again. on the way back to Anchorage we stopped to
look at the ghost tosn and rail yard of Portage (where angry seagulls live),
and at a small microwave repeater station along the railroad tracks.
9-4-03
Just got back from the roadtrip to Kennicot. We started when Dajur
showed up in Anchorage on Friday. Went to some bars and hung out in Anchorage
for a while, Dajur didn’t want to go to the hostel, then changed his mind
right when it closed, so we ended up sleeping in the car. Some cops came
and told us to get the hell out of the library parking lot after we’d been
there for a half hour, so we found some other place to park and sleep.
Saturday: went shopping in Anchorage, bought some shit for the trip
and some other stuff (I got a discount coat and some FRS radios). Drove
up to Palmer to find that those assholes had sealed up the entrance I found
into the Satanist tunnels, I looked for others with no luck. Waited for
Dajur in the rain while listening to everyone else at the fair using the
same FRS channels we were on, and to Dajur whining about picking me up
amidst the traffic and construction even though he was going to drive there
anyway. Got more food and drove out to Chickaloon to camp, went to a bar
there and explored a redneck car graveyard. Used my extra tent since Dajur
lost the poles for his somewhere.
Sunday we drove back to Wassila to get Dajur a new tent, which I paid
for since he was broke already. Finally got underway and made it to McCarthy
after driving all day, stopping at some scenic viewpoints and information
areas, etc. Checked out an interesting bridge on the old railroad grade
on the McCarthy road. We camped in the “closed” state campground near McCarthy
since the others were expensive and we were broke (I spent $200 in Anchorage
somehow, and Dajur kept buying shit even though his debit account was supposed
to be saved for rent). On the way to McCarthy we helped a guy named “Alabama”
move his trailer out of the road where he’d gotten his RV in the ditch
and blocked it.
Monday we hiked into McCarthy and took a shuttlebus to Kennecot, I
wanted to explore the mill but Dajur wanted to hike up to the mines even
though we’d heard they were recently sealed by the National Park Service.
We started on the Bonanza trail but took off on the Jumbo trail since the
bus driver had told us it was less explored. The alder was pretty thick,
so I scouted ahead while Dajur bitched and whined over the radio the whole
way despite it having been his idea, he also got pissed off that I kept
outpacing him and wouldn’t wait for his slow ass to catch up. I got up
to the halfway station and took some photos, after a lot more griping Dajur
came up as well and we left most of our gear there. We planned to continue
up the mountain that day and camp in the halfway cabin when we came back.
Dajur kept complaining about everything, and was even slower on the second
half even with me carrying our remaining gear. He finally gave up at the
base of the rock glacier while I went up the last 1000 feet to the Jumbo
mine. By the time I got to the top he was calling over the radio every
5 minutes wanting to know if I was there and when I was coming back so
we could leave, he now wanted to go all the way back down that night and
camp in Kennecot. I got to the Jumbo mine pretty tired, snapped a few pictures,
and then left, wishing I had time to look around the tunnel or at least
check the lock situation for next time, but by then Dajur was threatening
to go back down and drive home without me if I didn't move my ass. I surfed
down the loose tailings to the rock glacier past a mixture of copper chunks
and rusty tin cans, then rejoined Dajur and headed back to the halfway
point. We collected our gear and went back along the alder trail (it actually
extended farther towards the rock glacier than the bus driver had said)
and down to Kennecot. We got in an argument over where the campsite was
after Dajur refused to read his map correctly, so we went on an extra loop
around the town in the dark looking for his nonexistent campground. Then
he bitched some more when we had to walk another mile to the camp that
actually existed (where I’d said it was) and we just gave up and camped
in a flat spot on the side of the trail.
Tuesday: Hiked back to Kennecot, I explored the mill while Dajur hung
around (he wanted to leave without actually seeing anything, after driving
200 miles and hiking to nowhere all day yesterday). I said I’d only be
10 minutes (meaning 5 minutes to him and 15 to me) and ran up to the top
of the mill. I found a way underneath, crawled over a door and then through
a hole in a wall into the locked part, then made my way onto the tour route
(normally $25 for 2.5 hours) and followed this rapidly through much of
the mill, snapping pictures and wishing I had more time to look around.
I finally got to the bottom, found a door that was unlockable from inside,
and came out only a few minutes late. We hung out waiting for the bus for
another half hour (that I could have spent exploring) and then went back
to the car, packed up, and left. Stopped in Copper Center to see the model
of the CRNWRR in a bar (Dajur’s car lost some plastic bits in the parking
lot and a weird guy in the bar tried to make us think it was a gay bar).
Took pictures of the trains, had some beer and messed with the bar cat.
Drove to Glennalen and got some illegal fireworks, then drove to Tok hoping
to see HAARP or a White Alice site (we missed both). Had dinner in TOK
and got directions to HAARP from a waitress (she told us about an unguarded
radio tower nearby that we could climb) but since it was behind us quite
a ways we decided not to go. Camped at some lake campground.Wednesday:
Got up early, packed, drove to Fairbanks. Vowed never to go anywhere important
with Dajur again (we were both ready to kill eachother by then).
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