Re: Drain Of The Week.
So much for the 'weeklyness' of it...
This weeks (HAH!) DOTW is in the magnificent underground Mecca that is St Paul, Minnesota, in the United States.
Troutbrook Creek.
The Twin Cities are undermined by a myriad of amazing collection of tunnels, caves, drains, and conduits, the likes of which would make Parisian cataphile green with envy if they would but see past the 14th and 16th arrondissement 'paddocks' (to paraphrase Zone Tours Lezard Peint) they call their exploration home.
I had the ultimate pleasure of spending a week in MSP exploring... like a madman. Naturally, despite the ultimate connectiveness of the Twin Cities multitude of explorable tunnels, i still whored myself out to the drains, and was rewarded with some of the raddest shit this side of London.
Naturally, i had high priority targets, such as the Canoe/Bassetts Creek Tunnel, Phalen Creek, The Helix's and Amphitheatre and i saw to them finestyles, but beyond what id already preconcieved, there was one system that i hadnt really considered, which in the end blew my mind.
Unlike a lot of other tunnels in MSP, Troutbrook Creek has had little coverage. Its a bit of a black sheep, quite possibly because of its 9km length and the large amount of water it sees flowing.
The only mention it get online is on Greg Bricks site, where he states that the huge Troutbrook system was originally a triburaty of the Phalen Creek , but in the mid 1980s, the tunnels were separated and a new outfall for Troutbrook saw it emerging 200m upstream.
The tunnel itself started to take shape in the early 1890's, utilising some very unique masonry techniques and limestone. The system drains Lake Como, the original stream now merely a side passage within.
It was a warm summers day when i went with Krenta and Ben to explore this tunnel system, one of the few that i knew little about prior.
We parked a good 4kms from the Mississipi and headed down into a marshalling yard, making a beeline towards a linear elevation in the ground to the side of the train tracks. Turned out this long 'mound' was indeed the tunnel, never quite fully covered over. A largish Grille room, with a manhole shaft, sans cover presented a way in and in typical MSP fashion we had to descend it using what was left of very rusty, debilatated step irons. Having done quite a few other drains by this time, i was surprised by how shallow in the ground this one was. A lot of Minnesotan explorers prefer the deeper tunnels, features tending to be more spectacular in the these systems. Nevertheless it must be said that at least with the shallower systems like Phalen and Troutbrook, you dont need to worry about impassable drop shafts.
The Tunnel itself was a big bastard, bigger than id expected, typically arched, concrete and around 12ft high. It had a lot of waterflow, the kind that made the prospect of getting caught in there during rain scary.
THE ENTRY POINT
We headed downstream, the light beaming in illuminating a good ways down the tunnel, providing a classic view upstream.
UPSTREAM.
A ways down, the tunnel became a 9ft concrete box (finally, in this land of arches n rcp's,i was needin' some good 'ole 'box' lovin'!), with an 8ft rcp diverting to the right. We took the box and followed it a good way into a typical summer drain fog that had us scouring the uneven floor for potholes and obstacles. This in turn, returned to arch tunnel after a good 500m and we rounded a bend to find another grille section similar to out entry point. This one however, had a 5ft rectangle opposite and this in turn lead 20 metres to a 4 way intersection, the 8ft rcp from earlier passing thru it and another small tunnel coming in from opposite.
THE SECOND GRILLE.
The archway then started to fluxuate, swopping from pointed arch to a more rounded version, both concrete, but with a limestone tunnel trying to break in. It also snaked its way round quite a few tight bends, before finally giving way to the immaculate 1893 Minnesota Limestone for good.
LIIIIMESTONE!
We passed one of the few manhole shafts we'd seen (in my experience, MSP drains are sorely lacking in manhole shafts and even more so, those shafts in ladders or stepirons) n Ben pointed it out as an alternate exit. I looked at the reed thin, rust obliterated rungs and wondered...
But i was soon distracted as we rouned a bend and my dark adjusted peepers took in one of the nicest subterranian scenes theyve ever had the joy of beholding.
I HAVE SEEN THE LIGHT
The beams fluctuated and danced as fast moving clouds scoured thru the blue skies above. Downstream the tunnel was a ballerinas dance of crisscrossed downspouts, pouring in thru the tunnels famous 'spouting gargoyles'. These lead onto a very brief cut and cover section then out into a large intesection chamber, photos of which i suddenly recalled having seen on UER ( I think they were MacGyvers from a Mouser Week a few years back). Walking into this large, newer concrete space, light dimly dipped in through what seemed like expansion joints in the ceiling. We emerged from the north western tunnel, an old arch. To our right was a newer 8ft rcp. Opposite us was a newer 10ft rcp, opposite the rcp to the right of us was more old archway. A very nice crossover junction... of sorts. In the middle of all this was an 8ft rcp, coming in from the eastern wall, dumping mildly chlorinated waters.
THE CROSSVER JUNCTION.
I took a brief look up this sidepipe, far enough to climb over various flow slowing speedrings thats compensated the pipes steep incline down towards the chamber, but stopped when it shrank somewhat, imagining a swimming pool at the other end...
RINGA DING DING!
Just for a change, we headed down the large RCP, passing beneath a grille and flow meter on our way towards another junction room. Oddly this RCP had barely any water, as the crossover junction we'd just passed had been engineered to put 80% of the flow from the upstream tunnel down the adjacent Linestone Arch. We reached our second room but instead found RCP next door.
A quick but very cautious walk up this lead us to the archway. The freaky thing was that while all that water fitted quite nicely into the arch, upon being dropped into a steeply placed RCP it took on a tremendous amount of speed and force, almost having enough power to knock you off your feet, which it unfortunatly did, to Ben. In true Home Alone mixed with Mony Python fashion he nearly did a backflip when slippery concrete and high velocity water got the better of him.
Even more unfortunatly, he dropped his Mag Lite, a relic he'd had for years and it was carried away like so much leaf litter. A walk further downstream and we could still see it in the distance, but the water got progressivley deeper as the two RCPS headed on a steep grade into the waters of the Mississipi.
THE WATER METER RCP (pic by Krenta)
On our way back up, we took the low flow route, then headed downstream to where Ben had fallen, to see the drain Mushrooms. On our way back up, we noticed the water had changed colour, going a deep earthy red.
LOTS OF EARTHY RED WATER JUST ABOUT TO ENTER AN RCP.
We trecked up to the Crossover and headed up the RCP, greeted by lots of mist and little else until we arrived back at the four way junction. This whole time id been wondering about this section of tunnel id seen on Greg Bricks site, a smaller section, limestone, arched. I hadnt seen it yet and i wondered if it was up this latter side tunnel. Yet this one was kinda small. Nevertheless i headed up, and came to a nice medium sized slide... atop of which sat Greg Bricks smaller arch.
GREG BRICKS SMALLER ARCH. (pic by Greg Brick)
GREG BRICKS SMALLER ARCH AT THE TOP OF A MEDIUM SIZED SLIDE.
This little arch was a real gem, it had loads of character, with multiple little side pipes and bugger-runged manhole shafts. It was also the original stream tunnel. I headed up, with Krenta in tow while Ben stayed back to get photos. Before long, the arch, having swopped back and forth between brick and limestone, gave way to an uneven pipe, half limestone, half brick, all wonderful. This eventually lead to RCP, which in turn shrank, but then enlarged. The urge to go onwards was strong, but i had so much more to do, so i turned back and between us, we found an exit manhole. I popped my head out into the sunny upper world only to find i was a foot away from a big old steam train. We'd popped out inside the grounds of a railway museum!
THE INTENSE ROUND PIPE.
end pt1