southparkline1 Wrote:
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> That cannot be completely determined because to my
> knowledge no one has been inside the tunnel in a
> decade....
It's been longer than a decade, but a group entered from the West and filmled the entire length to the cave-in near the east portal. They commercially sold a video tape of their trip. It's unlikely that conditions have changed significantly since then. I'm fairly sure that this was in 1992, because I went into the tunnel in July of 1992, and I remmeber them failing to get in a week or two later, then coming back and making the video later that summer. I wasn't expecting to get in, so I didn't have my flash with me. I tried a few photos using a flashlight, but they didn't work out. I was there with a large group, and stayed inside to help the others in and out (we only had a few people inside at a time), so by the time everyone had a chance to see inside, there wasn't time to hike back to the car for the flash.We didn't have any wading gear, so we never got off the pile of dirt at the portal, but we were able to see quite a bit.
There is a large pile of dirt not too far from the west portal, but as of 1992 it didn't come close to blocking the tunnel. Water had accumulated between the pile of dirt at the portal and the one inside, but it wasn't more than a foot or two deep. The rail was clearly visible under the water. After that first pile, there were just a few smaller piles (none would be considered cave-ins) until the complete blockage, which is almost to the east portal.
A few years earlier, in October of 1988, I took these photos inside the east portal. The blockage was just inside, so you could just climb onto the top of the pile of rock that had accumluated in the entrance, and stand under the first three or so wood arches. These photos were taken blind as I didn't have a flashlight. I could feel the timbers, but didn't see them until I got the film developed. You could still drive almost all the way to the east portal then.
This is how the east portal looked then:
This is the cave-in (very close to the portal):
The debris has built up almost to the arch: