Like most of my EPIC & EXTREME Adventures this was no easy feat to MUSH! You see it's not only long again more than a half of mile with only one way in and one way out but it's also very dark in there I mean like the inside of a cow! BUT with that all being noted it's really really narrow with a kind of 2x4 rickety rail being the only thing keeping you from falling in a drop-off into the old canal that is still full of water! Now that all sounds a bit intimidating for a person to traverse the tunnel themselves BUT now consider my situation and add a pack of sled dogs tethered to their Dog Sled On Wheels.
So if you're not familiar with how I run my dogs they are sometimes on the side of my Dog sleds On Wheels especially back in the day as I use to run them a lot in that configuration. So the first attempt at mushing the Paw Paw Tunnel (REMEMBER I DO MY ADVENTURES WITH A SUPPORT CREW TO ASSIST AND OH DID I NEED THEM HERE) so at this time I had 2 Dog Sleds On Wheels and we had both with us and a team of 4 people. I was not familiar with the tunnel so I didn't realize how narrow it was and the drop-off into the canal being so close and unprotected by this measly railing. Needless to say my dogs weren't having any of it. The inside dog's that would be next to the wall though being tight were fine with that, it's the dogs on the railing side that even in the darkness as dogs have some night-vision so they could see the drop-off to the canal and how exposed they were as the railing didn’t even cover their height! So I took those two dogs off the Dog Sled On Wheels I was driving and put them on my other Dog Sled On Wheels and one of my assistants drove that one.
The dogs though still being tight against the tunnel wall (they are confident of tight spaces as I train them for that) did great. We went back and forth in the tunnel as we had no choice our truck was at the tunnel parking lot. So we had to switch the dogs to the other side as we came back to keep them all on the side against the tunnel wall. A ton of work for all of us but such a great bonding moment with my dogs and i as well as a further training real situation opportunity.
This was beyond EPIC and a lifelong memory, Now, fast forward years later we went back to the tunnel actually this time to run the dogs but also do some Ghost Hunting & Paranormal Investigations. You see there are many tales out there that the Tunnel is haunted a lot of it to do with it's tumultuous time being built and also when it was operating.
Amongst other things supposedly there were frequent altercations and violence among immigrant laborers of different ethnicities. Also there was sometimes fights between the boatmen using the canal tunnel over right of way. So there is plenty who believe there is hauntings and spirits roaming the tunnel so I was so interested and had to learn more. So we took the dogs and now they were a bot older and more mature and seasoned again more training under their paws and they were now great with the close proximity of the canal and railing so there was no need to take only 2 at a time on my bike all 4 went right through undeterred! Please EXPLORE my page here as I have more info and links to our paranormal investigations here at The PAW PAW TUNNEL!