DenverDrainers.org News

I know we’re painfully slow on getting new updates online, but the problem is that Dave and I are both full time students and we both work as well.  I managed to find some time to add Dare To Dream to the database and gallery, so give it a look! Hopefully more to come soon.

Hey everyone, I just thought I’d drop a line here and say that now that classes are out for the semester, this gives us some serious time for some draining. I have been informed of several other locations around the metro area that I will be checking out sometime soon, so expect updates.

I’ve been thinking of expanding the site to more than just draining in the state of Colorado as that myself and others regularly do other forms of Urban Exploration as well as draining. Updates abroad, I’ll be updating the gallery, more articles and more in the database hopefully sometime within the week.

So, after the long trip landing us in City Park, we (myself, Dave and Alex) decided to return before the construction was finished to explore the system once and for all. The return was actually on 2 different days one after the other.

Alex and Dave along with myself on the first day explored only a small amount compared to what Dave and I explored on the second day. We continued down the main line heading east, passed a fork and continued a pretty long path ending at another fork. We went left at the second fork, which only led us to another fork, which was a very small polluted brick tunnel and an uncomfortably small brick tunnel to the left. We went left for a while, but eventually gave it up when it got very small as well.

We made our way back to the exit and called it a day.

On the second day, only Dave and I returned and we started out by taking a left at the first fork rather than going straight. There were some interesting features to be seen for sure, including an odd shaped room like some of the rectangular rooms we found on the first Titan explorations only smaller. Along the way down this line we found a spark plug and much more importantly a switch blade. Sure, it was probably used in a murder or something since it was in a sewer, but Dave kept it anyway. After a while down this line, it got uncomfortably small and we turned back as it seems there wasn’t much chance of it having any exit.

We made our way back to the main line and took a breather to drink some sparkling grape cider and brandish the switchblade some more.

All that was left to explore was the main line going straight to the point where we took the left on the day earlier with Alex. The main line actually gets a little smaller than the left, which is why on the first day we took the left and not the right. So we sojourned further and realized that it was very rapidly becoming hard to walk through and very uncomfortable. Dropping down to about 52″ to 48″ inches and eventually again to 36″. Now, this might seem like it’s not the hardest thing to do, but let me tell you… walking like that for long distances is killer and I would not recommend doing so without extra water and some snacks.

The time I previously pushed on in a drain this size, I literally couldn’t walk for a day after because of how straining it was on my legs. I would honestly never recommend doing this unless you know exactly what you are doing. Needless to say, both times I’ve been in drains this small, I did not know what I was doing, or did, and didn’t make wise choices.

Anyway, we made it through this tiny RCP until we hit the 36″ RBP and decided to call it a day because of how long we’ve been in there.

Along the way to the 36″ RBP, we passed by some modified manholes unique to this drain system, obviously renovated pipes that let newer catch basins flow into the bigger lines. Along the way, the only pipe wide enough to crawl through (keep in mind, “wide” is used very lightly here) and was about just wide enough to crawl through. We were going to hit it up on the way back and crawl the 30-40 feet through it and try to see where exactly we were, but in the daze we were in, all I can figure is we passed it up on the way back. I was very disappointed when we made it back to the larger pipe and didn’t see the one we were going to crawl through.

However, at that point I was in no mood or physical condition to go back and find it.

According to the regulars on the Urban Exploration Resource, we were the first to complete this drain. I’m happy to be a part of all the findings. Here is the map of the Titan as far as we know up until today:

Interestingly enough, around the time just after we went to the Titan the first time, I saw an interesting article in the newspaper about the place we had just exited from. The article stated that the sewer was about 100 years old. I find that interesting considering all of the dates written inside of it from the Works Progress Administration from the 1940s. But hey, I can’t really blame them, it’s not like people go through these sewers and find things out from them.

I hope you enjoyed reading, thanks for checking this out.

Ok, so if you haven’t read about the Brick Titan on the site, go to the database and give it a look to know what it’s all about. A few days ago Alex, Adam, Nick and I went back to the Brick Titan with more batteries and with a long trip in mind. We had no idea what we were in for.

We passed all the memorable places we passed by before, making note of already being by them before and kept trekking on. Past the two known side drains, and much farther. One thing about the Brick Titan that was left fairly unmentioned are the several perpendicular running black RCPs that run straight through the top of the drain, and in a few cases, completely across the diameter of the whole drain. Not just that, but there are tons of small inflows.

So we kept traveling forward, and we came to a unique box shaped room in the middle of the drain. It looked like this:

The pipes running through were probably about a foot and a half to 2 feet in diameter, and there were two side by side with no space between them. There were two rooms like this in the drain as far as we have gone so far.

Continuing on, we ran across a furry critter we lovingly named Adolf Hitler.

I think we decided it was a muskrat. Of course, running into a live animal really only meant one thing, and that was an exit. However, it doesn’t mean that there’s an exit we could fit through.

We followed him for a while until he got tired from running and we passed him by. Poor thing, we probably scared it half to death. Anyway, soon after we passed up our friend there, we came up on something that looked like something out of a sci-fi film at first. It looked like a skylight, maybe an addition of one in newer construction, but we weren’t sure at first.

Ah, light… an exit! A weird exit? Ok, so as it turns out, there was a construction site (near the Museum of Nature & Science) where they had actually busted through the brick, and left the ceiling open completely. From there, there was a new RCP about to intersect. All we can figure is they were adding the RCP and will eventually fill in the drains again, with the new fork in the drain complete.

The drains in the above photo are about 10-12 feet in diameter.

So after the end of the trip, we completely went under just north of the Denver skyline. According to Google maps, the trip is about 5 miles by car. Of course you can’t drive straight through buildings and stuff, so the map is obviously off. However, the drain also takes several turns back and forth, so it’s also not a straight shot either. My guess is that to the construction site, it’s between 3.5 to 4.5 miles. Here’s the map:

Now for the nearly impossible instance.

So my friend Jake and I were in the area, and I said we should go over to it so he could better understand how the construction site was. So we walk across the park over to the site, and climb down into the pit where the openings are and talk about it for a few minutes. Then, all of a sudden, these flashlights shine in our faces, very bright, very cop-like.

Then a voice called out something like “Wut-er yew doin’?”, once again, very cop like and I got that feeling in my stomach I get when I get stopped by cops. Then I hear this “huh huh huh” laugh from the other guy and I know right away it’s not the cops. If it were the cops they would have said something like “What are ya guys doin’ down there?” and just wait until we said something.

So answered back, “So are you guys just laughing cops?” and he answered back “Haw, no, lucky we’re just spelunking.”

So I inquired about whether or not they were drainers or were into UE, but the guy just said “I don’t even know what the fuck that is.” Also, he said he should have mentioned UE when he got “arrested for [draining] this.” I guess that answers my question of what happens to UE-ers. So I just sort of stood there a moment, and said “Alright, we’re gonna get going now, seeya.”

I didn’t mention the website, which I sort of regret, but honestly, they didn’t seem like the sort of people who even owned a computer or knew of the internet. This is especially interesting because I’ve discussed the actual chances of running into other people in drains with my friends previously. I said that it was very, very unlikely because it well, is. To actually run into some other people with the same purpose, at the same time and place totally unplanned is really unexpected. Either way, it’s really cool to meet others interested in the same as us.

In case you’ve been back recently and assumed there weren’t any updates, you’re wrong. So very, very wrong. Sometimes I just update the gallery without any article write up or anything. I’ve added a total of four albums in the gallery, so give the new photos a look. I will be making a write up of the drain Brick Titan in a day or so.

The image gallery is now online and has one album of photos. More will be added to it soon. Also, I finished writing the second part to the Find a Drain Guide. It can be found here. More entries to the database will be added soon if all goes well.

Yes, that’s right. Dave and myself have been really working hard to get everything in order. I do the site’s coding and some of the writing, and Dave mostly writes the site’s content. Not everything is up at the moment as you can probably see, but there are some drain pages up in the database and the glossary of terms is being started in the other section. Please check back soon for more updates!

Well, the site is almost completely up as of now, and I’m just working on the news feed system here. This is the homepage of the Englewood Subterranean Explorers (ESE). If you would like a more interactive place to talk about Urbex stuff, check out our LiveJournal community here. More updates soon, so keep in touch.