Half a Life. (Part Four)
2005.
Still living in Manchester. Working nightshift in a scally hotel, dealing with pikeys and drunks in between cooking myself big fucking steaks and watching 27 hours of Star Trek a week... i still got round to a few more drains.
Then some.
And a bit more.
Found a few lost childhood treasures...
Went to Nottingham to do the indomitable Beck Valley Culvert.
Went to Bristol after Jon Doe and Stoop discovered the drain that to this day is the least commonly explored. MOTHERLOAD!
Back in Manchester, i did a few things other than drains. A Hospital for example...
And old Mill in Oldham. Here i discovered the joys of exploring while the local kids try to arson the place.
The since demolished Maths Tower at Manchester University.
And the odd bits here and there of Metrolink underground goodness.
Then there were the 6am sojourns to find new ways into old drains.
Overall, 2005 was, for the first part, quite quiet. There was no 28 Days Later (it was still a few months off) and Manchester was DEVOID of urban explorers. Quite a contrast to these days. Still, people came to visit sometimes and i showed 'em the locals.
THEN. I moved to Canada.
I left the UK cos id seen enough of Manchester. London was still just a baby for explorers then. But one that grew up quickly. Had i known just how much amazing stuff, mostly drainage, was to be found there, id've probably stayed. But at the time, the UE scene in the Uk was too small and quiet. Canada by comparison, with its roots buried in UER and Infiltration, growing steadily since 1997... it was quite the hot point. And the drains?? Magnifique! Images of this outfall, for the Chedoke Creek in Hamilton Ontario, from Kowalski had boggled my mind since early 2003. The drains in Canada are all big, mostly concrete and definitely awesome. I spent the next year relishing in them.
But, also loved the industry left behind, wide open, like a free whorehouse. See, in Canada they dont have Terrorism. They dont have CCTV. Everythings a goddamn fucking walk in the park. Its glorious! This was the turbine Hall of Hearn Power Station in Toronto in June 2005.
In Toronto i met up with Infectiod... Feccie as he was better known. We arrived and to our horror discovered car Insurance in Ontario is catastrophically overpriced. Unable to fund a vehicle there, we flew to Winnipeg, where the near socialist Manitoban Provincial Govt provides dirt cheap insurance. We bought a $2000 1985 Chevrolet Impala. Then drove to Edmonton. There they'd had severe flooding from heavy rains. But it was ok. We arrived after the rains stopped. I did a few big locals, then took myself down an innocuous tunnel named Thunder Road. The water was fairly busy, creating a lot of foam. There was a waterfall. I thought id have a look up it. Didnt realise the water fell into a deep pit. Fell in. Nearly drowned. Ruined all my camera gear.
With this rather scary experience, my first 'life and death' since id started, we headed to Calgary, home to UEA. At the time UEA was one of the largest unique UE groups. What a bunch of champions too. Skaught and Anymouse let us stay at their place for ages, even after we left, then returned, having been denied entry into the USA (Skinny Puppy t-shirts, Poo brown Impala's and a lack of direction arent appreciated by US Border Guards). With them we did the amazing Rocky Mountain mines, in particular the Kicking Horse Mine. Just to get to it you had to climb 400m up a fucking mountain.
The rest of my time in Calgary, i spent doing all the rad drains. With locals (and Cave Clanners) like Nimrod and Kayosweaver.
Then we'd drive out to places in the middle of nowhere, to do abandoned Gas fed power plants. In Teh Chev.
While in Calgary, we had the opportunity through Kayosweavers airport job to hustle dirt cheap tickets to Montreal for OPEX '95, the then annual symposium for Canadian/US exploration. So we flew to Montreal. Here i met utter champions like Nel58 and Steve Duncan for the first time. The craaazy sewers of Montreal were still hidden at the time, but we ran amok through those Quebecois streets, hanging at the Malt Plant...
And on the roof of the old Dow Brewery, in downtown. With Reduxzero. The trip was tinged with sadness however, as it was the last time Ninjalicious appeared in public. He died of cancer a month later. His appearance was awe inspiring however. As his sites namesake stated, he infiltrated one of the lecture halls at McGill University in Montreal, where, thanks to him, 30 of the rest of us snuck in and listened to his talk.
After 2 months, we headed back towards Toronto. From Calgary it was a four day drive. Canada is a LOT bigger than Australia! On the way back we stopped again in Winnipeg, my Aunt and Uncle once again so kindly putting us up. We went out with Curious George, to this day one of the craziest explorers ive ever met. You see the rusty as fuck looking ladder on the Five Roses side of this set of Silos? That was the easiest thing we did.
Upon getting back to T.Dot, i was straight back in, doing drains, exploring Niagara Falls, getting my first hints of the HOLY Grail that lay beneath it and finding Hearn Power Station decked out as a 9/11 filmset!
The Greater Toronto Area is a goldmine for drains, new and old...
And spent a good amount of time bugging Kowalski....
And still more time plumbing the moist depths by myself...
Then it was time to head into the subway. Toronto has a proper rapid transit subway, unlike the pseudo-rapid Sydney or Melbourne interurbans. Nevertheless, they are all as readily easy and ridiculously fun to traverse.
Id last run off a live platform back in 1998, doing St James with Hatchet. Running off a Toronto platform, even 7 years later wasnt too hard, but just as rewarding. Almost cos its the *only* abandoned station in Toronto, Lower Bay holds a special place in my heart. Those that disparage it can eat a dick. Its still one of the coolest and chillest ARTS outings ever. I look relaxed in this pic, do i not?
Finally, towards the end of 2005, we got the juggernaut that is Micro, involved in drains. But not before he and Kowalski got me involved in the largest power station i, to this day have ever been in. Its gone now, but recently mothballed in 2005, Lakeview Power Station in Mississauga was a goddamn behemoth!
2006.
Winter in Toronto is fun. All the stories id heard about freezing my arse off came true. But not every day. Sometimes it was warm...ish. Like when Feccie and i climbed the roof of the Regal Constellation Hotel near YYZ. A grand lady of abandonment, this huge 1200 room hotel was a masterpiece of abandoned fun. Full of ballrooms, secret bars, CRT tv's and lazy security.
I did more drains in the frozen winter than i had in summer. Heavy snow makes draining safer... cos it doesnt matter how much it rains! Gargantua was a big drain some newbs found then dismissed. I had fun not dismissing it.
Once Micro got his 'drain' on, there was no stopping him. He even managed to get Kowalski out more often. Here's Mr Vanishing Point himself giving thanks for one of the rad drains Micro found for us.
The three main things i did in early 2006, were do the harder, more hidden drain in Southern Ontario, like Pilgrimage, the first of what, later would be a journey into Old Toronto drainage...
Bust mad fucking lids!...
Hang out at Lakeview, in the turbines... with other men...
Then out on the roof, while running UER expos...
In between doing a bit of housekeeping...
And taking sporadic trips to Buffalo (the USA had decided to let me in, finally). There i mostly did big drains, without my camera and bounced on old beds outside the many abandoned grain elevators that line the Erie canal.
And then in May, Feccie and i caught a 12 hour coach on a manic four day trip to New York City. Here Steve Duncan very kindly showed me the hallowed Croton Aquaduct.
And the Freedom Tunnel, former home of the mob seen in the 1998 film 'Dark Days'. He and Moe were still new to subway exploring and bridge climbing at that time so we gave them a miss... Well, i guess we *almost* climbed the Manhattan bridge, except Moe got stupidly drunk and opted to have a threesome with two lesbians instead. Fair play i suppose. Plus it was raining.
But soon June came, Feccies visa was up, n even despite my Canadian Passport, it was time to go. I headed to Calgary and Edmonton, to catch up on unfinished business of the big and round sort. Oval shaped ones as well ;)
Hieroglyphs and ducks too.
I popped back to Toronto briefly, then down to Niagara. Took a home made 15m long wireladder, but chickened out on doing Confluence by myself. Something i regretted for the next three years. BUT, made up for it by seeing the amazing OnPCo intake tunnels before they were sealed. Amazing!
Did i mention? Amazing!
Then it was off to Minneapolis-Saint Paul.
In case you dont know, the original American MECCA of amazing drains and tunnels is, the Twin Cities. Id been eyeballing the place since 1997 when stories of Epic sewers and killer underground waterfalls arose via the early internet, via Sewering in MN and Action Squad. As it goes, i lost the film i shot of my favourite location, the Bassetts Creek Waterfall, that bastion of drain hardons. Despite this, the place still blew my fucking mind!
Drains like id never seen, blessed by heaven itself.
Incredible Chattieres to put the very French to shame!
Then there was The Lab, the Paris Catacombs more modern, more exciting distant yank cousin... Which i failed to do photographic justice due to that lost roll of film...
Then to top it off, drains that lead into Silos! With Flame!
If i ever make the USA a home (which given the visa relaxation between AU and the US, i might just be able to one day), ill be bunking down in MSP. Its like a Wild West version of Cave Clan!
Back in the UK bitches! With Dsankt and Qx in tow. Millennium Mills yo!
Took em down the Westbourne, then met with Stoop. Got the sweetest pic ive ever needed to get up Battersea. God i love film. LOOK at that reciprocity failure! Its off the fucking chart.
Then went to Bristol. For more drains with Stoop.
Then The Wonder. If you know what i mean...
Checked up on a few Mancunian Drains...
And a mad Scotsman. Turbozutek in case you wondered.
Then it was back to Australia. The first roll i ran upon arriving back was the same 36er i had the Brighton sewers on, lost along with the Lane Cove vent tunnels and Epping Rail Line. Still, i had Lake St James...
And Cave Clan Expos.
Big Drain Waterfalls.
And Amber.
2007
This was my biggest limbo year. I basically revisited old sites. Stayed entirely in Australia. Ran subway tunnel to get to the abandoned ones next to layed up trains.
Finally got a decent pic of The Cathedral.
And some wild glamour down at Lurline Bay.
Hung out with old friends.
Showed a Canadian around Sydney's Drains.
Stalked abandoned subway trains.
Hung out with old drainers.
Enjoyed my new Torana.
Went down old tunnels.
Showed Potentials around.
Went to Clannies and had a blast.
Did a bridgeroom or two...
Then a dude fell 50m down this sewer shaft. We'd called the sewer, long abandoned, The Chocolate Goldmine, given its mine like depths. It was a real shame.
By the end of 2007, i needed to get out of Australia again. I was going dead inside.
Still living in Manchester. Working nightshift in a scally hotel, dealing with pikeys and drunks in between cooking myself big fucking steaks and watching 27 hours of Star Trek a week... i still got round to a few more drains.
Then some.
And a bit more.
Found a few lost childhood treasures...
Went to Nottingham to do the indomitable Beck Valley Culvert.
Went to Bristol after Jon Doe and Stoop discovered the drain that to this day is the least commonly explored. MOTHERLOAD!
Back in Manchester, i did a few things other than drains. A Hospital for example...
And old Mill in Oldham. Here i discovered the joys of exploring while the local kids try to arson the place.
The since demolished Maths Tower at Manchester University.
And the odd bits here and there of Metrolink underground goodness.
Then there were the 6am sojourns to find new ways into old drains.
Overall, 2005 was, for the first part, quite quiet. There was no 28 Days Later (it was still a few months off) and Manchester was DEVOID of urban explorers. Quite a contrast to these days. Still, people came to visit sometimes and i showed 'em the locals.
THEN. I moved to Canada.
I left the UK cos id seen enough of Manchester. London was still just a baby for explorers then. But one that grew up quickly. Had i known just how much amazing stuff, mostly drainage, was to be found there, id've probably stayed. But at the time, the UE scene in the Uk was too small and quiet. Canada by comparison, with its roots buried in UER and Infiltration, growing steadily since 1997... it was quite the hot point. And the drains?? Magnifique! Images of this outfall, for the Chedoke Creek in Hamilton Ontario, from Kowalski had boggled my mind since early 2003. The drains in Canada are all big, mostly concrete and definitely awesome. I spent the next year relishing in them.
But, also loved the industry left behind, wide open, like a free whorehouse. See, in Canada they dont have Terrorism. They dont have CCTV. Everythings a goddamn fucking walk in the park. Its glorious! This was the turbine Hall of Hearn Power Station in Toronto in June 2005.
In Toronto i met up with Infectiod... Feccie as he was better known. We arrived and to our horror discovered car Insurance in Ontario is catastrophically overpriced. Unable to fund a vehicle there, we flew to Winnipeg, where the near socialist Manitoban Provincial Govt provides dirt cheap insurance. We bought a $2000 1985 Chevrolet Impala. Then drove to Edmonton. There they'd had severe flooding from heavy rains. But it was ok. We arrived after the rains stopped. I did a few big locals, then took myself down an innocuous tunnel named Thunder Road. The water was fairly busy, creating a lot of foam. There was a waterfall. I thought id have a look up it. Didnt realise the water fell into a deep pit. Fell in. Nearly drowned. Ruined all my camera gear.
With this rather scary experience, my first 'life and death' since id started, we headed to Calgary, home to UEA. At the time UEA was one of the largest unique UE groups. What a bunch of champions too. Skaught and Anymouse let us stay at their place for ages, even after we left, then returned, having been denied entry into the USA (Skinny Puppy t-shirts, Poo brown Impala's and a lack of direction arent appreciated by US Border Guards). With them we did the amazing Rocky Mountain mines, in particular the Kicking Horse Mine. Just to get to it you had to climb 400m up a fucking mountain.
The rest of my time in Calgary, i spent doing all the rad drains. With locals (and Cave Clanners) like Nimrod and Kayosweaver.
Then we'd drive out to places in the middle of nowhere, to do abandoned Gas fed power plants. In Teh Chev.
While in Calgary, we had the opportunity through Kayosweavers airport job to hustle dirt cheap tickets to Montreal for OPEX '95, the then annual symposium for Canadian/US exploration. So we flew to Montreal. Here i met utter champions like Nel58 and Steve Duncan for the first time. The craaazy sewers of Montreal were still hidden at the time, but we ran amok through those Quebecois streets, hanging at the Malt Plant...
And on the roof of the old Dow Brewery, in downtown. With Reduxzero. The trip was tinged with sadness however, as it was the last time Ninjalicious appeared in public. He died of cancer a month later. His appearance was awe inspiring however. As his sites namesake stated, he infiltrated one of the lecture halls at McGill University in Montreal, where, thanks to him, 30 of the rest of us snuck in and listened to his talk.
After 2 months, we headed back towards Toronto. From Calgary it was a four day drive. Canada is a LOT bigger than Australia! On the way back we stopped again in Winnipeg, my Aunt and Uncle once again so kindly putting us up. We went out with Curious George, to this day one of the craziest explorers ive ever met. You see the rusty as fuck looking ladder on the Five Roses side of this set of Silos? That was the easiest thing we did.
Upon getting back to T.Dot, i was straight back in, doing drains, exploring Niagara Falls, getting my first hints of the HOLY Grail that lay beneath it and finding Hearn Power Station decked out as a 9/11 filmset!
The Greater Toronto Area is a goldmine for drains, new and old...
And spent a good amount of time bugging Kowalski....
And still more time plumbing the moist depths by myself...
Then it was time to head into the subway. Toronto has a proper rapid transit subway, unlike the pseudo-rapid Sydney or Melbourne interurbans. Nevertheless, they are all as readily easy and ridiculously fun to traverse.
Id last run off a live platform back in 1998, doing St James with Hatchet. Running off a Toronto platform, even 7 years later wasnt too hard, but just as rewarding. Almost cos its the *only* abandoned station in Toronto, Lower Bay holds a special place in my heart. Those that disparage it can eat a dick. Its still one of the coolest and chillest ARTS outings ever. I look relaxed in this pic, do i not?
Finally, towards the end of 2005, we got the juggernaut that is Micro, involved in drains. But not before he and Kowalski got me involved in the largest power station i, to this day have ever been in. Its gone now, but recently mothballed in 2005, Lakeview Power Station in Mississauga was a goddamn behemoth!
2006.
Winter in Toronto is fun. All the stories id heard about freezing my arse off came true. But not every day. Sometimes it was warm...ish. Like when Feccie and i climbed the roof of the Regal Constellation Hotel near YYZ. A grand lady of abandonment, this huge 1200 room hotel was a masterpiece of abandoned fun. Full of ballrooms, secret bars, CRT tv's and lazy security.
I did more drains in the frozen winter than i had in summer. Heavy snow makes draining safer... cos it doesnt matter how much it rains! Gargantua was a big drain some newbs found then dismissed. I had fun not dismissing it.
Once Micro got his 'drain' on, there was no stopping him. He even managed to get Kowalski out more often. Here's Mr Vanishing Point himself giving thanks for one of the rad drains Micro found for us.
The three main things i did in early 2006, were do the harder, more hidden drain in Southern Ontario, like Pilgrimage, the first of what, later would be a journey into Old Toronto drainage...
Bust mad fucking lids!...
Hang out at Lakeview, in the turbines... with other men...
Then out on the roof, while running UER expos...
In between doing a bit of housekeeping...
And taking sporadic trips to Buffalo (the USA had decided to let me in, finally). There i mostly did big drains, without my camera and bounced on old beds outside the many abandoned grain elevators that line the Erie canal.
And then in May, Feccie and i caught a 12 hour coach on a manic four day trip to New York City. Here Steve Duncan very kindly showed me the hallowed Croton Aquaduct.
And the Freedom Tunnel, former home of the mob seen in the 1998 film 'Dark Days'. He and Moe were still new to subway exploring and bridge climbing at that time so we gave them a miss... Well, i guess we *almost* climbed the Manhattan bridge, except Moe got stupidly drunk and opted to have a threesome with two lesbians instead. Fair play i suppose. Plus it was raining.
But soon June came, Feccies visa was up, n even despite my Canadian Passport, it was time to go. I headed to Calgary and Edmonton, to catch up on unfinished business of the big and round sort. Oval shaped ones as well ;)
Hieroglyphs and ducks too.
I popped back to Toronto briefly, then down to Niagara. Took a home made 15m long wireladder, but chickened out on doing Confluence by myself. Something i regretted for the next three years. BUT, made up for it by seeing the amazing OnPCo intake tunnels before they were sealed. Amazing!
Did i mention? Amazing!
Then it was off to Minneapolis-Saint Paul.
In case you dont know, the original American MECCA of amazing drains and tunnels is, the Twin Cities. Id been eyeballing the place since 1997 when stories of Epic sewers and killer underground waterfalls arose via the early internet, via Sewering in MN and Action Squad. As it goes, i lost the film i shot of my favourite location, the Bassetts Creek Waterfall, that bastion of drain hardons. Despite this, the place still blew my fucking mind!
Drains like id never seen, blessed by heaven itself.
Incredible Chattieres to put the very French to shame!
Then there was The Lab, the Paris Catacombs more modern, more exciting distant yank cousin... Which i failed to do photographic justice due to that lost roll of film...
Then to top it off, drains that lead into Silos! With Flame!
If i ever make the USA a home (which given the visa relaxation between AU and the US, i might just be able to one day), ill be bunking down in MSP. Its like a Wild West version of Cave Clan!
Back in the UK bitches! With Dsankt and Qx in tow. Millennium Mills yo!
Took em down the Westbourne, then met with Stoop. Got the sweetest pic ive ever needed to get up Battersea. God i love film. LOOK at that reciprocity failure! Its off the fucking chart.
Then went to Bristol. For more drains with Stoop.
Then The Wonder. If you know what i mean...
Checked up on a few Mancunian Drains...
And a mad Scotsman. Turbozutek in case you wondered.
Then it was back to Australia. The first roll i ran upon arriving back was the same 36er i had the Brighton sewers on, lost along with the Lane Cove vent tunnels and Epping Rail Line. Still, i had Lake St James...
And Cave Clan Expos.
Big Drain Waterfalls.
And Amber.
2007
This was my biggest limbo year. I basically revisited old sites. Stayed entirely in Australia. Ran subway tunnel to get to the abandoned ones next to layed up trains.
Finally got a decent pic of The Cathedral.
And some wild glamour down at Lurline Bay.
Hung out with old friends.
Showed a Canadian around Sydney's Drains.
Stalked abandoned subway trains.
Hung out with old drainers.
Enjoyed my new Torana.
Went down old tunnels.
Showed Potentials around.
Went to Clannies and had a blast.
Did a bridgeroom or two...
Then a dude fell 50m down this sewer shaft. We'd called the sewer, long abandoned, The Chocolate Goldmine, given its mine like depths. It was a real shame.
By the end of 2007, i needed to get out of Australia again. I was going dead inside.