Broken Pavement

Sing Along Dam

Credit Nancy Drew for this discovery that took us literally into the middle of nowhere. After a short walk the sight of concrete jutting out from the shoreline appeared and the level of excitement in myself grew out of control. At river level the huge structure towered all three of us and without thinking I jumped across a section of water and onto the portion of the dam jutting out into the river. The walk to the edge of the concrete in the middle of the river did not satisfy me however so I proceeded to climb up on top of the dam placing my fingers into the cooling holes and pulling myself up. There wasn't anything of real interest save for the view so Reduxzero and I slid down the steep embankment (he doing it much more gracefully and painlessly than I) and proceeded to go to the main section of the dam. On the north side of the complex was a large wall that begged to be climbed so both Reduxzero and I did so and after taking pictures and taking in the view we both decided to go down and further investigate. I was the first to plunge into the pit which marked the middle section of the dam that was part of a large U-shaped pit that traveled underneath the dam and ground. Thankfully the locals had provided large logs for me to climb down but just in case the uneventful happened, I wrapped my grappling hook around the rails. I first investigated the tunnel beneath the dam but found that the tunnel was submerged when it made a decline further into the ground. Just before the decline was a large vertical shaft that led straight up to the sky. There was nothing else here so I proceeded to go to the other side of the pit just as Reduxzero came down, along with my grappling hook. The other side was similar to the other but the vertical shaft was much smaller and there was a large metal grate over the opening as it was at ground level. After taking pictures Redux and I went to the far side of the dam and climbed up and walked over to the opposite side of the dam we had first climbed. Nancy had stated earlier that there appeared to be a ladder leading to the catwalk running in the hollow section of the dam but that ladder was only a spray-painted image. Near the catwalk was a room leading into the main tower of the dam but more importantly, an access to the catwalk. Redux and I jumped onto the catwalk and walked to the end, all the while continuing in singing some songs that are older than me such as Steely Dan's "Do It Again". In each of the holes of the dam the slots for the doors could be seen amid the sea of graffiti and rush of water. Aside from that however there wasn't anything else so while Redux was making a movie I went to the tower of the dam and the end of the catwalk where a huge vertical shaft with a giant tree going up to the top of the tower and the dam itself. As I exited the catwalk area I attempted to climb up the north side of the dam to reach the top but was defeated as the top of the concrete was beveled and the prospect of falling three stories or so wasn't very appealing. So I walked back to the pit and saw another possible way up where four pieces of rebar jutted out of the concrete. The only problem was that the first pair of rebar were about eight to ten feet off the ground. But my determination was to fierce to let this stop me so I stretched my muscles and leapt into the air. As my arm struggled to stretch I felt a comforting feeling, the cold, hard and rough surface of rebar. The hard part was over and in less than 30 seconds I was above everyone else and had a bird's eye view of everything. Redux later joined me and after taking pictures and climbing down we proceeded to head back and continue exploring.

Reduxzero...coming direct from Edmonton.

Underneath the catwalk.

Looking back to the tower.

The magic tree.

Looking down at the pit from the top of the world.