Nice.
More tunnels found at JAC (John Abbott College) in Quebec. None of them are acessible to the students, although they used to be used to get around the campus in the winter. Problems with crimes in the tunnels caused their closure. On top of these tunnels, there are also steam tunnels and maintenance tunnels much like those described at UT. One of the tunnels has a window which looks into the deep end of the college pool, definitely a sweet find, although it was a quick realisation that the swimmers could see us too.
The tunnels were fun, but on top of that the campus has a building named Britain Hall that is only partially used. They've filmed a couple of movies in it (one with Shannon Doherty about some school girl thing... didn't really care enough to remember but saw them filming it). Part of the building has been restored and is used for adult education, but the rest of it is completely abandoned and quite interesting.
The building was originally a men's residence when the entire college campus belonged to McGill University. It has three floors and a basement. The upper floors are mainly old dorm rooms and showers and bathrooms. Really interesting to go through them and read the graffiti. There are still "artifacts" around from the many who lived there, although it was obvious many had found the location before us, and weren't of the same mindset about not leaving a trace.
The basement was creepy. Lots of concrete, and pitch black. Rooms full of steel bedframes and rotting wood shelving. Not to mention a quite "rotten" squat in a room that was entirely covered in different mosses (just that room. At one end is the old "campus cafe" called the Oval. The name is still painted on the doors outside the building that used to lead to it (closed and can't be used to enter really).
On the main floor, in the "lobby", for some reason there are old filing cabinets and desks full of police reports and files. Not campus security, real police. some kind of random junk storage.. not really sure, but we left it alone out of respect. One room off the hallway had a lightbulb that was on and a broken piano. The piano body seemed to be completely smashed, but the strings remained. We played it in the eeriness of the night, but feared it might get us caught.
This building also has two other "Super-attractions". The firs is easy enough to find and takes up almost an entire wing. It's the gym. Picture a huge inside gym, almost the size of the current school gym. Now add a running track suspended 30 feet in the air at the top of the gym and two sets of spiral stairs going up to it. Really cool. The runnins track is litterally hanging from the ceiling, suspended with thick steel "supports" and was still solid enough for us to venture up. It was actually very solid with no give or sway. still, we stayed near the wall, considering the building was entirely abandoned and decrepit.
How abandoned? Well, the floors were rotting away (wood floors everywhere). Paint was all falling off, many windows were broken and wooded over. Generally everything wood was rotting. structurally the building seemed fine, but everything trim was in some advanced stage of decay. Whoops... back to the second Super-attraction.
The Gym was fun and the runnign track awesome, but there was still another cool place to discover. In one corner of the gym, was a spiral staircase leading down. Curiosity found us going down that staircase and discovering the Pool. Empty, except for random object our previous explorers had decided to throw into it, but an inground pool in the basement. Wow... Although it was far from olympic-sized, still the residence must have been a pretty sweet place to live!
The very last particularly cool place that we visited was the attic. Concrete with a high ceiling and windows. Lots of ducts and fans and vents... and one of the only places where you can clearly see that part of the building is still in use because fresh new gyprock blocks that part off from the abandoned side to conserve heat I guess...
We actually had a few access point to the building, none of which are really currently feasible. At one end of the building, there is a single basketball net. Right next to that net is what used to be a stairway down into the building. In our time, the stairway led to a piece of plywood nailed over the door. Our first few ventures in were realised by simply prying the plywood off and putting it back when we left, simple and requiring only a hammer or small prybar. I think it was on the third attempt that the plywood actually broke, which completely prevented us from covering our entrance. still, we had explored most of the building already and didn't think it would be noticed for a while as long as we put it back half decently. Well, after three previous successful attempts, the nails seemed to have become too weak and we had to leave the board half-on.
It was noticed the next day of course and we figured that was it for us... Until we saw their solution. They simply replaced the board in the exact same manner. Of course, we decided to return, and this time brought along the same kind of nails just in case and paid special attention not to break the board. Campus security made constant partols, but were predictable and cover was close at hand with large bushes and cars around. We made many successful returns before they apparently noticed the many many many hammermarks on the board (or so we theorised) and decided to close our entrance for good. They filled the stairwell in with gravel as you'll find it today, our little addition to campus geography.
For a while, we just gave up and were satisfied with our intimate knowledge of what others would never see, but after a few months, the campus decided to give us yet another brief entrance to the building. They began work between that building and one of the currently ocupied one that involved digging a rather large hole. The location of the hole interested us because we happened to know it was right where there was a tunnel between the two buildings. Further exploration after dark paid off when we realised if we jumped in the 8 foot hole we could simply step into the tunnel from a hole they had made in the concrete and head for the old Residence. This was how we made our last several trips into the building, although it was only feasible for the three days before they patched the tunnel and filled in the hole.
I've heard rumors about current explorers who have found alternate entrances and don't doubt it. In many cases a board ona window is an easy way in, but I wouldn't recommend it. Exits from the building aren't really a problem, several of the doors still open from the inside with the push-bars. The front doors are locked (chain and padlock) but the old Oval doors work. Still, when they filmed the movie in the building (which was after we had investigated it) they spent a lot of time "decontaminating". I believe the problem was RADON, something to be aware of as a risk for current explorers.
An interesting thing to see that can be seen without entering the building right now is the large aircraft in pieces in the back section (used to be parking). I'm really not sure what kind it is, but it is a large commercial aricraft in threee pieces. The school has an aircraft mechanics course and thi must be the ultimate playground for them. It's neat to see and the fact it's cut up means you can see inside without even going past the fence around it.
Whew. Enough now. Let's just say that exploring these tunnels and buildings can be remarkable fun and makes for some great memories. BUT, make sure you know the risks and PLEASE LEAVE NO TRACE.