Post by Tony Anders on Apr 2, 2007 19:22:31 GMT -5
Sinks of the Roundstone Cave
Cave Trip 4-2-07
Spring break from school meant a nice long day of caving for my brothers and our kids. Getting up early on a spring break from school may not be the most desirable thing for a school kid to do. However, they got up and we got an early start.
Getting to the railroad by about 9:30 am we walked down to the crack we wanted to check. We were trying to figure out if this cave connects into the larger more traveled Sinks cave. We was unable to get into the area from the railroad side entrance, however we did locate a second crack on past the one we was exploring that we went in and it opened up a whole lot more than the first one we located. Exploring into the area we found several drops and caverns that definitely calls for another trip, maybe without the little guys so we can explorer deeper into the depths of this new area.
Proceeding on to the rear railroad entrance to the sinks cave we began our spring break adventure. While traversing into the darkness we came to the first creek running through the cave and sure enough the water was up high enough to keep up from exploring the other mapped area. This are is one we haven’t had the opportunity to get into. The water level wasn’t up where I have seen it in the past; however it was still high enough to keep us from entering the flood route as it is marked on the map.
Moving on through the cave we came to our first area we needed to use some rope to assist the little guys in there climb up the slick hill. We stopped after reaching the top for a break and to have some water and a snack. After the snack and water we continued on deeper into the cave. We had to duck walk for about thirty feet and then our first belly crawl of the trip. This belly crawl is somewhat tight for a big guy like me. I proceeded to go first or actually second right behind my brother so I could get set up for a photo opportunity to get the kids pictures as they crawled through the eighteen inch opening.
After taking some pictures and proceeding on down to the heart of the cave we ran across a group of visitors from Dayton Ohio. We talked for a few minutes and found out that this was their ‘maiden voyage’ on their own. Bidding them luck and safety we continued on our journey.
We missed the turn we was looking for to take the kids on the second and third belly crawl, but we didn’t mind, cause we found another area that was new to us. We found a ledge that had a small hands and knee crawl back for several feet before stopping at another cliff with a twenty foot drop. We looked around and seen some domes that we was unable to get to from the top of the ledge. Backtracking back out we found a passage down to the area below the ledge we had just left. Proceeding on down the passage we found a junction room with passages proceeding about five different directions.
Here we took about two hours checking the different passages. We found one room that overlooked the main cave. We had seen this area from the main cave several times, but wasn’t able to get to the area from below. I had almost concluded that the only way of getting up to the area was to rock climb the rock wall. I now know that my assumption would have been incorrect.
We climbed up and down for several minutes finding all kinds of new caverns at least new to the kids and us.
It was about now that our lights started loosing juice. So now it was time to get our packs and replenish our lights. We had dropped our packs due to the tight passages and when we needed to get fresh batteries we didn’t have any with us. I am glad that the back up LED headlight did there jobs. Even though we were only a few hundred feet from our packs, it was sort of an eerie feeling. We got back to our packs and replenished the kids hand lights and my hand light I was using. Continuing on looking for the crawling passage, having no idea we had missed it quite a ways back.
The next thing we know we had came to the sump. Knowing now that we had missed the turn we were trying to find we were now faced with another question. Are we to turn back and go find the area and explore it or go on out to the main entrance and come back another day. Feeling pretty tuckered from the six hours of crawling we decided to go on out and come back another day.
We got back to the truck about four something. We ate a few snacks and changed out of out mud soaked coveralls and traversed on home. I know my little one was tired.
Cave Trip 4-2-07
Spring break from school meant a nice long day of caving for my brothers and our kids. Getting up early on a spring break from school may not be the most desirable thing for a school kid to do. However, they got up and we got an early start.
Getting to the railroad by about 9:30 am we walked down to the crack we wanted to check. We were trying to figure out if this cave connects into the larger more traveled Sinks cave. We was unable to get into the area from the railroad side entrance, however we did locate a second crack on past the one we was exploring that we went in and it opened up a whole lot more than the first one we located. Exploring into the area we found several drops and caverns that definitely calls for another trip, maybe without the little guys so we can explorer deeper into the depths of this new area.
Proceeding on to the rear railroad entrance to the sinks cave we began our spring break adventure. While traversing into the darkness we came to the first creek running through the cave and sure enough the water was up high enough to keep up from exploring the other mapped area. This are is one we haven’t had the opportunity to get into. The water level wasn’t up where I have seen it in the past; however it was still high enough to keep us from entering the flood route as it is marked on the map.
Moving on through the cave we came to our first area we needed to use some rope to assist the little guys in there climb up the slick hill. We stopped after reaching the top for a break and to have some water and a snack. After the snack and water we continued on deeper into the cave. We had to duck walk for about thirty feet and then our first belly crawl of the trip. This belly crawl is somewhat tight for a big guy like me. I proceeded to go first or actually second right behind my brother so I could get set up for a photo opportunity to get the kids pictures as they crawled through the eighteen inch opening.
After taking some pictures and proceeding on down to the heart of the cave we ran across a group of visitors from Dayton Ohio. We talked for a few minutes and found out that this was their ‘maiden voyage’ on their own. Bidding them luck and safety we continued on our journey.
We missed the turn we was looking for to take the kids on the second and third belly crawl, but we didn’t mind, cause we found another area that was new to us. We found a ledge that had a small hands and knee crawl back for several feet before stopping at another cliff with a twenty foot drop. We looked around and seen some domes that we was unable to get to from the top of the ledge. Backtracking back out we found a passage down to the area below the ledge we had just left. Proceeding on down the passage we found a junction room with passages proceeding about five different directions.
Here we took about two hours checking the different passages. We found one room that overlooked the main cave. We had seen this area from the main cave several times, but wasn’t able to get to the area from below. I had almost concluded that the only way of getting up to the area was to rock climb the rock wall. I now know that my assumption would have been incorrect.
We climbed up and down for several minutes finding all kinds of new caverns at least new to the kids and us.
It was about now that our lights started loosing juice. So now it was time to get our packs and replenish our lights. We had dropped our packs due to the tight passages and when we needed to get fresh batteries we didn’t have any with us. I am glad that the back up LED headlight did there jobs. Even though we were only a few hundred feet from our packs, it was sort of an eerie feeling. We got back to our packs and replenished the kids hand lights and my hand light I was using. Continuing on looking for the crawling passage, having no idea we had missed it quite a ways back.
The next thing we know we had came to the sump. Knowing now that we had missed the turn we were trying to find we were now faced with another question. Are we to turn back and go find the area and explore it or go on out to the main entrance and come back another day. Feeling pretty tuckered from the six hours of crawling we decided to go on out and come back another day.
We got back to the truck about four something. We ate a few snacks and changed out of out mud soaked coveralls and traversed on home. I know my little one was tired.
