Kentucky Caving July 19-27

20th- Mostly an uneventful trip to re-rig all the major ropes and pits in the cave. I injured my arm a few days ago which made caving awkward. I quickly learned what I could do and what sent an instant jolt of pain through my body. I got to place my first bolt!

21st- A long, but great, day of caving. I got to see a section of the cave I've never been to before. Pleasant walking stream passage in places, which turn to wet crawls submerging all but my head and shoulders. We crossed off several leads (potential cave passages). The other team surveyed and mapped almost 1000 feet of passage while the two of us went all the way down to where the creek sumps (where the water drains with no air like when you pull the plug on an full bathtub). Along the way there were several mountains of mud to climb (using a crow bar like an ice axe) and then slide down the other side. The whole room at the end of the sump was full of impressively slurpy mud- every step sunk into just below my knees. We found the lead we wanted to check out and discovered that it was a little better than we expected- larger in size and absolutely howling air (strong air means lots of cave beyond). I slid down the wet mud into a pancake-shaped passage floored with liquefied mud. Any movement prompted a waterbed-like response. I was able to just clear enough mud and divert enough water that I could slide through the constriction submerging only one ear. I went about 75 feet down this passage- enough to tell that the passage likely keeps going and that we would have to return with wetsuits and a rock hammer. No one has been in this passage before and it goes in a direction where there is no known cave and where there is supposed to be a large underground river. And it has the strongest air in the whole cave. Very promising! Completely covered in mud and very cold from the water and wind chill, it took me awhile to warm up and recover. On the way out I climbed up into the top of a 20 feet high virgin (unexplored) slot passage that went for about 200 feet to a beautiful bedrock dome room with dripping waterfall and excellent stylolites in the limestone. I'm tired. My body looks like it was mauled by a tiger and it's only day 2!

22nd- Rest day! Today we recovered from our trip yesterday and prepared for a long trip tomorrow. We went on 2 different Mammoth Cave (longest cave in the world; 167 miles) tours today so we still got in some caving. I thought the Historic tour was pretty decent, although they both felt a little like Disneyland. High hopes for tomorrow...

23rd- A pretty successful 14 hour cave trip! We crawled for about 100 feet in my wet belly crawl from the 21st, which thankfully opened up to lots of walking/stooping passage. Then another short crawl, which brought us to a large dome complex (series of rooms with high ceilings). The main dome was about 50 feet high and intersected a nice-looking passage in the ceiling. Some pretty calcite formations and several dripping waterfalls. After trying to climb to the upper level (hopeless because of mud and lack of hand holds), I was able to push through a series of vertical and horizontal squeezes that got us into the mid-level of the dome room. There were several smaller holes up here with small streams coming out of them but they were all too small or led to climbing leads. One of the other cavers dug open a hole that went to a side area with another climbing lead. The air becomes more difficult to find out where it's coming from but best we can tell it's from the ceiling in the main dome. Getting up there will require a 15 foot traverse with a 5 foot climb. This will be a pain because it means dragging vertical gear, ropes and a bolt kit all the way to the bottom of the cave, through the wet ear-dip squeeze and down the crawlways. Really fantastic fossils in this area. The fossils (corals, horn coral, shells) in the limestone are more resistent than the limestone itself and so they stick out of walls and ceilings. I really wanted to call this area Bugles in Space because the horn corals look exactly like the snack food and in most cases are only connected to the rock by the smallest fragment of limestone. Plus I thought it was a cool name. We mapped and surveyed about 700 feet of passage and discovered a total of about 1000 feet. The cave keeps getting longer by the day. This whole area is REALLY close to where the large underground river should be! That scary traverse/climb could be the ticket to it all!

24th- Today we went in a totally new entrance to the cave for us. Right from the get-go it was wet (up to neck) and I was very glad I decided to wear a wetsuit. Much of the 7 hour trip involved low stooping or flat out belly crawls over pointy rocks. Once we got into the main streamway though we were rewarded with long sections of very comfortable walking/wading and it was really quite scenic. Two people went off to survey a passage, while another caver and I went to check out a "dig" lead with good air. I could fit through both constrictions without digging at all but I helped dig so the other guy could get through. After about 100 feet of meandering canyon passage we could hear the tell-tale dripping of a dome room. We came out into a beautiful complex of dome rooms- orange calcite formations, a 70+ foot sculpted dome, coral fossils and a really promising climbing lead. The way on (where the air goes) seems to be a canyon about 25 feet off the deck of one of the domes- an easy climb with the proper gear. Everywhere I looked it was very clear that this whole passage had been completely virgin. No one had seen it before us. Another really enjoyable trip.

25th- Excellent trip today (9 hrs). By far the best part of the cave I've been to so far- a wet, low mud-slogging crawl that amazingly breaks up into a 40-50 foot diameter borehole passage coated in sparkling gypsum crystals and gypsum flowers. A comfortable stroll down this passage leads to an extremely interesting area. The borehole passage intersects 4+ pits that appear to go down 60-80 feet (yet another place to return to with rope and vertical gear). To get around an 80 foot deep pit to get to the continuing passage we had to go across an obstacle called "Death Ledge." Here we had to climb up to a 3 foot wide ledge (missing in some places) and traverse sideways around the pit. To get off the ledge we had to climb down a loose ramp of rock onto another large loose boulder which in turn was precariously balanced on the edge of the pit. The whole thing was not very confidence inspiring (see the sketch below). We also found an interesting canyon 1 foot wide and 50 feet high that would be worth rappelling into. This whole area is very weird- the cave just doesn't make sense here. Lots of potential here. This week it has become very clear that there are miles and miles of passage in this cave just waiting to be discovered. Nothing like a week of caving to make you feel like you are in both the best (really ripped and muscley) and worst (aches, cuts and bruises) shape of your life. Bedtime- I am wiped. Tomorrow I return to the infamous Don't Have Kids Crawl.

26th- Another long venture to the furthest extent of a portion of the cave. Our goal was to spend some time digging the floor of the tightest spot of Don't Have Kids Crawl so that normal-sized people could fit through. The crawl is tight (I took off my helmet and knee pads)- the very experienced caver I was with said it was worse than a very notorious 1000 foot long crawl in another cave. We brought digging tools but quickly realized it would take a lot of work to make the passage larger so we gave up. Two of the people in our team could not fit through leaving one other caver and I to survey the passage on the other side which we agreed should be called the Road to Perdition for reasons obvious to us. We surveyed for several hours leaving several hundred feet to survey another time. The passage ends in what appears to be a very easy dig that may lead to a very remote portion of a nearby cave. Coming back out of the cave (particularly through the crawl and up the rope drops) was very taxing and it took us a long time to get back out of the cave. I was so delirious by the time I got out I thought everything was funny. To this day the name holds: no one who has kids has been able to fit through the crawl. Photos by PK: above- start of Road to Perdition, below- checking the survey, further below- coming out of DHK crawl (it gets much tighter!)

To summarize: I had an excellent trip. We surveyed a total of over a half mile of new cave for the week. I got to explore virgin passage 4 of the days. The trips were pleasantly varied this time around. And most importantly, we left a lot of very promising leads to explore next time- particularly great climbs and undropped pits.