The old Roach Brook tunnel is one hundred and twelve years old. Built in 1912 and buried under a mountain of dirt, it's required none of the ongoing maintenance of most train bridges. In the decades since Dominion Atlantic Railway abandoned their line in 1990, it's lingered mostly unchanged. The walls are scarred and scratched from countless branches and deadfall rushed through this way in major downpours, jammed up now and then before breaking loose to saltwater Smith's Cove. It's a ghostly place to be in freeze-up, ice slowly working in on the edges, leaving me just enough dry ground to inch along. Every sound is intensely amplified. The cold is pure, unadulterated by wind chill. When I was here in autumn, the walls still carried a tinge of green from what grows in damp places. Now, I'm feeling the bite of absolute grey.
December 23, 2024
Smith's Cove, Nova Scotia
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