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Slippery Drain

[Dec.03] - So why do they call it Slippery Draiaaahhhhhh *splash*

Members: Frozen, and a bunch-o-folk from Mouser 2003

About 20 of the local (and some not-so-local) explorers met at Perkins for some explorin' fun.  After chatting, eating, taking pictures of our food, compulsively fiddling with our flashlights under the table, testing out some FRS radios (and generally looking very odd), the group decided to split up into two sub-groups; "pods" if you will.  Pod number 2 left for Slippery drain while pod 1 left for some other drain (Phalen?).  Arriving at Slippery, we parked, gathered our gear, and headed to the entrance.

I never get tired of entering drains.  It's incredible how much the atmosphere changes.  The air is dank, the walls are damp, the ground is wet, and the ceiling is close above.  I was immediately impressed by the interesting colors on the wall.  Gazing ahead to the limit of our collective flashlight beams, I wondered what we would encounter ahead.

(The colored wall)

(Looking ahead)

(Looking back)

(Shiny metal hatch!)

(Mulling around in a horizontal overflow diversion,
 dubbed "penitent man" by the local explorers)

(Available light shot of a manhole shaft,
bracing the camera against the shaft wall)

(Loxy climbs some rungs)

(The tunnel becomes larger and no longer circular)

(I ran on ahead and took 4 successive pictures of
the group coming toward me with their lights on)

We encountered a drain slide.  For those of you who aren't familiar with drains, you might not know what I'm talking about.  Well, your loss.  Just kidding, a drain slide is pretty much what you would expect: a slide, in a drain.  The tunnel will begin to slope downwards (or upwards) at a steep angle and continue for a while.  Often these slides are so steep that they require ropes or some other such helpful device to navigate successfully to the top or bottom.  This particular slide connected to the main shaft at a "T" intersection, and was just steep enough that it could barely be climbed without a rope.  At least 50 degrees, in my estimate.  Climbing to the top of the slide, Locksmith produced a lunch tray.

"Slide down this on a lunch tray?  You're crazy!" we said.  Well, not really, but it sounds good.  We actually were probably still trying to figure out why he had brought a lunch tray into a drain.

The slide was probably 50 feet long and had slight curve to it.  Now is when I wished I had that video camera.  Locksmith sat on the lunch tray, pushed off, shot down the slide like a bobsled, approaching the speed of light, Lorentz contracting and everything.  Unfortunately, he had built up such a velocity that he continued to slide even once he had reached the bottom, slamming into the wall of the T intersection, and busting his tray in the process.  Yes, I said he busted his tray.  It would be more proper to say broke? cracked? smashed? split? pulverized? demolished? fractured? fragmented? crushed? damaged? disintegrated? mutilated? mangled? shredded? ruptured?  Fine, okay.  He ruptured his tray.  Slammed into the cement wall like a bobsled slams into an Antarctic penguin, and he ruptured his tray.  Ooo, let's perform surgery on his ruptured tray.  See? That's why I said busted.

(It was about now that he realized his cell phone
 was in his pants pocket the whole time)

(Nifty ice formation)

(Paragon Construction March 12, 1994)

(Omega drink)

(It's a bird! It's a C.H.U.D.! No, it's Katwoman!)

(We stopped to rest in this room for a bit)

(Two tunnels diverged in a yellow drain...)

(Sentient psycho-fungus growing on the wall)

Escaping the psycho-fungus and dodging C.H.U.D.s, we left for the next location.  This drain was quite interesting and definitely worth the trip.