Coon Cave
The second weekend in February was another GVKS (Germany Valley Karst Survey) weekend.
I was interested in a trip shorter then the 12 to 16 hour uber trips most of the GVKS does, so I organized a trip myself instead of leaching off of others. My plan was to survey an oft-visited but never surveyed cave, "Coon Cave", near Shover Eater Cave. I wanted to try my hand at sketching and cave cartography, and be out of the cave in time for dinner.
Friday night at 6:00 pm my friend Josh picked me up. We stopped at the Forest Glen Metro to pick up fellow caver Pete, and off we went. An uneventful 3.5 hour drive later we arrived at the GVKS Fieldhouse, to be greeted by a crowd of 15 people or so, standing about an enormous bonfire. We said our hellos and settled our gear in. Since the last time I was there, the Fieldhouse had been equipped with a bunch of mattresses. They were laid about on the upstairs floor and were a big improvement over a foam pad. Each was big enough for two adults, but most people got their's to themselves. I got a good night's sleep (not altogether common previously) and awoke as the first wave of cavers were departing.
The lazy people all met at the Gateway restaurant at about 9:00 am. There we discussed who was going where and doing what. I was able to borrow a second set of surveying instruments and it transpired that six of us would be going into Coon Cave. We would split into two groups of three and the groups would survey separately. Josh, Pete, and myself were one group. Miles, Doug, and Jamie were the other. We had a bit more diddling around the Fieldhouse before we set out, nice and organized.
I had (poorly understood) directions to the cave, but since Miles was coming and had been there before, I imagined getting to the entrance would be a breeze. Or not. It had been a long time since Miles was there, but we eventually found the entrance. It was a narrow entrance, maybe 18 inches wide and four feet long. Josh dropped a hand-line and the other survey group went down first, and all the gear was lowered down. The first passage is a narrow canyon, perhaps two feet wide at its widest. It took our team a while to get its act together, but eventually we were working like a somewhat oiled machine. It was Pete's first survey trip and my first time sketching.
The narrow canyon terminated at the top level of a 20' diameter room. We surveyed into the room then dropped to the lower level. A 5' wide passage lead back the way we came, sometimes connected to the canyon above, sometimes not. The walls of the lower passage had lots of small formations, mostly cave coral, and some very stubby and knobby stalactites (which might have a name of their own). We stopped for a snack and a break, then continued. The floor got much muddier and the passage wound around a bit, still three or four feet wide with lots of cave coral in places. We eventually came to my cable ladder, which the other group had rigged. The ladder led into a pit, perhaps fifteen feet deep from our side and ten from the opposite side, about fifteen feet in diameter. This lead to a traverse, rigged in some long previous trip.
It was at this point we made voice contact with the other survey group. They had gone well back into the cave, and had been surveying back towards the traverse. Our group had all left its vertical gear (required for the traverse) up by the entrance, and we negotiated such that we didn't have to go back and get it. The traverse is a thin ledge around a fifty-foot pit, perhaps twenty feet in diameter. Doug came out the traverse line from the other side and set a station on the pit wall that we could shoot to. He did backsites to us, then shot from there to another place (out of sight from out group) where the other group could get to. Once those shots were made, our group headed out. We exited the cave about 7:00 pm, for an 8 hour trip. We placed 16 survey stations and surveyed just over 250 feet.
We got back to Josh's car, changed into clean clothes, and were about to depart, when we realized that we had Doug's clothes in Josh's car. We waited there for a while. The sky was beautifully clear and the stars were bright. At 7:30 or so we saw the lights of the other group. Giving Doug his stuff, we set off for the Gateway again for dinner, pushing against the 8:00 closing deadline. Luckily, it turned out they closed at 9:00 instead of 8:00. Food in much quantity was consumed as more cavers trickled in. I compared my sketches to the ones Miles did on his half of the survey, and found mine woefully lacking. I'll have to work on that. After dinner, it was back to the fieldhouse, and another bonfire. There was much socializing, I got a good night's rest again, we ate breakfast at the Gateway again with a bunch of people, then it was heading for home.
Normally my story would end at this point, for there is one moment of drama to relate. Somewhere between Seneca Rocks and Petersburg, we came upon a fallen tree blocking the road. Clearly it had fallen only recently. The road was a 55 mph two-lane. The tree has fallen from high on a hill to our left and across both lanes of traffic. Little enough of the tree reached onto the shoulder that we were able to get by. Just as we passed the tree, a semi came hurtling around the corner from the other direction. It locked up its breaks, made a huge cloud of rubber smoke, and plowed through the tree in the left-hand lane (the oncoming traffic lane relative to the truck). Josh (who saw it in the rear-view mirror) believed the trunk went through safely, but I felt guilty that we didn't have any flares or anything to put down for the next poor soul to come rocketing around that corner. A traffic jam on 66 delayed up by about 30 minutes and I got home at 2:00 or so, and pretty much goofed off the rest of the day.
[Edit - A friend of mine who drove past the fallen tree an hour later said it had been pretty much reduced to kindling with no car wreckage present, so I can stop feeling guilty.]
I was interested in a trip shorter then the 12 to 16 hour uber trips most of the GVKS does, so I organized a trip myself instead of leaching off of others. My plan was to survey an oft-visited but never surveyed cave, "Coon Cave", near Shover Eater Cave. I wanted to try my hand at sketching and cave cartography, and be out of the cave in time for dinner.
Friday night at 6:00 pm my friend Josh picked me up. We stopped at the Forest Glen Metro to pick up fellow caver Pete, and off we went. An uneventful 3.5 hour drive later we arrived at the GVKS Fieldhouse, to be greeted by a crowd of 15 people or so, standing about an enormous bonfire. We said our hellos and settled our gear in. Since the last time I was there, the Fieldhouse had been equipped with a bunch of mattresses. They were laid about on the upstairs floor and were a big improvement over a foam pad. Each was big enough for two adults, but most people got their's to themselves. I got a good night's sleep (not altogether common previously) and awoke as the first wave of cavers were departing.
The lazy people all met at the Gateway restaurant at about 9:00 am. There we discussed who was going where and doing what. I was able to borrow a second set of surveying instruments and it transpired that six of us would be going into Coon Cave. We would split into two groups of three and the groups would survey separately. Josh, Pete, and myself were one group. Miles, Doug, and Jamie were the other. We had a bit more diddling around the Fieldhouse before we set out, nice and organized.
I had (poorly understood) directions to the cave, but since Miles was coming and had been there before, I imagined getting to the entrance would be a breeze. Or not. It had been a long time since Miles was there, but we eventually found the entrance. It was a narrow entrance, maybe 18 inches wide and four feet long. Josh dropped a hand-line and the other survey group went down first, and all the gear was lowered down. The first passage is a narrow canyon, perhaps two feet wide at its widest. It took our team a while to get its act together, but eventually we were working like a somewhat oiled machine. It was Pete's first survey trip and my first time sketching.
The narrow canyon terminated at the top level of a 20' diameter room. We surveyed into the room then dropped to the lower level. A 5' wide passage lead back the way we came, sometimes connected to the canyon above, sometimes not. The walls of the lower passage had lots of small formations, mostly cave coral, and some very stubby and knobby stalactites (which might have a name of their own). We stopped for a snack and a break, then continued. The floor got much muddier and the passage wound around a bit, still three or four feet wide with lots of cave coral in places. We eventually came to my cable ladder, which the other group had rigged. The ladder led into a pit, perhaps fifteen feet deep from our side and ten from the opposite side, about fifteen feet in diameter. This lead to a traverse, rigged in some long previous trip.
It was at this point we made voice contact with the other survey group. They had gone well back into the cave, and had been surveying back towards the traverse. Our group had all left its vertical gear (required for the traverse) up by the entrance, and we negotiated such that we didn't have to go back and get it. The traverse is a thin ledge around a fifty-foot pit, perhaps twenty feet in diameter. Doug came out the traverse line from the other side and set a station on the pit wall that we could shoot to. He did backsites to us, then shot from there to another place (out of sight from out group) where the other group could get to. Once those shots were made, our group headed out. We exited the cave about 7:00 pm, for an 8 hour trip. We placed 16 survey stations and surveyed just over 250 feet.
We got back to Josh's car, changed into clean clothes, and were about to depart, when we realized that we had Doug's clothes in Josh's car. We waited there for a while. The sky was beautifully clear and the stars were bright. At 7:30 or so we saw the lights of the other group. Giving Doug his stuff, we set off for the Gateway again for dinner, pushing against the 8:00 closing deadline. Luckily, it turned out they closed at 9:00 instead of 8:00. Food in much quantity was consumed as more cavers trickled in. I compared my sketches to the ones Miles did on his half of the survey, and found mine woefully lacking. I'll have to work on that. After dinner, it was back to the fieldhouse, and another bonfire. There was much socializing, I got a good night's rest again, we ate breakfast at the Gateway again with a bunch of people, then it was heading for home.
Normally my story would end at this point, for there is one moment of drama to relate. Somewhere between Seneca Rocks and Petersburg, we came upon a fallen tree blocking the road. Clearly it had fallen only recently. The road was a 55 mph two-lane. The tree has fallen from high on a hill to our left and across both lanes of traffic. Little enough of the tree reached onto the shoulder that we were able to get by. Just as we passed the tree, a semi came hurtling around the corner from the other direction. It locked up its breaks, made a huge cloud of rubber smoke, and plowed through the tree in the left-hand lane (the oncoming traffic lane relative to the truck). Josh (who saw it in the rear-view mirror) believed the trunk went through safely, but I felt guilty that we didn't have any flares or anything to put down for the next poor soul to come rocketing around that corner. A traffic jam on 66 delayed up by about 30 minutes and I got home at 2:00 or so, and pretty much goofed off the rest of the day.
[Edit - A friend of mine who drove past the fallen tree an hour later said it had been pretty much reduced to kindling with no car wreckage present, so I can stop feeling guilty.]