Post by Chad Dubuisson on Jan 8, 2009 12:04:29 GMT -5
Trip report- Illiad/Odyssey Cave System 1/6/09
Iliad Trip
Trip members: Ben ?, Jackie ?, Brian Sakofsky, Chad Dubuisson
I met the rest of our crew at the bp in Stevenson, al. We proceeded from there to the parking area, where we began our 1hr approach to the system. I was using a new gps program on my cell phone called mobile G-Maps, which, when paired with a Bluetooth GPS receiver, allows the phone to operate like a GPS. We eventually approached the Odyssey entrance, a large, deep sink with water flowing into it. We hiked past this straight across the hillside till we found the Iliad entrance. This side of the cave is not known to be as crawly as the Odyssey entrance.
The first pit, a 20’er, is rigged to 2 old crappy rusted bolts on the right wall. This pit leads downhill quickly to the second pit, about a 9’er, with a decent bolt and a natural back up.
From the base of this rope, the cave descends through a small room and into some canyon passage. This quickly reduces to some h&K crawling which eventually requires some belly crawling in some stream passage. These crawls last for several hundreds of feet.
The middle of the cave has some walking passage at times. There are a few key climb downs that must be found to proceed onward, so plan to mark and pay very good attention.
Eventually, we encountered the Nozzle, the most enjoyable part of the cave by overwhelming vote on our trip. The cave at this point takes on water from both entrances and reduces to a nice walking canyon passage. Then, a flow stone plug nearly plugs the passage, except for a tight section just big enough to squeeze through. A larger caver will plug the hole, allowing the water to back up and help push you through the second constriction. This will pop you out into a little room. We all did it head first.
From here, the cave has a few more crawls and stoops, eventually reaching a pit. This short 15’ drop is soon followed with a 7’ drop. Next pit was 35’ high, rigged to some flowstone. This immediately leads to a 54’ drop down an exciting waterfall. There is a single bolt here in the overhang rock above the pit. Descending this pit is very fun and wet. This quickly leads to a climb-down of about 15 ft., for which we set up a hand line to assist in getting back up should the water flow increase. The water rages down this climb up as well.
At this point, Jackie explained that she felt like it was time for her to turn around, so Fro descended the climb-down just to take a peak and then the two of them started to head out of the cave. Ben and I pushed on till we ran out of rope. We didn’t remember to grab the last ropes from Jackie before they left, so we only had one more rope. We told Fro that we’d probably be about 45 minutes to an hour behind them and that we would see them on the surface.
The base of this climb down brings one to the brink of the next pit, a drop of 21’. We rigged to the BFR on the left edge of the pit and re-belayed the rope to get a free drop. This pit remains out of the water for the most part.
At this level, the cave meanders around in various directions down through solution holes, canyon passage and finally opens up to a tall room at the next drop, a 40’ pit. This is where our trip was over, for we had run out of rope. There is a final 18’ past this drop; in fact, I almost thought I could see it down passage down the last pit. The cave rages with fantastic water flow in the bottom levels.
A true caver’s cave.
Ben & I turned around and began the long ascent out. We were able to make most of the key climb ups, turns and crawls. Going up the Nozzle, against the water flow was a bit tricky, but I think we all agreed that dealing with it was the most enjoyable part of the trip.
I had Ben in front of me so we could cave at his pace. As we entered the reaches of the upper cave, we made a dramatic error. The cave splits into the Iliad and Odyssey somewhere near the top and since we had rigged in from the Iliad side, it was imperative that we exit back up the Iliad side of the cave. The odyssey side of the cave was avoided because it’s known to be much more crawly then the Iliad side.
On our way up cave, we both noticed that we had that sinking feeling that we no longer felt familiar about where we were. We knew we were in the top of the cave, but nothing looked familiar. Nothing. So, we sat down and talked about things for a few minutes and both agreed that we’d been going up familiar passage that eventually didn’t feel right. So we started to explore passages, looking for tracks and fresh mud. We knocked off about 20 leads and about 2,000’ of passages and crawls before we concluded that we had accidentally gone up the Odyssey side somehow. By this point, we’d been off track for about 2 ½ hrs.
We also knew as a failsafe that Fro, as long as he too hadn’t gotten lost, would eventually come back for us if we didn’t show up outside in a couple of hours. We decided that the only solution was to descend back deeper into the cave, back the way we’d come, until we encountered passage we were sure was on the Iliad route. We deducted that we’d missed a climb up or crawlway that should have water flowing out of it. We back tracked for about half an hour into the cave and finally reached familiar passage. From there, we turned around again and within 50’, found the obscure crawlway on the left that we had missed just moments ago. This low stream crawl represented the only lead remaining and we took it. Soon, we had that familiar feeling again, soon reaching the large room we knew had the rope on the other side.
For a caver who’s been lost for a few hours, seeing that rope up and out of the cave is a euphoric site,
closing that crazy loop of chance that has been his or her fortune till that moment.
We climbed the two entrance ropes; de rigged and emerged from the steep, slippery entrance into the driving hard rain. I reached my gear and was glad that my dry clothes were down at the car. Without even changing out of suits, we descended the mountain for about an hour.
Our total trip time was 13 hours~ I will definitely return to this cave, the bottom is excellent fun and I want to see the cave beyond the drop I stopped at.
An excellent cave, though if I could change anything, next time, I would drive my 4x4 up there, as you can access the area with a steep logging road. The hellish 1hr. hike straight up the mountain is one I will never repeat again.
Iliad Trip
Trip members: Ben ?, Jackie ?, Brian Sakofsky, Chad Dubuisson
I met the rest of our crew at the bp in Stevenson, al. We proceeded from there to the parking area, where we began our 1hr approach to the system. I was using a new gps program on my cell phone called mobile G-Maps, which, when paired with a Bluetooth GPS receiver, allows the phone to operate like a GPS. We eventually approached the Odyssey entrance, a large, deep sink with water flowing into it. We hiked past this straight across the hillside till we found the Iliad entrance. This side of the cave is not known to be as crawly as the Odyssey entrance.
The first pit, a 20’er, is rigged to 2 old crappy rusted bolts on the right wall. This pit leads downhill quickly to the second pit, about a 9’er, with a decent bolt and a natural back up.
From the base of this rope, the cave descends through a small room and into some canyon passage. This quickly reduces to some h&K crawling which eventually requires some belly crawling in some stream passage. These crawls last for several hundreds of feet.
The middle of the cave has some walking passage at times. There are a few key climb downs that must be found to proceed onward, so plan to mark and pay very good attention.
Eventually, we encountered the Nozzle, the most enjoyable part of the cave by overwhelming vote on our trip. The cave at this point takes on water from both entrances and reduces to a nice walking canyon passage. Then, a flow stone plug nearly plugs the passage, except for a tight section just big enough to squeeze through. A larger caver will plug the hole, allowing the water to back up and help push you through the second constriction. This will pop you out into a little room. We all did it head first.
From here, the cave has a few more crawls and stoops, eventually reaching a pit. This short 15’ drop is soon followed with a 7’ drop. Next pit was 35’ high, rigged to some flowstone. This immediately leads to a 54’ drop down an exciting waterfall. There is a single bolt here in the overhang rock above the pit. Descending this pit is very fun and wet. This quickly leads to a climb-down of about 15 ft., for which we set up a hand line to assist in getting back up should the water flow increase. The water rages down this climb up as well.
At this point, Jackie explained that she felt like it was time for her to turn around, so Fro descended the climb-down just to take a peak and then the two of them started to head out of the cave. Ben and I pushed on till we ran out of rope. We didn’t remember to grab the last ropes from Jackie before they left, so we only had one more rope. We told Fro that we’d probably be about 45 minutes to an hour behind them and that we would see them on the surface.
The base of this climb down brings one to the brink of the next pit, a drop of 21’. We rigged to the BFR on the left edge of the pit and re-belayed the rope to get a free drop. This pit remains out of the water for the most part.
At this level, the cave meanders around in various directions down through solution holes, canyon passage and finally opens up to a tall room at the next drop, a 40’ pit. This is where our trip was over, for we had run out of rope. There is a final 18’ past this drop; in fact, I almost thought I could see it down passage down the last pit. The cave rages with fantastic water flow in the bottom levels.
A true caver’s cave.
Ben & I turned around and began the long ascent out. We were able to make most of the key climb ups, turns and crawls. Going up the Nozzle, against the water flow was a bit tricky, but I think we all agreed that dealing with it was the most enjoyable part of the trip.
I had Ben in front of me so we could cave at his pace. As we entered the reaches of the upper cave, we made a dramatic error. The cave splits into the Iliad and Odyssey somewhere near the top and since we had rigged in from the Iliad side, it was imperative that we exit back up the Iliad side of the cave. The odyssey side of the cave was avoided because it’s known to be much more crawly then the Iliad side.
On our way up cave, we both noticed that we had that sinking feeling that we no longer felt familiar about where we were. We knew we were in the top of the cave, but nothing looked familiar. Nothing. So, we sat down and talked about things for a few minutes and both agreed that we’d been going up familiar passage that eventually didn’t feel right. So we started to explore passages, looking for tracks and fresh mud. We knocked off about 20 leads and about 2,000’ of passages and crawls before we concluded that we had accidentally gone up the Odyssey side somehow. By this point, we’d been off track for about 2 ½ hrs.
We also knew as a failsafe that Fro, as long as he too hadn’t gotten lost, would eventually come back for us if we didn’t show up outside in a couple of hours. We decided that the only solution was to descend back deeper into the cave, back the way we’d come, until we encountered passage we were sure was on the Iliad route. We deducted that we’d missed a climb up or crawlway that should have water flowing out of it. We back tracked for about half an hour into the cave and finally reached familiar passage. From there, we turned around again and within 50’, found the obscure crawlway on the left that we had missed just moments ago. This low stream crawl represented the only lead remaining and we took it. Soon, we had that familiar feeling again, soon reaching the large room we knew had the rope on the other side.
For a caver who’s been lost for a few hours, seeing that rope up and out of the cave is a euphoric site,
closing that crazy loop of chance that has been his or her fortune till that moment. We climbed the two entrance ropes; de rigged and emerged from the steep, slippery entrance into the driving hard rain. I reached my gear and was glad that my dry clothes were down at the car. Without even changing out of suits, we descended the mountain for about an hour.
Our total trip time was 13 hours~ I will definitely return to this cave, the bottom is excellent fun and I want to see the cave beyond the drop I stopped at.
An excellent cave, though if I could change anything, next time, I would drive my 4x4 up there, as you can access the area with a steep logging road. The hellish 1hr. hike straight up the mountain is one I will never repeat again.
