Abandoned Railroad. Walcott Tunnel

On Saturday Andrey said in a thoughtful voice:
“I’m planning on going to a tunnel, to look at the surrounding area, maybe fly my copter.”
“What tunnel?” I perked up.
“Oh,” he waved a hand, “It’s the same railroad we’ve been to already, just a different tunnel.”
“Without me?! No way, I’m coming with you.”

We asked the kids, and they also didn’t seem to be against the idea of a hike. We got dressed, and then hit the first problem: the garage door snagged on something and started to come down all lopsided. We stopped the mechanism, and examined it: the rope slid off of one of the gears and got all tangled, and another wheel flew off its track because of the tilting. After some moments of thought, we understood what needed to be done. And there’s the fixed door, opening and closing smoothly. Yay! Onward with our adventures.

Upon arriving to the place the GPS showed, we came face-to-face with a gate – a few years ago there was a tree felling here, but no sign prohibiting passage. We got out of the car and proceeded to look for the tunnel.

We walked on gravel that was put there when the tree-cutters were working.

Hm, the surroundings are a little different from those on Google Maps. This hill is empty, while the map displays trees. The railroad should be somewhere below, but it cannot be seen at all. After a few minutes of mindless meandering, we decided that we should head for the big pile of sticks, from which, supposedly, the rails should be visible. And they were, and the railroad wasn’t even too overgrown. But the slope was really steep, going down (and later, back up) would be challenging. We once again studied the map – oh, if we drive around here, we should be able to come up really close to the tracks, and we’ll walk along them to the tunnel, it’d just be an 800 meter walk.

The tracks from that pile of branches

Kind of like this

It looks so flat from the top…

On the way we met a lynx and a deer.

Upon arrival we looked at the map again. Just like Google said, we need to walk 120 meters before we reach the rails. But we’re supposed to follow the gravel… which doesn’t exist. Well, it did exist, once upon a time, but it’s far too overgrown now. We climb through the bushes and there they are, the railroad tracks. Yeeeah, it’s not a surprise we didn’t see them from the top! But people walk here, not as many as walk the the other part, though.

On the way we passed some mechanical-looking building.

Hold your breath! Mom’s taking pictures of the water droplets.

Moving aside branches, and sometimes diving underneath them, we slowly move forward. Sometimes we come across spots that are relatively plant-free, the rocks in the tracks were probably in a thicker layer here, still fighting against the roots. We try to look around, but the bushes on the sides of the tracks are too thick. It looks like the tracks are going along the thick of the hill. We laughed as we walked, looking for the spot from which we first saw the rails. Wasn’t it also pretty open? We’ll probably pass it without noticing. Anyway, there were some wooden planks there…
Soon it became colder, which meant the tunnel was near.
We moved aside the last of the branches, and there it was… Longer than the other ones we’ve been to, and kind of uninviting. Wind blew out of it, and somewhere in the distance light from the opposite entrance shines through. Someone left a bench here, and between the rails lay a couple burnt logs. Obviously some people come here to sit on the bench and warm themselves on the fire.

We walked a little bit farther. It looks like it’s sandy here, the whole tunnel is lined with support beams, reinforcements that are not present in other tunnels we visited. Those are cut out of firmer stone, and the rough stone can be seen from the inside. I wasn’t very comfortable being here and walking through the tunnel, so we didn’t go in too far.