Post by Brad Tipton on Dec 2, 2007 0:21:22 GMT -5
On Saturday Tim, Johnathan, Angie and I loaded up and headed to Little Coon Mountain to attempt to locate a few rather remote pits over 100 feet deep. First we attempted to gain access to the road that skirts just above Little Coon Neverhole towards Dudley Pond Mountain. I wanted to bounce a rarely visited 165 foot pit named Bell Well. Unfortunately, we encountered a gate which thwarted further progress. No need for panic......I had a plan B, another rarely visited 100 foot pit named Whitewater Well.
We continued onto the top of the mountain, determined to walk down from the top. We managed to park just above Lacy Pot, but both Tim's and Johnathan's GPS units were telling us the cave was a half mile due south. Knowing good and well that the GPS was incorrect I told Tim to come back uphill and we would use my topo to skirt the edge of the mountain until we were over the cave and then walk down. Tim was determined to follow his GPS, so he and Angie were off to prove me right......hehe. I contoured the mountain, located what I figured to be the correct ravine and proceeded downhill. After about 30 minutes of searching I walked onto two large sinks on the west side of the ravine. Unfortunately, I had nobody with me as I asked Jonathan to wait on Tim and Angie up top. After about an hour, I finally located Jonathan. He never found Tim and Angie and after waiting for another 15 minutes.....we went to check our leads.
The first big sink had an obvious blowing hole at the base. The airflow was strong so I figured Johnathan would crawl in and call out for rope. After a few minutes of toiling he reported that the cave went, but it was tight......I don't do tight. We walked over the hill to the other large sink which was less than 100 yards away at the same elevation. It had a large walk in entrance and was sucking air in. I am guessing the two caves are connected somewhere. This cave displayed the evidence of considerable inflowing water in the recent past, which was a good sign. There was a small inflowing stream present today.
A short climbdown and a sharp left led directly to a sheer drop. The 12 foot drop clearly wasn't the pit we were looking for but it was a good start. Due to the drop being undercut and sheer we couldn't downclimb or handline it, so we were forced to rig the rope. We only had the one 175 foot rope because Tim was wandering aimlessly on the hillside with my 200 footer, so we rigged the 12 footer and rappelled in. Directly around the corner the cave went abruptly vertical.
Johnathan passed me all the rope we had left through the low passage to me and I dropped it into the pit. I could see that the rope seemed to reach the ledge, but clearly it didn't touch the bottom. I rigged a huge bolt for the primary and we used the primary at the top of the 12 foot drop for a back up. The pit had a small stream emptying into it so we knew we were getting wet. I rappelled 1st and managed to get enough rope to get off on a ledge 20 feet off the bottom. Johnathan came down and I shimmied down to the bottom of the pit. The bottom was whitewashed limestone, no small rocks, no mud. This pit clearly is a maelstrom most of the time. I encountered another short drop which ended our exploration. I believe the cave continued beyond. The climb out was a drencher.
Once we were packed up, we started back up the mountain. 30 minutes later we find Tim and Angie napping back at the truck. Johnathan and I boasted of our adventure and poked fun at Tim's navigation ineptitude. Angie learned the hard way that following me will reward you caving riches, following Tim will bring you tireless wandering.........HA!
We continued onto the top of the mountain, determined to walk down from the top. We managed to park just above Lacy Pot, but both Tim's and Johnathan's GPS units were telling us the cave was a half mile due south. Knowing good and well that the GPS was incorrect I told Tim to come back uphill and we would use my topo to skirt the edge of the mountain until we were over the cave and then walk down. Tim was determined to follow his GPS, so he and Angie were off to prove me right......hehe. I contoured the mountain, located what I figured to be the correct ravine and proceeded downhill. After about 30 minutes of searching I walked onto two large sinks on the west side of the ravine. Unfortunately, I had nobody with me as I asked Jonathan to wait on Tim and Angie up top. After about an hour, I finally located Jonathan. He never found Tim and Angie and after waiting for another 15 minutes.....we went to check our leads.
The first big sink had an obvious blowing hole at the base. The airflow was strong so I figured Johnathan would crawl in and call out for rope. After a few minutes of toiling he reported that the cave went, but it was tight......I don't do tight. We walked over the hill to the other large sink which was less than 100 yards away at the same elevation. It had a large walk in entrance and was sucking air in. I am guessing the two caves are connected somewhere. This cave displayed the evidence of considerable inflowing water in the recent past, which was a good sign. There was a small inflowing stream present today.
A short climbdown and a sharp left led directly to a sheer drop. The 12 foot drop clearly wasn't the pit we were looking for but it was a good start. Due to the drop being undercut and sheer we couldn't downclimb or handline it, so we were forced to rig the rope. We only had the one 175 foot rope because Tim was wandering aimlessly on the hillside with my 200 footer, so we rigged the 12 footer and rappelled in. Directly around the corner the cave went abruptly vertical.
Johnathan passed me all the rope we had left through the low passage to me and I dropped it into the pit. I could see that the rope seemed to reach the ledge, but clearly it didn't touch the bottom. I rigged a huge bolt for the primary and we used the primary at the top of the 12 foot drop for a back up. The pit had a small stream emptying into it so we knew we were getting wet. I rappelled 1st and managed to get enough rope to get off on a ledge 20 feet off the bottom. Johnathan came down and I shimmied down to the bottom of the pit. The bottom was whitewashed limestone, no small rocks, no mud. This pit clearly is a maelstrom most of the time. I encountered another short drop which ended our exploration. I believe the cave continued beyond. The climb out was a drencher.
Once we were packed up, we started back up the mountain. 30 minutes later we find Tim and Angie napping back at the truck. Johnathan and I boasted of our adventure and poked fun at Tim's navigation ineptitude. Angie learned the hard way that following me will reward you caving riches, following Tim will bring you tireless wandering.........HA!
Thanks for posting the report, it was a good read!