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Tunnels that ARE still open


EraSeek

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Nope. It's southeast of Ellensburg on the John Wayne Trail. As you go east on I 90, you go under a bridge that used to carry the Milwakee Road over the highway. The trailhead is just a little bit further to the east. (I think you have to get off the highway at Kittias and drive local roads to the trailhead.) The tunnel itself is about five or six miles to the east on the trail.

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Nope. It's southeast of Ellensburg on the John Wayne Trail. As you go east on I 90, you go under a bridge that used to carry the Milwakee Road over the highway. The trailhead is just a little bit further to the east. (I think you have to get off the highway at Kittias and drive local roads to the trailhead.) The tunnel itself is about five or six miles to the east on the trail.

Yes, correct. There is a Ghost Rail: 009 cache near the enterance to the tunnel. The trail goes uninterupted for 20miles across the Yakima Military Reservation to the Columbia river near Beverly. An awesome trip. I have done the whole route now. I have two caches midway along the route (one unfound from October) and another couple near the east end. Haven't seen any snakes yet, just deer, lizards, bluebirds and no people.

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I noticed someone found the APE cache today via the Snoqualmie tunnel...is it open again? :laughing:

 

I noticed that too. They even photographed themselves inside the tunnel. If it's closed, I would think the gates would be shut. The other tunnels aren't gated, so it would be impossible to keep anyone out.

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Their log indicates they "Made this mission very covert". Makes me wonder if they hopped the fence to get in the tunnel.

 

The cache inside the tunnel, (GCJMDK ) was signed a while back by someone who logged that they had climbed over the gate to get into the tunnel. This was during the winter of 2007/2008 closure.

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Their log indicates they "Made this mission very covert". Makes me wonder if they hopped the fence to get in the tunnel.

 

The cache inside the tunnel, (GCJMDK ) was signed a while back by someone who logged that they had climbed over the gate to get into the tunnel. This was during the winter of 2007/2008 closure.

 

I thought the gate went all the way to the top of the entry, but I don't remember definitively. Maybe I will stop by on the way west on tuesday or east on wednsday and see if it's open or if it's possible to enter the tunnel with the gate closed.

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I thought the gate went all the way to the top of the entry, but I don't remember definitively.

 

I checked out some of the picture gallery for the APE. It appears there is two sets of gates on the east end, but looks like they only close the small ones.

 

On the west end it does look like someone could climb over them.

 

East end

1b3f79c7-94c7-4f9e-a57a-439131f9ca96.jpg

 

West end

 

f4450935-e553-4aa7-83f7-67b0459b71bf.jpg

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I just recently learned about the fence-scaling by some irresponsible cachers and am disappointed. I've posted a note on the cache page and in the cache description telling people to avoid the tunnel while it is closed. I honestly didn't think it was necessary to have to spell that out.

 

I imagine that the blast doors aren't being used because maintenance crews need/want easy access to the tunnel to get at the fiber optic cables running under the trailbed.

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I just recently learned about the fence-scaling by some irresponsible cachers and am disappointed. I've posted a note on the cache page and in the cache description telling people to avoid the tunnel while it is closed. I honestly didn't think it was necessary to have to spell that out.

Two of the three cachers who went through the tunnel on June 5 have edited their logs to remove mention of their "covert" mission through the tunnel. The third still has some nicely incriminating photos posted.

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I verified that the tunnel is still closed today. Only the small chain link gates were closed. The blast doors were wide open. It does look like there has been vehicle traffic in the tunnel, though, as there were recent vehicle tracks along the approach to the tunnel probably a day or two old at most. I saw what might have been vehicle exhaust coming out of the tunnel, but I'm not sure.

Edited by Dwoodford
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It does look like there has been vehicle traffic in the tunnel,

 

Just a guess, but I would think they would still use the tunnel to service the restroom on the west side. Also I bet they went through the tunnel with the equipment they are using to repair the washout.

 

First time I went through the tunnel, we were surprised to have to step aside for a parks dept. truck. When we got out the other side they were cleaning the restroom. Of course the tunnel was open back then.

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