Today I went out with my buddy to some tunnels that had been on my to-do list for awhile. There were several of these in one area, and they each had their own little side tunnels and what not. We were in the second main tunnel, and came across a side tunnel. I think what my friend said was "Side tunnels have treated us good so far" and he crawled in.
We scrabbled through some lower tunnels, then came to another hole. "Oh hell yeah more (blank) tunnel!" I caught up and took a look down the passage. The tunnel was mostly collapsed, but there was about 3 feet of room to crawl. My friend said that this led to something very very good, so in we went.
We were crawling over very jagged rock, as we were above the sandstone layer. It was exhausting. I was sweatier than after going for a run.
After about 15 minutes of army crawling over pointy rocks and rat poo, we saw the tunnel open up to crouching height. It hurt our backs some, but we were moving a lot faster. Then from ahead of me, I heard "FUCK". I asked if the tunnel got small again. "It's blocked". My heart sank. I caught up, and saw a piece of plywood with concrete oozing from around the edges. We sat there and caught our breath, and stared at the block. Then we made the long crawl back.
It was a shitty situation for sure, but we found plenty of other good stuff. These tunnels overall were some of the best I'd seen for sure.

There were some folks from Minnesota that got tired of the cat and mouse games with the cave parties and entrance sealers that got some land in Wisconsin and dug their own sandstone cave.

Posted by Radio2600 There were some folks from Minnesota that got tired of the cat and mouse games with the cave parties and entrance sealers that got some land in Wisconsin and dug their own sandstone cave.

Ahh yes, I've heard about this place. Do you know of that project is still going on? The website hasn't been updated for a couple years

Posted by Radio2600 There were some folks from Minnesota that got tired of the cat and mouse games with the cave parties and entrance sealers that got some land in Wisconsin and dug their own sandstone cave.

Just the one guy actually, though occasionally other explorers have helped him with the digging. It's quite the impressive project.

Anticlimactic places like that are quite a disappointment, were the segments that you went down at least somewhat interesting?

I definitely relate to this. It seems like for me every few weeks new spots that I try are a total bust and don't lead anywhere at all. It seems to come around though, and it's usually good progress either way.

Posted by horo Anticlimactic places like that are quite a disappointment, were the segments that you went down at least somewhat interesting?

Well, we did find car keys, a crowbar, and an old ipod. We're really hoping the ipod will charge and we can unlock it somehow.
The tunnel itself tho, was pretty uninteresting. It is a less common type of tunnel, but there are much better examples of these tunnels that aren't collapsed. One picture looking down would have done the trick.
The system that lead to this tunnel is great tho, highly recommend. Overall it was a good explore. Though if we hadn't done that crawl, I would have probably had more energy to go to another spot after haha

Posted by Aran Just the one guy actually, though occasionally other explorers have helped him with the digging. It's quite the impressive project.

I'd be really impressed if they got the monorail running, but I'm not holding my breath.

Posted by Radio2600 I'd be really impressed if they got the monorail running, but I'm not holding my breath.

This ain't going to happen lol, they mostly use the cars as living quarters, with the first car being the Monorail Museum.

Posted by Aran Just the one guy actually, though occasionally other explorers have helped him with the digging. It's quite the impressive project.

As you said it's an impressive, long-term project! I'm glad I got to help with some plastering work last time I went!