Underground

Playing with flashlights in a local drain... in the rain. T3h 5p1d0rz! Might not look like it, but these things are alive. The drains of Rochester were built in 1888-1890 by Emil Küchling, later to become the first professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Rochester. His developments in rational scatology included enclosed brick sewers like this one, which has been abandoned since 1974. However, you can still hear the roar of torrents of excrement a few feet away in the side tunnels. Until you think about what is flowing, it looks and sounds like a peaceful, wild waterfall!…

They've been talking for a while about filling in the old Subway; last time I was here the Jenga blocks were already in, today there's a few more signs we might not have this spot much longer. Once again, the city has offered millions of dollars to rebuild Broad street and fill the tunnel, but this time it's not just the money talking: construction cones, heavy haulers, and light trucks left in the tunnel, and some fresh chain link fence blocking off the Dinosaur end. Brown street end Knocking down the tunnel walls -- I'm not sure how much I'd…

Some explores are just meant to be. I was already home and writing about the day's adventures when Ian texts me to make sure we were meeting at 10:30. Any normal person would have said yeah, and you missed it by 10 hours already. I figured, why the hell not, let's go for round 3, and called everyone i knew that missed the morning chance. Which was mostly people who had never even been to a drain before, but I've never been one to judge. I'd had a sneaking suspicion since last summer, and known almost certainly since that clusterfuck…