Pete's Drag-In

by Pete James

May 21-23, '99

Trip participants: Matt Jenkins, Richard Mann, Bill Mattocks, Frank Filz, Ken Walsh, Mark Little, and Pete James

Friday night at 7 PM, Matt showed up at my place in Hillsborough in his Jeep to start the journey. After a brief stop at Wendy's at Wytheville (a tiny theater on Main Street was inexplicibly showing "Star Wars I"), we arrived at Raccoon Branch campground at 10:30 PM; causing me to annoy campers with my tent-stake hammering until after 11:30 PM (I was tired and had grown used to Cathy's helping me with the tent, so I was making mistakes [Cathy could not go with me on this trip due to a church event]).

I got a good night's sleep and Saturday morning at 8, Ken hammered on my tent stakes some more to wake us up. By 8:30, we were on our way to Frannie's in Marion, and by 9:15, it started raining - hard. Fortunately, it was raining only lightly to moderately when we changed and entered the cave around 11 AM (although we had to wait a couple minutes more while Matt cut his toenails).

Despite the fact that I had not caved since the Girl Scout trip in early November last year, the entrance slope and 6' drop to the Grantham Room seemed easier than I remembered (or dreaded). We then entered the Anastamoses Maze, and I heard Matt talking about "webbing" and "the other webbing." This made me nervous. It was actually just a wide chimney-down.

At this point, Frank became nauseous and had to exit the cave. I had to answer the call of nature and Matt had to fetch the digging tools (now that we were down to one sketcher). So we exited the cave - it was easy, and the entrance slope is easy to climb when you've been in the cave only an hour and you're not carrying a pack (I left mine at the bottom of the entrance slope since I was re-entering the cave).

We exited to find a bright, sunny day. We re-entered the cave and made our way through and found Ken and the rest of the gang happily surveying an upper passage with an extremely steep drop to our position. We surveyed the last shot of the survey (a tie-in to an older survey where we were) and Ken sent us to another room near the bottom of the Breakdown Staircase.

At this room, Ken told us to turn right at a crack and go through a "kinda tight" canyon. Since Ken had successfully negotiated this canyon, he was certain I could go through it. I went to the right of the rock and recognized the canyon. On a tourist trip years ago, I had been invited to go through it, saw how tight it was, and politely declined. I should have done the same this time, but knowing how in the early '90s I only successfully got past Big Bertha in Jake Horne Cave on the third cave trip, I made the attempt.

This canyon was between 7 and 12 inches wide, with the width varying at various heights and depths in the passage. I went forward in bellycrawl mode and was stopped by an obstruction about 10 feet in. I backed up and tried again, also without success. Two rocks at ground level that were obstructing me could be easily removed, so I dragged them back with me and put them out of the main path. I tried a third time, again unsuccessful. Matt (who had easily slipped through and was trying to help me) suggested I face to the right instead of the left, so I backed up and tried again, again without success. I finally gave up and returned to this room, having exhausted much of my remaining energy (by the way, I saw a tiny 1-inch baby salamander on the way back out of this passage).

A 3" hole along a dry stream passage went to where the group was surveying, so I was never out of earshot of them. There was another canyon passage going in the other direction from this room; it was extremely narrow and tight, not quite as bad as the canyon I had given up on, but it was definitely bellycrawl and, if it didn't go, I would have to back up to exit. Having depleted much of my energy reserves, I was not in the mood to do another belly crawl that may or may not go. So, I waited.

Eventually, Matt was no longer needed by the surveyors; he returned via the canyon I could not pass through (if it still unnamed, I want to call it "Pete-stopper canyon" - Ken suggested naming the 35-foot-high rock next to this canyon "Pete's Dragon" or "Pete's Drag-in" [Ed: it does have a pointed ridge on top that is impossible to "scale"]) and we proceeded to a room 2 rooms away from the Octopus Room, in the mazy part of the cave.

There, I waited while Matt and Richard (who joined us) did a quick trip to the Toilet Bowls area). Again, although I didn't know where Ken and the gang were, they were never out of earshot. I am amazed at how many different passages are in this section of cave. Eventually, Matt and Richard came back and we went through another bellycrawl (how did this cave get so many bellycrawls?) to where Ken and the others were surveying, and again they were near the end of a loop. The area they were in was reminiscent of many locales in Star Wars movies (you weren't expecting to get through this without another Star Wars reference, were you?) because the ceiling is "out of sight" above us and there were holes dropping "out of sight" below us that we had to avoid.

Ken had Matt and I survey the last two stations of the loop. This required me to stand up on a sloping floor (sloping into the "infinite abyss" mentioned above) and take difficult shots. We got our two shots [Ed: one of which was on the side of Pete?s Drag-in], completing the loop, then exited to the Octopus Room. While Ken gave everyone else a quick tour of the cave, Bill Mattocks and I decided to exit. Now that we had exerted ourselves and I was carrying my pack, the entrance slope and 6' climbdown were back to their usual obnoxious selves.

We had encountered several Pipistrelle bats on the walls and a few regular-sized salamanders near the entrance. Near the top of the entrance slope, I decided to put my pack on one of the "shelves" just below the entrance. You guessed it - the pack went flying back down the slope. I exited, Bill attached his pack and mine to the ladder, I raised the ladder and retrieved the packs, then Bill exited the cave. Part of the reason I had trouble with my pack is that while I was waiting in the room next to Pete Stopper Canyon, I found and packed away some trash in the room, including a beer can completely full of mud. "Old Milwaukee Mud - look like you've caved, even when you haven't!"

We were out of the cave at 7 PM; the cave trip was 8 hours long. Although we only got 189 feet of survey, we checked out all leads in that area of the cave except one off the Corn Cob Crawl.

Afterwards, we ate the usual dinner at La Paloma (Richard was accompanied by his family visiting from Zimbabwe, who had joined Richard on the camping part of the trip - not caving), then returned to camp a little after 10 PM. Once again (like on Friday evening), it was a clear night, and Ken taught me another card game, Spades, which we played until almost midnight. (Matt reminded me to note here that he and Mark "kicked the butts" off of Ken and me at this game.)

Sunday morning, I was moved to action by Ken's comment about "we don't want to take down our tents in the rain" - it turned out to be partly to mostly cloudy and didn't rain. We had to make veiled threats that we would disconnect the brakes on Matt's car to get him out of bed (at which time the rest of us already had our tents down), and I quickly helped Matt take down his tent and we were back on the road by 9 AM (having had a quick drive-thru breakfast in Marion). I was home by 12:30 PM.
 

One For the Zipper

By Ken Walsh

As my head began to fill with sinus pressure (created by camping in a grassy field), I rushed off to the entrance of Hancock Cave on Saturday morning, hoping to get an early start underground. Four out of five Dukies were waiting for me, but not the one with the five helmets. We strolled up to the bend in the road to identify trees on the surface before Professor Rob Jackson arrived with helmets.
Nadi Findikli, Matt Jenkins, and I escorted/lifted the botanists to the High Root room inside the cave where they discovered a plethora of roots. They spent an hour discussing the roots and soil in the High Root before disappearing back down to the Breakdown Staircase. Meanwhile, Nadi, Matt, and I rigged a rope in the High Root and surveyed into the Zipper Passage. The shots were everything I had warned them about: fifty-degree inclinations down a narrow chute. For fear of the loose rocks with high kinetic energy, Nadi had to chimney out of the way every time Matt and I moved. At one point in the chute, I think Matt?s best foothold, while surveying down to Nadi?s point, was Nadi?s shoulder.

The chute (nicknamed the FL Tower based on the survey designation) ended in a room with two pits: the first one couldn?t accommodate Nadi?s breadth (we pushed), and the second was beneath breakdown rubble. Nadi decided that nothing was under the breakdown where he sat and wouldn?t allow Matt to join him. After several hours of standing in the wet passage and Matt dropping his pack down a narrow crack in the floor, Nadi allowed Matt to join him in the breakdown and they masterfully surveyed down the pit to the stream waiting below.

I finished sketching beneath the breakdown pile, hauled the rope up the pit, and began ascending the way I came in. Otherwise, there was no way the rope would?ve pulled up out of the Zipper Passage. As I climbed straight up into the Zipper with my two packs, my left arm (still badly bruised from a roller skating mishap) balked as I reached the top. I found myself slowly sliding the slippery slope back to the base of the Zipper. I heard Matt?s and Nadi?s voices floating from above, so I called to them for help. If I could just get rid of my packs, I would be able to continue climbing.

What I didn?t realize was that their voices actually came from the bottom of the Breakdown Staircase. Matt moved quickly (while Nadi got lost in the Staircase) but not fast enough to get to me before I slid back to the bottom of the Zipper. After relieving myself of the packs, I rested my arm and straddled across the chute, into the Zipper, out of the cave, and to Pizza Hut®.

I suppose it was my due punishment for dragging my feet on drafting the Hancock map. Saturday morning I was eager to begin the weekend of Hancock Cave exploration and surveying. I was eager, but not so anxious as to skip the necessary primitive morning burial ritual. I hiked up the hillside near our campsite and performed the task. When I returned to the campsite, decisions had been made. This in itself was odd. Normally, large group inertia prevents any decision from being made in less than a half-hour, but this one must have squeezed through committee in about 25 minutes. Since Nadi was acting trip leader, Ken made the decision that we needed to break into two trips, the Exploration trip and Gordon's trip. The logic for this decision was unquestionably solid. The Exploration trip to the Zipper Passage could not fit everyone so we needed two groups and who would be better to go on Gordon's trip than Gordon. It was decided; Bill Bussey and I would profile the cave from the entrance to the sump.

With our mission, we entered the cave and promptly spent an hour still within sight of the daylight of the entrance. We searched out each of the survey stations from the A and AB surveys as we made our way to the Octopus Room. Bill drew the profiles of the right wall of the passage and I searched for survey stations and took instrument readings when necessary. After we reached the Octopus Room, we decided to take a fun break. We went up through the Breakdown Staircase on a pilgrimage to get a peek at the famed root. I carried the frankincense while Bill brought the gold. We couldn't find any myrrh at the Harris Teeter. Probably a spelling or pronunciation problem when we asked the grunge dude stocking the bananas. Finding the root was more of challenge than we expected. The Duke people told us that "there were lots of roots". We expected to walk into a room with roots just pouring out of the ceiling like hair on the back of a 60-year old changing in the locker room at the YMCA. But that is not what we found. We had to return to the climb and yell out for directions from Matt and Ken. They directed us to a hose-sized root sneaking into the room

from a seam formed between the left wall and the floor. The root was impressive as far as roots go.

After this side trip, Bill and I were rejuvenated enough to return to profiling. We returned to the Octopus Room and profiled along the Toilet Bowl Passage to the sump. Along the way, I found a lead off to the left through a hole about 8 feet up the wall near station F12. A plan came to me. It was crazy and complicated, but I thought with the proper planning it just might work. I would tell Ken about this lead and on Sunday, he would take his group of lazy second day cavers in for an easy lead only to find a tight vertical drop with 40-degree inclinations to survey. If done right, that could waste his whole day. Vengeance is sweet. Bill and I finished profiling down to the sump and called it a day. We left the cave about 6:30 pm after about 7 hours of caving. We did a little walking along the surface above the cave to look for the 3^rd entrance that was marked on Bill's gazetteer. I began to plan my Sunday morning mutiny and practice my whining.

By Nadi Findikli

Now, some youngsters seem to be under the mistaken impression that a survey trip is for their enjoyment. Nay, a weekend for frolicking about in the tall grass. Whereas everybody who needs to sit down to tie their cave boots knows that a survey weekend is for old coots to stuff youngsters into (preferably) miserable passages that they do not want to get into. After inflicting said stuffing upon my tired bones Saturday, letting Gordon-I-am-not-enjoying-this-survey-Bolt take the cushy job of profiling so that he can maybe draw a map someday, and having had a belly-full of the WHINING from the young?uns, I bade them ?be-gone? and decided to once again do some REAL surveying. Of course, not in my wildest nightmares would I imagine that the afore-mentioned Gordon character would send a tired sack of old bones (me), a beginner on his first cave trip (Christian Lindquist), and Ken-ouch-my-wrist-Walsh into a tight, vertical, loose-rocks-rolling-on-my-head passage. Fortunately we had Linda-I?ll-carry-your-wimpy-male-asses-if-I-have-to-Waters with us.

Anyway, apparently on the previous "F" survey from the Octopus Room to the Funnel Tunnel, we missed one major side-passage, about thirty feet from the Octopus Room! First we took a couple of shots to get from F12 into the pit, then rigged a cable ladder down it. At this point Christian, on his first cave trip, bravely sat on a cold rock for three hours and belayed people down the pit. We sent Linda down on my 50? webbing. When that ran out, I tied another 15? onto the end. When THAT ran out and we had to tie another webbing on, I had two thoughts: "jackpot!" and "not another vertical survey in two days..."

I ran back to the nuisance drop to collect the other 50? webbing (and de-rig the etrier) so we?d have another belay line. So we get Linda off belay and get Ken to belay me so that Christian and I can survey. As I hang upside-down over the drop, I notice Ken is up there helping Christian. (Who the #$@^# is belaying ME?) It turns I am now tied to a BFR [Ed: it wasn?t really that big], ooooookay! There are two openings from the main passage into the pit, and we had to shoot from one to the other to be able to aim down the drop.

Unfortunately the Whine Cellar did not turn left (towards You-Don?t-Know-Jack Pit) as we had hoped, but right towards the Toilet Bowls. After an initial 20-foot drop, the passage turns right, and continuing for another 40 feet down at an angle of about 45 degrees, the passage ends up at a streambed that (according to Ken) is the same stream bed that runs under the Toilet Bowls. Surveying down the crack leading from the pit to the streambed, we had to switch places a few times to allow my left-eyed readings and Linda?s right-eyed readings to work. We had to do some creative instrument reading, chimneying six feet off the floor or laying upside down in the streambed (which was mercifully dry where we were surveying). Leading upstream, the streambed left me with the choice of crawling half in the water or squeezing through six inches. Being about nine hours into the survey, we decided to declare victory since we already knew which way the passage led. Above the stream, Linda pushed a high canyon lead that should tie back to the main passage at a point where there is a crack crossing the F survey. We finished with a few terminal shots and sketching down at the stream.

After we dragged ourselves, the cable ladder, and all the webbing out of the drop, I showed Christian the passage to the Funnel Tunnel lest he think the whole cave is tight and vertical. After spending some time trying to look into another tight crack (No Linda, you CAN?T get through 4 inches), we headed on out.

All in all, we managed to survey 126 feet, mostly averaging about 50 degrees inclination. We also had the satisfaction of knowing that we did not run in search of easy passage, but did the hard work and knocked off another side lead to finalize another part of the Hancock Cave survey. On the way out we resisted the temptation to de-rig everything, because we wanted the other team to carry the stuff back to camp.

By Matt Jenkins

I awoke to find myself in a strange environment. A strange yellow light filtered down to me from above. The air was hot and humid, heavy with the scent of earth. Spiders danced above my head, and I felt as if I were wrapped in a tightly-knit cocoon. As my senses returned to me I realized that I was inside my tent wrapped in my sleeping bag. I also realized that the sun shining through the tent was slowly baking me alive. I scrambled out of my sleeping bag and burst through the tent door, immediately becoming tangled in the waist-high grass that covered the area. The air, however, was much cooler and I began to appreciate the sunny weather.

Ken was the only other person awake and he was already changing into his polypro. He was in a hurry to get into the cave due to his allergic reaction to the grass surrounding us. I opened the back of Gordon?s car and pulled out my tub of caving gear. One look at my muddy cave suit and I began to appreciate the sunny weather even more. I even went so far as to mutter something about today being a nice day for a hike. I decided to postpone putting on my muddy cave gear and I laid it all out in the sun to dry while I cooked breakfast.

The smell of dehydrated eggs did the trick and soon the rest of the cavers were awake. While I ate breakfast, Gordon coerced Bill Bussey and myself into going beyond the sump [Ed: despite Ken?s objections based on the Spring dampness of the Funnel Tunnel]. Bill and Gordon had both had an easy previous day profiling near the entrance, so they were ready for a harder trip. I was still tired from the day before, but my desire to go beyond the sump won out and I decided to join them. We all suited up and headed for the entrance. Upon reaching the entrance Gordon discovered that he left his lamp in the car. While he fetched his light, the rest of us entered the cave.

Once we reached the Octopus Room, Bill showed the other group their lead for the day. By this time Gordon had returned, so he, Bussey, and I made our way to the Funnel Tunnel. I decided to go first and was pleased to see that there was no water flowing through the sump. However, once I got to the first tight spot I found myself lying in a wet puddle of mud. I backed out of the tunnel to remove my helmet and decided to let Gordon go first. This proved to be an excellent idea because Gordon?s cotton cave suit managed to suck up quite a bit of moisture. I followed Gordon through and could hear Bill behind me. Two tight, muddy spots later we emerged on the other side of the sump.

From here Gordon led the way and we soon reached the Tortoise Shell Room. We located what we believed to be a station from the previous trip and began our survey there. In addition, we marked the rock with a question mark, since we were unsure of the original survey point?s designation. I took foresights, Bill took backsights and Gordon tried his hand at sketching. We surveyed under the Tortoise Shell up the formation river. We marked our stations with the GW letters in honor of Gordon?s Whining that morning about survey trips. The first stations were relatively easy shots, and we were able to tie in to a rock cairn I built on the last survey. Tied into two survey points, we were certain that we would be able to locate the tie-in points on the previous sketches. Bill had a hard time reading Gordon?s instruments, so I switched sets with him and we continued on our way. The passage dimensions shrunk down and we had to crawl through the water to proceed down the river. After taking several uncomfortable shots in the water, we reached a room where we could all stand up. To our left was a low, wide lead with what looked like 8 inches of clearance. Bill decided to crawl in and see if it went further. Bill proved to be too big for the lead, but he was able to determine that the passage opened up beyond. A few minutes of digging here will definitely allow someone clearance, but for now we left the lead with the name ?Oh Shit, It Goes!?

Gordon sketched in the lead and Bill made his way further down the formation river. Soon we heard his voice coming through a small hole on the side of the OSIG lead. For some reason his voice seemed to be echoing rather loudly and then we heard it fade rapidly into the distance in a series of whoops and hollers. Bill eventually returned with tales of big walking passage. We surveyed around the corner and Bill showed us the lead he crawled through. I mentioned that the walking passage I was referring to was still further down the river but we decided to head for the stuff Bill discovered.

Gordon and I were both slightly chilled and lapsed into our customary pre-hypothermia giddiness. We began calling everything ?Nooga.? There was ?Nooga this? and ?Nooga that.? Gordon even went so far as to name a high flowstone climbing lead which we didn?t survey the ?Shining Nooga.? We surveyed down the main trunk passage until we came to a turn to the right. Bill claimed to have stopped scooping just around the turn but, as near as I could see, his bootprints continued for a ways afterwards. We surveyed down this section noting several leads in the right wall. The floor consisted of a very sticky coating of mud, and at the end of the passage I saw a large stalagmite and some very nice rimstone dams with crystals around the top. Since Gordon forgot to bring a camera, I asked him to sketch the formations instead. Gordon declined on the premise that the formations would not be very impressive drawn to a scale of 25 feet to the inch. We surveyed around to the right of the stalagmite and noted several not-too-promising leads. From here we made our way back down the passage to check out the side leads we had passed.

Bill crawled into the first without much luck. I crawled into the second and determined that it might go. It was a tight passage and I had to lay on my side to fit in. I was able to make it far enough in to determine that two ninety-degree turns would have to be negotiated in order to continue. At this point I backed out into the main passage and Gordon crawled into the third and most promising lead. It was a low crawl, but really not too tight and Gordon made his way through it quickly. I soon heard him yelling back that he had found the Lost Nooga. I immediately crawled after him and emerged into a nice big room with many leads. We poked into a few of them and determined that there is indeed quite a bit of surveying left to be done in Hancock Cave. I followed the passage back towards the formation river and emerged in a spot I remembered from my reconnaissance on the previous trip. This was indeed the fabled walking passage I had been describing to anyone who would listen.

I headed back downstream and then to the right completing a loop and returning to the low crawl which led to the Lost Nooga. From here we surveyed up the crawl and into the big room. I became slightly chilled and was unable to hold my mag-lite far enough away from the compass to get an accurate reading, so we made two backsights instead. The backsights agreed and we set a few more stations ending on a 57-foot-long shot. All of us were happy with the day?s work and we made our way back out of the cave.

Upon emerging at the surface, we encountered Ken and Nadi planting shrubbery on the hillside. It was 10:45 pm and we hurried to camp to change and head into town for food. Upon reaching Marion we were unable to find anything open. We stopped at a gas station and they directed us 8 miles down the road to another place which might be open. We found the 24-hour restaurant closed as well. We stopped at another gas station and were told that the Hardee?s in Marion is open 24 hours a day. At this point we were tired of driving around and ate at the gas station instead. We managed to consume almost every sandwich in the cold case as well as several Hot Pockets® and hot dogs. Thus sated we headed back to camp to enjoy a few beers.
 

Rare Cavefish Found By Scientists

From 1999 National Cave Management Symposium, October 19-23,1998 Chattanooga, Tennessee

Dr. Whit Gibbons and Dr. Kurt Buhlmann, scientists from the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (SREL) accompanied John Jensen and Jim Ozier of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources on a spelunking expedition in north Georgia last week and found a rare, blind fish known as a southern cavefish. As teachers of ecology students and courses at the University of Georgia, both Gibbons and Buhlmann take every opportunity to acquaint themselves with the rich biodiversity of the southeastern region. Exploring caves adds another dimension to their quest for discovering and understanding the biology of the region's inhabitants. Cavefish are not just blind; they are eyeless. They are small white fish known to inhabit the waters deep beneath the earth but they are rarely seen by people because they are found only at limited points at which underground lakes can be reached through caves. While some scientists look for the cavefish for years, this group had been underground for about an hour and had come to the end of a winding tunnel. The rain outside was making the water level of the cave rise when Buhlmann spotted the fish. Within 30 minutes he was able to capture it using a net. Only two other individual cavefish have ever been caught in Georgia, one in 1969 and one in 1973. Little is known about this elusive fish. Even to call them rare may be inaccurate. They may be abundant, but simply live outside our knowledge. Their number cannot be estimated and no one knows how they live or reproduce. As Dr. Gibbons points out, "The ultimate question is how many species are living beneath the earth's surface that humans are yet to find, and perhaps never will?"

To submit information for publication in the Troglodyte Tribune, please submit electronic material to the editor at kwalsh@raleigh.saic.com. Electronic word processing documents are preferred in Rich Text Format (RTF); most software word processors allow users to save files in RTF format. Microsoft Word and Word Perfect documents may also be acceptable. Contact the editor about other types of files. Any written material or notices should be sent to the editor?s attention at Triangle Troglodytes, PO Box 13141, RTP, NC 27709-3141.

Any applications to join the Triangle Troglodytes should send $12 to the Triangle Troglodytes, PO Box 13141, RTP, NC 27709-3141. Please include your name, address, phone numbers, NSS number, and email address.
 

7:30 PM at Wildwood Apartments Clubhouse. Take the Jones Franklin Rd. exit off of the Raleigh Beltline. Go south on Jones Franklin, and make the left into Wildwoods Apartments. Go through the Clubhouse to get to the pool.

Call Susanna (834-3220) if you need more directions.

Bring drinks and munchies.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Triangle Troglodytes

P.O. Box 13141

RTP, NC 27709-3141