Friday morning of OTR, Aaron Bird, Bob Kirk, and I - Dave Riggs - headed South down the stomach-turning US219 to Lewisburg, to push the remaining leads in Bobcat Blowhole, one of several significant caves in the Raders Valley area. Aaron and Bob gave me a quick tour of Raders Valley, showing me the entrance to Zicafoose Blowhole and several other interesting geologic features.
We entered Bobcat Blowhole around noon, squeezing into and down the dug entrance slot, then made a right-hand turn to intersect a stream passage - which was luckily dry on this day. This stream passage is occasionally of stooping height, but is mainly belly crawl for 1200 grueling feet.
At the end of the stream crawl, the cave suddenly opens up into a very large fault chamber. The ceiling follows the fault, with slickenslides and shattered rock everywhere. We rappelled down a rigged 25 foot drop, climbed up a small hillside of limestone fragments, then crossed a traverse line to another rappel of about 15 feet. We continued down more fractured rock to a lower level stream passage, where our goal was.
Aaron and Bob put on wetsuits, but I did not bring mine. Luckily, the water was so low that I didn't need it at all. We climbed down to the stream and headed in the downstream direction, crawling on low sand banks. Aaron investigated a small infeeder on the left, which was too tight after 75 feet or so. We reached a huge mountain of breakdown which blocks the downstream passage - Bob and Aaron poked around at the lower levels, while I climbed up mud banks at least 40 feet high looking for a way through. I was able to squeeze well into the breakdown and was sure I'd found the way forward... until I peered through a crack and saw Bob and Aaron peering back; I'd been turned around completely in the breakdown. Unable to find a way through the terminal breakdown, we headed back upstream.
We noted a high void on the left as we traveled upstream, located about 10 feet from the floor. I climbed up the mud bank and dug at it, trying my hardest to squeeze into it. Bob and Aaron pushed on my feet, I removed my helmet, and managed to snake my way up into it with a bit of effort. I explored a mud-bank floored chamber paralleling the stream passage, poked around up into some sketchy breakdown, and determined that the chamber didn't go. We headed back. While Aaron and Bob changed out of their dry wetsuits, I followed the stream passage upstream, climbed up and crawled through a passage to check out Columbia Canyon, and impressive canyon filled with large breakdown blocks.
We climbed up the mountain of breakdown, ascended the two drops, and started out the main stream crawl. Aaron and I stopped to pick up some former camp supplies which had been left in the passage, but they were too cumbersome to haul out without a proper bag for them. After what seemed like an endless crawl, we emerged on the surface at around 5pm. We made a quick stop to check out Deel's Hole, a very impressive, large collapse doline and cave, then headed back to OTR after an enjoyable trip.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Sunday, August 19, 2007
[trip] Depths Of Bradshaw Run
This Sunday, I met up with Llew and Justin Williams, and Bob Griffith for a tourist trip into Bradshaw Run Cave, on the Elk River, Randolph County, WV. I camped solo at Oildrum Falls after surveying in Tucker County the previous day. Llew and Justin arrived around 10am and rolled me out of my hammock. I brewed some coffee and made breakfast, gathered up my wet, muddy cave gear (I'd set it out to dry, but it was hopeless), and Bob Griffith showed up. We drove to the cave, geared up, and were at the entrance by around noon.
Luckily the cave entrance was much less wet than it had been on our previous visit. I rigged the 35 foot entrance drop and rappelled down, the maiden in-cave drop on my new bobbin descender, which did a pretty good job.
Once everyone was down, we followed the main passage to big, walking, phreatic tube passage. I took a quick jog down the side passage on the right, which I believe curves back underneath the main passage. At the fault room, we sung harmonies with ourselves, in what must be one of the best echo chambers of any cave. We finally climbed down to the top of the 50 foot pit which leads to the lower levels. Bob took a frightening 7 foot fall climbing down, but bounced right back up without injury.
I rigged to a giant boulder and rappelled over the undercut, muddy lip to a free drop and down to the middle level. After everyone rappelled down, we discovered that this muddy middle level was completely plugged. Using my cave pack for a rope pad, Llew, Justin, and I rappelled down the remaining 15 feet to the bottom level. Bob stayed up at the middle level while we checked out what we expected to be a short passage leading immediately to the sump.
This lowest level is extremely, extremely muddy! Apparently, during high floods, the sump backs up and floodwater deposits large amounts of silt and mud here. We headed on for a few hundred feet, climbed down two very large mud dunes and into HUGE 50 foot tall muddy trunk passage at the very lowest level of the cave. There were no footprints down here, making us wonder just how often this level floods. We went on for a good way, and spent probably 30 - 40 minutes heading on in the direction of the sump, but finally decided that we'd been gone much longer than we'd expected and headed back. After looking at the cave map at home, I see that we were only 200 feet from the terminal sump.
Cold and slimed with mud, everyone was anxious to climb back up to the upper level. Everyone had a difficult time getting over the muddy, severely undercut lip at the top. In hindsight, we should have tossed a pigtail over the lip to use as a foot hold. I was negligent in not climbing up first, but everyone made it up and out without serious issue, though it took us all quite a while.
The trip out was uneventful and quick. The entrance drop seemed to have a bit more water than on the way in, but that could have simply been because we spent more time in it while climbing than ascending. I ascended out last and started de-rigging the rope, only to realize that I'd forgotten my cave pack down at the bottom! Arrgh!! I quickly re-rigged the rope, without rope pads (for shame!), and bounced the pit to retrieve it. We finally made it to the surface just as a bit of drizzling rain was falling, after 6 full hours underground. We packed up and headed to Mama's Kitchen in Elkins for dinner, after an enjoyable trip in Bradshaw Run.
Luckily the cave entrance was much less wet than it had been on our previous visit. I rigged the 35 foot entrance drop and rappelled down, the maiden in-cave drop on my new bobbin descender, which did a pretty good job.
Once everyone was down, we followed the main passage to big, walking, phreatic tube passage. I took a quick jog down the side passage on the right, which I believe curves back underneath the main passage. At the fault room, we sung harmonies with ourselves, in what must be one of the best echo chambers of any cave. We finally climbed down to the top of the 50 foot pit which leads to the lower levels. Bob took a frightening 7 foot fall climbing down, but bounced right back up without injury.
I rigged to a giant boulder and rappelled over the undercut, muddy lip to a free drop and down to the middle level. After everyone rappelled down, we discovered that this muddy middle level was completely plugged. Using my cave pack for a rope pad, Llew, Justin, and I rappelled down the remaining 15 feet to the bottom level. Bob stayed up at the middle level while we checked out what we expected to be a short passage leading immediately to the sump.
This lowest level is extremely, extremely muddy! Apparently, during high floods, the sump backs up and floodwater deposits large amounts of silt and mud here. We headed on for a few hundred feet, climbed down two very large mud dunes and into HUGE 50 foot tall muddy trunk passage at the very lowest level of the cave. There were no footprints down here, making us wonder just how often this level floods. We went on for a good way, and spent probably 30 - 40 minutes heading on in the direction of the sump, but finally decided that we'd been gone much longer than we'd expected and headed back. After looking at the cave map at home, I see that we were only 200 feet from the terminal sump.
Cold and slimed with mud, everyone was anxious to climb back up to the upper level. Everyone had a difficult time getting over the muddy, severely undercut lip at the top. In hindsight, we should have tossed a pigtail over the lip to use as a foot hold. I was negligent in not climbing up first, but everyone made it up and out without serious issue, though it took us all quite a while.
The trip out was uneventful and quick. The entrance drop seemed to have a bit more water than on the way in, but that could have simply been because we spent more time in it while climbing than ascending. I ascended out last and started de-rigging the rope, only to realize that I'd forgotten my cave pack down at the bottom! Arrgh!! I quickly re-rigged the rope, without rope pads (for shame!), and bounced the pit to retrieve it. We finally made it to the surface just as a bit of drizzling rain was falling, after 6 full hours underground. We packed up and headed to Mama's Kitchen in Elkins for dinner, after an enjoyable trip in Bradshaw Run.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
[trip] Bennett Cave Survey Part 4
We thought that this weekend would be the final trip into Tucker County's Bennett Cave, but the cave refused to let us finish it up. The TCSS met up Saturday morning at the Tucker Country Inn in Parsons and headed to the cave to gear up. Kevin and Justin K. met us in the morning but didn't go underground due to a skateboard-induced injury (Justin was skating, not Kevin).
Doug McCarty, Josh Flaugher, and Cullen Hencke started surveying into the high lead in the downclimb from the upper to lower level. Everyone thought that this small lead would pinch out within a few tens of feet, but they surveyed over 200 feet and finding the inside of the stream resurgence that we found on the surface. They named the room with sunlight shining in from above the "Spider Room"... that's one that I'm glad to have not surveyed myself. Doug was able to reach his hand completely outside the cave from here.
Brian Masney, John Harman, and myself (Dave Riggs) tried to finish the survey above the main waterfall. John scaled the waterfall first, getting soaked in the process, and put a tarp in place to try and cut down on the spray. While the tarp helped, we all still got plenty wet on the climb. We climbed up to the next level, where we found a large lead to the right and a low lead to the left.
The left lead went to a stair-stepped dome/canyon series consisting of two waterfall climbs, and ending in surface valley breakdown. We began to survey and realized that we did not have a pencil - oops! While Brian descended to go beg the other survey team for a pencil, John and I scooped the left passage.
A quick climb up and back down led to another waterfall climb on the right which ended in surface valley breakdown. To the left, we followed a canyon downstream, checking out a dome lead on the way, then I followed a low crawl which curved back around and turned out to be the smallest of the three waterfalls in the main waterfall room. John followed a low tube to the right which popped him out at the top of the Trash Dome, under and behind the main waterfall. The tight, water-carved passage also did a serious number on his cave suit.
Brian finally returned with a pencil, and we began to survey the right lead, then started on the left lead. We surveyed the upstream waterfall climb and the dome side lead, where I hammered my way into about 20 feet of miserable, muddy virgin passage. Cold, wet, and shivering, we decided to start tying our survey in to the rest of the cave before we were forced to leave it hanging. We did a 20 foot plumb shot down to the middle level, and surveyed to the main waterfall just as the second team showed up to find us. We shot down the main waterfall and tied into a known station down at base level, packed up, and left the cave.
Bennett Cave plan lineplot, as of August 2007.
Bennett Cave profile lineplot, rotated to show hypothesized fault plane. The limestone is bedded nearly horizontally.
While we racked up well over 400 feet of survey, the cave will still require at least one more good survey trip to complete. That's fine with me, as I've still got to do the map! We changed clothes after a good 7 hour trip and headed to CJ's for pizza. Afterwards, I drove to Oildrum Falls to camp for the night and head into Bradshaw Run Cave the next day.
Bennett Cave now stands at over 1800 feet long, 96 feet deep - 2nd deepest and 15th longest cave in Tucker County (exact numbers pending delivery of survey data to cartographer).
Bennett Cave is CLOSED by the landowner, and permission has been granted to the TCSS only to survey the cave.
Doug McCarty, Josh Flaugher, and Cullen Hencke started surveying into the high lead in the downclimb from the upper to lower level. Everyone thought that this small lead would pinch out within a few tens of feet, but they surveyed over 200 feet and finding the inside of the stream resurgence that we found on the surface. They named the room with sunlight shining in from above the "Spider Room"... that's one that I'm glad to have not surveyed myself. Doug was able to reach his hand completely outside the cave from here.
Brian Masney, John Harman, and myself (Dave Riggs) tried to finish the survey above the main waterfall. John scaled the waterfall first, getting soaked in the process, and put a tarp in place to try and cut down on the spray. While the tarp helped, we all still got plenty wet on the climb. We climbed up to the next level, where we found a large lead to the right and a low lead to the left.
The left lead went to a stair-stepped dome/canyon series consisting of two waterfall climbs, and ending in surface valley breakdown. We began to survey and realized that we did not have a pencil - oops! While Brian descended to go beg the other survey team for a pencil, John and I scooped the left passage.
A quick climb up and back down led to another waterfall climb on the right which ended in surface valley breakdown. To the left, we followed a canyon downstream, checking out a dome lead on the way, then I followed a low crawl which curved back around and turned out to be the smallest of the three waterfalls in the main waterfall room. John followed a low tube to the right which popped him out at the top of the Trash Dome, under and behind the main waterfall. The tight, water-carved passage also did a serious number on his cave suit.
Brian finally returned with a pencil, and we began to survey the right lead, then started on the left lead. We surveyed the upstream waterfall climb and the dome side lead, where I hammered my way into about 20 feet of miserable, muddy virgin passage. Cold, wet, and shivering, we decided to start tying our survey in to the rest of the cave before we were forced to leave it hanging. We did a 20 foot plumb shot down to the middle level, and surveyed to the main waterfall just as the second team showed up to find us. We shot down the main waterfall and tied into a known station down at base level, packed up, and left the cave.
Bennett Cave plan lineplot, as of August 2007.
Bennett Cave profile lineplot, rotated to show hypothesized fault plane. The limestone is bedded nearly horizontally.
While we racked up well over 400 feet of survey, the cave will still require at least one more good survey trip to complete. That's fine with me, as I've still got to do the map! We changed clothes after a good 7 hour trip and headed to CJ's for pizza. Afterwards, I drove to Oildrum Falls to camp for the night and head into Bradshaw Run Cave the next day.
Bennett Cave now stands at over 1800 feet long, 96 feet deep - 2nd deepest and 15th longest cave in Tucker County (exact numbers pending delivery of survey data to cartographer).
Bennett Cave is CLOSED by the landowner, and permission has been granted to the TCSS only to survey the cave.
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
[trip] Hellhole "Holy Shit, Batman!" Dig
Our assignment this week was to continue the survey at SEXy8, where the previous team had been "flushed out" by rapidly-rising water in the passage, ending their survey. I came prepared with lineplots and survey notes, and was ready for a wet survey. We visited the GVKS field house for about 45 minutes, but stayed at John Harman's house in Germany Valley, meeting up with the rest of the crew at Seneca Caverns at 9am. Ralph Hartley, the only scheduled member of our team who had actually been to the SEXy survey, was a no-show, so we prepared for the backup plan: digging toward plugged borehole at the end of the HSB survey.
Our team - myself (Dave Riggs), John Harman, and Cullen Hencke - entered the cave intermixed with the EAS19 survey team (Ed Devine, Steven Collins, Josh Flaugher), and were in cave by 12:00 noon. With Steve's help, we made an attempt to locate the SEXy survey, but couldn't find the correct lead. If nothing else, this at least provided a good running joke about "finding the SEXy" for the rest of the day. We made good time back to the 100 foot room, made the climb up into the Southwest Express and ditched most of our vertical gear (we kept our harnesses and cowstails for a traverse in HSB).
We dropped down into the passage on the lefthand side and I had my first chance to finally see this passage - "Holy Shit, Batman!" The HSB passage starts out as a beautiful, round phreatic tube covered in gypsum and calcite formations. It zigs and zags around a corner to a large domepit with a traverse line around the side. A rope is rigged here which I believe leads one down towards Silent Stream. From here, there are even more formations covering the walls, and the floors are entirely made up of dry rimstone dams several inches deep. We climbed up two large flowstone waterfalls, passed the turnoff to the Batman Domes, went under some more spectacular formations, and arrived at our destination.
The 20 foot wide, 8 foot tall passage ends very abruptly in a vertical clay plug. From our side of the plug (the downstream side, according to scallops), there is no indication whatsoever as to what caused this sediment load to be dropped here. We found an 8 foot deep tunnel which a previous digging party had started, of dimensions about 4 foot tall and 2 foot wide. We continued this digging effort and attempted to keep the dimensions the same.
The three of us rotated in shifts, one man digging, one man unloading our spoil sled, one man resting. We dug continuously until almost 01:00, the character of the clay, the height of the ceiling, the non-existent airflow all were relatively unchanging. It was a pleasure to dig in such consistent clay, moist but not sloppy wet, with no rock to deal with, and in "large" passage at a normal angle. The horizontal "mine shaft" now extends straight back into the clay plug for 25 feet, but the plug remains just as mysterious as when we found it. The dig could continue for another 6 inches or it could continue for another 600 feet. Out of water and food, and tired from the constant digging, we gave up on our hopes of breaking into the borehole that we knew was waiting for us on the other side.
The trip out was uneventful, and we made fairly good time, only getting tripped up briefly while trying to find the Corkscrew on the way out. From Mt. Suribachi, there were a tremendous number of very active, curious bats checking us out. We exited the cave at around 04:00, after the EAS team and (well) before the Silent Stream team. Underground 14 hours, dug 15 - 20 feet, surveyed zero feet.
Our team - myself (Dave Riggs), John Harman, and Cullen Hencke - entered the cave intermixed with the EAS19 survey team (Ed Devine, Steven Collins, Josh Flaugher), and were in cave by 12:00 noon. With Steve's help, we made an attempt to locate the SEXy survey, but couldn't find the correct lead. If nothing else, this at least provided a good running joke about "finding the SEXy" for the rest of the day. We made good time back to the 100 foot room, made the climb up into the Southwest Express and ditched most of our vertical gear (we kept our harnesses and cowstails for a traverse in HSB).
We dropped down into the passage on the lefthand side and I had my first chance to finally see this passage - "Holy Shit, Batman!" The HSB passage starts out as a beautiful, round phreatic tube covered in gypsum and calcite formations. It zigs and zags around a corner to a large domepit with a traverse line around the side. A rope is rigged here which I believe leads one down towards Silent Stream. From here, there are even more formations covering the walls, and the floors are entirely made up of dry rimstone dams several inches deep. We climbed up two large flowstone waterfalls, passed the turnoff to the Batman Domes, went under some more spectacular formations, and arrived at our destination.
The 20 foot wide, 8 foot tall passage ends very abruptly in a vertical clay plug. From our side of the plug (the downstream side, according to scallops), there is no indication whatsoever as to what caused this sediment load to be dropped here. We found an 8 foot deep tunnel which a previous digging party had started, of dimensions about 4 foot tall and 2 foot wide. We continued this digging effort and attempted to keep the dimensions the same.
The three of us rotated in shifts, one man digging, one man unloading our spoil sled, one man resting. We dug continuously until almost 01:00, the character of the clay, the height of the ceiling, the non-existent airflow all were relatively unchanging. It was a pleasure to dig in such consistent clay, moist but not sloppy wet, with no rock to deal with, and in "large" passage at a normal angle. The horizontal "mine shaft" now extends straight back into the clay plug for 25 feet, but the plug remains just as mysterious as when we found it. The dig could continue for another 6 inches or it could continue for another 600 feet. Out of water and food, and tired from the constant digging, we gave up on our hopes of breaking into the borehole that we knew was waiting for us on the other side.
The trip out was uneventful, and we made fairly good time, only getting tripped up briefly while trying to find the Corkscrew on the way out. From Mt. Suribachi, there were a tremendous number of very active, curious bats checking us out. We exited the cave at around 04:00, after the EAS team and (well) before the Silent Stream team. Underground 14 hours, dug 15 - 20 feet, surveyed zero feet.
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