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kvmapr
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Post subject: Highland County Cave Survey - Dec. 26, 2004
 Posted: Dec 30, 2004 - 03:56 AM
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Joined: Jun 16, 2004
Posts: 224
Status: Offline
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Highland County Cave Survey
Report for December 26, 2004 thru January 2, 2005
by Rick Lambert
On Sunday we had five people show up so we headed to Eagle Cave on Ginseng Mountain. Those used, abused and put away wet were, Alex Dymersky, Josh Rubenstein, Scott Wahlquist, Chris Woodley and I. We had asked for permission to do the cave once before and the owner said no, even though he let us drive up and look at the pit. While Carol Peterson and I were driving through Blue Grass one day he was setting on the porch of the store and I decided it was time to use our secret weapon, a pretty girl! We introduced ourselves, Carol asked and he said yes. The description in the VSS files said there was a six-foot drop to a 20’ drop. I loaded a sling and a 30’ cable ladder and away we went. The pit was not where the dot on the VSS map put it, but the fog plume and ice on the rolls of old fence wire told us where the cave was. Did I mention the temperature was 9 degrees? Looking for the way in under the wire Scott knocked a big rock in and it bounced a lot more than 20 feet. We hooked a chain to the fence wire and then to the truck and pulled enough wire out to get us in. Scott decided he was going to rig a rope and rappel in and see if a cable ladder would work. At the bottom he shouted up that the ladder might reach. We rigged it and it was about 6 feet off the sloping floor so an etrier was sent in. While they surveyed the cave I re-did some GPS readings that I had transposed or mis-read the UTM numbers. Afterwards I dropped the pit into the single room that was 75 feet long, 35 feet wide and 25 feet high. The cave was obviously in the Keyser/Tonoloway limestone due to the red lenticular layers exposed in the walls and breakdown. The cave had a minimal amount of trash, which we brought out. The oddest sight was two very large calcite encrusted leg bones. We exited without incident, threw the fence wire back on the pile, and locked the gate behind us.
On Monday, we were going to send a team to April Showers Pit and another to continue with The Project. When Josh saw the inch or so of snow he rebelled and absolutely refused to walk up the Bullpasture Mountain in the snow. We decided to split into two teams. Alex Dymersky, Scott Wahlquist and Chris Woodley headed to Sustained Orgasm Cave in 14-degree temperatures. The cave ended in 98.26 feet. Scott’s comment was, “It is a pretty cave”. The cave was left rigged for one final photo trip. Josh Rubenstein and I headed to the Battlefield (which had no snow) to sort out Hickory Pit, which we did.
On Tuesday, it was 10 degrees and it was only Chris Woodley and I. We headed to Virginia Tech Pit with two ropes and a cable ladder. As we stopped at the owner’s house he said he wanted to show us the sinking stream. I asked if it was the one down hill from the pit. He said no. While he ate breakfast we rigged the pit and then rode with him on his four-wheeler to a sinkhole that looked like something from West Virginia. It was deep, terraced, and had a hole big enough for a person to get in. The owner said the last time he saw it the hole was about three feet high and four feet wide. I thought, “How in the hell did something like this get missed over the last 60 years?” Chris and I told him we would take the project on when the weather warms up a bit. He took us back to the truck and the pit and in we went. We were going to drop into the canyon to the north of the entrance canyon. We rigged the rope back in the entrance canyon and rappelled the nine feet to the floor. I realized after getting down that Barry and I, last month, probably could have boosted and pulled each other up. The canyon went both ways with one side passageway that went back under the main canyon. We surveyed all directions to cobble fills. The total survey in the North Canyon was 115.14’. There were a lot of bones in the canyon and the only pool of water had white millipedes in it. We returned to the Main Canyon and I knocked a ledge off a small tube we were saving for Rick Royer. I didn’t think I could get in so Chris tried. He made it and said it goes to another canyon. I took off my seat harness and worked my way in. My heartbeat was BOOMING in my ears. I was pushing my pack ahead of me and had to take my helmet off because it was getting smaller! I asked Chris how he got through and he said, “I just did!” He took my pack and I squeezed through and I didn’t like it. I thought to myself, “This is why people quit caving.” We continued the survey to a split. To the left the canyon went to a six-passageway junction. I looked at all six of them and they looked like what I had just come through. Chris asked which way I wanted to go and I said, “Up,” which was to the right. He did a hairy climb and it ended. We shot back down to the left and Chris asked me what time it was. Neither of us had a watch so we could only guess. He chose to end the survey with 68.91 feet surveyed in the South Canyon. As we prepared to head out he commented that there was still a lot of cave to survey. I said I would send Rick Royer with him the next time. He asked me if I was coming back and I told him I would let him know in a minute. Chris chose to go first in the event I got stuck. As he worked his way back through the tube I checked a parallel passageway for a better route. It turned out to be lower than the tube he was in. My turn came and I worked my way through slowly with no wasted effort. As he grabbed my pack I told him I would come back again. Some times you just have to suck up your gut and just do it! |
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posted by KVMAPR
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