Broken Pavement

The Head Banger

Although I may complain about rainy weather there is one good thing that rain brings is this, outfalls come to life with runoff allowing for easy spotting even from across the river. One such outfall was the Head banger and after exploring with Obscura in rural Saskatchewan I headed to explore it as the sun sunk deeper into the seemingly endless horizon. Getting into the drain itself would prove harder than expected but after much squeezing and water in my face I was inside. Unfortunately, I was so excited about exploring my first drain I forgot my camera equipment, tri-pod and other equipment on the other side of the grate forcing me to get even wetter. About five minutes later I was once again in, this time with all of my equipment. The echo of rushing water filled my ears and with every passing step the numbers on the side of the pipe rose as the drain made a large upward slant after 50 of so meters of walking from the outfall. As the drain leveled off I encountered the first man hole cover allowing me to see for the first time what it actually looked like from the bottom and gave me some time to stretch my back muscles which were aching now from being bent over. After taking some pictures I continued on and after 15 minutes of being hunched over the drain curved and made a 90 degree turn and continued to be a back breaker until the next manhole that was 10 minutes from the turn. After trying to take a picture of the double laddered manhole I noticed something, I could stand upright. This new development made traveling up the drain much easier and comfortable and now I could sing my favorite songs while listening to the echo and rushing water. The drain continually made small inclines followed by long stretches of relatively level surface where the water would pool up and often slosh into my boots. After what seemed to be a short while (but in reality was 30 minutes) the pipe made a drastic change from concrete to corrugated steel but this change did not last long and after 100 meters or so the pipe returned to being concrete. But the changes did not end as the drain made an abrupt S - curve and made more frequent inclines than before. It did not take long after the S - curve for the pipe to narrow back down to the size of a backbreaker and at this juncture I decided to head back. As I began the trek back I noticed that my head light was continually getting dimmer so I reached for my spare batteries. However nothing was there as in my excitement I left my batteries in my backpack that was still at the outfall. It was a long way back to the outfall so with my fading light and pack back I began to run through the water getting a continual booter and creating a massive roar that seemed to envelope the drain. Relief came to me when I entered the backbreaker as the dim light grew even dimmer. As I approached the outfall and saw the reflection of the tree's in the rushing water I relaxed and began to squeeze through the grate and as the water poured over my head and body a wave of pride swept over me because I had explored my first drain.

The straight stretch of backbreaker before the large incline.

Nearing the top of the upward angle.

The first man-hole cover.

Just after taking this picture a car ran over the man-hole and scared the living crap out of me.

Apparently this was the farthest point some teenagers were able to go.

A cemented up juncture.

The first corner, not long after this the drain expands to a 1650.

The point where the drain changes dramatically in height.

The smaller drain did not lead anywhere special so I continued on my journey into the now corrugated pipe.

End of the line.