no toad sexing in Davis

'no toad sexing' in Davis

by DanMasiel

One fine evening, Larry and I were bored, broke and didn't want to do our homework. We decided it would be 
interesting to attempt to penetrate the mysterious depths of the buildings on campus. Before class that day I
noticed an unlocked ventilation grate that seemed to lead to a tunnel. We set out from the Malcom dormitory
and headed towards Olson Hall. The unlocked grate outside seemed to lead to noting but a dark hole, so we
opted to explore the interior of the building instead.

Once inside we walked downstairs to the basement. We soon discovered a door that hadn't been closed completely.
Inside was a dimly lit concrete room full of pipes, wires, and boxes. At first the room didn't appear to be
that large, but after further inspection we discovered the entrance to a long tunnel at the back of the room.
We had set out, bored and not really expecting to find anything interesting. The sight of what appeared to be
a 100 meter long tunnel left us dumbfounded. The tunnel was approximately a meter wide and three meters tall
with pipes running along the ceiling. It was well lit and we immediately walked through it. On the other side
was a huge room. Half of the room was filled with boxes of old student records enclosed by a huge wire cage.
We wandered around the room for a while and found an elevator.

We got into the elevator and noticed that there were 9 floors in the building. Upon realizing that we were
in the basement of Sproul Hall, we were overcome with a feeling of immense satisfaction and a growing sense
that nothing could stop us on this adventure. Larry pressed the 9 button and we soon found ourselves in a
hallway full of offices. We wandered around a looked out the windows. We then entered the stairwell, and
before us stood something we could not refuse. A small metal staircase stretched out over the spiraling
stairwell and ended at a hatch to the roof. There appeared to be a lock hanging from the handle of the
hatch, but I decided to check it anyway. To my amazement the lock was not closed and the hatch was easily
opened.

Larry and I climbed out the hatch and emerged near a bunch of communications equipment on roof. The view
was incredible. Essentially all of Davis was laid out before us. After enjoying the view for a while we
climbed back through the hatch and walked back to the elevator. We pressed the basement button but
received no response from the machine. Thinking we had accomplished quite enough for one night, we took
the elevator to the bottom floor and walked victoriously back to the dorms.

2004-12-09 17:47:24   Awesome story. I've been through the Sproul-Olson underground passage, but I have yet to climb to the roof. - MikeIvanov

2004-12-09 22:10:54   Awesome, I too have explored the tunnels under sproul — though I'm prepared to deny that upon questioning by disciplinary authorities (lets apply the disclaimer in the emosnail userinfo to this). You really lucked out with all the doors unlocked. There also is a tunnel between Kerr and Wellman which I've seen on floor schematics but never explored. - KrisFricke

2004-12-09 23:21:41   Kris: The tunnel between Kerr and Wellman is far less exciting, simply a passage between the basements. It is usually locked from the Wellman side, but you can always get from Kerr to Wellman. Professors use this tunnel all the time in the rainy season. - BrentLaabs

2004-12-09 23:46:13   I wish I had a tunnel to campus to use when it rained - KrisFricke

2004-12-10 02:17:30   I hear that the tunnel from Kerr to Wellman is useful if you want to sneak into Wellman late at night to watch DVD's on the big screen with auditorium seating. Of course, this is only good if you can get into Kerr. - ZachSaul

2004-12-10 07:36:27   And what's even better is, you could sneak into wellman late at night and play Halo 2 on the projection screens with several x-boxes networked on the campus LAN - DanMasiel

2006-02-24 19:09:10   I haven't seen the tunnel, but on my Birthday 2004, the same day Gary Snyder was retiring, I had a similar adventure on the roof of Sproul. It is UCDs own "Stairway to Heaven" — —EricHolmes

2006-05-18 23:10:17   Anyone know if this is still possible? I'm pretty sure this trick doesn't work anymore, but when i was a freshman, Kerr had a trick to get in after hours. If you pressed the handicap button on the east entrance, the door didn't open, but it would unlock long enough to pull the door opened and walk in. If this still worked as well as always having the tunnel entrance opened from the kerr side, that'd be a good way to get into wellman after hours. —CarlosBarahona

2006-05-19 18:24:24   wait where does the "no toad sexing" come in? —KrisFricke

2006-07-29 17:35:10   No Toad Sexing: http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1078092 —PenguiN42

2006-11-04 16:20:29   Having finally made it in to it last night, I can say that what struck me the most was how hot it is down there. —JosephBleckman

2008-06-17 15:25:33   Toad sexing is also forbidden by commandment at MIT: http://hacks.mit.edu/by_year/1992/cathedral_7/father_tool_description.html —IDoNotExist

2010-08-03 01:04:16   I discovered the Kerr/Wellman tunnel during my first year as an undergraduate, and later, as a math grad student, discovered to my delight that the key to the front door of Kerr also opened the door of said tunnel. —BarnabasTruman