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