Virgin Falls Wilderness

Saturday morning my spring break trip began!  We met at food service for breakfast, then packed up and hit the road.  We stopped at the huge tree house in Tennessee for lunch.

                                   (Our left over turkey and ham that food service had given us, after everyone had eaten their fill of sandwhiches)

Within another 45 minutes we reached the parking for the trail head.  There was LOTS of cars there; however most of them would be gone by the end of the day.  Most people went there for a day hike.  We took our first break at Big Branch Falls.

                                              (Daniel and Jason climbing above the falls)
 We continued on, but we did not take the usual route.  Jon said we were going to camp on the Caney Fork Overlook that night.  So we took a right, when we came to a fork in the trail.  Soon, we were lugging our packs and gear up the steep rocky slopes.

That was the toughest hike for me.  I'd never had a problem before, but I think having influenza recently made it a little harder for me to breathe.  But we finally reached the top of the overlook and rested, on the main cliff that juts out over Scott's Gulf.

                               (Looking South-west across Scott's Gulf)
We hiked a little ways away from the main cliff and found a nice spot to make camp for the first night.  Jon, Jason, Jacob, and I were in hammocks.  Since there was no clouds Jacob and I didn't double bunk ours to share a rain fly.

                                 (My hammock set up for the first night)
While some of the guys hiked to the spring on top of the overlook to filter water, the rest of us gathered up firewood and Jon got dinner cooking.  He made chili-joes.  It was ground turkey mixed with chili, and we ate it on hamburger buns.  It was really good; especially after the long day.

While we were eating, the sun was going down and we all ran over to the main overlook and watched the sunset.  It was really pretty.

We finished up dinner, and then all walked to the spring to wash our dishes.  Sand and water was our cleaner!  It doesn't do the greatest job in the world, but it worked well enough.  It began to get dark, and we got a fire going, some of the guys had fun walking on the slack line, but then when the stars were out nice and bright we walked to some different overlooks I had found.  Jon found another one, though, that he decided is what cliff we would rappel off of the next day.  We all kind of spread out, hanging out feet over the edge of the cliff, and watched the stars.  Jon and I talked a little bit, catching up on things.  The sky was so beautiful.  Not a cloud in the sky, just the wind and the sounds of the middle of nowhere.

We watched the stars for a while, and then went back to our campsite.  We fixed banana boats for dessert.  You take a banana, slice it in half (with the peel still on) and fill it with mini marshmallows and chocolate chips.  Then you close it up, and wrap it in tin foil. You let it cook for a while in the fire.  When you are camping, you usually end up going to bed early.  That's what we did.  I crawled into my hammock and loved it.  However, I had to get up 4 times to go water some trees because I drank so much water with my dinner.

Morning came and we all eventually crawled out of our warm sleeping bags and gathered around the fire that Drew got going.  We ate our breakfast.  My breakfast every morning was a pop tart, and granola bars.

Jacob, Jason and I decided we would say good morning to the world in a unique way.  We found a nice overlook on the cliff, and we all went out and stood on the edge, with the sun coming up, and emptied our bladders over the cliff, making sure to water a tree hanging off the edge as well.

After everybody was up we packed up our campsite and walked the short distance to the cliff Jon had said we'd rappel off.  Rather than do the grueling hike down off the overlook again, Jon decided we'd save ourselves some effort and time.  He said we would rappel with all our gear.  So Jon got the rope set up and he went down first.  I was soon to follow.  It went fine until I ran out of rock ledge.  the majority of the rappel was dangling in the air.  With a 40 pound backpack the weight of it pulled you over so you were parallel with the ground.

                              (Caleb nearing the bottom of the cliff with his pack on)
It was pretty nerve wracking.  I kept thinking I was going to flip completely over and end up going down head first.  Because of this, I panicked and let go of the rope coming out of my belay that controls your speed, and I grabbed the rope above me.  I would have fallen straight down had it not been for the fireman holding onto the bottom of the rope at the base of the cliff.  If anything happens, his job is to yank on the rope and it will stop you in place.  So I recovered, and got myself back on track, and I continued descending, until I reached the bottom.  Needless to say, unless I have to, I'm never going down with a backpack again.

After a while, I hiked back up the top of the cliff.  I was going to go down again, but then backed out because of my bad experience with the backpack.  I watched Jon go down Auzzie, but finally I went down again.  The beginning is always the hard part.  Until after you learn back out over the cliff, and take those first couple steps it's torture.  But after that it's really fun.  And without a backpack I had a blast putting less friction on the rope and zooming down to the bottom.

                    (Daniel coming down with his gear, and Caleb as fireman)
The rest of us ate lunch, and then took a nap under the cliff, while Jon and Drew ascended the cliff using a rope and knot system (I've been practicing on it, but I'm not ready to try and get past a lip in a cliff).

                             (Jon, working his way up the rope)
When they were both done, they did a double rappel (meaning you have two ropes running through your belay).  This allowed Jon to undo the rope when he reached the bottom.  Then we packed up, and began the hike down to hide our gear.  We stopped at Big Laurel Falls for a break, and we looked around a little bit.

                                 (Daniel, standing in front of Big Laurel Falls)
The creek flows backwards and gets sucked into an underwater cave system.  Jon found a couple sinkholes, though, where water had once flowed.  And of course, I was very eager to check them out for him.  I got muddy and got some nasty foam on me, but they didn't lead anywhere I could get to.  We continued on and Jon said we would see about camping at Virgin Falls.  So we continued hiking and went past Sheep Cave Falls, and then finally made it to Virgin Falls.

                         (Virgin Falls)
However, with the cool air flowing from the cave and the waterfall, it was cold, and would have been colder come morning.  So Jon decided to hike down to the Caney Fork River.  By the time we got there I was beat.  I took off my pack and laid on the ground resting.  I was really weak and ready for dinner.  Even 6,000 calories/day wasn't always enough.  But, we got our camp set up and then Jon began preparing dinner.  We had Jambalaya.

(My hammock on bottom, Jacob's on top.  That way we could share a rain fly).
After dinner it was just mostly sitting around the camp fire talking, and covering up stuff.  Jacob had brought his weather radio and the forecast said rain.

Morning came, however, and there had been no rain, to speak of.  We ate breakfast, and then split up to do devotions/praying/whatever.  When we were done we got our gear together and hiked up to the upper entrance to Virgin Falls Cave.

                                 (On our way to go caving)
We had brought along rain gear too, in case it began raining while we were in the cave.  We got to the upper entrance, suited up, and then descended into the darkness!

                                              (Before....)
We made pretty good time.  Jon led us the route we had taken last time.  I remembered a lot of the formations and such.

This time, Jon pushed farther than we went last year, following a stream.  There were some tight spots, getting down into the water.  But it was fun.  But at a point Jon stopped the group and said he didn't feel comfortable going farther ahead because the breakdown looked sort of loose.  So we turned around and followed the stream out.  However, at one point Jon stopped the group and let everyone see how crazy I am.  He showed them a small crack with some water coming out and he knew I would want to investigate.  I had been bringing up the rear, so when I caught up with the group I took off my helmet and slithered in.  I was able to get to a certain point until I couldn't go any farther.  Some flow-stone prevented my shoulders and chest from squeezing through.  I could see that the crack went farther, though.

                        (Looking back at everyone in the crack)
Then to everyone's amazement I was able to turn myself around and come out headfirst.

We made our way out and came outside to see that there was still no rain.  It was even on the warm side. So we changed and then hiked back to our campsite.

                                            (After...)
We got back to camp and Drew and Jacob decided they wanted to go jump in the river.  The river is freezing this time of year, and has lots of water in it.  If you stay in long, you're going to get hypothermia.  But we were filthy, and stinky, and wanted to freshen up.  Eventually, all of us ended up jumping in.  But it was more fun because on a large sycamore tree near our campsite some one had tied a rope swing onto a branch.  So we flew way out into the river and had to swim back, in shock.

                                     (Me, as I'm about to go underwater)
It was a big shock to our bodies, but it felt good.  After we had all jumped in, we changed, and Jon got dinner going.  We had some type of Italian pasta stuff, and french bread.  We sat around the fire talking, and Jon told us the plans for the next day.  It would be a free day.  Jon and I already knew what we would be doing.  It wasn't long and the rain FINALLY came.  We scrambled to cover up stuff and then went to bed.  The rain went pretty much until late morning.

I ate breakfast in my hammock as I didn't want to get up into the rain.  But I finally did, when it let up.  We all figured out who was going to do what.  Everybody except Daniel was going to go up to Sheep Cave Falls with Jon and I.  However, only Jon and I wanted to go explore Upper Sheep Cave.  We gathered up lunch items, and our gear and hiked up to the falls.  The first place Jon, Jason, and I explored was the lower sinkhole.  It was a steep slippery climb down.

(The sinkhole where Sheep Falls goes into.  This is Lower Sheep Cave)
We could only get to the bottom and see a small waterfall before the water got sucked into Lower Sheep Cave.  During a dry season, you can get into Lower Sheep Cave.  When All three of us finally climbed out, we then hiked to Upper Sheep Cave.  Jon and I then got suited up.

                          (Entrance to Upper Sheep Cave)We had my map I had gotten hold of and we were just expecting a somewhat boring stream passage.  But it's still a cave and therefore very exciting!  We found a couple small side passages to look at, but then continued on.  When we were halfway through the cave we were shocked.  We rounded a corner and before us was a bunch of formations, flowstone, and stalagmites/stalactites hanging down into the water.  It was beautiful.  Pictures can't even do justice to it.  You just have to be there.

It was really incredible.  And as we continued to the end of the cave passage the formations just continued.  When we got out Jon and I agreed that for the short passage length, Upper Sheep Cave has a lot of formations and is the easiest cave we have done.  All you do is walk in water that at the deepest point is knee deep.

We got out and were really excited.  We changed and then I got some pictures of Sheep Cave Falls.  There are essentially two halves to the falls.

                                  (Lower half, and this isn't all of it.  The camera couldn't fit it all)

                               (Upper portion of the falls)
Everybody met back up and then we hiked back to camp.  At that point I decided to change and then rest in my hammock.  Jon and Jason ran off to go explore along the river.  It wasn't long, however, when Jon and Jason came back telling me to grab my caving gear.  They had discovered a couple resurgences farther down the river.  Resurgences are where water comes out of the ground; from an underwater cave.  We all grabbed our headlamps and I followed them.  We were able to crawl a little ways into them before they became submerged/ and/or too tight to go through.  The second one had a deep pool you could jump into, but you would need air tanks to go any further.

                                       (One of the resurgences)
We began poking around the rocks and cliffs trying to find other leads, but we didn't.  However, when we were climbing around I had an accident.  I was trying to lower myself down to a foothold.  My balance was off and I fell, hitting the rock on the right side of my rib cage, and then sliding another twenty feet down to the bottom.  Thankfully though, I'm pretty sure at this point nothing is broken.  I just have bragging rights to the worse injury out of everyone on the trip, and some pretty bruised ribs (And a nice thick, long scab).

That took it out of me.  We went back to camp and I cleaned up and then I fell asleep in my hammock.  I didn't get out until dinner time.  We were having pasta with meat sauce, and bread.  It was a great meal!  We cleaned up our dishes, and it was my turn to wash one of the pots.  Then some of us stayed up later, but Jacob and I went to bed.

The next morning Jacob got a fire going, and I got up and joined him.  We sat around the fire talking and eating, before everyone else got up.  We ate, and then packed up camp.  Before we headed out we took a couple group pictures.

We made good time hiking out.  We stopped three times for breaks, and to retrieve the climbing gear we had hidden.  We finally made it to the van, exhausted.  The ride back was pretty quiet.  Everyone slept on and off.  We stopped for dinner in Somerset, KY.  Jon was going to surprise us by taking us to what he says is the best southern BBQ place in the area.  However, as soon as we got out of the van the owner came out and told us to go away.  He said it was closed, but didn't offer an explanation.  So we loaded back up into the van, really sad.

Jon found a really good burger joint a couple miles up the road and we went in.  As soon as we walked in, we were the main focus of the place.  All the poor girls working the register see is 7 filthy, smelly guys who just walked out of the wilderness, and come in to order some food.  We didn't have a clue what to order.  We'd been living on granola bars and noodles for 5 days!  So Jon ordered first, and to make it go quickly we all ordered the same thing.  And of course, not having to filter water, or wash our bowls with sand was nice.  The whole meal we made jokes about stuff.  We wolfed down our food, and the manager even came out to talk to us.

But, we made it back to Berea fine.  Got cleaned up and unpacked.  It was a great trip, better than last year.  I got to do more caving, spend more time out in the wilderness, try some pretty freaky things and get over my fear of leaning back over cliffs.  And I was even able to spend some good time talking with God out where there are no distractions!

Here is a link to all of the photos from the trip.  Most are mine, the ones towards the end are Jacob's: https://picasaweb.google.com/jholcomb8/20110316VirginFalls2011#

Also, here is a link to some short video clips I compiled from the trip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu-3Nyed4k4

Vertical Caving Practice

So last night I got some practice for vertical caving.  My friend Jon that got me hooked on caving also does a lot of rope work.  He bought some special rope and used a knot system to make an ascending system.  It is basically a slip knot: when you put downward pressure on the rope it grips the climbing rope and prevents you from sliding down.  When you release pressure you can slide it up. 

So Jon rigged a climbing rope on the top floor of the stair well in Dana Hall.  There is a nice shaft going down to the basement level.  Jon taught Brandon and I (and Megan and Jason came over) how to tie the knots and do all the rigging and then he let us go up.  When we reached the top of the rope he stood on the stairs and walked us through changing from our ascending system to our belay device while still up in the air, on the rope.  I got the hang of it, and it's pretty fun.  The next practice will be on a tree on campus.  Jon wanted to do it in the stair well first so that he could be up on our level walking us through the process.

I'm on my way to getting into Sinks of the Roundstone pit!  After we get some more practice and are plenty proficient it'll be off!

Tower Domes & Fossil Canyon

Well this morning I was up bright and early to go caving.  I was taking Daniel, Jacob M, and Joe caving.  Joe had never went before.  I also wanted to plan out the best route to maneuver in between the tower domes and the canyon when I lead a group there in 2 weeks.

We made pretty good time, and we ended up passing a group of 3 people that were making their way along.  We turned and went up the right fork, and went to the tower domes.  We spent a considerable amount of time in the two tower domes studying the fossils.  In both of them, there is a band in the sediment layers that contain thousands of fossils.  A few shells, but mostly tube like creatures.  My best guess is small versions of those tube worms that live on the bottom of the ocean on geothermal vents (However, I got back to school and did some research.  They are coral fossils).  There were some scattered ones, but there were also large clumps where they fanned out.  It was so obvious that they were buried very suddenly (aka Noah's Flood).  You could tell they must have all been on what used to be the ocean floor and then sediment rapidly buried the whole lot of them.

                                        (Daniel hunting for fossils in the wall)

After we were done in the tower domes we went to the canyon, and then to the small room at the end of the canyon that has some formations.  We took a break in there, and ate some snacks.  Then we made our way back to the main fork.  We decided to go find the Fossil Canyon.  I never knew the fossil canyon existed, but I got a guidebook in the last week that has the most amazing map of Pine Hill Cave, ever.  It lists a lot more things.  So we backtracked almost all the way to the main entrance to the cave.  The split to go to the Fossil Canyon was in the Register Room.

We followed the water for a couple minutes, and then turned left.  Pretty quickly it began to get narrow and soon we were crawling.  After you crawled for a little ways it would open up and you would get excited.  However, it soon closed up again.  It teased us.  We crawled for about 45 minutes and were almost ready to give up.

However, soon I looked up when I saw an opening on my left.  I shouted, and heard an echo.  I hurriedly climbed up through the hole and found myself in the Fossil Canyon!  The rest of the guys were a little bit behind me.  I told them of my discovery and then went down the left side of the canyon.  It went a ways, and I slipped and clawed my way up the muddy and slippery floor.  You could see some scattered fossils in the canyon walls.

I came back and joined Daniel, Jacob, and Joe.  We went down the right side of the canyon.  We walked a little while, and then it rapidly shrunk.  But that wasn't the worst part.  What was worse was the fact we could hear water moving fast in a large passage.  Whether it is a waterfall, or a completely new cave passage, or an underground river is a mystery.  The real pain is the fact that no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get through the narrow canyon slot and see where this water was.  Maybe super skinny anorexic person could get through after a lot of wedging themselves up the canyon.  But either way, it was really disappointing to not know what lay beyond.  The map showed that nothing else went beyond.  So, whatever lies back there is most definitely cave passage never before touched by humans!  If I had an Infrared cable camera I would push it back in there to see what I could find.

We rested up, and then made the painfully slow, and annoying crawl back out.  When we finally made it out, we were extremely muddy!  Normally coming out of Pine Hill you aren't that bad.  Bud the crawling passage to the Fossil Canyon was really muddy.  It was such a relief to reach the stream passage again.  I had always read that to the right of the main entrance is just a sump.  For you non caving folks, that basically means a water filled passage.  However, with this new map, it shows there is a bypass route and about 4 more domes.  Also, there is what they call Pine Hill Lake.  This is at the very end of the passage, before the water completely leaves Pine Hill Cave to flow through a sump into Blue Hole Cave.

I was also at dinner tonight and a girl that I had taken caving this past summer (and she's coming on the trip in a couple weeks) came up and talked to me.  Her name is Hannah.  She started telling me she had taken some people to Pine Hill Cave last night.  So, Brandon and I are no longer the only students here who do trips to Pine Hill.  And before we knew it, we were both sucked into a conversation about caving.  She is as obsessed as I am.  Back home, she told me, she was paid by some guy to explore all the caves on his property.  Talk about an awesome job!  Later, I ended up emailing her the detailed map I got in my guidebook.  I don't mind sharing my information I labored so long to find, with her. 

Anyway, here is a link to all of my photos from the trip.  Definitely check them out! https://picasaweb.google.com/jholcomb8/20110212TowerDomesFossilCanyon#

2 new caves

Well this past Friday night, and Saturday was a blast.  I have been communicating with a couple people from the Bluegrass grotto and they invited me on a beginners trip for Saturday.  They were camping at the Great Saltpeter Cave preserve.

So Friday night Jerry Dixon picked me up from Berea, and we continued on down to Mt. Vernon.  It was dark, but on the way to the preserve Jerry was telling me about the different caves in the areas we were passing.  I recognized the names of a lot of them as I've done a lot of research.  When we arrived at the preserve we met a few people standing around a campfire.  One of them was Reece.  I had been emailing him too.  We talked for a good length of time, and then Jerry, Reece, and I drove to a section of the preserve and set up tents.  Then we walked up to the entrance of the Great Saltpeter Cave.  There are two entrances, both of which they keep gated and locked.

The Great Saltpeter Cave was mined extensively during the War of 1812.  Saltpeter is used to produce gunpowder.  This cave produced the majority that was used during the war.  There is one section in the cave with some formations that are growing.  In fact, the walls are black from the soot produced by torches.  Very large formations have grown over the blackened areas.  This proves it doesn't take millions of years to develop.  Jerry gave me a tour.  It was really interesting to see and hear all the history of the cave.  It was turned into a show cave before it was taken over as a preserve.  But most of the passages are lit.  Only in a couple sections did we use our headlights.

When we were done with the tour we exited the cave.  Then all three of us got into Jerry's truck and he drove around the preserve.  He basically gave me a tour of that too.  It was about midnight at this time.  He also told me as we went by ridges where more caves were.  It was incredible.  Finally, we went to bed and I got to sleep about 1:30.

The next day I woke up at 8:30, had a couple biscuits, and stood around talking with the few people that were coming in for the beginners trip to Sinks of the Roundstone.  After a while, Reece's friend Andrew came in.  So the three of us got our gear together and set out.  We were doing a different trip.  I've been through Sinks quite a few times...  We were driving to Miller's Cave.  On the way I could actually see because of it being daylight.  I saw the entrances to Artesian Well Cave, and Mullins Spring Cave (both of which I have maps for and I now know how to get to them :D ).

We arrived at a place to park and we went and asked the lady that owns the property for permission to go into the cave.  She usually lets people, but she wants them out by dark.  The main cave entrance is just up the hill from her house.

                                 (The main entrance to Miller's Cave)

Let's just say, I was in for a treat.  Both Jerry and Reece told me how awesome Miller's Cave is.  It is definitely not a beginners cave.  But I had a blast.  Throughout our 4-5 hour trip in the system we did a lot of different things.  Walking passage, climbing, crawling, squeezing through tight passages.  But probably after 30 minutes or so we came to Hawg's Hole.  It is a sinkhole in the mountain that a waterfall comes in.  It joins up with Joint Cave (which is connected to Miller's Cave).

                           (Hawg's Hole as seen from the distance)

We checked it out, and then continued on.  For a long time we explored passages past where Reece and Andrew had been before.  We explored upper levels, and lower levels.  It took us a while to find places to climb down.  But we did see quite a bit of nice formations.

We had some nice crawls along ledges above pits as well.  There were some very tight passages we crawled through.  At one point, I learned what it was like to be stuck.  The passage I was in was very narrow and it sloped upward, at which turned sharply right.  I got stuck, and got my arm wedged so it was in pain.  I learned to not panic and slowly inch backward and free myself, and then twist my body to get through the passage.  When we finally made it to the lower level there was also a point where we were walking/squeezing through really narrow, and extremely high canyon passage.  I wedged myself upward and when I could feel my chest not expanding as much, I knew it was time to back out and turn around.  We couldn't press on.

We did a little more exploring, and we came close to getting to one of the other entrances to the cave system.  However, it was time to turn around.  The trip back was grueling.  Tough climbs, squeezes, crawls, and more.  I've never sweated so much.  It was running down my face and I was soaked just from all the exertion. 

                                    (Ice formations near the entrance)

So we got out, and changed.  The cold air felt SO GOOD and cooled us down.  We drove back to the preserve and I packed up the tent and sleeping back Jerry had loaned me, and then I rode with Reece up north.  He dropped me off in Berea.  It was such an awesome caving trip!!! The toughest one I've ever done; it makes Pine Hill Cave look extremely easy; although Pine Hill has a lot of water.

Here is a link to the rest of the photos from my trip: https://picasaweb.google.com/jholcomb8/20110205MillerSCave#

And, here is a link to a short video clip I took of the waterfall in Hawg's Hole: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBJ-D4cBk38

Journey into Amazing Caves

I remember watching this film a few years ago at home, but that was before I become OBSESSED with caves.  In the last few months I have watched this movie a couple times, and read the companion book that details the work that Dr. Hazel Barton, and Nancy Aulenbach do.  I never dreamed that I would someday have the opportunity to meet Dr. Barton.  But as of today, that dream has become a reality!

Dr. Barton is employed by Northern Kentucky University, just a couple hours north of Berea.  I was put in contact with her by another professor from Arkansas.  I expressed my interested in her work, and was wondering what other types of fields of work one could go into, regarding caving.  At the suggestion from my adviser, I also asked about possible trips she, or other professors she knew might be doing for research, and if they had any positions for students seeking some hands on experience, for help.  To my surprise, I received an email from her this morning saying she would like to come swing over to Berea on her way to go caving so she could meet me, and we could talk!

Anglin Falls

This afternoon I called Daniel and asked him if he wanted to go hiking or something.  I couldn't bear to waste the nice 50 degree, sunny day.  We won't get another one for a while.  So he called me back later and told me we would go hiking to Anglin Falls.  So at 3 me Daniel, Jacob Patton, and Jacob M went down to James and Jayme's house.  We met them and all piled into their vehicle and drove out to the trailhead for Anglin Falls.

When we got to the falls most everyone just sat around at the bottom of the falls.  But Jacob M and I hiked all around it.  We found a smaller falls off to the right, and eventually found a way to climb up above the waterfall.  I got some pictures of a smaller stair step falls before it went over the edge.

We fooled around up there for a while, and I lay down on the rock ledge and looked over, getting pictures and videos.  I don't know what it is, but I like to get as close as I can to the edge of waterfalls.

After Jacob and I came back down we sat around a little more, and then hiked back to the parking area, and went back to school.  It was a fun hike, and a nice way to enjoy this really warm, sunny weekend we have had.  Too bad it won't last... The freezing temperatures are coming again.