Erie!

Thursday I had a little time for a ride after work in Mahoganytown. I knew it would be short day so I had my lights and bike ready the night before for my underground ride. The ride/exploration was one I had on my to-do list for a long time, several years in fact. The entrance reeks of sewer gas, has about four to six inches of mud below six to ten inches of water and has a good amount of trash mixed in with it. Heaven ! The first few hundred feet I powered through the deep mud, dodging chunks of rusted pipe, large rocks and spots that looked much deeper than I wanted to ride in. The walls were covered in black and bright orange slime and seemed to ooze from thousands of cracks in the joints between the limestone blocks. As I rounded the first corner the water got really deep, about two feet, and a waterfall was shooting out of the top of the wall about 150 feet upstream. I rode up to the water fall and decided to turn back when I saw a dead raccoon in the water beside me. The dead animal, the crazy amount of noise, the deep water and the fact I was alone was freaking me out. I rode  out and decided I was being a wuss so I headed back in, my logic was that my feet were already wet so what the hell. Once past the waterfall the water became shallow, the noise went away and I was starting to relax and have a good time. Eventually the route became dry and the old limestone construction gave way to smooth concrete tubes. At this point I was hauling ass, admiring the graffiti artwork and zoning out to the hum of my Nates echoing in the tube. I'll be heading back in soon to push farther on, hopefully with others.