big red dragon

some years ago I found a disused tunnel in a mountainside somewhere, and I knew I had to explore it because tunnels are cool and epic. I only explored about 30% of it back then, but this year I went back to 100% it with tigershark

warning: unless you live in a tunnel, do not try this at home!
or do try it if you want, i can't tell you what to do. just be aware that it can be dangerous and you can't just load a quicksave in case something goes wrong

the first visit

I first discovered this tunnel while on a trip, stopped at a rest stop between two newly built tunnels. Casually looking at a map of the area, one of the nearby roads simply terminated in a mountainside, with some extra map details appearing further along the mountainside, like a small balcony of sorts. Aerial imagery shows this more clearly:

Full of curiosity (and because it was just a short walk away) I headed to the area and found that yes, there was in fact a tunnel portal there! (wow!). I didn't have a proper flashlight with me, but I figured the LED on my phone would be enough to at least reach the balcony thingy. So I ventured into the darkness, but the darkness didn't last for very long, as there was a lot of light coming from what turned out to be the "balcony thingy":

Turns out, this tunnel is actually two tunnels () in a trench coat!! You can clearly see two tunnel portals, and then there's a different type of sloped concrete ceiling connecting them. This concrete structure includes walls, but a hole in one of them acts as a window letting light in. The wall also had a small wooden door leading outside to the actual™ balcony, but it was overgrown and not All That Interesting. Having reached the "balcony" and not having a proper flashlight, I decided to call it a day and not venture further into the actual darkness.

But I could still find out more about this mysterious tunnel (okay it wasn't really mysterious) by looking at aerial photos from the past! The two tunnels were built around 1960, and the concrete structure connecting them was present in 1976 (but probably earlier as well). In the 2012 photo below you can see the actual balcony outside, although it's pretty grown over already.

The tunnel continued to be in use until 2016, when the construction of a longer replacement tunnel finished, which bypasses a dangerous rockfall area south of the south tunnel portal I entered through. The north portal of the new tunnel is located right next to where the old tunnel's north portal used to be.

used to be?

On the north side, there's a conspicuously smooth patch of grass next to the new tunnel portal, because they essentially plugged it like you would cover up a creeper hole in Minecraft. So it was probably a good idea that I didn't venture any further into the tunnel, as I'd just reach a dead end at some point.

But you can't stop curiosity.

Going back to find the dead end

I happened to be in the same area again this year, and this time I had an actual flashlight, and brought tigershark along to accompany me in the darkness. Getting to the balcony area™ was pretty much the same as last time, except the tunnel was a lot soggier this time

Something I missed last time was that one of the tunnel portals still had its original sign at the entrance, showing that it was completed in 1960! I just think it's cool to see dates on stuff like this. I also got a picture of the balcony™ this time, showing that it's very overgrown but you can see the concrete edge that was visible on the aerial photos.

And then me and tigershark headed into the darkness. The further we ventured into the darkness, the soggier and foggier the air became. We walked for a long long time, and then we heard some rumbling in the distance. The rumbling was just the sound of water droplets hitting the top of the tarp-like waterproofing that was present in many parts of the tunnel (you can see some of it in the photos from near the balcony™)

the dead end

Even though the tunnel was full of fog, the reflective signs along the sides made it easy to see if we had reached the end or not, but some parts of the tunnel lacked these signs and made us think we'd reached the end when in reality there was a long way to go still.

Finally, the flashlight hit something bright in the middle of the tunnel - we had reached the dead end. It was pretty much what I had imagined: a bunch of rocks and dirt (wow!). We hadn't been the only people stupid enough to go all the way to a sealed off tunnel portal, there was remnants of a campfire, and some used up fireworks - who the hell would light up fireworks here???

Even though the tunnel portal was completely sealed off, its proximity to the new tunnel made it possible to hear when vehicles passed by in the new tunnel, especially loud motorcycles. The very muffled engine sounds definitely added to the spooky atmosphere.

Before heading back, I made sure to get this creepy picture of tigershark. The flashlight is behind the backpack pointing up in the ceiling, and thanks to global illumination everything else gets dimly lit (sadly i forgot to bring a cornell box)

what did we learn

old tunnels are old and dangerous and don't try this at home, this tunnel was pretty much intact but I did come across some alarmingly big rocks (like, fist size?) that looked to have fallen from the ceiling. thankfully I did not have to load any old saves and me and tigershark made it back with a lot of XP