For my birthday ride, we headed out early on this lovely morning. We rode from Jessup through the industrial park south to Marshwood Road (passing by the gate to Rock Slope); we first checked out the area near the lower powerline cut. No tunnel portal. Following a rocky, muddy path east (my first real off-road riding this season!) took us to the higher powerline cut, which we then rode back out to Marshwood Road. Not 30 feet from the road, just west of the pole line, we saw a solid concrete slab that looked like the top of a fancy culvert. Could this be it? We fought our way through the thorns and brush and discovered that it was. Cold air issues from within the tunnel, in a very similar manner to Pocono Cold Air Cave. The tunnel floor is visible some ten feet below the surface. Railroad ties and other rotting mine artifacts are visible down below despite the near-darkness. As we had noted from photographs, "Tunnel" is spelled with an extra L on the face of the portal.

… Trying hard not to slide down into the tunnel(l)! This is the long-sought portal to the Eddy Tunnel. We don’t know why they chose to spell tunnel with two "L"s, but I find it charming.

… Rich takes his turn posing on the slippery slope.

On an unrelated note, we finished off the day’s adventures by riding back to Rich’s place for some well-deserved birthday hotdogs, snacks and dessert before work!

Two consecutive March Thursdays were warm and sunny (the second warmer than the first) and we were in the mood to track down some local mining ruins. Our first goal was the Eddy Tunnel portal. I’d asked an acquaintance "in the know" for directions to this portal (or so I thought). We were to park just off Underwood Road at a gate and then follow the dirt road and then "make your very first right.. maybe 200 meters? on your left into the woods 25 meters at best… theres what looks like a cage coming out of the ground". Following these directions to the letter was difficult so we let our intuition guide us, and we soon arrived at a very likely spot. Alas, several yards distant in the woods stood the rust-colored batgate covering a mine entrance!

… We couldn’t miss this very obvious bat gate.

… Looking down into the darkness of the Rock Slope mine tunnel, near the site of the old Underwood Colliery. Someone has removed one of the beams on the gate, allowing acccess.

We hurried toward it, excited by the find but soon realizing that the portal to the Eddy Tunnel most likely was not anywhere nearby. The Rock Slope (1915) portal, mostly buried in fill, was adjacent to the gated mine shaft opening, but no other portal was anywhere to be found. We reflected that this wasn’t even a particularly logical place for another opening, especially of the type we expected the Eddy Tunnel to be. These were still exciting finds, and though we dared not venture inside today for a peek at all the artifacts within, we were certainly intrigued and may return once we procure the proper equipment and gain some training.

… Enough of the portal has been uncovered to be able to positively identify this tunnel.

… Some concrete remains from the old Underwood Colliery.

… A leftover foundation from the colliery operation.

On our way back to the highway, Rich had me pull off Marshwood Road just west of the highway ramp. He wanted to investigate a shed he’d noticed set back in the woods. The shed itself wasn’t very interesting—though all things become more interesting the more you know about them, so I will keep searching for information about it. Beyond the shed, though, we spotted several dark areas in the ledge and went to investigate. We’d found a series of mine openings! Three can be entered, two very easily. At the third mine, a wooden pillar still props up the opening.

… Ignoring her injured ankle, Zhanna hops around near one of the mine openings off Marshwood Road.