Post by Mike Green on Jan 18, 2007 11:35:12 GMT -5
This past weekend, Matt Schohl and I camped out at Waterworks Cave with plans to bottom the Rawhide Horror Hole on Saturday. That morning, I awoke to the sound of idol engines and muffled voices. I sat up abruptly to investigate the disturbance, and saw that Matt Schohl was being interrogated by the police! When I explained that we were cavers and not some drunken locals, he preceded to ask us if the trash on the ground was ours. As he said this, we both glanced around at diapers, condoms, and maxi pads that littered the ground. When our stares came back to one another, I laughed and casually said, no. Obviously a little embarrassed for his stupid question, he immediately jumped back into his car, and yelled back to us, “well, get out of here anyway, and don’t ya come back without written permission!” So, after about an hour or two, we left Waterworks with Rawhide as our destination. It was not long until we reached our hillside, and began to pack for our adventure. The hike to Rawhide Horror Hole was almost as challenging as the cave itself. The distance from the car to the cave was slightly under a mile, but the elevation gain was 600’-700’ (most of which was at the end).
Upon reaching the cave, we decided to take a short break and listen to the theme to the show, Rawhide. We thought that it was appropriate. After a few verses of the song, we proceeded down the first drop (45’) to a small room with a shoebox crawl at its lowest point. This narrow crawl ends abruptly at the top of an awkward 109’ pit which drops as a freefall. The pit is bone-dry, but at the bottom is a raging stream that flows out from underneath a curtain. The water then pours into a duct that runs through a belly crawl, stream passage. We continued to follow the water, but this proved to be futile. After approximately 500’-700’, the passage become even more tight and meandering with the water still blasting past us. Communication at this point was impossible. Finally, I got to a w-bend in the stream passage. This required crawling into the bend on one side of my body, then flipping over on the other side in order for my legs to bend in the appropriate manner. Each time I did this, my face was plunged into the freezing cold water. As I continued to inch my way through this bottleneck by flipping back and forth, I noticed that Schohl was no longer behind me. I shouted out to him, but my calls went unanswered. I became very anxious, but continued to charge forward through the water. After breaching the w-bend, I stopped in complete horror as I inspected the up coming passage. The dimensions of the passage shank considerably, and the end could not be seen. By this time, I was shivering from the cold water, and knew that I had to ignore the fact that I was about to have first hand experience of Hell. Biting down on my lip, I pressed forward. It wasn’t until both sides of my helmet were grinding on the walls that I realized that I really did not like where I was. With no possible way to turn around in the passage, I began to back up at a furious pace only to rip several holes in my suit. My vertical equipment which I was still wearing seemed to catch on the sharp walls thus further impeding my progress. I finally reached the w-bend, but was still unable to turn around, so I also had to back out through this as well.
After injuring myself several more times, I finally reached a spot where I could turn completely around and rest for a few moments before Schohl approached me from behind with most of our gear. I explained to him what had happened, and he agreed that we were apparently not ready for the cave. Feeling very discouraged and angry with ourselves, we routed out through the hundreds of feet of misery.
After reaching the bottom of the second drop, I sat and moped while Schohl searched some other leads. By this point, I was very cold, and decide to walk around to get my blood running again. I traversed past the stream, and walked down the passage into a small breakdown room. As I more closely inspected my surroundings, I began to notice a trail into an opening in the breakdown. I continued to follow this trail until I was in large walking passage again, but with a completely different stream! Following the water once again, I ran down the borehole, and all of my worries began to fade from thought.
After regrouping with Schohl, we followed the stream to a large flowstone formation, and located a secret passage shrouded by a curtain of water. After a short crawl, we reached the third pit (9’). At this point, route-finding is pretty straight forward, and before we knew it, we had repelled the next four pits (25, 9, 40, 13). As we descended lower and lower into the cave, the water levels were increasing dramatically, and communication began to deteriorate due to the noise. This definitely helped to add excitement to the cave. We finally deviated from the deafening sound of the water by traversing a pit and climbing up a mud slope. This area was very quiet due to the distance from the water and due to the ringing in our ears; however, we could hear the distant rumbling of the next and final pit series (15, 118, 31).
As we approached the large chamber, the white noise of the water began to reverberate inside my chest cavity. Apparently, the stream we followed had joined with another because the amount of water present was like nothing we had seen prior in the cave. The sound of this waterfall was more than comparable to the sound of a locomotive. The first part of the 100’ pit is far enough away from the falls to remain dry, but the last 50’ or so is quite similar to a monsoon. Following is the 31’ pit, which is also extremely wet due to it’s proximately to the roaring falls. At the bottom of this drop, the water plunges into an Olympic-sized pool. I swam through this sump and to the other side of the room. The passage continues as borehole with another large body of water just over 50’ away from the bottom of the rope.
At this point we were 630’ below the entrance, and needless to say, pretty cold. This is where our adventure ended, and we began journeying up all of the drops we had so blissful repelled. This was truly a remarkable cave, and one worth revisiting.
Upon reaching the cave, we decided to take a short break and listen to the theme to the show, Rawhide. We thought that it was appropriate. After a few verses of the song, we proceeded down the first drop (45’) to a small room with a shoebox crawl at its lowest point. This narrow crawl ends abruptly at the top of an awkward 109’ pit which drops as a freefall. The pit is bone-dry, but at the bottom is a raging stream that flows out from underneath a curtain. The water then pours into a duct that runs through a belly crawl, stream passage. We continued to follow the water, but this proved to be futile. After approximately 500’-700’, the passage become even more tight and meandering with the water still blasting past us. Communication at this point was impossible. Finally, I got to a w-bend in the stream passage. This required crawling into the bend on one side of my body, then flipping over on the other side in order for my legs to bend in the appropriate manner. Each time I did this, my face was plunged into the freezing cold water. As I continued to inch my way through this bottleneck by flipping back and forth, I noticed that Schohl was no longer behind me. I shouted out to him, but my calls went unanswered. I became very anxious, but continued to charge forward through the water. After breaching the w-bend, I stopped in complete horror as I inspected the up coming passage. The dimensions of the passage shank considerably, and the end could not be seen. By this time, I was shivering from the cold water, and knew that I had to ignore the fact that I was about to have first hand experience of Hell. Biting down on my lip, I pressed forward. It wasn’t until both sides of my helmet were grinding on the walls that I realized that I really did not like where I was. With no possible way to turn around in the passage, I began to back up at a furious pace only to rip several holes in my suit. My vertical equipment which I was still wearing seemed to catch on the sharp walls thus further impeding my progress. I finally reached the w-bend, but was still unable to turn around, so I also had to back out through this as well.
After injuring myself several more times, I finally reached a spot where I could turn completely around and rest for a few moments before Schohl approached me from behind with most of our gear. I explained to him what had happened, and he agreed that we were apparently not ready for the cave. Feeling very discouraged and angry with ourselves, we routed out through the hundreds of feet of misery.
After reaching the bottom of the second drop, I sat and moped while Schohl searched some other leads. By this point, I was very cold, and decide to walk around to get my blood running again. I traversed past the stream, and walked down the passage into a small breakdown room. As I more closely inspected my surroundings, I began to notice a trail into an opening in the breakdown. I continued to follow this trail until I was in large walking passage again, but with a completely different stream! Following the water once again, I ran down the borehole, and all of my worries began to fade from thought.
After regrouping with Schohl, we followed the stream to a large flowstone formation, and located a secret passage shrouded by a curtain of water. After a short crawl, we reached the third pit (9’). At this point, route-finding is pretty straight forward, and before we knew it, we had repelled the next four pits (25, 9, 40, 13). As we descended lower and lower into the cave, the water levels were increasing dramatically, and communication began to deteriorate due to the noise. This definitely helped to add excitement to the cave. We finally deviated from the deafening sound of the water by traversing a pit and climbing up a mud slope. This area was very quiet due to the distance from the water and due to the ringing in our ears; however, we could hear the distant rumbling of the next and final pit series (15, 118, 31).
As we approached the large chamber, the white noise of the water began to reverberate inside my chest cavity. Apparently, the stream we followed had joined with another because the amount of water present was like nothing we had seen prior in the cave. The sound of this waterfall was more than comparable to the sound of a locomotive. The first part of the 100’ pit is far enough away from the falls to remain dry, but the last 50’ or so is quite similar to a monsoon. Following is the 31’ pit, which is also extremely wet due to it’s proximately to the roaring falls. At the bottom of this drop, the water plunges into an Olympic-sized pool. I swam through this sump and to the other side of the room. The passage continues as borehole with another large body of water just over 50’ away from the bottom of the rope.
At this point we were 630’ below the entrance, and needless to say, pretty cold. This is where our adventure ended, and we began journeying up all of the drops we had so blissful repelled. This was truly a remarkable cave, and one worth revisiting.
