Hi all, my name is Ryan, but I go by tublo in the urbex community. I'm from Minneapolis, MN and I typically explore the underground but also love dabbling in the arts of bandos. I've been exploring for a few years now but am just getting into the online aspect of UE. This forum is new to me, but at least for the MSP UE, my insta is
@tublo.msp But I'd love to start off my experience here by describing my favorite UE experiences.
Fav: This one actually just happened last night. So me and little_horns decided to check out the Minneapolis riverfront. Coming in to the day, I had a few leads that I had never pursued, so I decided to finally explore them.
And what came next is something that I could never seen coming
So near a certain Minneapolis landmark, which has a considerable amount of arches, we dipped our into the tailraces of the ruins of the mills that had once dotted the Minneapolis riverbank. And after sinking to nearly my knee in mud and under the disapproving stare of the ducks sitting near the outfall to the river, we entered the world of the past. Rotting boards suspended above the water combined with rusting utilities hanging from the ceiling made for a difficult, yet rewarding hike through the now abandoned remnants of Minnesotan industry. All was well until the boards ran out and only option was to turn back or brave the stagnant water below. Although, a quick survey of the depth of the tailrace told us that the rest of our venture would be more suited for a raft ride than a hike. Feeling slightly defeated, we turned back. About halfway through, I had noticed a crevice in the rock that was wide enough for us to crawl through. Crawling for a good hundred or so feet provided us with one of the most rewarding experience of my career. We had just entered what appeared to be an abandoned sanitary outflow for the old mill district. In this tunnel, we could see the foundations of the mills of yesterday. A piece of history that I had not even seen on historic maps of the location.
This discovery wasn't even the most climatic part of our trip though. Leaving the tailraces, we crossed the aforementioned arched landmark to our next spot. And this was one of those spots that I had only found by walking around with a group one day. Crossing piles of rebar placed by disgruntled city employees we continued through the tunnels to where we had reached a bricked off end to our tunnel. However, taking a short break in the tunnel to catch our breath yielded our chance. A slight breeze through a small hole dug near the wall had air flowing into it and a slight mechanical hum.
Negative pressure. We had entered a building.
Crawling through the utility tunnel of a steam plant near the river had me scared shitless. The chance of getting caught was high, but our curiosity had gotten the best of us. A literal light at the end of the tunnel showed us the basement of the active plant. We decided to head the other way to avoid detection. Hunched over, walking briskly through the tunnel to see where it ended up gave me the biggest scare of my UE career besides my run in with the occult at triple helix west (another post, another story). We froze in our tracks.
Footsteps. Dead ahead.
We turned off our lamps, using the dim light of the basement behind us to navigate the maze of pipes and make our escape. I never looked back, but the sound of a voice in the distance gave me the motivation to pick up our pace. Clambering over the rebar, and scouting the exit of the tunnel had yielded no dangers, so we left the tunnel, climbing the bluffs of the Mississippi up to street level. Once we had reached the level of normal society, we looked at each other and laughed. An encounter with city workers and the discovery of a seemingly untouched tunnel gave me the best day of my UE life. Walking past a family clad in suits while we were covered head to toe in sand gave me the satisfaction of being in a place where these people could never even imagine.
Anyways, I'm tublo, thanks for coming to my TED Talk.