A Dumb Idea (#9)
My friend, Lee, read The Tunnels of Cu Chi and convinced me to do the next best thing in his mind:
We found a good entry point into the system, where the storm drains empty into a creek that ran into the lake. It was a small hole that Lee could snake through with something resembling ease, but it wasn't so easy for me. Lee could turn around--I couldn't. If I wanted to turn around, I had to make it to one of the "rooms" beneath the streets where several side drains met--or I went back the way I came backwards.
Lee and his father once hiked and climbed Mt. Ranier. Lee had two sets of headlamps, so we at least didn't have to carry flashlights in with us. I liked the headlamp because the light was always right where I was looking. This came in handy during the second time we ventured a bit deeper into the storm drains.
Nearing a junction where several drain pipes met, the little "room" was blocked by a bunch of dried debris. Lee and I were able to get side by side and we started digging through the paper cups, plastic bags, and other rubbish. I poked my head over the top, where we made a hole large enough to crawl through.
And I saw glowing eyes.
Lots and lots of glowing rat eyes.
We had found the motherlode of rat nests! It seemed every rat in North Texas had gathered for a rodent convention.
That was the end of my career as an urban spelunker...until Lee found another entry point into the drainage system.
Now, a rational mind would have thought, "If you've stumbled onto a colony of tunnel-dwelling rats, chances are, you'll find more rats. But that's why I'm titling these entries A Dumb Idea--not A Bright Idea.
(And speaking of dumb ideas, it never once dawned on us that we could encounter noxious gasses in the drains, even though we'd seen the street crews checking for gasses on occasion.)
We didn't find more rats, but one afternoon I heard Lee, who usually led the charge, yelling "Oh, shit! Oh, shit!!!" I really got scared when he added, "SNAKE!!!" A daimondback water snake (non-venomous), came at him and crawled right under him. The thing was as scared as we were, and lucky for me, there was a side tunnel the snake shot up instead of crawling under me.
While I'm generally not afraid of snakes, in those conditions, I would have panicked.
You'd think rats and snakes would keep us away, but we were determined to become the leading authorities on the drainage system of Grapevine, Texas. We started making a rough map, but we gave up soon after starting.
Another time while squeezing through the drainage tunnels, I heard Lee yelling "Oh, shit!" again. I expected snakes or rats, but I didn't see anything. I heard Lee slapping the ground with his hand.
He had crawled up on two black widow spiders.
I draw the line at venomous things, and I never went into the tunnels again...
We found a good entry point into the system, where the storm drains empty into a creek that ran into the lake. It was a small hole that Lee could snake through with something resembling ease, but it wasn't so easy for me. Lee could turn around--I couldn't. If I wanted to turn around, I had to make it to one of the "rooms" beneath the streets where several side drains met--or I went back the way I came backwards.
Lee and his father once hiked and climbed Mt. Ranier. Lee had two sets of headlamps, so we at least didn't have to carry flashlights in with us. I liked the headlamp because the light was always right where I was looking. This came in handy during the second time we ventured a bit deeper into the storm drains.
Nearing a junction where several drain pipes met, the little "room" was blocked by a bunch of dried debris. Lee and I were able to get side by side and we started digging through the paper cups, plastic bags, and other rubbish. I poked my head over the top, where we made a hole large enough to crawl through.
And I saw glowing eyes.
Lots and lots of glowing rat eyes.
We had found the motherlode of rat nests! It seemed every rat in North Texas had gathered for a rodent convention.
That was the end of my career as an urban spelunker...until Lee found another entry point into the drainage system.
Now, a rational mind would have thought, "If you've stumbled onto a colony of tunnel-dwelling rats, chances are, you'll find more rats. But that's why I'm titling these entries A Dumb Idea--not A Bright Idea.
(And speaking of dumb ideas, it never once dawned on us that we could encounter noxious gasses in the drains, even though we'd seen the street crews checking for gasses on occasion.)
We didn't find more rats, but one afternoon I heard Lee, who usually led the charge, yelling "Oh, shit! Oh, shit!!!" I really got scared when he added, "SNAKE!!!" A daimondback water snake (non-venomous), came at him and crawled right under him. The thing was as scared as we were, and lucky for me, there was a side tunnel the snake shot up instead of crawling under me.
While I'm generally not afraid of snakes, in those conditions, I would have panicked.
You'd think rats and snakes would keep us away, but we were determined to become the leading authorities on the drainage system of Grapevine, Texas. We started making a rough map, but we gave up soon after starting.
Another time while squeezing through the drainage tunnels, I heard Lee yelling "Oh, shit!" again. I expected snakes or rats, but I didn't see anything. I heard Lee slapping the ground with his hand.
He had crawled up on two black widow spiders.
I draw the line at venomous things, and I never went into the tunnels again...