Fourth of five installments on one of my last and best weekends in the soon to be gone and missed Urbana Champaign.
Underneath the always bustling Illinois campus lies a land less traveled. A maze of curiosity, intrigue, danger, and heat exists. Some of campus' more adventurous souls know the fantastic experience these dungeons can hold in their vast steam ridden, random noise making, bowels. These untamed lands of adventure are known as the steam tunnels.
Only the privileged few know of the always opened entrances, yet the curious newcomers can find, throughout the many construction zones, broken latches, and unusually common unlocked lock, the mouth of these cavernous and seemingly never ending beasts.
Their corridors are full of amazing tales, photographs, and history of past adventurers. From old warnings and graffiti, to names marked from decades before I even started school and undisturbed footprints from the travelers of the recent past.
Although I do enjoy the tasteful graffiti and messages from veteran spelunkers, I treat the tunnels like a vast wilderness in need of preservation, pack in what you pack out and try to leave the least amount of disturbance in your wake of exploration. For that is what these tunnels are, a vast wilderness including all the intrigue and adventure of a majestic forest or mountain range, though this range is right under your feet and acts as the arteries of a campus of over 40,000 people. It is wilderness none the less. And I am just an invisible traveler enjoying everything the space has to offer.
So if you ever find yourself in Champaign-Urbana and are looking for a little adventure look around for a few entrances and go ahead and enjoy everything the steam tunnels have to offer. Just don't forget to pack a couple water bottles and be in the right state of mind for they do not call them the steam tunnels because they are a nice 60 degree dry area.
Reading: Nothing, finished EOME and didn't bring another book to Urbana
Listening to: Death Cab for Cutie, I will possess your heart
1 comment:
Sweet shots dude. It definitely was an epic adventure.
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