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kvmapr
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Post subject: From The Archives: Harman Pit Survey
 Posted: Oct 25, 2004 - 04:00 AM
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Joined: Jun 16, 2004
Posts: 224
Status: Offline
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Harman Pit Survey
Devin S. Kouts
Dec. 28, 2001
On August 14, 1999, members of the Potomac Speleological Club and other grottos conducted a ridgewalk on the northernmost exposures of limestone in Germany Valley. That ridgewalk began at the home of Rafe Pomerance and progressed up hill toward the crest of North Fork Mountain along two separate ravines.
Map of Harman Pit - copr. Devin Kouts
While walking in the first ravine, un-named on the topo map, several persons had the pleasure of meeting a local resident, Mr. Roy. After telling Mr. Roy what we were up to, he gave us verbal directions to a pit he knew of further up the ravine we were following. We followed his advice and soon found the pit, just across the fence line, off of Pomerance property and on Roy property.
Rick Lambert descends into Harman Pit - photo copr. Devin Kouts
In short order Rick Lambert, David Kegley (in street clothes), and I, were down the forty-foot entrance drop and surveying. The cave, known in Davie’s as “Harman Pit”, is not large, just a couple hundred feet long, but it exhibits passage characteristics typical of Germany Valley. That is to say a large sinuous trunk passage, seeming prematurely truncated at both ends, and punctuated with massive flowstone related formations.
David Kegley surveys in street clothes in Harman Pit - photo copr. Devin Kouts
Ceilings heights range from 3 feet to over twenty. The entrance drop is narrow yet comfortable at the top and a nearly clean drop to the entrance room floor. In the entrance room a large compound stalactite formation has formed on the ceiling. This type of formation is sometimes referred to as a “showerhead”.
Devin Kouts in the short borehole segment of Harman Pit - photo by Rick Lambert
The floor of the cave is relatively level except for the steep flowstone slope that leads down from the entrance room and into the rest of the cave. Toward the far reaches of the cave a climb up on the northwest wall gives access to a short, but moderately decorated upper level. Two high leads appear near the ceiling above this climb and proved inaccessible to the survey team. The total surveyed length of Harman Pit is 293.5 feet, and surveyed depth is 52 feet.
The entrance of Harman Pit - photo by Devin Kouts |
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posted by KVMAPR
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