Emmett Street Drain

After seeing the awesome pictures of this drain online (props to VT Underground), I had to see it for myself. It took a good bit of walking along Emmett St and around the Barracks Rd area but we eventually found it.  The entrance to the tunnel is impressive, curving to the right before ending in a large junction room with 2 tunnels and a pipe.

Although this picture is dark, you can see the 2 tunnels on the left, and a small RCP straight ahead. I may check out the small pipe in warmer weather when getting wet wouldn't be a big deal (in 30 degree weather water is your enemy). My friend and I chose the left tunnel (they run parallel to each other).

The 6' rectangular concrete tunnel kept winding back and forth, and it was hard to tell where we were (I knew it was somewhere beneath Barracks Rd).

There were a few of these vertical shafts that were next to the street because we heard cars passing by. At these points you could see into the right-hand tunnel and even switch tunnels if you wanted to.

This was the largest side-pipe that entered the left-hand tunnel.

My partner-in-crime

Crawling into the side tunnel, we could see a couple of areas where sunlight was streaming through.

Looking up from one of the "rooms" down the side tunnel.

We decided against continuing down the side tunnel, so we turned back into the main left-hand tunnel. Farther down, we saw salty, brittle stalactites hanging from the ceiling.

Another vertical shaft, this one covered with plywood. There's plants growing up there in complete darkness. Interesting...

 Reaching the end of the drain.

Spricket Drain, Pt. 2

 Later today I retraced my steps up to the 2nd junction room (pictured left) in the Spricket Drain, and continued at a 90 degree left turn. I have never seen so many camel spiders in one place before. This drain is definitely not for the meek or weak, as the pipe never gets any bigger along the way and there are insects and spiders EVERYWHERE on the pipe.  I come across a smaller drainpipe that water is spilling out of at random intervals. It sounded pretty creepy at first when I had just entered the second room. Going further, there's a rusty grate that is full of dried leaves. Beyond that is the third junction room.

Here I have reached the third junction room. The only other exit (besides the manhole) is a 90 degree turn back to the right. 2 Rusty pipes run through the cinderblock room.

In one corner is a substantial amount of varmint scat...I'd say it was a raccoon (there were small paw prints all along the middle of the pipes). Got my pepper spray handy this time ;)

Moving onward, the RCP passageway looks very much the same as the entrance portion. There aren't as many bugs on the ceiling by now. Pretty soon it becomes difficult to walk stooped over without shredding my backpack on the ceiling, so from here on it's down on all fours.

 I reach a couple of small junction points where I can stand up. These locations have manhole covers, and I can see and hear cars passing by (I was peeking through the storm gutter opening). Nothing too special, but good to know that I have alternative exits.

I soon reached an imperfect RCP junction where I had to take my backpack off in order to crawl through. I sat up in a 3 foot RCP and was unable to walk on all fours without scraping my pack. At this point, I didn't see or hear anything of interest up ahead and decided to head back to base.

I returned to one of the previous storm gutter rooms and slid the manhole cover open. I wasn't using common sense and I got showered with rust, dirt, and a small puddle of freezing cold water. Awesome. Tossing my pack out of the opening, I lifted myself out of the shallow gutter and returned to the aboveground world in my neighborhood. I estimated the distance between the drain entrance and where I had exited to be about 1.5 city blocks, meaning that with the two 90 degree turns my total distance was probably closer to 3 city blocks. It felt like I had traveled easily twice that distance. I guess now I know how quickly one's sense of time and distance can be distorted underground. I glanced at my watch, and I had not even been away from home 45 minutes! This concludes my documentation of the Spricket Drain.

Spricket Drain

After recently becoming interested in urban exploring (special thanks to VT Underground), I decided to start venturing into pipes, tunnels, drains, and any other kind of entrance to the underground world.  I have done my fair share of exploring off-limits areas and trespassing on private property, but it just occurred to me that I should record and document my discoveries with other people so they might see how exciting and crazy it is to explore passageways into the unknown. I only found info on a few good storm drains in Charlottesville to explore, and since their locations are largely undisclosed, you really have to get out there and find them on your own (but that's part of the fun).

My first drain excursion took place earlier today. My sister and I left the house around midnight and walked a short distance to the Rivanna Trail.  Here's a picture of a major landmark across the Rivanna River in case you were planning on searching for the drain:

After climbing down a steep river bank and over some chunks of concrete, I arrived at the entrance of Spricket Drain (technically it's an exit, since water was flowing out of it, into a deep fishing hole and then joining up with the River).  The drain is made of round concrete pipe (RCP) and an almost nonexistant trickle of water runs down the middle. It sits about 2 feet above the surface of the water pool. The smaller diameter made it barely possible to stand up, although my back was stooped over 90 degrees (and I'm 5'7"). A skateboard would make travel much quicker and easier but I didn't have one in my backpack. For this trip, my equipment load was pretty lightweight (LED headlamp, 100 lumen LED flashlight, leather gloves, and Gore-Tex boots). Next time I'm bringing extra water and food, and a first aid kit. Always be prepared...

A short ways into the pipe, I lost sight of the entrance as the ground became slightly curved and sloped upwards.  After several minuted of hunched-over walking I reached a small cinderblock junction room that was about 6 feet wide, 4 feet deep, and tall enough to comfortably stand in. A manhole was directly overhead, and a small pipe exited off to one side. The main pipe continued straight a couple feet off the wet floor of the room.

 
More RCP and several more minutes of stooped walking later, and I reach a second room almost exactly like the previous one, except there was a 90 degree left turn of more RCP (same diameter). Lots of camel spiders (or "sprickets" as I called them) dotted the concrete pipe's surface near the 2nd junction room, and this did not settle well with my sister who refused to continue any further. She's scared to death of the creepy little things. Go figure.  We turned back and were soon out in the fresh air. No sooner had I switched off my headlamp when a cop car slowly drove by less than 100 feet away. At that point I was holding a wet stencil covered in fluorescent orange spray paint...luckily he didn't see us or else I'd be facing "Trespassing with Intent to Vandalize"...the law makes it sound so evil. Later today I will continue the journey solo...