Post by Brad Tipton on Aug 4, 2008 23:10:47 GMT -5
After a lengthy day of caving at Fern the previous day. I peeled myself from the back of the 4-Runner, fought off the swarm of mosquitoes attacking me and proceeded to pack up for another long day of caving. I didn't even arrive at Valhalla until after 11pm the night before, then I stayed up to talk shoot the bull with Buddy and Bill despite physical exhaustion. By the time I crashed it was after 1am and it felt like I just closed my eyes for a minute, yet now it's daylight and time to get moving. I sloshed my way down the road from Valhalla, stopped off at my wife's cousins house to pick up my light that was charging overnight and grabbed a nasty bit of greasy breakfast at the Western Sizzlin.....and I thought their dinner buffet was bad........
I met Will and Aaron at the intersection of Hwy 117 and Sinking Cove Road. They looked pretty trashed from yesterday's festivities as well. They got to the camp at Sinking Cove and crashed even later than I did, so they were dragging ass too. John, Joey and Wood arrived shortly and we moved down the road to park at McBrides Cave. John went up to ask the landowner for their graces and we began preparing for another grueling hell hike. Everyone opted for some version of wet suits with the exception of myself. I was anticipating that the cave couldn't possibly be moving enough water to warrant a wetsuit. I chose three layers of polypro tops and bottoms and a pair of wool socks. For the hike up we all opted to be practically naked.....I bet the landowners think cavers are mentally challenged witnessing 6 shirtless guys trapsing off into the woods in search of a wet hole in the ground.
The hike to the entrance was miserable. Once I stepped on a fallen tree limb that abruptly snapped and cause me to bust my ass. I had sweat pouring into my eyes and the horseflies were harassing me. Ahhhh.......summer, gotta love it! Eventually we reached the entrance and slowly we began donning our smothering layers of clothing. I cannot imagine how the others managed keeping from stroking out with mudsuits over wetsuits on. Once I cooled down, I was pretty comfortable.
The entrance was an immediate climbdown for 40 or so feet to a 23 foot pit which looked climbable. A few feet further led to the 34 footer which once the rope is pulled down would be considered the point of no return. Once committing to pulling the rope on that drop, it's out the bottom exit or bust. There would be no way out but going deeper.....kind of like in those really bad Hollywood cave movies....without ice axes and goblins of course. Pulldown caves always give me that additional bout of anxiety, knowing that once the rope is pulled down my option to abort is off the table. A pulldown trip is a caver's commitment to his/her confidence in their ability to complete the traverse of the entire cave. It is paramount to a successful pulldown trip to know the route and know the exact depth of each drop. Short roping yourself midway through a pulldown is a sure way to strand the whole group.
The fourth pit of 25 feet leads away from the stream and into some breakdown rooms. Here John had to poke around for a bit and consult the trusty map. After a few minutes he gained his bearings and we continued through some crawls, eventually regaining the stream which now had a small amount of running water. A fixed line lead to the 90 foot pit. The passage leading to it is scalloped and whitewashed from the torrents of water that McBride's is notorious for. The 90 footer was wet, but I managed to barely get my legs wet on the drop. The bottom of the pit had a deep pool which I had to wade through to get off rope. The 90 footer is an impressive shaft. I would love to see it with considerably more water though.
At the back of the chamber opposite of the 90 foot pit, the 28 foot pit drops immediately through the contact. This is always a good indicator that knee breaking chert filled crawls await the weary caver. Almost directly after that drop was a climbdown to another drop of 38 feet. Here John, Joey and I sent Will and Aaron ahead to the infamous 8th drop with the next rope. The 8th drop is where Gerald fell during high water and broke his femur resulting in a legendary rescue in 1997. After about 10 minutes we can hear them returning to the room we were in. Will yelled at us inquiring about the availabilty of digging tools..... Apparently they had attempted to follow the water and reached the point of impossible forward progress. I guess they thought the stream had closed up on us....haha! I took a moment to get out a good laugh at their expense. Luckily the cave had not closed shut on us and we slowly made out way through the watery crawl to the keyhole.
The keyhole drop is a rather nasty little 23 footer that requires hanging out over the pit upside down while trying to rig the rack to the rope. Doing this while water is pushing you over the drop and drowning you at the same time must be terrifying. Luckily, the water volume on this day was low, so we didn't have to experience the water's fury. This drop is broken by a wide chert ledge. This ledge is where Gerald was perched, helpless, for 18 hours in a torrent of water awaiting rescuers. I don't like to imagine what 18 hours felt like in those conditions on that day.
At the bottom of the 23 foot drop the cave becomes miserable. The chert nodules litter the crawls between the 8th and 9th drops and my kneepads were woefully insufficent. At the top of the 9th drop, I took a pair of polypro bottoms and wrapped my left knee for some additional padding. It had taken quite a beating at this point and the worst was yet to come. The last drop is a 15 footer which ends the vertical trip and kicks off the misery involved in completing the thru-trip. I had successfully negotiated McBride's 9 drops without getting wet past my waist. At the last drop, John and I coiled the ropes and started the long crawl out. The others were completely out of sight for the rest of the trip. We took it slow but steady. I was trying to keep from punishing my knees any more than necessary. Midway out of the lower cave I was about to stroke out from heat so I finally layed down in the water up to my neck to cool down a bit. I can't believe they all wore wetsuits. The chert nodules were relentless on my knees and elbows and the cave got more miserable towards the end. I now understand why Buddy doesn't want to go there unless he can "float out".
Eventually the natural light became visible and the green of the woods became blazing bright. The blistering heat was there awaiting our return, along with the bugs, bees and all those other annoyances that makes the summertime suck. The heat made me want to retreat back into the cave where I was more comfortable....but then I thought about all those knee scraping chert nodules......
I met Will and Aaron at the intersection of Hwy 117 and Sinking Cove Road. They looked pretty trashed from yesterday's festivities as well. They got to the camp at Sinking Cove and crashed even later than I did, so they were dragging ass too. John, Joey and Wood arrived shortly and we moved down the road to park at McBrides Cave. John went up to ask the landowner for their graces and we began preparing for another grueling hell hike. Everyone opted for some version of wet suits with the exception of myself. I was anticipating that the cave couldn't possibly be moving enough water to warrant a wetsuit. I chose three layers of polypro tops and bottoms and a pair of wool socks. For the hike up we all opted to be practically naked.....I bet the landowners think cavers are mentally challenged witnessing 6 shirtless guys trapsing off into the woods in search of a wet hole in the ground.
The hike to the entrance was miserable. Once I stepped on a fallen tree limb that abruptly snapped and cause me to bust my ass. I had sweat pouring into my eyes and the horseflies were harassing me. Ahhhh.......summer, gotta love it! Eventually we reached the entrance and slowly we began donning our smothering layers of clothing. I cannot imagine how the others managed keeping from stroking out with mudsuits over wetsuits on. Once I cooled down, I was pretty comfortable.
The entrance was an immediate climbdown for 40 or so feet to a 23 foot pit which looked climbable. A few feet further led to the 34 footer which once the rope is pulled down would be considered the point of no return. Once committing to pulling the rope on that drop, it's out the bottom exit or bust. There would be no way out but going deeper.....kind of like in those really bad Hollywood cave movies....without ice axes and goblins of course. Pulldown caves always give me that additional bout of anxiety, knowing that once the rope is pulled down my option to abort is off the table. A pulldown trip is a caver's commitment to his/her confidence in their ability to complete the traverse of the entire cave. It is paramount to a successful pulldown trip to know the route and know the exact depth of each drop. Short roping yourself midway through a pulldown is a sure way to strand the whole group.
The fourth pit of 25 feet leads away from the stream and into some breakdown rooms. Here John had to poke around for a bit and consult the trusty map. After a few minutes he gained his bearings and we continued through some crawls, eventually regaining the stream which now had a small amount of running water. A fixed line lead to the 90 foot pit. The passage leading to it is scalloped and whitewashed from the torrents of water that McBride's is notorious for. The 90 footer was wet, but I managed to barely get my legs wet on the drop. The bottom of the pit had a deep pool which I had to wade through to get off rope. The 90 footer is an impressive shaft. I would love to see it with considerably more water though.
At the back of the chamber opposite of the 90 foot pit, the 28 foot pit drops immediately through the contact. This is always a good indicator that knee breaking chert filled crawls await the weary caver. Almost directly after that drop was a climbdown to another drop of 38 feet. Here John, Joey and I sent Will and Aaron ahead to the infamous 8th drop with the next rope. The 8th drop is where Gerald fell during high water and broke his femur resulting in a legendary rescue in 1997. After about 10 minutes we can hear them returning to the room we were in. Will yelled at us inquiring about the availabilty of digging tools..... Apparently they had attempted to follow the water and reached the point of impossible forward progress. I guess they thought the stream had closed up on us....haha! I took a moment to get out a good laugh at their expense. Luckily the cave had not closed shut on us and we slowly made out way through the watery crawl to the keyhole.
The keyhole drop is a rather nasty little 23 footer that requires hanging out over the pit upside down while trying to rig the rack to the rope. Doing this while water is pushing you over the drop and drowning you at the same time must be terrifying. Luckily, the water volume on this day was low, so we didn't have to experience the water's fury. This drop is broken by a wide chert ledge. This ledge is where Gerald was perched, helpless, for 18 hours in a torrent of water awaiting rescuers. I don't like to imagine what 18 hours felt like in those conditions on that day.
At the bottom of the 23 foot drop the cave becomes miserable. The chert nodules litter the crawls between the 8th and 9th drops and my kneepads were woefully insufficent. At the top of the 9th drop, I took a pair of polypro bottoms and wrapped my left knee for some additional padding. It had taken quite a beating at this point and the worst was yet to come. The last drop is a 15 footer which ends the vertical trip and kicks off the misery involved in completing the thru-trip. I had successfully negotiated McBride's 9 drops without getting wet past my waist. At the last drop, John and I coiled the ropes and started the long crawl out. The others were completely out of sight for the rest of the trip. We took it slow but steady. I was trying to keep from punishing my knees any more than necessary. Midway out of the lower cave I was about to stroke out from heat so I finally layed down in the water up to my neck to cool down a bit. I can't believe they all wore wetsuits. The chert nodules were relentless on my knees and elbows and the cave got more miserable towards the end. I now understand why Buddy doesn't want to go there unless he can "float out".
Eventually the natural light became visible and the green of the woods became blazing bright. The blistering heat was there awaiting our return, along with the bugs, bees and all those other annoyances that makes the summertime suck. The heat made me want to retreat back into the cave where I was more comfortable....but then I thought about all those knee scraping chert nodules......
Break out the Goldbond for sure!