Sometime when you have a spare moment, walk from the Sweetwater on Throckmorton Avenue towards Lytton Square where the Dipsea starts and turn right down the drive that leads to the parking lot behind D'Angelo's restaurant. Notice where the creek crosses this parking lot. It approaches from your right, makes a sharp bend, goes under a bridge, emerges into a fenced-in but pretty wooded area, then goes into a tunnel and crosses under the parking lot to emerge for a short stretch near the back entrance to the restaurant. Here a paddler must skirt some branches before being swept into another tunnel with a faint light visible at the far end. As you speed toward this light, you see eerie objects hanging from above and swinging slightly. We all later agreed these look like carcasses hanging on hooks and we dubbed this section Meat Locker. To follow the route to this point from street level, enter the building that houses Jenny Low's restaurant, pass by the post office and the rug shop, (the creek is beneath your feet), and exit into the parking lot on the other side. Look just to your left for a red fence ringing a small area opening to the water below. This is the light shaft in Meat Locker. Here, things went from eerie and a bit tense to just plain nuts.

Doug was our point man. Up to now I had been somewhat reassured knowing that I would at least hear some sort of warning cry or commotion if things got dicey up ahead. At Meat Locker, however, the water swirls for a moment before plunging at right angles into yet another tunnel - but this one is black. Whatever goes on in that darkness, come hell, high water, waterfall, log jam, or grating, that is what you, as paddler, will be doing shortly - and you'll be doing it in the dark. No matter how experienced and self-assured you may be, you cannot enter a pitch black, unscouted tunnel riding a torrent of water headed off under a main thoroughfare and parking lot and who-knows-what else with any degree of confidence. As I watched Doug being swept into this I sensed that he did so with the stiff upper lip chivalry of the just-follow-me-everything-will-be-fine leader, blended with a certain holy-crap-what-the-hell-is-gonna-happen-in-there terror.

And then it was my turn. No ifs, ands, buts, or options. At first I thought to keep the kayak straight, but the tunnel wouldn't allow otherwise so I kept my head low with the paddle held cross-ways in front to fend off any obstacles that might strike me in the face. I strained to see any light, but there was none, just a sense of speed and the ever-present cringing for impact. But the impact never came. There was a faint glow, then light, then I sped past two metal spikes sticking out of the tunnel wall just above head level and had only a moment to wonder how many of those I had whizzed by in the dark, then I was in a frothing pool laughing hysterically with Doug and watching for Tomas to follow suit.

I wonder what that other tunnel is like...