Just West of Victoria there is an extensive wilderness green spaced called Goldstream Provincial Park. It features hiking, camping and a nature house among other amenities. If you know where to look, it also serves as an access point to the disused E&N rail line and some pretty cool train trestles. The first trestle (known as the Goldstream trestle) is extremely well known about, and until recently, was a frequent destination for hikers. Sadly, within the last year a high-profile suicide at this very location, prompted calls to erect fencing around the bridge and within the last 6 months fencing Continue Reading
Christopher Munz-Michielin
Getting Chipped – The Story of my NFC Implant
I climb the concrete steps of the parking garage and walk the 100 ft length of the second floor to the Western wall. About halfway along I find myself in front of a metal door, a card reader to my left. I wave my hand in front of the reader and smile as the LED turns green and the door clicks open – no badge required. NFC Implants The door opening trick wasn’t a slight of hand, nor was it a faulty sensor. It was the end result of a high tech upgrade my body had received days prior; an Continue Reading
The Mt. Doug Cave
Like any town, Victoria has a number of urban legends that a person is exposed to while growing up. One such myth is, of course, the mythical tunnels which run beneath the city streets (a large part of these are likely part of the city’s old storm drain network) while another is that of a secret cave which exists within Mt Doug park. A UER.ca thread had cracked the first urban myth of the secret tunnels, so I figured it was time to investigate this other long standing urban legend. Mt Doug park is a large 188 hectare urban park. Continue Reading
Finding the Bowker Creek Headwaters
“Bower Creek is an urban stream in the Victoria-BC area which originates in the wetlands near the University of Victoria and snakes it’s way through several municipalities before eventually outflowing to the ocean.” This is the way I introduced Bowker Creek way back in October of 2019 when describing my first draining adventure. While the description is accurate, something always bothered me about it; I never actually visually confirmed where Bowker creek originated, was it interesting, and most importantly; were there more tunnels? The answer to all of the above was yes; otherwise there wouldn’t be a blog post about Continue Reading
Exploring the Jordan River Diversion Dam
“Is there anything else we might need?” It was 7AM on the Saturday of a long weekend, and, rather then sleeping in, I was packing camping gear into my backpack in perpetration for a day-long adventure. Several days earlier I had seen some pictures of the Jordan River diversion dam and I was anxious to see this place for myself. And so it was hardly surprising that at the next available opportunity, I found myself packing into my roomate’s Kia Rio along with my good draining buddy at an ungodly hour of the morning to take a sketchy trip up Continue Reading
Running Linux on the Desktop
“Have you heard the good news?! 2021 is the year of the Linux Desktop!” This is, of course, the line that I have been hearing for more then a decade; ever since Dell started shipping laptops with the option of having pre-installed Ubuntu in 2007. Since then, Linux affectionadios have been shouting from the rooftops about how “this year will be the year that Linux breaks into the consumer desktop market.” While Linux has thus far failed to break into the consumer market in a large way, it has been steadily gaining device share over the years. With Steam announcing Continue Reading
Review of the Iridium GO!
Have you ever found yourself out in the middle of nowhere, just wishing you had an Internet connection to the outside world? Well, if you’re at all normal, the answer is probably no, but if you’re like me then the prospect of being out of touch for any length of time is actually quite terrifying (Yes, I know. I have a problem). Recently I found myself planning for a camping trip in the mountains of British Columbia, one which would likely take me off grid for a length of time. While a lot of people might relish the thought of Continue Reading
Journey to Bradian, BC
I stepped outside of the long-abandoned house and into the gravel street. Behind me a breeze picked up and some clouds of dust billowed around me. Before I joined my companions at the next building I took a moment to really bask in the isolation I was feeling, and tried to imagine what it would have been like to live in this town all those years ago. I turned towards the next building to continue the exploration of Bradian, BC. Bradian is a ghost town in the mountains of British Columbia. While most other ghost town’s have long-since crumbled into Continue Reading
Discovering a New Drain
As we cautiously moved forward into the darkness I stopped my buddy and pointed ahead; a section where the weight of the buildings and earth above us had partially crushed the steel pipe in which we found ourselves. Not dissuaded, but much more cautious, we continued deeper into the Sandy Freeway. Since my last explore in April a lot has changed in the world. The spread of the COVID19 Carona virus, and the subsequent withdrawal of society, made going out on mundane excursions feel like an urban explore – deserted streets, abandoned shops and an overwhelming feeling of stillness gave Continue Reading
The Transforming Tunnel
As I crept forward, the shallow water splashing around my ankles, I quickly came to the realization that this drain was not the one I was expecting. And I wondered just where it would lead. Since my last post, I’ve gone on a several more explores, which I’ll get to posting about in good time but I wanted to post about my latest adventure while it was still fresh in my mind; the Transforming Tunnel – one of the longest drains I’ve explored to date. An accidental discovery While examining some GIS maps, I came across what I thought was Continue Reading