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BUSS: Airport Mall Drain
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Hazard Level: 2 | Main Tunnel Clearance: 5'6"? | Tidal Coverage: No | Known # of Tunnels: 4 |
| Hazards: Head Injury; Encounters; Falling | |||
| Construction Materials: Steel reinforced wood plastered with cement??? thats what it looks like. | |||
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The APM Drain, running under the Airport Mall, consists of a series
of tunnels which serve to carry a section of a small stream running
from the Bangor International Airport to the Kenduskeag Stream. APM
is a fairly good drain for beginers but still has a lot to offer for
those who are more experienced with drain exploration. APM Drain
is said to have been the first drain that the founder of BUSS found
and explored many years ago. From the upstream entrance... APM Drain starts as two large tunnels, about eight feet square, running parallel to each other. A short distance in the two tunnels converge into three smaller tunnels which also all run parallel. A ways in they turn to the left 45 degrees, continue in a strait line for a while, then make a 45 degree turn to the right, after that they go strait for a bit further and the tunnels end on the other side of the mall. At two points along the length of the tunnels there are places where one can go into one of the other tunnels by climbing a short ladder over a wall and down the other side. It can be hard to spot these areas if not looking for them. The Access point from the center tunnel to the left tunnel (if walking down stream) has a crawlable side tunnel (corregated steel pipe) that runs just below the parking lot, 90 degrees from the other tunnels. Along the length of this side tunnel there are several metal grates that can be fun to sit under and watch the underside of cars as they drive overhead. There are also four tunnels with very nice echos, one on either side at each end of the drain. During the warmer months the APM Drain is inhabited by LOTS of spiders which seem to be of two distinct types. There are large, fat bodied, dark brownish spiders which build webs; and light colored, thin bodied (but still fairly large) sort of scary looking spiders which seem to live mostly on the ceiling. Water in the APM Drain is much deeper during the spring, and may be iced over all the way through in the winter |
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| A Roughly Drawn MAP | Arial Photograph with the drain mapped in red. | ||
| Photo of the upstream entrance. |
 This way to main index. | ||
| Photo of the echo tunnel on the left wall, and the area where the ceiling lowers and the three smaller ones start. | |||
| Photo taken while looking down one of the "echo tunnels". Kind of a trippy op-art effect... | |||
| Photo of the typical construction of the main tunnels of APM Drain. | |||
| Photo of one of the ceiling dwelling spiders and a small stelagtite. | |||
| Photo of the downstream entrance. | |||
