Trip Log: Trip 2
So, I felt like it was about time to explore the steam tunnels again. I had told some of the people in my dorm about my previous trip, so I thought I would bring one of them along as well. I was originally planning on bringing along my friend from high school that I brought last time too, but she decided not to come this time because she wasn't feeling well. So it was just me and one of my hall mates.
We entered through the Saunders grate; oddly enough, it was closed completely, unlike last time. Is someone else exploring the tunnels, or did someone just close it properly? I first headed to the right, but decided it was not worth trying to get into the subtunnel there or walking across the plank to Agnew. Just like last time, we headed left, but this time I made sure to check out the Price subtunnel; we had to crawl under some pipes and checked it out. There was really nothing interesting in this section, so we proceeded back to the main tunnel and continued onward.
When we passed near Davidson, the mechanism that is supposed to discharge steam was making noise, but there was no steam discharge. It was like that last time too; I'm not really sure why.
We turned right behind Davidson (we didn't really have a choice, that's the only way), and proceeded up to Burruss. On the way, I pointed out the Conglomerate graffiti to my friend. Without them, I doubt I would have been exploring the tunnel tonight. We headed up the stairs at Burruss and turned to the left again into the hot section of tunnel.
We continued straight and proceeded down the ladder to continue further. (We had missed the Derring ladder, so this was at the big drop in the tunnel.) We proceeded on until we reached the end of the tunnel. I searched for the entrance to the GBJ-Hahn North tunnel. Luckily, someone had spray-painted "Derring" on the wall with an arrow pointing back to the way we came. So we headed back up the ladder and this time we noticed the ladder leading down to the section of tunnel I had been looking for. Someone had spray-painted "Derring Basement" on the wall for us.
We proceeded down the ladder into the hottest section of tunnel I have ever been in. I walked rather quickly down to the entrance to the Derring basement and looked down toward Hahn North, but I decided to turn back because I had bumped one of the pipes near the entrance to the basement and was worried that it might burst. (It didn't, but I didn't want to spend too long down there just in case.) We headed back up the ladder and proceeded back.
On the way back, I noticed the door to the hidden room of Burruss, but chose not to pursue it because we were both hot and tired. We headed back to the Saunders grate and exited out on to the Ag Quad.
This was a much more eventful trip than last time; that I doubt I will be checking out this section of tunnel for a while because I've seen pretty much everything to see down there. Now I have my sights on a new target: the Cassell-Power Plant tunnel. The trip will be far more challenging and I think I may need to find some experienced tunnelers to accompany me.
-Fuse
