Post by Tony Anders on Mar 12, 2008 7:05:26 GMT -5
Hey all,
My brothers and I took a cave trip Friday in the rain. Yea I know it probably wasn't the brightest idea, but we went. When we got there we didn't really have a dry place to dress, so we was already somewhat cold and wet before ever getting to the cave.
I guess if anyone seen us they probably thought we lost our minds. Especially if they looked at the main entrance with waste high water roaring inside the cave.
When we arrived at the entrance which has 4 different ways to go in; the water was up and really running wild. We thought, well maybe this isn't a good idea, but when we climbed up to the dry entrance we knew we could continue on with our adventure.
The plan was to traverse back into the cave area about 1/4 mile or so and find the little mouses hole and climb up and then look for a area marked up and out on the map. We had been there before but wasn't able to push this area due to having the kids with us and not knowing how difficult this passage could be.
When we made our way back past the dry entrance to the main passage we knew without a doubt the cave had some major water running in it. The whole right side of the cave was a river. The part that we had crawled for thousands of feet on our bellies just the summer before was now almost up to the roof with teeth busting cold water.
Traversing on on the high side of the cave we came to a ledge and began our slippery walk around the rivers edge. The slick mucky mud mad a slow traverse. I know now what is feels like to 'take one step and slide back 2'. We made it on to more solid land again and continued on .
Around the next bend we found the water again more than likely knee high and moving so fast we was afraid to attempt a crossing. there was normally big log there that we cross the calf deep water on, but it appeared it could have been moved several feet further down the passage. The water was up to the top log. We might have been able to walk the log but with our goose greased mud soaked boots we decided we would probably end up taking a dip in the ice cold underground river so we decided to stop and come back out.
Something inside me told me 'when in doubt, get the heck out' so we turn started making our way back out. We stopped for water and I took the opportunity to grab a snack, since I hadn't ate any breakfast I was getting a little shaky. We was sitting there looking at the water run and that is when we heard a big rumble. That was the closest sound to thunder I have ever heard inside a cave. We listened again and the thump like sound rumbled through the darkness again, this time sounding louder. It sounded almost like a rock sounds when you in a large cavern and may stand on the side of the rock and it moves then when you step off the rock it falls and makes a big echo.
I was wondering the whole time is that the water moving some of these vehicle sized rocks or could it be water rushing through the sump in the caverns making this wicked noise.
Anyway when it made our break a little shorter than we had planned so we packed up and headed on back towards the twilight area.
When had gotten back to the flooded area we stopped and looked around at how high the water was there. I was amazed at how high the water was and how much actually moves through this cave from the small creek outside.
We made out way on back into the dry side entrance and seen an area that we decided to go check that was off the right as we made our way back out. This area wasn't on the map we had and that fueled the fire even more for us to go check it out. A few tight spots and then there we found a split. First to the left as far as we could go until we started to getting tight again. We could hear water dripping big time behind the walls to our right. We just knew this opened up to something. We decided to come back out and check the right fork and see if it we could get back around to the back side where we was.
Sure enough we found several dome like areas there with water falling from the ceiling. This was bound to be what was making the noise we found from the other area. We pushed our way back deeper and deeper until we can to a lot of breakdown. This is where we turned and decided we would come back in here soon and map this new passage and see if we can add it to the map we have in our possession.
If our bearing was right, the crawl may end up really close to another area we had pushed in the summer last year that was marked on the map as a terminal crawl. Who knows in another couple of hundred thousand years these passages may connect as well.
Any way, what was thought a foiled trip turned out to be an awesome new adventure.
We had made the remark in the cave, 'A bad day of caving is better than the best day of work one could ever have'
Hope you enjoyed my little write up. Hope there isn't too many typos or errors.
See ya around in the underground.
My brothers and I took a cave trip Friday in the rain. Yea I know it probably wasn't the brightest idea, but we went. When we got there we didn't really have a dry place to dress, so we was already somewhat cold and wet before ever getting to the cave.
I guess if anyone seen us they probably thought we lost our minds. Especially if they looked at the main entrance with waste high water roaring inside the cave.
When we arrived at the entrance which has 4 different ways to go in; the water was up and really running wild. We thought, well maybe this isn't a good idea, but when we climbed up to the dry entrance we knew we could continue on with our adventure.
The plan was to traverse back into the cave area about 1/4 mile or so and find the little mouses hole and climb up and then look for a area marked up and out on the map. We had been there before but wasn't able to push this area due to having the kids with us and not knowing how difficult this passage could be.
When we made our way back past the dry entrance to the main passage we knew without a doubt the cave had some major water running in it. The whole right side of the cave was a river. The part that we had crawled for thousands of feet on our bellies just the summer before was now almost up to the roof with teeth busting cold water.
Traversing on on the high side of the cave we came to a ledge and began our slippery walk around the rivers edge. The slick mucky mud mad a slow traverse. I know now what is feels like to 'take one step and slide back 2'. We made it on to more solid land again and continued on .
Around the next bend we found the water again more than likely knee high and moving so fast we was afraid to attempt a crossing. there was normally big log there that we cross the calf deep water on, but it appeared it could have been moved several feet further down the passage. The water was up to the top log. We might have been able to walk the log but with our goose greased mud soaked boots we decided we would probably end up taking a dip in the ice cold underground river so we decided to stop and come back out.
Something inside me told me 'when in doubt, get the heck out' so we turn started making our way back out. We stopped for water and I took the opportunity to grab a snack, since I hadn't ate any breakfast I was getting a little shaky. We was sitting there looking at the water run and that is when we heard a big rumble. That was the closest sound to thunder I have ever heard inside a cave. We listened again and the thump like sound rumbled through the darkness again, this time sounding louder. It sounded almost like a rock sounds when you in a large cavern and may stand on the side of the rock and it moves then when you step off the rock it falls and makes a big echo.
I was wondering the whole time is that the water moving some of these vehicle sized rocks or could it be water rushing through the sump in the caverns making this wicked noise.
Anyway when it made our break a little shorter than we had planned so we packed up and headed on back towards the twilight area.
When had gotten back to the flooded area we stopped and looked around at how high the water was there. I was amazed at how high the water was and how much actually moves through this cave from the small creek outside.
We made out way on back into the dry side entrance and seen an area that we decided to go check that was off the right as we made our way back out. This area wasn't on the map we had and that fueled the fire even more for us to go check it out. A few tight spots and then there we found a split. First to the left as far as we could go until we started to getting tight again. We could hear water dripping big time behind the walls to our right. We just knew this opened up to something. We decided to come back out and check the right fork and see if it we could get back around to the back side where we was.
Sure enough we found several dome like areas there with water falling from the ceiling. This was bound to be what was making the noise we found from the other area. We pushed our way back deeper and deeper until we can to a lot of breakdown. This is where we turned and decided we would come back in here soon and map this new passage and see if we can add it to the map we have in our possession.
If our bearing was right, the crawl may end up really close to another area we had pushed in the summer last year that was marked on the map as a terminal crawl. Who knows in another couple of hundred thousand years these passages may connect as well.
Any way, what was thought a foiled trip turned out to be an awesome new adventure.
We had made the remark in the cave, 'A bad day of caving is better than the best day of work one could ever have'
Hope you enjoyed my little write up. Hope there isn't too many typos or errors.
See ya around in the underground.
