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!