I'm Not Dead

No, really, I'm not. It's just that school's gotten in the way of railroading, and I'm writing an essay on feminine oppression in Casablanca and Vertigo. So when I get back to St. Paul


I'll do some more exploring and find some stuff to look at and photograph for you. Also, if you remember, I'm branching out from railroads this summer, so there'll be something else coming your way in the edgier exploring. Heheh. EXTREME URBAN EXPLORING! TESTOSTERONE! RARRRR!!!

Sorry about that.

Greenway Induction

So, remember how a while back I came across a railroad that went parallel to the Greenway? I went back there today to see what there was that I hadn't seen in that area.

Well, the first thing I noticed was that it was all covered in those thorny plants which had foiled me before, at least for a short distance. Then it hit a road and... stopped. Yes, it stopped. That was disappointing. I kept going, mostly on the vain hope that what I had seen was NOT the end of the line, and low and behold, it wasn't. I came under a bridge (I'm pretty sure it was Granville running down to the Island, but I could be mistaken) and found a new beginning to the railroad.

It started smack in the middle of a road, and went perpendicular to it. At the end I was on, there was a sort of a chain link barrier with weird stuff in it, I guess to try to keep the trolley that ran on the tracks from going off the end. I think. I know it was a trolley because there was a wire running overhead. Anyway, there was this little shelter with a sign on it saying "Granville Station" so I sat down there to take the first picture.

You can see the bridge and a little of the chain link thingy I was talking about earlier.
So the rails went through this narrow, wet sort of cutting thing between the housing on the south side and the road on the north. There was a fence on the north side, and a high wall on the south. Fun times. So I walked along that for a little while and... then the track split. And so for a while there, there were two parallel sets of tracks running through this valley kind of thing. Then they merged together again. Yeah. That was kinda weird. You can see the parallel tracks and a bridge that I'll talk about in a bit here:

Speaking of the bridge, here's a picture of it from a little closer up. By which I mean a lot closer up.

So when I got under that thing, there was a whole bunch of graffiti, which is what the next couple of pictures are of. They're both quite nice pieces, and the pictures just don't capture the feeling you get from them.

And this one is just begging for a big awwww... because it has hearts. And hearts are adorable.

This is a shot of what lay ahead (a loooong way ahead) from a little ways beyond the bridge.

Yeah, that took a while to walk along. This is a picture from the same place, looking back.
"img src = "http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee312/algernons_flowers/Photo79.jpg">
You can get some idea of the vast amount of paint that's been put on these walls from that last shot. It's truly phenomenal. Not as crazy as some stuff I've seen, but still pretty awesome. A lot of it was quite well done, too. I get really sick of people spraying shit on walls and going, "Yeah, dude, it's art, you can't touch this." Yeah, technically true, but bad art. You could spray a bunch of equal squares on a wall and it would be modern art. I'm not going to rant about this.
So I kept walking, and came out into the open a little after the limit of that last picture, and the track split into three parts: two rejoined into one a little further down the line, the other one went off into a shed, and beyond the shed there was a trolley. Here's a picture of that.

Yeah, pretty weird, huh?
Anyway, just beyond where you can't see in that photo, the track went on more or less a straight shot between chain link fence and foresty-sorts of areas, and that's where I stopped, mostly because I was pretty sure that it ended up joining up with the rail yards right by Waterfront Station, and that was one place I didn't really want to be. So I stopped here, and turned around, and headed home.

But now, looking at a map on Google Earth, I was completely wrong. It doesn't actually seem to extend beyond what you can see on the photo. It either follows under a bridge or I'm just not seeing where it goes. Either way, it's not what I thought. I'll go back sometime before finals and wrap up all the loose ends I've got in this business.
But either way, I went home then. And I took a different route, and so came upon a really cool little park where I took this picture:

And this, in turn, led to a long walk along the waterfront which eventually led me back to the place where I lost the other part of the Greenway due to it being overgrown. But on the other side of a molded concrete faux-brick wall. I would have climbed it... but for the fact that I didn't want to crawl through thorny plants for an indeterminate distance.

So, that's all folks!

The First Saga

Well, for a winter excursion, that went well. Myself and another Railroader walked down a good stretch of track today, starting with the Playground Road up by Fairview. There's a playground there, and a railroad that wanders down across the city and curves around the better part of the residential areas, follows Ayd Mill road down to 35-E and skips from there to follow the highway along until the railroad passes under the high bridge. The first bridge, across Snelling avenue at Marshal, has a ton of gorgeous graffiti on it. It's a quite nice walk, I'll have to go there sometime in the summer, when the snow isn't deep enough to tire me out quickly.
Anyway, we didn't make it very far, we just got to Selby, where we cut off the railway and switched to the roads instead. Sidewalks are better shoveled than rail lines. Simple fact of life, that. No photos, either. I'll get some up for Vancity. I'll get more in the summer.

Looks like Summer will change a lot.

Further Adventures

So, as I said, there will be more adventures happening later. If they can be called adventures, anyway. When I get back to Saint Paul for the summer, I'll start doing the Urban Exploring sort of thing. More sewers and fewer railroads, in other words. The upshot of this is that I won't be working alone. Too dangerous, drain running alone. Something happens, no one's there to help you. So yeah. Just thought a preview of what's coming up would be a good thing.

In other news, I've got a few things I need to do before I go back to Vancouver. There may be a post later today.

No Updates

So... I kinda doubt anyone really noticed that I haven't been posting much. Here's the reason: I don't really like going outside and walking when it's cold. I'm back in Saint Paul, and there's a couple feet of snow down, so it can be hard to walk along railroads without getting majorly cold feet. I feel witty now.

Anyways, updates and wanderings will resume upon my return to Vancouver.

Merry Christmas!

C'mon, you know it sounds better than Happy Holidays.

Screw the rules, I have sore feet

Time: 1837, 1123 to go.
I'm in the SUB right now, by the north exits. There's a red chair I'm sitting in, with a little brown stain by its feet. I edited the rules a little: I'm allowed to sit, so long as I use the time to write rather than rest. There's a large section of the northeast section of campus I've never laid eyes on, so that's my first target. After that... well, we'll see when I'm done up there.
End Entry One.

Time: 1901, 1059 to go.
I'm on the roof of a parking garage.

The picture is of Gage towers, but it really doesn't capture it. You need to think of the biggest christmas tree of your life, triplicate, and you, almost above everything, and not a single person in sight. You can hear, but it's desolate up here. Everything's muted, distant, quiet. It's so peaceful here at 7 at night. I highly recommend it to anyone in the area with time on their hands.
End Entry Two.

Time: 1952, 908 to go.
I'm in the rose garden right now. In my usual spot, when I can get it, which is at the northeast corner, between two of the pillars. It's beautifully lit right now, with semi-romantic yellowish overheads about six feet off the ground. They point downward, so there's little to no vertical light variation, and looks ever so romantic right now. Even though it's cold. On the romantic note, I was sitting here, and the thought came to me, how many people have lost their virginity in this garden? I mean, come on? Late at night, early in the morning, there's no one here. Well, except for two people. There's this other guy who just came down the stairs. But practically no one.
You know, I think this is kind of a fun idea: call it the sunrise patrol. Basically, you have to wonder: how many people see sunrises regularly? And the answer is, not many. Just a few, in fact. So the idea is to get people to stay out all night and see a sunrise. Call is sunrise hunting. I like it, you like me? That's what I thought.
God, I can't believe I'm only a quarter done with the night.
I walked the Labyrinth again, for the record. THere was one outside the chapel, but I didn't know that. I just went down into this hollow in the ground, and there it was. Waiting for me, almost. I was going to take a picture, but I didn't.
End Entry Three.

Time: 2036, Unknown time remaining.
I've got a headache that's coming up; I may be unable to keep this up until morning. But I WILL see the sun rise on tuesday. It will happen. I will make it happen.
In the here and now, I'm outside the Anthropology Museum. Until I came, it was dead silent and... not really eerie. But sacred. It had a feeling of sanctity. I can't put it any better than that, but with no one else around, I can almost feel something here. There's a few totem poles, and just as I crossed the line from light into darkness, the lights of North Van blazed, and I saw them far off and standing on the northern shore, on the very eaves of the mountains.
But then... I shall explore the remainder of this side of University. The other side can wait. I am a patient man, despite my seeming lack of stamina. A pity. I can stop here with a clean conscience, forgive myself for giving up.
I think that this sort of thing would be better undertaken with a group, perhaps three or four in number. We would be a sort of buffer, keeping ourselves in check and upbeat and willing to continue. But only the very best of friends could do this. I mean, come on, they'll be around each other for 12 hours straight in uncertain circumstances. This night might be both first and last for the so-called Sunrise Patrol. Maybe then I'll get back to railroads.
End Entry Four.

Time: 2116, No time remaining.
I'm back home. You know what? Here's the result of the walk tonight:
1) Waking is for the journey not for the end.
2) I walked tonight so that I would have a reason to stay at home, to be inside, and to really enjoy it.
3) Everything is defined in terms of an opposite.
4) Life is a means to itself. That is, the point of life is life.
That's what I got out of it. Disagree all you want, but I feel philosophical, and nothing you can do will change me. Nothing!

Vancouver Branch, over and out.

UBC By Night

Day after tomorrow I plan on undertaking an intensely surreal experience. I will not eat for twenty-four hours, and on top of it stay up all night and wander around the campus. Complete self-deprivation, as it were. I'll keep my clothes, since that would be illegal and it'd be cold, but no food, no shelter, no sleep. As close as I'll get to... I don't even know. Here are the rules I will follow:

1) No eating from 0:00 on Tuesday to 0:00 on Wednesday.
2) No sleep after 9:00 on monday to 0:00 on Wednesday.
3) From sunset on Monday to Sunrise on Tuesday, I will not sit down, I will only walk, no matter how tired I get.
4) I may stop, but rarely. There will be enough on the UBC campus to keep me occupied outside all night.
5) I'll take pictures occasionally. These will be the courtesy of my laptop.
6) I may drink water.
7) I may enter other buildings as long as I remain in accordance with the other rules.

Since I'm a fan of things coming in sevens, I'll stop there.

Vancouver branch, over and out.

A Gadfly

I apologize for the lack of recent updates.

I've been up to my ears in schoolwork and anime, and as such have not seen fit to update in a long time. About a week, to be specific, but I'll be back sometime in the next few weeks. Don't know when exactly, but sometime soon. Like I've been saying for a while now, there's a branch I still haven't explored that I have reason to believe goes far beyond anything else, so you can expect that sometime in the predictable future. Well, maybe not that soon. But you could expect it within the month without it being an abortion of logic.

There Is No Post For Today

What's the matter? Can't you read?

Greenway North Part Two

The expedition was rather brief today, since part of my travel time each way must be devoted to backtracking (forgive the pun) along roads I have already taken. In any case, I started my Greenway expeditions as always, by busing up Broadway until Macdonald and then hoofing it up to Arbutus. From there, I retraced my earlier steps until the car graveyard.
Really though, as I found out today, that's where the fun just begins. After that, the tracks are hedged with buildings and thorns and liie on gravel beds. But the first part is actually just buildings. I had to leave the tracks at several times, simply because cars don't often stop at defunct train tracks. In any case, they do an interesting series of acrobatics, involving switches and splits and places where it looks like it splits but it doesn't, and runs past fences with razor wire and barbs, runs between buildings and stores. It's a very interesting place. Here's a shot of it:

That's where it stopped being buildings and started being plants that really formed the boundaries for where the tracks were and weren't. Up until then, it's all just store after store, plastered with graffiti. Interesting sight, to be sure, but not very useful. Anyway, you can see two sets of tracks in that picture. This is because there WERE two sets of tracks that merged. Then they split again. Since one of them led the way into a barbed-wire fenced enclosure, I took the other path, and soon found myself here:

Bad photo, I grant, but that's looking back at the way I had come. Here's more or less the same spot, looking forward:

Better photo, and it gets the bridge, too. I really wanted to go further on the tracks, but the disappeared into the thorny plants that you can see in the pictures. I didn't really want to dig through the plants to see if they actually were there, so I left it and went back.
However, this was something of a bad idea. There was an entire other branch I could have started exploring. I'll have to name that, and I'll go back again next week and look into the possibility of exploring it.
Vancouver branch, over and out.

Next on the List

After extensive research and looking around on Google earth...I've found precisely squat for accessible railroads. So, I've decided to return to the North Greenway and continue from where I left off. I didn't nearly explore the whole thing, in fact, I only got a little part of the way up. So call this a time-buying tactic on my part, to give me a little more time to think. Because I've not thought about this at all. I'm just looking at what I've got, and there's about two miles of track (minimum) that I haven't even looked at yet. Some of that is backtracking, but that's not a big deal. It's still a long distance that I haven't seen. Therefore, North Greenway part two will be in the works for tomorrow. So I guess that's about it.

The South Greenway

I say, dear chap, that was a smashing adventure, what?

Total distance: 2.25 miles walked, approximately. I had to stop taking photos halfway through because it started to rain.
That was unfortunate, so I'll give you story with visual aids up to that point and then I'll just have to switch to straight narrative.

All right, so when you get onto the Greenway off of Arbutus, here's a little of what it looks like:
Looking North:

And looking south (the way I was going):

So I started walking south, and got a fair ways. There's a lot of overgrown hedges in there, as you can kinda see from the photos. There's also some pretty lousy graffiti, and the backs of the buildings are all peeling paint and weird disheveled-looking plants. It doesn't so much look dodgy or sketchy as it looks rather sad. It's the side of the buildings people weren't meant to see. We're supposed to look at the fronts and the painted facades, not the backs, with the parking lots of cracked asphalt and rusted fire escapes. That's the side that we aren't allowed to see, but it's still there, even in a city so toted as being beautiful as Vancouver.
Anyway, the tracks go up a slight incline and then down into a low sort of dip before coming out. Here's a photo looking down into it, which gives you a pretty good idea of what it feels like to be there.

Only not, because the photo was taken from too far back. Beyond the trees there's this huge open space where the railroad runs, between the Arbutus Street and the houses with their massive hedges. So I followed that a ways down, eventually coming to a place where the railway turns back upon itself, almost:

Literally right off the left hand edge of the photo is a massive power plant/buzzing electrical thing. Not a power plant. But one of those big transformer stations, or whatever. Anyway, that was interesting, since it was buzzing as I was walking along the tracks. Behind it, there were a bunch of houses, but between them and the tracks there were overgrown hedges and a low sort of concrete wall completely painted over in a multitude of colors. I was debating taking a picture of it, and regret that I didn't. It wasn't really exceptional art, but it was nice anyway. So the tracks curved around to avoid this weird park sort of thing right next to the electrical thingy. And as you walk along them, there's this odd sort of feeling of isolation that you almost never get in a city, because there were high plants on both sides of the tracks, and the rails themselves have been overtaken by strange wildflowers and low-growing foliage. It's really quite nice.
Anyway, once you get past the park, the tracks curve again, trying to retake the ground they lost, or something. It's probably just a switchback to avoid having a steep slope on the tracks. Maybe. I'm not really sure, to be honest. In any case, I came around a bend, was thinking whether or not to take a picture, and saw this:

And that pretty much sealed the deal, as it were. Unfortunately, it had just started to rain, so I took this picture and then packed away the computer for good. Because I'm a cheap bastard and don't have a camera. So yeah.
Anyway, I kept walking after that and eventually got into this area the name of which I can't really remember. But it was right around Point Grey secondary. This is actually something that I really like about walking, it ties your mental maps of various parts of the world together nicely. Better than driving, that's for sure. So I got into this place, and had no clue where I was, so I popped into a McDonald's to get a wireless signal. This was after I'd been walking for about an hour. But the funny this is that my feet didn't hurt, they just started to hurt after I was walking on concrete again. Because concrete is hell on the feet. So then I bused back to the campus and finished up some other business I needed to get to done. But this is really where the story ends, in that McDonald's, since I'd left the railway. Technically, I'd left it's course before, to cross the street legally and whatnot, but never for the reason of finding where I was.

So I guess now I need to find a new set of tracks to explore next street without too much complicated busing to get to.

*tips hat* Vancouver branch, over and out.

Greenway South

That's probably going to be my next project. There's a bunch of space down there, and although realistically I should go back to the northern section and finish exploring it. See, what you couldn't tell from the pictures I took was how sketchy the whole area looks when you're there. Being there made me a little uneasy, though admittedly I AM a pansy white boy and therefore have no guts, much less the street smarts to know when to be brave and stick with it and when to high-tail it out of there.
Map Here
So I was there, going north on my way, and made it to the funny roundabout looking thing not very far down the line. My next project will be significantly more ambitious, and will probably take place this coming Tuesday, since that's the next block of significant free time that I have running around my schedule. That said, there's about six times the amount of walkable track to the south that there is to the north, so this should be a much longer walk. What this means in practice is that I'll need a lunch that can be eaten while walking, since out of the hour I spent by the tracks last time, about twenty minutes of that was spent eating and sitting. Now, assuming that I have about time and a half within which to walk, I'd have a total of an hour and a half. So if I hit the tracks at 1:00, and walk for an hour and a half, I'd get back to my starting point about 4:00. No good. So I guess I've still only got maybe an hour of walking time.

But that's three miles I can go, not counting time spent taking pictures... but that's negligible. All in all, I just did the math in Google Earth, I end up walking the better part of the walkable distance on those tracks in one day. That said, the last time I spent less than an hour walking, and made it significantly less than three miles. In fact, I barely even made it .8 miles. This is a big problem. So, I guess a week from today will be the big test to see how well I can gauge my walking speed. I'm pretty sure it was 3 miles an hour... considering I did two and a half in 40-45 minutes pretty regularly, it might even be faster than that. We'll just see, won't we? Not something for the faint of heart, I guess.

So, Greenway South, the 6th of November, 2007. I might not have pictures, I've heard that November in Vancouver is pretty rainy. So... with luck, I will. Without it... I may not even take the hike. But now that it comes to it, I'll want this to be a rain or shine sort of affair. After all, rain won't wait if it comes when I'm on the road to Duluth, now will it?

Vancouver branch, over and out.

The Greenway

So, I had my first shot at exploring today. I bused up Broadway to Granville, then walked down Broadway the opposite way I had come until I came to a railroad crossing the street north to south. I was already on the north side of the street, so I decided to go that way. This is what it looked like, looking southwards.

So I headed down the tracks, and after a couple twists and blind corners, came to this place:
This is looking the way I'm about to go.

And this is the way I had come.

I walked on a bit further, and found this really bloody annoying intersection where the cars came at exactly the wrong intervals for a pedestrian to cross. So after waiting a time altogether disproportionate to the width of the street, I went across and found a convenient bench to sit down and eat on.
That's another weird thing about this railroad. It's technically owned by Canadian Northern Limited, and is therefore private property, and therefore your can be prosecuted for walked down it, but no one gives a shit. There's all sorts of chairs and benches and even a couple of tables set up by the tracks, so you can sit down and eat your lunch if you want, which is what I did.
By the way, the reason I call it the Greenway is because it runs north-south and is mostly overgrown. It's a reference to Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, the road that the rangers use that runs through Bree north to south.
Anyway, I sat down on one of the benches and ate lunch, and looked around and took a picture of what was across the way from me, which was a manufacturing plant for Mercades Benz. It smelled kinda icky, a strange chemical scent that seemed to stick to me, but it's also very subtle, so that you don't notice it until you've been there for a while, but after you sit there and eat for a while, it gets to you. Here's what it looked like:

That's not a good photo, because it doesn't give you a good image of the rooftop, much less the kinda creepy windows with the weird piping inside, but it does give you a good sense of the barbed wire around it. That's a bit of a turnoff for me, I'll probably not try to get in there. Besides which, I'm not really Urban Explorer yet. I'm more of a wanderer than an explorer. I'll switch to explorer when I've got the time and the resources, as well as have a few people who are with me on it. Not something I'll do alone. But I'll stick with this blog, since I like it. In any case, after lunch, I headed further down the tracks until I found a place I affectionately refer to as the AIDS corner:

I continued along, eventually coming to a turning in the track, so I took another photo.

Then I came to the ultimate point on my walk, the Car Graveyard:

So at that point I thought I was out of time, so I turned around and headed back. I got back to the university a little later, and now I'm typing this entry.

I apologize for the X inversion on the photos, by the way. I was too lazy to flip them.

Vancouver Branch over and out.

The Beginning

I have to start somewhere, and frankly... here is as good a place as any. I'm actually not in Saint Paul, even though that's listed as my hometown; I'm starting in Vancouver, because that's where the idea has caught me. I've done some scouting with Google Earth and will probably do my first expedition on Tuesday or so. Today being Sunday, that's a little ways off. So I've got time. But for now, I'm content to wait. It's not exactly a long term dream, though Urban Exploring has been.

See, that's really why I want to do this. It's because there's a side to cities that I don't see, I love the feeling of infinite distance, I love the feeling of possibility. And trapped in my dorm room, with only a tiny window and a computer as means of contacting the outside world, possibility is something I'm certainly starved of. Obviously, it sounds a little emo to say that every bit of creativity has been squeezed out of my life, but it feels that way. That's why the culmination of this little project will be, at least in the short term, a rather long walk from Saint Paul to the Temprence River on the north shore of Lake Superior and
back. The logistics are rather complicated.

In any case, I'm going to run off for now; I may or may not have pictures from my exploits. We'll see.

Vancouver Branch, over and out.