Hoosac Tunnel

Five of us got together to go on an adventure today. We, as in Rob, had a specific place in mind when we started off but as the trip progressed we all thought the East entrance of the Hoosac Tunnel seemed like a worthy diversion.

I arrived at our destination slightly cramped from the hour long drive in the back seat of a pick-up truck but we were all anticipating the next few hours. The tunnel entrance was right around the corner from where we parked and as soon as we got near the railroad tracks we could feel the temperature drop. There was a nice cool breeze coming out of the tunnel which makes sense as it is essentially a 5 mile long cave.

This is Rob, my crazy tree-loving brother, aka "The Cherocraft dude".

And the rest of the crew!

The beginning of the tunnel was very wet. Water was dripping from the ceiling, the walls were wet and there were pools of water along the sides of the tracks as you can see in the first picture. After a few minutes of walking most of the dripping stopped but the pools of water remained as did the cool dampness.

Our guide started to tell us about the ghost stories surrounding the tunnel, nicknamed “The Bloody Pit”. 195 people died during the construction of this tunnel and another 30 have died since it was completed. Some were buried alive, some died by explosives and others were murdered. I can see how some people would think they could hear the moans of dead people. The sounds in the tunnel were a little eerie and with a healthy imagination they could have been ghosts.

In 1997 a ten foot wide strip of stone from the top of the tunnel was removed which you can clearly see in these photos.

We walked for a little while but we weren’t prepared for a 5 mile tunnel walk so we turned around and headed out. There was still more to see on this adventure.

Below are some links to the tunnels history and photos of the construction. It was considered to be an engineering marvel in its day and is an interesting story of our past accomplishments.

Hoosac Tunnel Hoosac Tunnel : Abode of the Damned? Hoosac Tunnel Wiki Hoosac Tunnel Then and Now Catskill Archive: Hoosac Tunnel

After the tunnel our adventure continued up river. A short walk from the entrance of the Hoosac Tunnel leads to the Twin Cascade Brook and waterfalls.

We spent the next few hours climbing up one side of these waterfalls and back down the other. I didn’t take any pictures because my camera was safely tucked away in my backpack. The terrain was wet, slippery and treacherous. It required an almost single mindedness to traverse, one step at a time.

At the end of our adventure, on our way back to the truck I spotted this dragonfly. He waited patiently for me to get out my camera and take a picture. I am pretty sure he is a Zebra Clubtail Dragonfly which is on the endangered species list.