Post by Tony Anders on Oct 15, 2006 7:49:01 GMT -5
Well, I don't know what all you put in these sort of things, but I will give it a whirl. 
We got a late start on Friday morning, we planned on leaving at 10, but didn't get really on the road till 11 and go to Rockcastle county about 1130.
Our first stop was to confirm a location of a cave we had on a map. We did confirm the location of Mullins Springs cave. We may try to go do this cave soon. It has a huge over hang entrance right beside the road and a smaller cut opening to the left of the main entrance. Immediately to the right after going through the smaller cut there is a pool of water, maybe waste deep, then an to the left of the water there was a small opening that according to the map consist of a crawl to the lower lever of this two level cave. This where we stopped because my boy and nephews (ages 7-10) was wanting to go on to the Arthur Singleton Cave that we had promised to explore that day.
On the way to the Art Singleton cave, we found a small opening on the side of the road about 1/4 to 1/2 mile on down Crooked Creek Road. My brother and I climbed up the side of the road and checked the crack in the wall. It was for sure a cave. I didn't have this cave listed on my map so we got a LAT/LONG and plan on returning to survey it out later on.
We arrived at the Arthur Singleton Cave about noon. Suited up and began our trip. The entrance to this cave looks to sort of like a old time key. Like a skeleton key, round on the top and slit that you squeeze through. I immediately had to slide one strap off my shoulder to my backpack. The first part of the cave after the entrance is a decent size room, with three crawls in different directions. We decided to the take the N-NE crawl. It went by to pits and then to a smaller 24" crawl through rim pools to a t-intersection. The boys hadn't done much crawling through wet area, I don't think the cared for it as much. But the didn't mummer a complaint. I ripped my butt pack and one of my water bottles fell out at the end of this crawl so we decided to take a break for water there. The cave was actually warmer inside it than the air outside. We enjoyed a little water and made a left turn. The further North we got the tighter the passage became. We ended up again crawling but not for a long distance this time. We found the 'Empire Room' a room with a lot of break down and rested there before turning to come back out.
On the way back out my other brother, Kevin, discovered a cut to the east that we had missed on the way in. We stopped as he crawled down into this passage and what he found was well worth his trip. Someone back in March of this year. Had made little figures out of the cave mud in this passage. He said there was an Armadillo and Snake and some Chinese looking people as well as a Stonehenge type model and all this carefully sculpted out of the mud. The also sculpted numbers out the mud, that is how we decided when they was there. I wish I had brought my digital camera with me, but in a way I am glad I didn't after I found out how wet this cave was.
I did however get a one time use camera for my son to take but I didn't realize it didn't have a flash on it, so we didn't take it inside the cave.
Well we came back out and ate lunch and went and checked an entrance to another cave that we had seen the last time we was down there. We went back inside it for a little ways and found several bats and lots of spiders and cave crickets. We didn't go to far into this cave, because we had left our pads and when we got to where we had to crawl, we could really tell how much we missed them from the other cave.
Any way, all in all, the boys and us had a ball. We loved the exploration and are already looking forward to the next trip.
Take care and God Bless
See ya around in the underground.
Tony
We got a late start on Friday morning, we planned on leaving at 10, but didn't get really on the road till 11 and go to Rockcastle county about 1130.
Our first stop was to confirm a location of a cave we had on a map. We did confirm the location of Mullins Springs cave. We may try to go do this cave soon. It has a huge over hang entrance right beside the road and a smaller cut opening to the left of the main entrance. Immediately to the right after going through the smaller cut there is a pool of water, maybe waste deep, then an to the left of the water there was a small opening that according to the map consist of a crawl to the lower lever of this two level cave. This where we stopped because my boy and nephews (ages 7-10) was wanting to go on to the Arthur Singleton Cave that we had promised to explore that day.
On the way to the Art Singleton cave, we found a small opening on the side of the road about 1/4 to 1/2 mile on down Crooked Creek Road. My brother and I climbed up the side of the road and checked the crack in the wall. It was for sure a cave. I didn't have this cave listed on my map so we got a LAT/LONG and plan on returning to survey it out later on.
We arrived at the Arthur Singleton Cave about noon. Suited up and began our trip. The entrance to this cave looks to sort of like a old time key. Like a skeleton key, round on the top and slit that you squeeze through. I immediately had to slide one strap off my shoulder to my backpack. The first part of the cave after the entrance is a decent size room, with three crawls in different directions. We decided to the take the N-NE crawl. It went by to pits and then to a smaller 24" crawl through rim pools to a t-intersection. The boys hadn't done much crawling through wet area, I don't think the cared for it as much. But the didn't mummer a complaint. I ripped my butt pack and one of my water bottles fell out at the end of this crawl so we decided to take a break for water there. The cave was actually warmer inside it than the air outside. We enjoyed a little water and made a left turn. The further North we got the tighter the passage became. We ended up again crawling but not for a long distance this time. We found the 'Empire Room' a room with a lot of break down and rested there before turning to come back out.
On the way back out my other brother, Kevin, discovered a cut to the east that we had missed on the way in. We stopped as he crawled down into this passage and what he found was well worth his trip. Someone back in March of this year. Had made little figures out of the cave mud in this passage. He said there was an Armadillo and Snake and some Chinese looking people as well as a Stonehenge type model and all this carefully sculpted out of the mud. The also sculpted numbers out the mud, that is how we decided when they was there. I wish I had brought my digital camera with me, but in a way I am glad I didn't after I found out how wet this cave was.
I did however get a one time use camera for my son to take but I didn't realize it didn't have a flash on it, so we didn't take it inside the cave.
Well we came back out and ate lunch and went and checked an entrance to another cave that we had seen the last time we was down there. We went back inside it for a little ways and found several bats and lots of spiders and cave crickets. We didn't go to far into this cave, because we had left our pads and when we got to where we had to crawl, we could really tell how much we missed them from the other cave.
Any way, all in all, the boys and us had a ball. We loved the exploration and are already looking forward to the next trip.
Take care and God Bless
See ya around in the underground.
Tony
Made me wish I'd been out caving this weekend instead of having to tend to all of the chores that I'm behind on from spending part of last week and all last weekend at TAG. 
