Zzzzzzzz….............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 4

Suzanne DeBlois.......................................................................................................................................................................................... 4

Mammoth Cave Weather Info................................................................................................................................................................ 6

Steve Miller................................................................................................................................................................................................... 6

The Toilet Bowl Traverse, and Beyond....................................................................................................................................... 7

Fisher Ridge Summary May - Aug 2004.............................................................................................................................................. 8

Peter Quick..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 8

Cover: Mike fitch, eric Daugherty (aka chad sexton), brian steber, & mike dowden (taking picture) before and after mid august, 2004 trip. Note the silliness of the group known as the red-handed bandits, showing off their trade mark gloves. The bandits are armed (w/compass & clinos) and capable of taking large amounts (passage & survey stations). Note mike d. is not a bandit.

DUG SCOOPS, official newsletter of the Detroit Urban Grotto, is published by the Detroit Urban Grotto of the National Speleological Society, 31718 W. Chicago Rd., Livonia Mi. 48150. Exchanges and other correspondence should be sent to the above Grotto address.

All original material is copyrighted by the Detroit Urban Grotto. Permission to reprint any material appearing in the DUG SCOOPS is granted to any internal organization of the NSS if credit is given to the DUG SCOOPS and to the author., and a copy of the publication is supplied to the editor.

The Detroit Urban Grotto holds meetings on the first Thursday of every other month. Meetings usually start around 7:30 PM. and will be held in Waterford, MI. E-mail or call Larry Bean for directions. Email reminders with directions are usually send out a few days before the meeting.

DUG SCOOPS are sent to all current members of DUG. Regular membership is $10.00 per year and due at the first of each year. Memberships after June 30th are $5.00 for the remainder of the year. Dues should be sent to Mike Fitch with checks made payable to Mike Fitch or Cash. Please do not make checks payable to Detroit Urban Grotto or DUG as the Grotto has no bank account and cannot cash a check.

Articles can be submitted to the Editor in a variety of formats. E-mail is the preferred method, but a floppy disk will work so long as it has a standard (text) format. Articles will not be edited for content and therefore the opinions expressed therein may not represent the views of the Detroit Urban Grotto or the NSS.

Past editions of DUG SCOOPS are available online at: http://www.fisher-ridge.net All questions concerning the DUG webpage can be directed to the editor, along with updates, slides, and photographs.

Grotto Officers

Chairman Vice Chairman Secretary Treasurer/Editor

Larry Bean Brian Davis Steve Miller Mike Fitch

13-16 May 2004

If surveying is a contest between the people and the cave to see who wrests more from the other, then the cave trounced us on this trip. Mike Fitch, Eric Daugherty, and I decided to spend 3 days looking for leads. Mopping up crummy loops has led to miles of nice passage in the past, and we hoped we’d stumble onto something worthwhile this trip.

Mike and Eric are always crackling with excitement when it comes to disappearing for days into the dark underground. Mike somehow channels his energy to an internal caving battery so that he appears almost calm, but has unlimited reserves once the survey starts. Eric was sparking and buzzing enough to be a light source while we prepared for the trip in Peter’s barn. Nonetheless, we delayed departure long enough to slap some curtains up for the windows before we headed across the fields and down to the sink and the Quick Exit.

Since we didn’t have a good plan or booming leads to rush to, I figured we wouldn’t lose much momentum if I tarried to swap a new rope for the fluffy one at the second drop on the way into the cave. While I laced the knots up, Mike and Eric were already at the bottom, poking around the infrequently traveled passages leading off from the main room. To the north, Mike looked through a hole beneath a BD block and convinced himself that the passage continued. The opening wasn’t very big though, so he invited me to do the honors of pushing this easy lead. With helmet off, I could squeeze through up to my waist, but was blocked by another rock in front of me. Backing out allowed me to roll onto my back and inch in up to my waist, this time sitting up on the far side of the constriction. Unfortunately, the space wasn’t big enough to pull my thigh through. The passage did appear to continue though, and there was a loose large rock at hand that did a nice job of knocking off a big corner of the blockage. I slithered through, and was about to crawl across a nice fluffy-floored 3x3 stretch into walking passage when I realized that Mike deserved to be the first to put his knee prints in the dirt. Meanwhile, Eric had also climbed down into a little dome nearby which could be surveyed. When I went back through the squeeze and suggested surveying the find, Mike countered that we should save the shots for the way out, as an alternative in case I suggest prospecting in Park Ave later in the trip. The man with the plan.

We packed our vertical gear, and headed through the familiar route into the cave. Peter Quick had suggested setting up camp near NT13 and operating from there, but Mike had some gear to retrieve from the Northtown mini-camp, and there was some mop-up left to do in that area, so that was our destination for the first day.

After re-establishing camp, we continued along the north Northtown trunk toward KN canyon to mop-up a small crawl off of a small crawl off of the KRL passage. On the way, we paused to look at a high lead on the south side of K40. Last December, Brian Steber had climbed to a ledge on the north side of the trunk and speculated that the gap could be jumped. At the time, we had other objectives, so we skipped the acrobatics. This time we didn’t have anything really promising planned, so we investigated the climb-up more carefully. I wasn’t enthusiastic about jumping across, and let Mike talk me into believing that a foot-long triangular fin sticking out should support me if I took a big step across from a mud slope. The fin was solid, allowing me to negotiate about 100’ of steep mud slope on the south side of the trunk to reach the lead which I scooped for a little over 100 narrow and sinuous feet. We decided to leave this one and continue with our plan to mop-up the BSP lead near KN canyon.

While traveling through KRL to BSP, we passed the IDC survey that had looked promising from the outside, but which turned out to be so tight and snaggly, that we’d abandoned it after 4 stations. “How desperate would we have to be to mop THAT one up?” Mike asked. Better leave THAT one for the NEXT generation. No WAY are we THAT desperate. The beginning of the BSU survey, as we designated our chosen lead, was somewhat blocked with spalled rock. Mike squeezed through to report that it wasn’t so bad past that first spot. Eric got through the tight spot too, but found that the digital readout on his laser-guided clinometer was now cracked, and rendered useless for the trip. With a back-up Suunto clinometer, we pressed on through awkwardly shaped 3x3 passage. At some point I think Mike ripped his pants leg near the knee. Twice, foot long rocks spalled off the ceiling and onto me. Since the rocks couldn’t fall very far in the cramped quarters, it was more insulting than injurious. We continued to the SE until Mike found some green flagging that looked a lot like his green flagging. I was happy to crawl through the remaining 4 stations of IDC rather than backtrack through the 110’ that had taken a toll on us.

On the way out, the KN connector tore Eric’s new cavesuit, and we left for our next destination after some fruitless checking and digging at KN 4. There were said to be numerous small crawls off of the Crazy Dog crawl which had not been checked during the original survey. When we got there, the first 4 or 5 holes we checked turned out to have been surveyed by Mike, the Mop-Up Master, Fitch and me during a Mop-up Xtraordinaire trip a year and a half ago. Most of the leads were reported to be near this end of the long Crazy Dog crawl, which made me suspect that this lead patch was already picked over. Besides, I was suffering from an acute case of bad kneepad configuration, and when we ran into a confusing spot in the passage, I suggested finding the good lead near the far end of Crazy Dog by walking to it through NT Ave.

We hiked back through NT Ave. to the Thruway and began looking around for 9x9 passages. We must have wound up in the wrong one, and didn’t find the end of the Crazy Dog crawl or the floor channel we’d come to mop-up. Instead, we surveyed a small loop and spent a lot of time looking for stations. Finally, I recognized the climb-up from the beginning of the Lower Crust Maze to the NT1 junction. After lots of aimless wandering, it was time to skedaddle and I chose the shortcut. Mike and Eric didn’t follow me though and I couldn’t make bellowing contact with them anymore. Damn, where in the Maze did they go? I sat down at the junction of PXM and NT and entertained the idea of going back to camp to wait for them there. In due time, they showed up, having followed the Historic Route through the Thruway, and we all filed back to camp for eats and sleep.

During the waking and dozing cycles that follow chowing down and deep sleep, I thought about our plan to move camp to NT13 and look around for leads in the Other Way, or trek out to the end of Eclipse Canyon. I didn’t know that part of the cave and wasn’t too interested in another day of aimless wandering. When camp stirred, we discussed spending the day surveying known leads, beginning with the high lead at K40. I also concocted an image of us crawling out to Dose of Salts to push the unfinished ZZZ survey which I guessed would bring us back to the inaccessible ceiling lead at the junction of K and KH on the way to the camp watersource. Wouldn’t it be Outstanding to end the survey with an arm-rappel, landing us within minutes of camp? This scenario seduced me into carrying my bolt kit and a skinny rope along, and Mike and Eric agreed that it seemed a plausible plan.

The high lead at K40 was a narrow, but comfortable canyon that we followed for 290’ where it morphed to a wide, low tube and filled to within 4” of the ceiling in the vicinity beneath the pond on Peter’s property. We then ventured on the speculative leg of the trip, crawling toward the Dose of Salts. It was a lot of crawling for an uncertain payoff, but we helped justify it by taking a few shots to repair a faulty survey in the area. When crawling through ZZZ we came across a forgotten lead that needed to be mopped up. The phreatic passage bearing east was strikingly different from ZZZ since it was developed in a dark gray limestone bed that contrasted with the underlying white layer found in the lower ZZZ. This belly whomp led us on for 190’ before nearly filling to the ceiling. Back to ZZZ, we continued to a passage split and decided to mop-up the comfortable ZY survey before tackling the end of ZZZ which had been abandoned in the face of whipping wind where the ceiling dropped and continuation would have meant belly whomping through mud. ZY led us west where we picked up a 10-15’ deep floor channel that widened to passable dimensions at the bottom, though upper ledges prevented us from dropping down into it. After 190’ the upper level mudded up and we turned back, too tired to risk disappointment if the ZZZ link to mini-camp didn’t pan out. We ditched the dream of that connection at the ZZZ-ZY junction and began the long crawl through ZZZ, Dose of Salts and the Screw Hat Whomp back to mini-camp.

On our last day we packed up and planned to mop-up whatever loops we could find on the way back to the Quick Exit where Mike’s lead awaited survey. There were a surprising number of unsurveyed loops along NT Ave, which now bear the signature of LMP (loop mop-up professionals). On arrival at Basecamp, we noted the roar of the camp waterfall. All of the wet spots on the way out were quite wet, and we ran into the unfamiliar phenomenon of navigating through a foggy stretch in the Lost Carbide Complex. The Quick Exit was a waterfall, and our lead was decidedly moist. Eric could not fit through the squeeze. Mike and I began the drippy survey which led to the mid-level of a dome after 80’. Survey stopped for reconnaissance. I climbed down to the bottom of a narrow canyon with little wiggle room. There I froze in a cringe after Mike yelled “Rock”. Bonk, another bruise. The dome was about 10’ in diameter and 25’ high. There might be a climbing lead on the west side of the dome, and there was definitely a wet drain to be checked out on another trip. Some of the flowstone splashes on the walls were such a brilliant white, they seemed to glow. There was also a nice piece of bacon rind there. With no clearcut way on, we abandoned survey and returned to the ropes to climb out of the cave.

We had succeeded in mopping up some crummy loops, but didn’t break through into anything worthwhile. Mike climbed out with one and half pant’s legs since the rip that opened up on the first day had progressively lengthened; Eric’s laser-guided-gizmo was kaput; rocks kept falling on me, and we were all bruised and red-kneed. But we did garner 1440’ of new survey, though it took 122 stations to do it. It was another great trip.

Mammoth Cave Weather Info

Steve Miller

Hello all, I thought this might be of interest to any out of State caver traveling to the Mammoth Cave area for a cave trip. Especially at those times when there in an interest in how much rain has fallen lately. The Park has operated a weather station for some time. When I set up my station here at the Karst Resort I used the 30 year averages from the park for my average calculations. A period from 1960 to 1990. We have had 30.3" already this year. Perhaps Mike Fitch would consider adding these links to the DUG website [ed. Um, yup, one of these days]. The web cam view of the Green River valley is handy at times too. Steve

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Climatic Data Center commissioned the Mammoth Cave National Park Climate Reference Network meteorological station on July 1, 2004. Near real-time temperature,

precipitation, solar radiation, and wind speed data from the station, as well as other Climate Reference Network stations throughout the country, can be found at

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/uscrn/index.html

To view current meteorological data for Mammoth Cave National Park, click data, then observations, then on the pull down menu select KY Bowling Green 21 NNE: Mammoth Cave National Park. Data can also be downloaded in a

comma delimited file format by selecting data then reports.

Many thanks to Dr. Stuart Foster, State Climatologist, Western Kentucky University Kentucky Climate Center for nominating Mammoth Cave National Park to be part of this long-term climate reference network.

Also of interest... Mammoth Cave National Park Visibility Web Camera:

http://www2.nature.nps.gov/air/webcams/parks/macacam/macacam.htm

The Toilet Bowl Traverse, and Beyond

Suzanne DeBlois

25 July 2004

On Sunday morning Peter Quick, Jonathan Schwer, and I set out to survey some scooped passage beyond the Toilet Bowl traverse. The lead’s located on the edge of a ridge lacking known upper level passage and it has very good airflow. For years, Brian Davis asked everyone doing trips if they’d follow him in running a crazed dash across the smooth, sloped ledge of the traverse and climb to a passage continuation. But the trip didn’t materialize until May 2004 when Peter led a team there to place a few bolts and some ropes to assist with the vertical challenges. The bolting team reported hundreds of feet and continuing passage that they didn’t have time to survey.

We traveled light, with vertical and survey gear, handlines and a hammer. We left Northtown Ave. at NT13 (known to some as Pooh Corner for the bear shadow that Jonathan once released from a rock by casting the right angle of light on it). NTW is a comfortable, sparkling passage to travel, easily accessible from the main travel route down NT Ave. There are a couple of unplumbed pits there and some mop-up-able h&k crawls further down in the PDA section awaiting attention from surveyors. We were focused on leads farther into the cave however, so we passed the accessible unknowns and continued into Eclipse Canyon.

The route has some ups and downs, tall narrow canyon stretches, an interesting intersection with the Ant Lion room, other intersections and variations in passage volume, and a traipse through the Frosted Lilies. When we reached the infamous traverse, we eased down into the Toilet Bowl and prepared to survey into the flushing pit that drains the bowl. The pit was a nice wall drop, 15’ to a ledge, and 10’ more to the bottom. We looked at a nice lead at the same level as the Toilet Bowl drain but inaccessible 25’ up on the other side of the dome. Survey into a tall drain ran into a wall when the lower component suddenly narrowed to a 6” wide crack. However Jonathan sleuthed and slithered past constrictions overhead and found a way into the upper component which continued. While checking ahead to see if the tight passage merited survey, he teed into a canyon marked TT. Years earlier, he’d brought the TT survey to a dome series, reporting a cascade of climbs that essentially ended at an overlook to a dome; probably the nice high lead in the dome that had so recently caught our eyes. We tied the EWA survey into TT, and decided that it might be easier to leave the area through TT rather than through Eclipse canyon.

Turning toward the main object of our survey desire, we climbed out of the pit, pulled the rope, and began surveying up the climb out of the Toilet Bowl. The first few shots were airy until we climbed to a nice tube which took a few shots to the NW. Where the floor ended, we rigged the rope we’d brought from the flushing pit to bolts, obligingly placed by the previous team, dropped the pit, and continued through a canyon heading NW into blank ridge. Though tall, the canyon was tight in spots, and constricted with spalling BD in others. Eventually, we arrived at the Bonus Station pit where survey stalled while we scouted a junction.

Peter crawled over some hanging BD blocks to the left of the pit and up into the tube that Pete Dickman had explored. He covered 100+ feet without arriving at the end of the footprint trail. Meanwhile, Jonathan dropped into the pit with the aid of a handline (helpful for the descent, necessary for climbing out), determined that a series of drains were too narrow to enter, but climbed into a canyon that continued to the NW. We took the survey down the more challenging route into the pit and back up to the canyon which was strewn with very old hickory and walnuts preserved on the gypsum floor.

The canyon began turning south As Peter’s sketch showed us circling back toward the Bonus Station pit he questioned where we were going. Again the survey paused at a messy junction of small and larger passages at multiple levels. We split up to discover that a climb-up into a dome ran into some Pete Dickmanesque footprints, some smaller narrow canyons below might be the too tight drains in Bonus pit, other small canyons quickly became to small to bother with, and a straddly climb down a 4’ wide canyon wound through some small twisty crawls, that led to a NW passage again. The survey continued to the NW until the passage teed into an East-West canyon floored with gypsum-spalled BD. We went west, but I opted out of survey in that direction where the floor disappeared briefly and continuation depended on stepping on a large hanging rock then taking a big step to solid footing. Jonathan did the stepping and stretching to check ahead and reported a couple of hundred feet of passage that kept promising to die, but never did. He turned around in continuing passage; not a bad lead to return to, heading west under ridge.

Earlier, Peter had checked the easterly passage up to a near BD fill and we decided to define that smaller passage before heading out. It continued beyond the BD to a small junction room with a gastropod fossil in it. There was a climb-up to a gypsum-floored h&k crawl bearing due west, and a tall narrow canyon heading southeast. We left the complex area after putting 65 stations and about 900’ in the book.

On the way out, we de-rigged the flush rope that we’d moved to re-rig it in the flushing pit for our exit through the TT survey and the Northtown Thruway. Jonathan’s recollection of the TT canyon was rosy in comparison to the reality of revisiting it. Generally, it was 10’h x 4’w, but because it lacked a traversable floor, we chimneyed out for 600’ or so. Despite the added effort, the route shaved about a half hour off our travel time compared to Eclipse Canyon. By either route, the Toilet Bowl area merits a return trip or more to figure out which of its airy, twisted passages leads into that blank area on the map.

To start this summary period off was the Memorial Day Weekend, May 28 to May 31. It turned out that only one survey team entered the Fisher Ridge during the weekend. Pete Dickman, Mike Dowden, Jeff Lobell, and I ended up going to the Toilet Bowl Traverse (my idea) with vertical gear, ropes, bolting equipment and a hammer drill. A few bolts were placed and the Toilet Bowl Traverse was rigged with a rope to bypass the nervous part of the climb. An upper passage was explored for 100 feet or so to a point where two more bolts were placed so we could drop back down 20 feet into a lower canyon passage.

This passage was scooped mainly by Pete. In places it is a pretty big canyon easily 30 feet high and in places 6 feet wide, other places tight squeezes between breakdown chunks. Perhaps 400 feet of canyon and tube was explored. There was good air flow into the passage and we are under solid cap rock and heading more or less northwest into blank ridge. We also dropped the waterfall pit opposite the Toilet Bowl Traverse and it was into a nice large dome with a canyon passage and small stream leading off of it. We went down the stream 50 or 60 feet until it got twisty and would have forced us to kneel sideways in shallow water to continue.

We didn't map a single foot, deciding that there was more than we could accomplish while we were back there because we had spent so much time fiddling around with the bolt stuff. So it was left rigged for so the next crew could go out there and have a nice productive survey trip. A basic 16 hour trip was had.

Also during the weekend Steve Miller, Charles Pflanze, Joel Sparks, Chip Hopper and others did the entrance drop of Vinegar Ridge Cave. The local grotto in Hart County has taken a renewed interest in reviving explorations in Vinegar Ridge Cave. Since Steve Miller now lives in Kentucky he has taken a few trips into Vinegar Ridge Cave with the local cavers. Good news indeed. Lastly during the weekend was a trip to and into a cave on the property of the owners of Burnhole Cave. Jonathan Schwer had been told of a cave with a tremendous breeze that could cool folks on hot summer days. Jonathan, Chip, Jeff and myself managed to locate the cave. None of us were equipped with more than a basic light and not prepared for the cold mud belly crawl over sharp rocks that we encountered. The cave certainly did blow a large amount of air as advertised and the entrance was impressive. Beyond that it was miserable and after a hundred feet or so into the cave Chip realized that he had mapped the cave years earlier and that it had been named Sardine Cave. The cave ended as Chip remembered 200 or 300 feet in from the entrance. We exited the cave a bit worse for wear.

The next Fisher Ridge trip to report on took place on June 27^th. Steve Miller took Hester Mallonee and Ricky Estes into the Quick Exit for the 25 cent tour. Ricky Estes is a property owner on Fisher Ridge above the surveyed extent of Angst Alley and Detroit River on the Eastern flank of Fisher Ridge. Ricky had never been on a wild cave trip before but did exceptionally well traveling through the cave and on the ropes.

The next trip took place on July 25^th. Jonathan Schwer, Suzanne DeBlois and I headed out to survey to passages found beyond the Toilet Bowl Traverse. When we arrived at the Toilet Bowl we decided to first map down what Suzanne named the Flushing Pit, below the traverse. The dome pit was mapped and we surveyed down the tight drain. The survey was nearly terminated at a narrow crack but Jonathan saved the day by cramming himself up a tight crack and into a tight canyon continuation. In a short distance he reported a passage intersection and a station marked TT25. He had mapped this passage years earlier as a side lead off the Eveready Canyon. We closed the loop and I verified that I could fit through the constriction in case we decided to leave that way.

We then surveyed up through the Toilet Bowl Traverse with the EU survey. The survey was complicated and the passage twisted around a good bit. A number of leads were passed, the best being Pete’s Tube, that Pete Dickman had scooped for hundreds of feet on the Memorial weekend trip. After 800 feet and at least 55 stations the survey was stopped but the narrow canyons kept on going. All in all 65 stations were placed for 900 of new survey. The area is complicated enough to take at lest two more survey trips just to mop up the leads that were seen, that is if none of the leads goes very far. The potential of this area may be good for future discoveries. It will be difficult to explore. We exited by the TT loop connection to Eveready Canyon thinking it might be an easier way out of the cave. A little time was saved but the energy consumed was probably greater. Not highly recommended!

Lastly on the Weekend of August 13 - 15^th Mike Fitch, Mike Dowden, Eric Daugherty and Brian Stebner did a two day mini-camp trip. On day one they took a trip out to Toilet Bowl Traverse. They mapped "Pete's Tube" the EU survey, for 500 feet - sort of damp and slimy, much crawling some flat out, and terminated survey after Mike Dowden went ahead for 100 feet and declared no fun to survey. The passage continued 10 feet wide, a foot and a half high and had a small canyon in the floor of passage. The passage first went west then north, straight under solid cap rock. Back at EU 18 Mike Fitch climbed down a hole previously crossed and found it went down and down past a number of small leads to a short pit overlook. The passage kept going although it was tight going getting there. A few stations were placed going down to the pit but the survey was terminated after mutiny.

On day two, after they camped at the old Base Camp at the foot of the Lost Carbide intersection, they did mop-up survey just off the Northtown Trunk around Station NT35, an area that just keeps yielding easy tubes and loops. 600 feet of loops were mapped with very little effort. On the way out they mapped a few stations into a dome complex, a very short distance from the final drop in the Quick Exit. They reported an obstructed crawl (hammer needed) that seemed to continue down. This crawl should be just about on top of the end of the KN Canyon passage.

Volume 22 Number 2 A Regular Newsletter of the Detroit Urban Grotto May - Sept 2004

CONTENTS

Zzzzzzzz…..

Suzanne DeBlois

Mammoth Cave Weather Info

Steve Miller

The Toilet Bowl Traverse, and Beyond

Suzanne DeBlois

Fisher Ridge Summary May - Aug 2004

Peter Quick