Suburban Underground Vadders

Draining Under the Forum

Ah yes, the newest edition to the San Antonio pattern of shopping. That’s really just about all there is to do in San Antonio which is one reason I took up Urban exploration when I lived there. The Forum is the largest strip mall in Texas… no joke, it’s an “outdoor shopping area”  (strip mall) that spans 170 acres of land and includes stores like Best Buy, Target, Home Depot, as well as eateries with about 63 stores in all. Sick. With all of these stores there has to be a butt-load of parking right? With a parking lot that big you have to have a large drainage system for water run-off right? Well that’s where SUV comes in.

The first time I explored this intriguing system was late one night with Margrough, Pale Blue Corpse, and the Noiz-Tek. We were walking around the back side of the long stretch of stores when the place was about ½ built. This meant that the stores that were finished were open but there was about ½ of them yet to be. At the end of the stretch of stores that had been finished there was a reservoir for run-off water with a concrete box protruding out of the center. That was to be the goal, climb through the tunnel connecting to the box and see what there was to see.

It was interesting to note that the resonance inside that tunnel was especially neat sounding. Once we got to the box it was nice to get some fresh air from the grate now overhead and to be able to stand at least somewhat upright. We decided that it was to easy and that we weren’t finished so we continued on. After about a total of 100 yards from the opening we reached the last overhead grate which ended up being under the road right behind the shopping area. We decided then to exit and check out one last thing.

At the front of the shopping monstrosity on the other side of the vast desert of a parking lot there are 2 large tunnels big enough to stand in. While these tunnels had bars over them, they obviously were not meant to keep people out because it was simple to slip in between them. Once inside it is a nice comfortable walk about 50 yards to where the tunnel does something quite unexpected. Possibly partly to keep people like us out and partly to keep the water moving, the tunnel dead-ends and then goes STRAIGHT up about 15ft and then continues on in the direction that it was going. Also, from the left tunnel you can easily get to the right tunnel via a smaller tunnel that connects the two. Not surprisingly though the right tunnel does the same thing. For the moment we were thwarted from further exploring these tunnels.

A few weeks later we were back but this time it was just me and Marbrough and we were well prepared. Parking in the nearby Chill’s parking lot we quickly unloaded and disappeared into the lower run-off area. We set up at the end of the tunnel and I prepared to give the grappling hook a toss into the unknown above. The first throw went quite a way into the tunnel so I slowly pulled it until it caught quite snugly on something. We tested the connection thoroughly until we were satisfied that it wasn’t coming down unless we went up to get it. Now on come the harness and attaching the ascenders to the rope dangling from above. The ascension was actually not to bad eccept for the fact that I had no idea what it really was that was keeping me from falling to the ground below. Once over the edge I found very reassuringly that the hook was caught in between two sections of the tunnel – could not have been better.  Marbrough soon followed and we brought up the rest of the equipment that was tied to the rope leaving no sign that we were now under the parking lot.

The tunnel was quite interesting in the fact that there was almost no echo and that every 50ft or so the tunnel breaks off to the left and right in smaller tunnels while the main moves upwards at a slant for about 2-3ft and then continues on. This can be seen looking back towards the entrance in the picture below.

That’s me (RevSM) in the picture above sporting my amazingly useful headlamps. We continued on and up as you can see, Marbrough’s ass…

This pattern of the breaks in the tunnel happened consistently every 50ft or so for about 5 times when we realized that 1. we were getting really hot

2. the tunnel got smaller every time there was a junction

3. when we finally decided to take one of the tunnels to the left we realized that it went a short distance to a curb style drain on the side of one of the main roads that the tunnel was following.

It was nice to peak out and get some much needed fresh air and it was fun playing as the grotesque clown pennywise in “IT”. It would have been perfect if a little kid walked by as we were looking out so that we could scare the bejezus out of em’ but the chance never arose. At this point we were actually getting pretty exhausted and decided to turn back even though we didn’t even get to the end which there might not have been one for another ½ a mile.

HERES A FEW MORE PICS FOR YA.

Ooh look at that ass! Note the dangling red ropes, those are our ascenders.

No he’s not really wearing that mask but I think it looks better than a blur so…

again not really wearing the mask.

Like my Atari t-shirt?