Drain Of The Week.
Its been 10 months since i rounded out the first season of DOTW. With such a hiatus between now and then, its now time to start anew, and like the second season Of The Next Generation, the second season of DOTW has new special effects, a more realistic looking Enterprise D; Riker has kept his beard, Dianna Troi is wearing a push up bra, Wesley Crusher is slightly less annoying, Worf's headpeice looks less agressive and Jean Luc Picard is handsome as ever.
To start off the new season, we tackle one of Canadas best known drains, and i guess you could say the first world class drain found over there,
Built in the 1960's, following one of Torontos largest ravine bound creeks, it seems in hindsite that the Park Drive Reservation Drain, or the Spadina Storm Sewer as the council call it, was bound to be big and full of sweet drain goodness, as the original creek made its way down a variety of waterfalls on its way to the Don River.
It wasnt however until mid 1999 that anyone realised this.
From a Cave Clan standpoint, there wasnt much else going on outside of Australia in regards to exploring Drains in 1999. I can recall drooling over obscure, mystery shrouded Minnesota drainage, but beyond Sewering In Minneapolis, drain exploration had little overseas representation in '99.
Ninjalicious, of Infiltration, made concerted efforts to change all this and while his 'First 8 Drains' werent much to write home about, i remember being impressed when i read about this Park Drive Drain he and two others explored. The article was published in Infiltration 16 and told of their trip to "investigate the mammoth drain emptying out at Toronto's Park Drive Reservation". Using a car jack to pry the outfall grille open, they found themselves inside a drain that they at the time considered to be "considerably larger than any drain any of (us has) ever seen." also mentioning, their encounter with the first ""waterfall chamber": a gigantic underground room (by Canadian standards, at least)" Ironically, those Canadian Standards grew after they found Park Drive, and drains all over the country proved to be of a similar or higher standard. Park Drive was simply the first. That particular expo ended in them getting caught emerging from a manhole and earned them a $65 ticket for tresspassing.
But despite the ticket, the finding and exploring of this large Toronto Drain, proved very much worthwhile, as i would say it was the first step that lead to Canada becoming the 'big drain' country its known to be today. From Mega Ganga in Montreal right thru to the old stone drains in Victoria, Canada is a drainers paradise (as long as you dont mind the tunnels being made entirely of concrete) and is easily on par with Australia and the United States for big drain goodness.
Of the Golden Horseshoe area, the area that resides around the southern end of Lake Ontario, Park Drive is considered to be the best drain in the Toronto region, but nevertheless easily challenges the best drains of Hamilton and Burlington, if not quite being up to standard with the Niagara Power Station tailraces (if you would compare them).
Thusly it was high on my own personal agenda when i arrived in Toronto in June 2005 to get this mammoth tunnel seen to. Id planned to do the tunnel with Kowalski, but the night before, he broke his collerbone, so i went n did 21 Golden Steps instead and it wasnt until September, 4 months later, having done 20 odd drains elsewhere in Canada that i finally got to see it.
Sitting regally off one side of a reserve pathway, its outfall flanked by high retaining walls, the 13ft diameter pipe looks like an advertisment for a giant's orthodontist. The grille mounted to the front would have to be one of the chunkiest ever, and it takes two or more people to pull it open, while they narrowly avoid slipping on the sloped vestibule that sits afront it.
The outfall almost always smells mildly sewerfresh, and while ive never seen any actual turd emanating from it, i think there must always be a tiny amount of overflow. Nevertheless, the flow is usually clear and always heavy.
THE OUTFALL (pic by Kowalski)
Sloshing up the LARGE diameter tunnel, you straight away can hear the first waterfall. Indeed its barely 50m up the tunnel. A huge double weir, with a thick dividing wall, each fall emptying into a waist deep pool, containing a couple of churnblocks. I remember seeing this first fall in winter and marvelling at the ice colums that had collected on the wall of the waterfall, the cold winter air coming up from the outfall, the culprit.
Its an elaborate setup in itself, but its the ladder and catwalk system that allows you to cross the pool and climb the waterfall that sets elaborate on fire. This system exists only on one side of the twin falls, the other side having only a fancy looking downspout, spewing water, to compensate.
DOWNSPOUTAGE
LOOKING BACK
Avoiding falling into the pit is paramount, as Jon Doe of Sub Urban and Jester of the Wraths found out, as the waist deep bastards are a mild cesspit of collected CSO. There are safety chains warning of the floors immenant dissapearance, but a lot of them have been washed away. Making a beeline for the ladder is usually the safest bet.
THE CATWALK.
The walkways present a challenge, as they are close to the tunnel ceiling, and thus backpacks get uncomfortable; the grille work is sturdy but very flexible, although at times completely missing. The scariest sight is however, the debris washed across these catwalks. Chunks of styrofoam and candy wrappers inspire visions of this huge system at times being completely full with a roaring tsunami of stormwater.
Trudging to the far end of the first long catwalk there is a second ladder, going up. This takes you up above the pit by another 13-14 footto yet anopther catwalk. This takes you across the last secion of the chamber to a ladder that gets you down to the top of the waterfall.
THE END OF THE FIRST CATWALK
A large speed hump with small pipes thru it acts as a way of controlling the waters descent down the falls, and forms an ankle deep puddle in the area where the 12ft diameter pipe coming in from upstream meets the twin weir.
TOP OF THE FALLS.
Its an ingenious system, but one that soon becomes a real pain in the arse as its repeated 3 more times in the next kilometre of tunnel.
The fourth fall proves to be the last double and its slightly more sedate, with less water tumbling down the waterfall and a mannhole shaft with rungs (to hang yer backpack on)instead of a crazy downspout. Looking up one of these manholes has you realising your at least 7-8 metres beneath Toronto. A lot of the lids are bolted shut however.
THE LAST DOUBLE WATERFALL
At the top of this fall, things change somewhat. Up until now, with the exceptionm of the first few metres from the outfall, the tunnel has been a large 12ft diameter RCP, complete with the odd stalagtite or 2000. But from this point it becomes an oddly shaped oval, almost like an inverted capsule, reminiscant of an Edmonton tunnel.
THE RCP YOU JUST LEFT BEHIND
This new shape is very pleasing on the eye and the acoustics are delightful and you hardly notice the walk to the first of four (or is it five?) smaller, single waterfall chambers.
These are all fairly similar, with only heights and the side upon which the walkway is mounted being different. Largish arch-vaulted chambers, with long, deep pools, ladders leading to walkways leading up over the ponds and the fall to the shallow puddle on the upstream end. Oh yeah and most of the safety chains are still intact and highly visible. (not to mention cocooned in... toilet paper?)
IN COLOUR
B & W
The tunnel starts to weave and snake from this point, the oval bending and warping as it makes its way round each curve.
Theres a dead end 6ft rcp coming into it from one side. During the day this pipe announces its presenmce by the light that shines down from a grille situated above a pit, in turn situated off to the side of the pipe. The whole thing looks like a total bodge job, with reo bars and chunks of concrete sticking out all over the place, but the grille gives off the only serious peice of daylight in the whole system.
Further still there is an odd room with a 4ft rcp spewing mostly soapy water from on high. I felt ill once walking past this room as the water stank of mens colonge.
OVAL PIPEAGE AND SIDE PIPE SPEWAGE
The last waterfall is reached n youve walked nearly 4kms, you climb that final ladder/walkway system with a sense of relief... heres a hint, Park Drive is much better explored from the upstream down.
LOOKING DOWNSTREAM AGAIN
The big oval, nearly 14ft in height suddenly ends at a split made of a 7ft and 9ft set of rcps. The left one often smells terdy, but following it reveals nothing of the sewers, the pipe becoming a 6ft rcp then ending at a downspout.
The right weaves and bends its way before shrinking to a 6fter with a warped looking rcp running off to the right. This warped tunnel, a nearly round pipe used to lead to a tall multi levelled manhole shaft, but ive heard from Kowalksi and Mortimer that this has been replaced and altered.
THE SPLIT
Formerly, exiting this manhole saw you come out on the edge of a quiet street up near Bathurst Ave, 4.8kms from where you started.
This drain is very damp and dank. Most times i was down there i couldnt see particularly far in front of me as the tunnel was often steeped in mist of who knows what origin; the walls were usually soaked and i found myself on two occaisions down there alone and strangley content lost in the fog and fast flowing water. Park Drive is probably Toronto's most explored system, if only thanks to Kowalski leading 25 odd ppl thru it on a hot summers day back in 2004 at the first OPEX. I personally prefer the granduer of Mountain Juggernaut, and Gargantua holds a special place in my heart as i was one of the first to see its goodness, but beyond this Park Drive is a real winner, it feels more like an English CSO tunnel, a lost London River, with its depth, dankness and smell, than a lot of the other more 'buried creek' types drains around.
To start off the new season, we tackle one of Canadas best known drains, and i guess you could say the first world class drain found over there,
Built in the 1960's, following one of Torontos largest ravine bound creeks, it seems in hindsite that the Park Drive Reservation Drain, or the Spadina Storm Sewer as the council call it, was bound to be big and full of sweet drain goodness, as the original creek made its way down a variety of waterfalls on its way to the Don River.
It wasnt however until mid 1999 that anyone realised this.
From a Cave Clan standpoint, there wasnt much else going on outside of Australia in regards to exploring Drains in 1999. I can recall drooling over obscure, mystery shrouded Minnesota drainage, but beyond Sewering In Minneapolis, drain exploration had little overseas representation in '99.
Ninjalicious, of Infiltration, made concerted efforts to change all this and while his 'First 8 Drains' werent much to write home about, i remember being impressed when i read about this Park Drive Drain he and two others explored. The article was published in Infiltration 16 and told of their trip to "investigate the mammoth drain emptying out at Toronto's Park Drive Reservation". Using a car jack to pry the outfall grille open, they found themselves inside a drain that they at the time considered to be "considerably larger than any drain any of (us has) ever seen." also mentioning, their encounter with the first ""waterfall chamber": a gigantic underground room (by Canadian standards, at least)" Ironically, those Canadian Standards grew after they found Park Drive, and drains all over the country proved to be of a similar or higher standard. Park Drive was simply the first. That particular expo ended in them getting caught emerging from a manhole and earned them a $65 ticket for tresspassing.
But despite the ticket, the finding and exploring of this large Toronto Drain, proved very much worthwhile, as i would say it was the first step that lead to Canada becoming the 'big drain' country its known to be today. From Mega Ganga in Montreal right thru to the old stone drains in Victoria, Canada is a drainers paradise (as long as you dont mind the tunnels being made entirely of concrete) and is easily on par with Australia and the United States for big drain goodness.
Of the Golden Horseshoe area, the area that resides around the southern end of Lake Ontario, Park Drive is considered to be the best drain in the Toronto region, but nevertheless easily challenges the best drains of Hamilton and Burlington, if not quite being up to standard with the Niagara Power Station tailraces (if you would compare them).
Thusly it was high on my own personal agenda when i arrived in Toronto in June 2005 to get this mammoth tunnel seen to. Id planned to do the tunnel with Kowalski, but the night before, he broke his collerbone, so i went n did 21 Golden Steps instead and it wasnt until September, 4 months later, having done 20 odd drains elsewhere in Canada that i finally got to see it.
Sitting regally off one side of a reserve pathway, its outfall flanked by high retaining walls, the 13ft diameter pipe looks like an advertisment for a giant's orthodontist. The grille mounted to the front would have to be one of the chunkiest ever, and it takes two or more people to pull it open, while they narrowly avoid slipping on the sloped vestibule that sits afront it.
The outfall almost always smells mildly sewerfresh, and while ive never seen any actual turd emanating from it, i think there must always be a tiny amount of overflow. Nevertheless, the flow is usually clear and always heavy.
THE OUTFALL (pic by Kowalski)
Sloshing up the LARGE diameter tunnel, you straight away can hear the first waterfall. Indeed its barely 50m up the tunnel. A huge double weir, with a thick dividing wall, each fall emptying into a waist deep pool, containing a couple of churnblocks. I remember seeing this first fall in winter and marvelling at the ice colums that had collected on the wall of the waterfall, the cold winter air coming up from the outfall, the culprit.
Its an elaborate setup in itself, but its the ladder and catwalk system that allows you to cross the pool and climb the waterfall that sets elaborate on fire. This system exists only on one side of the twin falls, the other side having only a fancy looking downspout, spewing water, to compensate.
DOWNSPOUTAGE
LOOKING BACK
Avoiding falling into the pit is paramount, as Jon Doe of Sub Urban and Jester of the Wraths found out, as the waist deep bastards are a mild cesspit of collected CSO. There are safety chains warning of the floors immenant dissapearance, but a lot of them have been washed away. Making a beeline for the ladder is usually the safest bet.
THE CATWALK.
The walkways present a challenge, as they are close to the tunnel ceiling, and thus backpacks get uncomfortable; the grille work is sturdy but very flexible, although at times completely missing. The scariest sight is however, the debris washed across these catwalks. Chunks of styrofoam and candy wrappers inspire visions of this huge system at times being completely full with a roaring tsunami of stormwater.
Trudging to the far end of the first long catwalk there is a second ladder, going up. This takes you up above the pit by another 13-14 footto yet anopther catwalk. This takes you across the last secion of the chamber to a ladder that gets you down to the top of the waterfall.
THE END OF THE FIRST CATWALK
A large speed hump with small pipes thru it acts as a way of controlling the waters descent down the falls, and forms an ankle deep puddle in the area where the 12ft diameter pipe coming in from upstream meets the twin weir.
TOP OF THE FALLS.
Its an ingenious system, but one that soon becomes a real pain in the arse as its repeated 3 more times in the next kilometre of tunnel.
The fourth fall proves to be the last double and its slightly more sedate, with less water tumbling down the waterfall and a mannhole shaft with rungs (to hang yer backpack on)instead of a crazy downspout. Looking up one of these manholes has you realising your at least 7-8 metres beneath Toronto. A lot of the lids are bolted shut however.
THE LAST DOUBLE WATERFALL
At the top of this fall, things change somewhat. Up until now, with the exceptionm of the first few metres from the outfall, the tunnel has been a large 12ft diameter RCP, complete with the odd stalagtite or 2000. But from this point it becomes an oddly shaped oval, almost like an inverted capsule, reminiscant of an Edmonton tunnel.
THE RCP YOU JUST LEFT BEHIND
This new shape is very pleasing on the eye and the acoustics are delightful and you hardly notice the walk to the first of four (or is it five?) smaller, single waterfall chambers.
These are all fairly similar, with only heights and the side upon which the walkway is mounted being different. Largish arch-vaulted chambers, with long, deep pools, ladders leading to walkways leading up over the ponds and the fall to the shallow puddle on the upstream end. Oh yeah and most of the safety chains are still intact and highly visible. (not to mention cocooned in... toilet paper?)
IN COLOUR
B & W
The tunnel starts to weave and snake from this point, the oval bending and warping as it makes its way round each curve.
Theres a dead end 6ft rcp coming into it from one side. During the day this pipe announces its presenmce by the light that shines down from a grille situated above a pit, in turn situated off to the side of the pipe. The whole thing looks like a total bodge job, with reo bars and chunks of concrete sticking out all over the place, but the grille gives off the only serious peice of daylight in the whole system.
Further still there is an odd room with a 4ft rcp spewing mostly soapy water from on high. I felt ill once walking past this room as the water stank of mens colonge.
OVAL PIPEAGE AND SIDE PIPE SPEWAGE
The last waterfall is reached n youve walked nearly 4kms, you climb that final ladder/walkway system with a sense of relief... heres a hint, Park Drive is much better explored from the upstream down.
LOOKING DOWNSTREAM AGAIN
The big oval, nearly 14ft in height suddenly ends at a split made of a 7ft and 9ft set of rcps. The left one often smells terdy, but following it reveals nothing of the sewers, the pipe becoming a 6ft rcp then ending at a downspout.
The right weaves and bends its way before shrinking to a 6fter with a warped looking rcp running off to the right. This warped tunnel, a nearly round pipe used to lead to a tall multi levelled manhole shaft, but ive heard from Kowalksi and Mortimer that this has been replaced and altered.
THE SPLIT
Formerly, exiting this manhole saw you come out on the edge of a quiet street up near Bathurst Ave, 4.8kms from where you started.
This drain is very damp and dank. Most times i was down there i couldnt see particularly far in front of me as the tunnel was often steeped in mist of who knows what origin; the walls were usually soaked and i found myself on two occaisions down there alone and strangley content lost in the fog and fast flowing water. Park Drive is probably Toronto's most explored system, if only thanks to Kowalski leading 25 odd ppl thru it on a hot summers day back in 2004 at the first OPEX. I personally prefer the granduer of Mountain Juggernaut, and Gargantua holds a special place in my heart as i was one of the first to see its goodness, but beyond this Park Drive is a real winner, it feels more like an English CSO tunnel, a lost London River, with its depth, dankness and smell, than a lot of the other more 'buried creek' types drains around.