The DUG SCOOPS Archives - 1982

COMPILED from FISHER RIDGE SCOOPS and DUG SCOOPS. Note: During 1981 & part of 1982, prior to the creation of the Detroit Urban Grotto and the DUG Scoops newsletter, a newsletter was published called the Fisher Ridge Scoops. There was not really a Summary, but general info about recent and upcoming trips and other general info.

Fisher Ridge Scoops January 1982 #5

Missing this issue - to be added soon!

Fisher Ridge Scoops February-March 1982 #6

As you notice, this issue is rather large (partially because it's two month's worth). Since Scoops is published at the whim of whomever is interested in typing trip reports and is funded thus far by Keith Ortiz (mainly postage), it is sent out to participants of the Fisher Ridge Cave Survey somewhat randomly. This will undoubtedly result in some participants not receiving this newsletter (especially newcomers who don't leave their address). Those who don't receive the newsletter should request a copy. A donation would greatly facilitate continued receipt of the newsletter. Naturally, anyobody who contributes a trip report will gen an issue.

The unstructured nature of the newsletter (scandal sheet) finances will ultimately pose a problem, especially when the distribution gets larger. This raises the question of where the money will come from for postage and copying. A number of options exist, ranging from a subscription, to benevolent donations, to use of excess field house dues (when there are any). Contracting a cheap mailing house is another option. The field house fees left over after payment of electricity and basic maintenance could be an attractive option if everyone who uses the field house pays their share. Perhaps those who don't pay their field house fees shouldn't get a copy of the Scoops. Any suggestions are welcome.

Contributors for this issue are Peter Quick, Keith Ortiz and Kevin Harris from Massachusettes. The opinion vou're reading could be any one of the three contributors.

Spring has definitively answered the question whether Splash floods or not. Ohio caver Fred Anderson's slip of the tongue could accurately describe another name for the entrance - Flash -. Splash was completely sumped twice on one week. Joe and Larry were kept out by high waters during the start of the week while Lou Simpson & Dave Socky were caught inside the cave latter in the week. See trip reports for further details.

A few rules should be followed when this happens again. If the water is high in Splash, do NOT attempt to leave the cave via Splash. Flash floods were observed to raise the water level almost a foot in less than a minute. Erratic airflows and abnormally high stream levels in the cave are indications of bad weather topside.

Even with the high water levels and flash flooding on the surface, it was observed that there was no problem in the bannana squeeze or in the Stomach Pool. The connection between Pedigo and Fisher Ave is safe from flooding. If you're in the cave via Historic with other parties in via splash, it's best to leave the ladders rigged. The Forecaster dome is a reliable indicator of outside weather. It's better to leave an emergency escape route for the others than to have to return (perhaps too late) and rig the ladders again.

Dan has made good progress on modifying Chip's program for processing the survey data. A new format allows for much more commentary within the body of the data and allows for clear identification of the surveys not conforming to the accepted standards. Plans are to include both uncorrected XYZ coordinates along with closed XYZ's on the data printout. Thrun's error summary will also be included in the comments as a matter of course.

It's been published before but apparently needs to be shown again. As the one who has to input all the survey data in the computer, I'm the first to know the quality data from the shitty data. Many FS/BS differences are popping up greater than 4 & 5 degrees. Lots of backsights are being omitted and non-corrected data (ie backsight is off 180 degrees from foresight) is being mixed with corrected data. It all comes down to my intrepretation in the end and I don't have time to send off queries. Stick to the standards or risk not having your data processed.

We've started to experience the problem of duplicate survey letters being used. I guess it's a mixed blessing. On the one hand we're big enough to enjoy the luxury of using so many letters, on the other hand the duplicates are a pain in the database. Dan is working up a routine to give an up-to-date listing of survey letters used. In the meantime, I've included a partial list taken by hand from the latest printout.

My work on the Crump's map was greatly facilitated by the Crumper's naming conventions. The letter used in the survey many times corresponds with the name of the passage (ie PP = Premonition Passage). Joe has rekindled that tradition in Fisher Ridge System (RR =Roaring River, SA=Sabbath) and I feel it should be encouraged. This presupposes that the passage has a name before survey has started, but this occurs with sufficient frequency.

Two more rope ladders were added to our collection. Who knows where all the financing came from but if you contributed and want reimbursement it probably can be arranged. The broken rung ladder will be cut in two and one length will be rigged at the Surprise dome to avoid future problems during emergency escapes. Chip's rope is now out of the cave. I'm sure we've more than over extended our welcome to it. Future use of the 50 ft drop will depend on another benevolent loan.

In case you haven't noticed, Dan is now the unofficial treasurer. Since he pays the electric bill, fieldhouse fees should go to him. Last I heard he's still in the hole.

The work on the Crump's map is finally drawing to a close. In another two or three weeks we should have a database version compatible with the Fisher Ridge Data. In the event of a connection, combining the two will only be a matter of a few keystrokes on Dan's terminal. In the meantime, Dan has promised combined FRCS/Crump's overlays so our connection progress can be enticingly monitored.

We now have a fine collection of photos out of FRCS. Larry took some fine pictures of the "artifacts" in the cave during the Spring Break week and Peter promises to bring copies of the Massachusetts Collection for inspection. The April meeting is at Larry's and copies can be requested. For those unable to attend the meeting, copies will be along on the April trip to KY.

Larry's been suffering a lot of grief, but his evidence for Indian visitors to FRCS is growing. Besides the ubiquitous charred cane bits, Larry has verified with an anthropology professor that the 4 inch diameter log in Coon Canyon is a classic "slow match" used by the indians to light the cane torches. In addition, he has documented charcoal smudges on walls an and ceilings (presumably from the torches) and has taken some convincing pictures of the footprints in Aborigine Way. Hieroglyphic tic-tac-toe like scratches were photographed near the Deluxe Crawl climbdown, but I seem to remember either Chip or Lario scratching something out on the walls. Lario is known for his Happy Face pictograph. Any comments you two???

Apparently the owner of the fieldhouse (Downy?) was overheard to say he'd rather see the fieldhouse leveled. After all it would clear more land for grazing. Keep this in mind when picking up after a caving weekend. The exterior should be kept as trash free as possible.

Hot leads in the cave include New Year's Passage, the south-trending canyon near Laughing Water Creek in Toothless, and the watercrawl near Don's Biggest Dome heading toward Crump. It could be an easy dig to connect N Fisher Ave with Hunkey Dorey and that would save going through the Stomach Pool. Bring your trowls! Peter noted a few nice leads in Huney Dorey which could be easily scooped up after a sucessful dig.

Feb. 13 - 14
While enroute to some surveying in Toothless, Larry Lean and Bruce Hilton decided to take a run down the nice canyon in the floor of Pedigo near the Hunkey Dorey turnoff. They returned after 30 - 40 minutes with reports of over 2000 ft of walking canyon and no end in sight. This was enough to encourge Dan Crowl, Chip Hopper and Don Coons to give up their plans to survey in Toothless, so they unpacked the survey gear and headed down the canyon. After 1200 ft of dry, meandering canyon they encountered a beautiful .5 cfs waterfall which entered from a dome on the left and continued as a stream in the canyon floor. Dan's comments about the purity and coolness of the water led to the name Sweetwater Creek. After 100 ft the stream takes off as an easy hands and knees watercrawl while the main canyon continues for another 600 ft to a 2' H x 6' W crawl on sand to a sand dig. Airflow is described at the dig as "a gale". The computer plots show that the stream takes off at a point near the West Room under Fisher Ridge (as oppessed to Ice Cave Ridge) and is probably the same water seen in the unenterable West Room waterfall lead. Closing the loop with West Room via Sweetwater would be a major effort requiring two teams with vertical gear, one from each side. Such a trip could possibly be coordinated with survey near the West Room 45 ft drop. The blowing dig turns out to be directly under N Fisher Ridge Ave and 80 ft down. It could go anywhere.

Feb. 13 - 14
Meanwhile, Larry, Bruce and Keith continued on to Toothless to survey and emplore in the large dome at the end of Toothless (dubbed Don's Biggest Dome). As described, a difficult traverse led up into a 100' L x 25' W x 50' H dome; impressive but not quite as volumenous as the entrance domes. It was hoped to continue north to Ice Cave sink, but the dome (and Toothless) only led further to the south. A lower level of Toothless was also surveyed into an impenetrable breakdown pile. The lowest level of Toothless is an elbows & knees in water which was explored for approx. 150' and seen to continue with the same dimensions. This may be the best bet for a shot south to Crump Spring. Next they backtracked to a climbup into the sizable dome about mid-way in Toothless (Midway Dome). A sinuous canyon was surveyed (paleo downstream) to some breakdown. The passage continued through the breakdown with strong airflow but survey and exploration did not continue.

Feb. 13 - 14
Dennis K Kendrik, Dennis D Kendrik, Tony Mulbrecht, J Saunders returned to the east going lead at the Rotunda (Scoops #2, #4). The canyon forks, the left branch being the preferable one. Tony decided to check out the drain near the fork while the two Kendriks went to scout up the right fork. The drain ended in too much water and too narrow dimensions. The Kendricks returned with reports of over 300 - 400 ft of passage with numerous forks and splitting components. Survey continued up the left branch as previously mentioned. A gravel crawl was pushed to an apparent end until the Kendricks managed to push through a sand pile (Double Dennis Dig) into a 20 ft wide room. They surveyed approx 300 ft of gravel belly crawl/elbows & Knees and then scouted ahead another 300 ft to numerous forKs, components and canyons. On the way out quick scouting was made in Roaring River.

Feb. 23
Joe and Tony returned to Roaring River and surveyed upstream. Passage was a narrow canyon with walking passage up top. Apparently the only climbup is near the end of the survey in "Drippy Dome" from which they backtracked and picked up the survey via a vertical into the narrow canyon below. The upper level splits up into a 4 way junction: middle flowstones up, right goes 200 ft to a gravel crawl, left goes 200 - 300 ft and forks again - one fork to a dome, the other to a LS BD pile.

Feb 27
J Saunders and Tony scouted Coon Canyon and then surveyed approx 390 ft in the DA21 side lead (crawl in Fisher Ave near basecamp). The side lead was paleodownstream going away from Fisher Ave and hit a canyon from the bottom. The canyon fills in one direction and the other direction goes 100 ft to a mud fill with a small drain. Tony squeezed down the drain for 80 ft to a small dome, 30 ft to another small dome and then popped out near station MB-4 in the Haupy Face bypass (Scoops #1). Next they continued to the east going lead at the Rotunda. The preferable left branch had been dubbed Sabbath Passage. Six more stations were set to a stream and Tony ran ahead a bit (over 1800 ft) to discover a connection with station D-20 near the Fisher River climbdown.

March 14 - March 21
Spring Break at Wayne State University saw Larry Bean, Keith & Nathy Ortiz and Joe Saunders in KY for a week. Since Joe & Larry were flooded out of Splash on Monday they took to the Crash sink dig while Keith soloed Ice Cave to check its potential. Described as a very narrow canyon, Ice cave has been neglected for many years. It was decided to see if bash and bang could give Fisher Ridge CS a new entrance. The narrow canyon was easily bypassed by staying low in an elbows & knees water crawl for approx 100 ft. This crawl abruptly dried out and led to nice hands and knees and then to narrow walking canyon. The slot in the floor previously reported was at the bottom of a definitely impassible crack. However, a tight floorless tube at head height does continue on top of the crack. Keith negotiated this crack for about 10 ft before dropping his pack in the crack and aborting the trip. Airflow was very strong out (on a warm day). Walking passage can be seen at the bottom of the crack and it will require 2 -3 shaped charges to make it enterable for skinny folk.

Meanwhile, Crash sink "ended" in a miserable 4 - 5 inch crack so Joe and Larry took up surveying in Massachusetts Caverns (near the parking spot for Historic). They netted about 150 ft around the sandstone boulders and only a "slim chance" dig remains to be checked. The cave does reach the limestone though. To shorten the story, time was spent digging on the back side of Ice Cave Ridge: Audible sink is a tiresome dig in a sinkhole moving air and with a small stream audible from the dig, Sponge sink is nearby and is described as similiar to the Mills Ponor dig only easier. Keith and Larry returned to Ice Cave sink a few days after the dropped pack incident; Keith fished his pack out with a fishhook; Larry confused the signals and entered the cave early; missed the lower level crawl; dropped his lamp into the lower level crawl; had no spare source of light (he had loaned his flashlight to Keith); Larry rescued himself when Keith refused to go through the watercrawl again; the charge was set; they vamoosed from the cave; Larry fell down a 5 ft pit and the charge was a dud. Ice Cave is still waiting. Keith visited Two Ponds Caverns, another contact SS boulder cave discovered by the Massachusetts cavers, set a charge in the popcorn passage and it too was a dud. A return trip by a Keith and Larry proved that the charge did go off, but caused zero damage. Skinny cavers can fit in this lead, but it's best to wait for drier weather. Airflow from the lead is strong and the stream is very audible. Keith and Nathy carried the surface survey from Historic to Massachusetts Caverns to Splash. Joe & Larry (w/Keith taking notes from the entrance room) surveyed the muck and mire in the Splash entrance. They also made further progress in the Coon Canyon survey and Larry snapped a number of pics of the Indian remains. Joe and Larry made minimal progress in the Splash bypass dig.

Mar. 6
Three cavers from the Boston Grotto, Kevin Harris, Bob McNitt and Jerry McCollomn met Peter Quick at the field house early Saturday morning. They entered Fisher Ridge Cave through the Historic Entrance for a familiarization and survey trip to the Hunkey Dorey passage in Ice Cave Ridge. One of the B.G. cavers Jerry is totally blind so the trip to Hunkey Dorey was very slow. The survey trip was scrapped and turned into a photo trip. Photos were taken in the Hunkey Dorey passage. The lead in Pedigo Ave off of PAl was also pushed for approx. 800 feet to an overlook in the side of a large shower dome 15 feet off the floor. The unclimable drop stopped further progress.

Mar. 8 - 12
The Boston Grotto cavers stayed at the field house for a week longer. Another trip into the Historic Entrance of Fisher Ridge was made but was marred by a fall off the Tricky Traverse by Kevin Harris. Apparently while stepping down he slipped off his foot hold and was pendulumed by the handline out over the deep part of the drop which he then fell down. Luckilly he sustained only bruises, light lacerations and a pulled shoulder muscle. They continued after a rest, although still shaken, for an abbreviated photo trip into the cave. They made several observations about the rigging in the cave. They suggest tying off the hanging end of the Tricky Traverse handline around the big rock on the left (as you face up). That way one could avoid being pendulumned over and into the hole as will presently happen if one looses their footing. They also noticed a danger spot on the 45 foot rope drop. About 10 feet down the drop the rope runs over a sharp ledge and was starling to fray there. They suggested breaking off the ledge or padding the lip.

During the week they also went ridge walking and discovered a couple of small caves along the sandstone contact on the west side of Shaking Leaf Ridge. The first cave found and explored was only a couple hundred feet from the parking spot above the Historic Entrance. It was a meandering dome filled with breakdown about 50 feet deep and pennetrating the ridge about 200 feet. A possible dig was noted at the bottom.

Further SW along the ridge they found a 3' x 5' entrance that led steeply into the hill into another meandering dome. It was about 60 feet deep and went into the ridge about 100 feet. A tight popcorn canyon with a small stream was seen at the bottom of the dome although it was a bit too tight to enter without further modification.

Mar. 20
The weekend of the 20th of March was the grand finale of a week long trip by Keith, his wife Nattie, Larry and Joe. On Saturday seven cavers from Ohio and elsewhere arrived at the field house along with Dan Crowl and Peter Quick. On Saturday morning after a nearly sleepless night by the new arrivals four groups were formed to go into the cave. Larry took Barb Schaeffer and Fred Anderson into the Historic Entrance to map a canyon at the top of the climb beside the Forcaster Dome. They mapped the passage for 600 feet to a complete breakdown constriction. They did not map one going lead near the end of the passage. As previously arranged they de-rigged the 45 foot drop rope so it could be cleaned and inspected. They also de-rigged the two cable ladders at the Historic Entrnace.

The rest of the groups entered the cave via the Splash Entrance to survey in various parts of the cave. The first group consisted of Dan Crowl, Peter Quick and Bruce Worthman. They headed into Ice Cave Ridge to map the Hunkey Dorey passage. The other two groups consisted of Joe Saunders, Tom Patterson and Bill Allendorf, and Lou Simson and Doug Stecko. Joe's group headed for the passage near the Rotunda to continue where Joe had left off mapping earlier. Joe directed Lou and Doug to a loop passage in the Double Easy passage to map.

Dan, Peter and Bruce made their way from N. Fisher Ave. into Pedigo Ave. Just before the Stomach Pool in the connection crawl they noticed that the air in the passage was pulsing back and forth, indicative of a front passing over outside. They continued through Pedigo Ave. to the Hunkey Dorey trunk passage and mapped a little over 3000 feet of borehole passage. Eight leads were noted while surveying most being tubes up near the ceiling level. In places the trunk is larger than any in the cave, passage dimensions are as great as 30 feet high and 60 feet wide. The trunk terminated in a low blowing dig 7 inches high and 20 feet wide. After the data was printed out by Dan Crowl it was found that the passage is just 50 feet away from a connection with the mud filled end of North Fisher Ave.

While surveying just upstream of a series of rimstone dam rapids in H.D. the passage began to become covered with turgid brown water roaring down the passage. There was obviously a massive downpour occuring on the surface. Everywhere the cave was running water. Domes were pouring as never seen before and every narrow canyon in the floor was roaring with murky waters. The increase in water was not enough to cause any problem in the H.D. so surveying continued. Just before finishing the survey another surge of water occured in the cave. Dan, Peter and Bruce commenced to leave H.D. and Pedigo Ave. with some apprehension about the connection between Pedigo and N. Fisher being flooded, especially the stomach pool being sumped. Water was roaring everywhere. To their relief the connection route was the same as allways. At this point they knew for sure that the Splash Entrance would be sumped shut. There didn't seem to be any hurry in leaving the cave because they knew that the Historic Entrance had been de-rigged and there would be no way out until it was rigged again, probably sometime in the morning. After a short rest at the base camp it was decided to go to the Splash Entrance to see if it was passable since Dan's Jeep was parked outside of it. If it was sumped, as supposed, an exit would be made out the Historic Entrance, if it was rigged.

Low Air
While Dan, Peter and Bruce were mapping in Hunkey Dorey, Joe's group started mapping the right hand branch in the passage heading east off Fisher Ave. just north of the Rotunda. After about 10 stations Joe noticed the same rapid air fluctuation that the H.D. group had noticed and saw an increase in flow of the stream they were mapping up. Joe realized that a good storm would probably flood the Splash Entrance and also realized that he probably couldn't make it out the Historic Entrance because of the climbs. They made a hasty retreat. Upon reaching Splash they decided to go for the exit. They made it through with just three inches of air. Joe knew that the entrance was ready to flood shut. They left to tell the others at the field house to rig the Historic Entrance so that the five people still in the cave could get out when they found the lower entrance sumped shut.

Near Miss
While this was going on, the group of Lou Simson and Doug Stecko were mapping a loop in the Double Easy passage. The passage was totally dry and gave no indication of the heavy raining on the surface. Both Lou and Doug were electric cavers and were planning a relatively short trip due to the limitations of their lights. Unfoutunately they had never been in the cave before and only knew how to exit out the Splash Entrance. After they had finished surveying their 300 foot loop they headed out to Splash. Upon reaching Splash they fiddled around for about a half hour getting ready to exit through the water. Suddenly Lou heard a roar of water comming through the entrance. Flash Flood!! They made a rapid retreat over the flowstone climb and within a minute the passage on the side of Splash was four feet deep in water. They crawled the rest of the way out of Splash back into Fisher Ave. Once in Fisher Ave. they continued towards Double Easy and picked a spot to rest and recover their wits. If they had entered the last part of Splash just minutes earlier they would have been gonners. As it was they lost a pack with spare lights and a compass in it as well as some of their dry clothing in plastic bags. They knew that they didn't have enough light left to exit the cave out the upper entrance, even if they did know their way out. After they had sat for a few hours pondering their lack of luck, Peter, Dan and Bruce encountered them on their trip to Splash to check out the water situation.

Unclimable
The exit trip went slowly, though uneventfully, until the group reached the first climb near the Forcaster Dome that led to the Popcorn Push. At this point Bruce had extreme trouble trying to climb the drop. After trying once he gave up, much to everyones exasperation. After some hemming and hawing it was apparent that a rope was needed to assist Bruce up the climb. Unfortunately the nearest rope lay on the other side of the Popcorn Push rigged as a handline on the Tricky Traverse. Peter was elected by default to fetch the rope. Peter traveled to the Tricky Traverse to de-rig the rope but decided to check to see if the ladders had been re-rigged and to see if anyone was outside waiting. The ladders had been rigged by Larry and Keith at 3:30 during the night after Joe had informed them of Splash's iminent flooding. Peter de-rigged the traverse after checking that it could be climbed without a rope and returned back through the Popcorn Push with the rope. Bruce was extracted from the pit and the rest of the exit went uneventfully, luckily.

Fisher Ridge Scoops April 1982 #7

Missing this issue - to be added soon!

Fisher Ridge Scoops May 1982 #8

May was almost a duplicate of the April experience. Good leads were tackled by small parties and the leads deteriorated enough to temporarily discourages further surveying. However, numerous survey trips combined to give an impressive monthly tally. Over 5000 ft were surveyed which pushes FRCS just over the 13 mile mark. Once more this was due in large part to Joe & Co.'s impressive footage in Sabbath Passage (over 1000 ft). Of course Peter and Chip mopped up over 1400 ft in Double Cross and West Room. The remainder of the footage was picked up in bits & pieces by various parties.

Joe's sure footage in Sabbath has now been scooped up and most of the easy survey has been taken. Where future gains will come from is anybody's guess. Helegmite Canyon (East canyon at Chris Cross Cut Around), Roaring river, Rio Bueno, Pressure Passage, Stinky River and Sweetwater Creek appear to be the most talked about leads left to be surveyed. It's time to pull out the wetsuits and to crank out a few more mylar notebooks (2-3 are left).

As I recall there are still a number of lesser dry leads which need mopup in Hunkey Dorey and in Northern Pedigo. Also, the water crawl at the end of Toothless is still the closest lead to Crump Spring Cave. Closer to the Histroic Entrance, canyons off the entrance domes and upstream Forecaster could lead to more passage under Shaking Leaf Ridge. Also, Don Coons reported exploring approx. 1000 ft of passage above the Giant Room with no end in sight.

A letter received from Tony Mulbrecht describes in detail his solo discovery of the Shaking Leaf-Fisher River connection, Apparently he became confused with the numerous converging streams, but he accurately describes Tin Can Alley, the Forecaster Stream waterfall dome and Fisher River. Tony is now recruiting for a mapping/push trip to Unenterable Domes in South Crump Avenue. Unenterable Dome and Twin Falls are the two most likely candidates for a FRCS-Crump connection. Unenterable Dome contains "possible high but risky leads" as reported by JWS in his Nov 21-26 KY Cave Log. No further details are available.

May 15
P Quick & C Hopper returned to the West Room Sump where they had surveyed in May '82 (NSS News OCT '81). The "overlooked" passage at the West Room drop was followed as a hands & knees crawl for approx 300 ft (?) to a complete (?) sump. Next Chip explored ahead through the near sump where Chip & Peter had stopped surveying in '81. The near sump is 6" of air over 5 ft of water. Chip explored approx 600 ft of 20w x 6h elliptical tube to approx 100 ft of 1Ow x 20h trunk. Both directions in the trunk were partially blocked by breakdown & mud fills. Chip refused to climb the fills in order to not "get his wetsuit dirty." Subsequent to hearing Chip's reports, Peter declined the survey since he was lacking a full wetsuit. Abandoning the West Room area they decided to salvage the trip by surveying up Tin-Can Alley (NSS News Oct '81). After 550 ft they popped into the base of the waterfall dome which is fed by Forecaster Stream. Forecaster & Fisher River are now one. Next they surveyed 300 ft up the Fisher River tributary which eventually connects with Sabbath.

May 16
J Saunders, Nancy Colter, Tom Jobengen, Charles Santerre & Linda Jagger entered Fisher Avenue looking for easy mopup. (All novices except JWS). First they tied in Upper Hilton with Fisher Ave. (Scoops #1) Next they surveyed a side lead (DQ survey) to Pressure Passage (Scoops #2). This side lead netted 92 ft of survey. Beyond the survey the passage continues 30 - 5O ft to a split where the more obvious way ends and the other had water and was not entered. It may have been on this trip that the novices found their way up into a high ceiling canyon in Pressure Passage which apparently continues nicely. JWS did not make it up into the passage.

May 28
P Quick & C Hopper burdened by 8 packs between them (including duffels) opted for an easy mopup in Double Cross (Scoops # 2). The first 240 ft is 6w x 1Oh canyon which parallels the lower level Chris Cross. Double Cross is intermittently connected to Chris Cross via a narrow canyon in the floor. Another 400 ft of Double Cross was surveyed to an overlook into a large dome. Near the overlook a side crawl unclimable goes to a climbable drop into a room with another crawl at the bottom. This crawl goes 20 ft to a stoopwalk which goes 150+ ft and continues. Peter & Chip continued to base camp in Fisher Ave, feasted on canned ham and slept.

May 30
Preston Forsythe, Mike Dyas & J Saunders continued the Sabbath connection survey. After 1000 ft of easy survey (10w x 2h start, 10w x 5h finish) they tied into the Tin Can Alley Survey. No significant side leads are reported. Closure on the 4400 ft segment was only 4 ft (.001). Next they toured Fisher River and the Raisin Dome area but found nothing new.

May 28
K Ortiz, L Bean & first timer Dave LeClerc opted for an easy trip to the Chris Cross cut around (Scoops #2). The east going canyon started as a narrow canyon with knee deep water. After 50 ft it was possible to climb up to ceiling level and survey in easy hand & knees. Larry's discovery of helectites growing upward from the floor of the upper canyon tube led to the name Helegmite Canyon. These "flowers" are exquisite and extremely delicate so it is advisable that future trips to Helegmite suffer through the narrow and wet lower level to avoid damage. Total survey was 775 ft going east and paleo upstream. No significant side leads were noted. Approx. 300 ft was explored beyond the end of the survey to a point where the canyon begins to disintegrate. Exploration stopped where the canyon splits into two higher level "narrow" canyons, a middle level cobble crawl and a lower level hands & knees in damp clay (moving air).

May 30
P Quick & C Hopper returned to survey through the near sump Chip had soloed in West Room. Approx 770 ft were surveyed with the last 100 ft in the so-called trunk segment. Peter explored over the collapse pile to the North for a few hundred (?) feet of 3h x 2w crawlway moving air. It continues with smaller dimensions and less promise. To the south Peter discovered why Chip hadn't soloed the climb up the BD pile. It was nearly vertical and covered with slick mud. Peter feels that nylon webbing loops or a permanent line will be needed to scale the climb. It's unknown when the next survey party will endure the drops, near sump and technical climb necessary to continue. Ragged out, Peter Chip returned to Base Camp, pigged out & crashed.

May 30
K Ortiz, Kevin Traugliber, Jay Grace, Mark Colman and L Bean raced to basecamp via Historic to rendevous with Peter & Chip at the appointed hour. However, Peter & Chip were still crashed from the West Room trip and declined further survey. Peter & Chip's survey gear was "borrowed" and two teams assembled from the newcomers. Keith, Jay and Kevin continued to Midway Canyon (Scoops #6). The passage almost immediately took a discouraging swing to to the west and became damper and narrower. They surveyed 250 ft. Beyond, the canyon continues as a narrow canyon 1w x 20h with local enlargements. Progress will involve lots of up & down picking & chosing to discover which "enlarged" levels of the canyon to follow. Next, two upper level leads were discovered and surveyed. The theory is that Ice Cave Ridge should contain develovement at higher levels comparable to Chris Cross and Forecaster Stream in Fisher Ridge. However, the first higher level lead regressed into a 1w x 5h sinuous canyon and the second high lead was severed a 70 ft deep pit which is impassible. A walking stream passage was seen down through some breakdown near the beginning of the first upper lead (Kevin's Folly). Jay & Kevin plan to assault the 70 ft pit on their next trip. Joe's maxim on neglecting to check for rigging points was once more verified. Total survey 440 ft.

May 30
Meanwhile Mark Colman and Larry Bean continued to Hunkey Dorey to survey the south going lead at Q-40 and to examine the "indian" relicts seen by Dan & Peter on the orignal Hunkey Dorey survey. They surveyed approx. 750 ft "QL survey" in comfortable 4h x 10h tube to a flowstone fill. A small hole was enterable at the flowstone but it was not explored. They climbed numerous muddy rimstone dams while surveying but did not encounter the knee deep water seen by Dan during the April floods. Coon tracks seen in the mud indicated visitation since last April. This passage passes beneath the valley bottom between Fisher Ridge and Ice Cave Ridge and is probably less than 30 ft below the surface. The slow match and cane bits are of little use archeologically since they were disturbed by the April floods (at least).

Fisher Ridge Scoops June-Aug 1982 #9

Fisher Ridge now stands at 13.75 miles (13.5 miles horiz tape). Only 3673 feet were added since the last SCOOPS, but this footage represents 203 stations. Numerous trips yielded low footage and lots of stations. Especially interesting are the August 14 trips which yielded 2800 feet of survey from leads all within 1000 ft of either entrance.

Ropple cave was pushed to within 750 feet of FRCS via their Fisher Ridge Special. FR Special entered under Fisher Ridge approximately west, of the 830 contour "knob" to the SW of Fluffy Sand. Apparently the Ropple passage then turned to the north paralleling the Fluffy Sand Trunk approximately 750 west of Fluffy Sand. Numerous side leads are reported.

This "intrusion" into FRCS territories lead to a barrage of telephone calls, letters and rumors, the result of which is a peaceable moritorium on exploration in Western Fisher Ridge. Since connection is not desirable at this point in time, an agreement was made with Ropple folk to stay east of Fluffy Sand Trunk and North of the valley separating Ice Cave Ridge from Fisher Ridge. In turn, the Ropple folk will cease & desist activities under Fisher Ridge. This should allow us to concentrate our activities on the push east toward Crump without worry about attack from the western flank.

Dan has thrown together an income & outgo statement on fieldhouse fees:

date	income	electric expenses
April, 1982	7.00	6.25
May	17.00	15.89
June	26.00	6.23
July	0.00	6.78
August*	0.00	6.25
.	_____	_____
.	50.00	41.67

Net 8.33 *final income not received. Delinquents pay up!!!

June 26
Boredom hit in Michigan so Dan Crowl & Peter Quick opted for a two man trip to FRCS. Hoping to scoop up big passage left behind in Helegmite they carried in their 100 foot tape and gobbled up the few 40 footers that Keith and Larry had left as an enticement on the previous survey. The survey rapidly deteriorated to 8 footers. They surveyed through "shitty" flat-out bellywhomp on nodules before stopping the survey. The passage beyond goes 100+ ft and splits into tight canyons. These go and blow but it's becoming very Crumpish. The lower hands and knees damp crawl and the middle crawl described in SCOOPS #8 busted out or "didn't look too good". Helegmite plotted out almost as far east as Chris Cross and not far from the large barn. Total footage 508 ft in 32 stations and one pair of coveralls.

June 26 (?)
Larry Bean led Patti Jo Watson and crew on an archeological tour of Fisher Avenue. Numerous photos were taken and measurements made of the footprints. Patti Jo was most impressed by the footprints, could not make heads or tails of the scrape marks and carried out a sample of the "slow match" for Carbon 14 dating. As of yet we have received no report on the results of this trip.

July 24 (?)
Peter Quick led newcomers Reid Beauchamp and Steve Miller (both Michigan cavers) to the end of New Years Passage. The passage was grimmer than Peter had pictured, especially after the long crawl to get there.

Reid & Steve pushed ahead through the 18"h x 3'w (2-8" of H20) bellywhomp and Peter was forced to follow. After 80-90 feet the crawl hit a mess of domes and BD climbups. The passage continued as a twisty, "on your side" type to a point where you drop back into the 18"H x 3'W bellywhomp. It "doesn't look like it's dying" and there's airflow but the passage didn't leave Peter with a good impression. They saw approximately 250 ft.

July 24
Joe Saunders led novices (what else is new) Matt Frye & Kim Frye to continue the upstream Roaring River survey. Not much detail is available on this trip. Apparently they hit a three way split in the passage. All three ways were explored, two were surveyed. A migrating shaft was found and Joe claims it may have intersected a "big old passage" at ceiling level. No one in the party was able to climb up to check it out. Total footage 320 ft in 17 shots.

Aug 14
Keith led Bruce Hilton and now veteran Reid Beauchamp to a lead he recalled from the Entrance Domes survey (lead "A" on the entrance domes map, SCOOPS #3). Larry had explored this lead approximately 200 ft to a dome and reported that it continued. Survey progressed to this dome and beyond. Various side leads were noted; two are good candidates for a push into Shaking Leaf Ridge. After surveying approximately 430 ft Reid (on lead tape) refused to continue. He came back white faced when he realized that we had been crawling along a 1-2" thick false floor over a 50-60 ft drop. Hence the name "Better not Crawl". Survey continued around the edge of the false floor to a 40 ft high abandoned dome complex. This complex plots out under the road down from the historic marking spot. Chip's little hole in this road may drop right into these domes. Total survey 662 ft in 41 stations.

Aug 14
Meanwhile Peter Quick and Larry Bean donned wetsuits to search for base level trunk in Roaring River. Survey was tedious and only a few unspectacular side leads were noted, Larry had run ahead "a few hundred feet" on a previous trip which turned out to be almost 600 ft. The Canyon is very sinuous and plots out as a spaghetti mess under Fisher Ave. After 800 ft Peter & Larry ran ahead to see what awaited them and encountered a sump after 100 feet. This sump is at approximately 500 ft (estimate since the surface survey has not been closed yet). This corresponds in elevation to the West Room Sump which is 4500 ft to the NNW. The 500 foot elevation for the Roaring River Sump corresponds closely to Quinlin's guesstimate of the base level for that area. Larry & Peter briefly looked for Joe's trunk leading off the migrating shaft but were unable to find the way to the shaft. Total footage 832 ft in 50 stations.

Aug 14
Dan Crowl, Chip Hopper and Steve Miller returned to the end of the neglected Upper Crawlway. This was the first passage explored and surveyed in FRCS. The original survey terminated where the passage became low & muddy. The Chris Cross discovery then diverted attention to deeper in the cave and the Crowlway was filed away in the leads list.

Enroute to the survey they stopped at the A29 side lead. Previous to A29 the Upper and Lower Crowlway are superimposed on each other with a vertical difference of 50 ft. At station A29, Upper and Lower Crowlway split from each other. It was believed that the A29 side lead might somehow be related to the lower Crowlway and provide a means of bypassing the 50 ft vertical drop to reach Chris Cross. Unfortunately, the A29 side lead is very tight. After considerable rock moving and pushing, Dan was able to progress about 25 ft. At this point, the small passage (lxl) becomes lined with large popcorn nodules and a large rock slab is in the way. The passage does continue and it appears that with some effort the rock can be removed. No air flow was detected.

Upon arriving at the starting point, both Chip and Dan began to recall why they had avoided returning to this point for over a year. The floor of this very low passage is lined with an incredibly sticky mud that clings to everything. Packs that were pushed ahead eventually looked like snowballs rolled from mud. Shoes became enormous as they picked up the sticky substance. Numerous formations in the passage impeded progress as one threaded his way through.

The survey was very slow. The first 3 stations took several hours (or, at least it seemed). This traversed the first mud stretch. The passage then continued for about 100 feet with a very hard floor of what looked to be calcited mud. Then another muddy stretch was encountered. This time the ceiling was about 3 feet high making progress somewhat easier. This stretch continued for about 100 feet to a three foot high tube type passage with a damp muddy foor.

Chip and Steve stopped to re-carbide and scrape mud while Dan crawled ahead. After 100 feet the passage oqened up to a 7 foot high canyon. What a relief to stand up again! Returning to the other two the survey was continued.

The canyon passage continued for several hundred feet to a point where it split. Steve took one lead and Dan the other as Chip waited behind. The split was soon found to be no more than a meander and Steve and Dan were rejoined after about 100 feet. The passage continued beyond this point as a stoop-walk canyon for about 300 feet to the top of a dome.

Later on, the computer plot indicated that this dome was the top of Raisin Room. The final station (All9) is 113 feet above station DR2 in the Raisin Room. Total survey footage was 1352 feet with 63 stations. It was incredible that this type of footage could be placed less than one hour from the entrance. ---as reported by Dan Crowl.

Aug 28
Joe Saunders and Peter Quick returned to survey in Pressure Passage. You'll recall that this is the right hand fork in the Sabbath Passage originally surveyed on the day of the Flood. Not much to resort on this trip. The passage rapidly deteriorated to a bellywhomp in sand and water. It was difficult to keep the mylar notes from being sand blasted off. After about 300 feet in this slop Joe began to get cold (Peter was in a full wet suit) so the survey was aborted. Joe left to hammer at a lead (in Fisher Ave??) while Peter explored the upper level canyon originally discovered by some of Joe's novices (SCOOPS #8) on a previous trip. He reports that it aoes strong for 500-600 ft to the north and also goes to the south (although smaller). Good airflow.

Fisher Ridge Scoops September 1982 #10

FRCS now stands at 14.34 miles (14.07 horiz.) not including the Labor Day footage. We're still getting our half mile per month but it's getting harder.

Chip now has a functioning computer program and a complete database of FRCS. Using an incredible Rube Goldberg arrangement, he is extracting the latest survey data from Detroit. Now the data makes a complete circle: from Mclean, VA, to Paoli, PA to Detroit, MI to Charlottesville, VA. Dan commented that any aliens listening in on our transmissions will go nuts trying to figure them out.

Chip has completed the awaited "survey letters used* program. It's interesting to see how certain letters are almost completely used up (D, M & P) while others haven't been touched. Although it is not expected that this will eliminate the problem of duplicates (who's going to remember all those letters??), it should help to identify duplicates before they're input into the computer, Jim Borden recommends appending "trip numbers" to each survey station during input into the computer. That way any letters can be used in the cave and duplicates are automatically segregated. Dan is investigating the feasibility of this concept with our database. There may not be enough room on the input "cards".

Chip has also completed a statistics program. It generates a table similar to Joe's hand totaled statisties for Crump Spring. The following statistics are as of August (ie includes Helegmite continuation):

Name	Footage	%Total	Stations	%	Trips(Survey Only)
K. Ortir	36244	50	1098	49	29
C. Hopper	38171	53	1059	48	27
P. Quick	32962	45	844	38	24
L. Bean	17314	24	622	28	15
D. Crawl	20895	29	621	28	13
J. Saunders	12035	17	446	20	16
B. Hilton	9225	13	242	11	6
Total Cave (Aug.'82)	.	72596	.	2225

One disturbing fact is that there are still only 7 active cavers. Out of 43 total visitors, 14 have more than one trip, 10 have more than two trips and 7 have more than three trips. Who's going to carry on when the regulars Crump-out?? ("Alexandra go Splash??")

Dan has modified the program to accept any combination of corrected/not corrected backsights for both clino and azimuth. So if you desire you can have uncorrected backsights on azimuth and correct clino backsights. You must clearly declare which backsights are not corrected in the notes. Also, clearly identify any footage which you consider to be not true cave footage: positioning shots, backup to side leads, etc. It will be programatically subtracted from Total Cave length.

As a courtesy to your caving partners, indicate in the notes the addresses of any newcomers. A SCOOPS will be sent to participants of the trips if addresses are known, It's one way to make "regulars" out of newcomers.

Patti Jo Watson's trip report was sent to me by Larry Bean and is included in its entirety.

Sept 4 - Joe Saunders and Tony Mulbrecht took Indiana cavers (Kent Wilson, Tom Weiler and Jerry Bailey) into FRCS. Mopped up 800 feet in Double Easy. (Only 730 ft of notes received which includes 96 ft of resurvey. This was Lou and Doug's effort at the end of Double Easy.) "Beyond Louie's Dig" still goes as a 1+' H x 15' W. Last portion of already known canyon still not mapped. (Double Hard) 50' Pit found off Double Easy (They apparently surveyed to the drop but a 20 degree S3-BS difference will force resurvey. No notes were received for this drop, I think.) Also mapped several stations in upper Roaring River complex before Hoosiers fell asleep. (113 feet mapped including 56 ft not true cave footage: used to back up in Fisher Ave to the side lead.) Tony took a Hoosier and did the new climb in upstream Roaring River (at the retreating dome - see SCOOPS #9). That went 200 ft to a squeeze into the top of a 40' x 50' x 30' room. Drop of 20+' prevented further exploration. As written by JWS with comments in parenthesis by RKO. "Beyond Louie's Dig" included a loop of 364 feet which is shown on attached map. The notes for SH8 and beyond are less than poor and this area should be resurveyed (partially re-resurveyed). Apuarently Joe couldn't fit in order to take notes and control quality.

Sept 11 - Dan Crawl, Dave LeClerc, Steve Miller and Reid Beauchamp entered Histeric entrance on a mopup trip. First they tackled the short canyon segment on the far side of Forecaster Dome. This gave Steve a chance to clear up his FS-BS closure difficulties in walking passage.

Next they went to scoop up the trunk segment discovered by Dan & Peter Quick on the June 26 Helegmite trip. This segment is off of the Chris Cross Cut-Around and remained undetected for years even though it was connected to the most traveled route in the cave.

The survey started at the Helegmite stream passage. They surveyed through the water before coming to the short trunk segment. One direction was a rock choke which they dug out and pushed up into a "big-sized" canyon. This canyon quickly popped up into Chris Cross at C-28. Another loop was closed. It's amazing that such large passage went undetected for so long!

Next they went to Fisher River and pushed up the short stream canyon into the bottom of Chip's Whimper Domes (supposedly). They climbed an overlook in these domes and followed a 20'W x 50'H canyon for 200' to breakdown. A 20'W x 10'H passage takes off before the BD, crossing over Fisher River and ending in a second BD choke. Dan & Co. squeezed up through some rocks into a "Big-Ass" room which Dan eventually recognized at the bottom of the Giant Room. Since Peter Quick had supposedly checked out the bottom a year before, the 20'W x 10'H passage was dubbed "Peter's Missed Passage."

Next they pushed a drain off the Giant Room that Peter had pushed to an extent. Peter's description of a low tube with a narrow canyon in the floor closely matched that of a Fisher River side lead pushed by Keith. A connection was assumed but never firmly established. Since there was still 50 ft of virgin passage between the two explorations, this passage was called the "Almost Connected Drain."

Dan's party surveyed the entire drain, starting at Fisher River, through the bottom of Giant Room, through Peter's Missed Passage and to the overlook in Chip's Whimper Dome (also called "Overlooked Domes"). Next a bellywhomp in Chip's Whimper was surveyed to a climbable overlook in Raisin Room and the survey was tied into a station in Raisin Room. Total footage approx 1300 ft in 53 stations.

Sept 17 - Keith Ortiz & Chip Hopper decided to take a short trip into "Better Not" to save strength for a long trip with Joe & Peter on the next day. They reached "Better Not" and checked out side leads on the trip in. The two good looking south-going leads mentioned in SCOOPS #9 connected back into the main passage. A lower canyon has the possibility of connecting with the side lead off Forecaster Canyon. Chip negotiated a tricky climb into a side dome, but only small leads could be seen. A shot was taken down the dome for footage.

Next they went to the 50 ft drop under the false floor. Chip crawled right across the floor (approx. 2" thick chert ledge) wondering why the fuss. A few smacks with a 4 pounder left a gaping hole: sufficient answer to Chip's doubts. The drop was rigged and Chip descended. His report from below was discouraging, but Keith decided to descend to double check.

Only two leads presented themselves: a bellywhomp in water and a narrow damp canyon. Both were moving air and both heading in the wrong direction (north). It was decided to map the narrow canyon just to get some footage. After a few stations it started to dry out and it looked amazingly similiar to Lower Crowlway - hence the name "Lower Crowlway South". Their expectations increased with the thought that this canyon could go quite a ways to reach Lower Crowlway. Air flow was brisk, this could mean a big connection! Then came the call from the front: "Keith, what does AC19 mean?" Chip had pulled out some gypsum wedged slabs and made a connection with Forecaster Canyon. They had completed a loop with Forecaster and only mopped up 219 feet.

The bellywhomp was pushed 100 feet as a low tube on top of a narrow canyon. The upper tube pinched down requiring total immersion in the slot in the floor. Mowes air!

It's still not known if Lower Crowl South is related at all to Lower Crowlway. A narrow canyon in the floor does continue past the connection. Also, it is possible that "Better Not" is actually the continuation of Upper Crawlway. Much to Barb Shaeffer's credit, the AC19 side lead is accurately shown on the Forecaster Canyon sketch as a side lead. Total footage 283 feet in 16 stations.

Sept 18 - Since Peter & Joe were no shows, Keith and Chip decided to try a Kamakazi trip to the end of Toothless. Their bodies and morale zapped from the "Better Not" trip, they would check out the stream crawl at the "end" of Toothless, survey if it went, leave the cave if it didn't. Travel was slow; each obstacle required enormous determination. However, little by little they regained strength and by the time they reached Basecamp they were "raring-to-go."

Chip checked out a hole in Rio Bueno that he and Peter had dismissed as an insignificant loop. This led to a nice walking canyon and to the principal canyon carrying the Rio Bueno stream. It would be surveyed if Toothless crapped out.

On to the "end" of Toothless, described as a "hands & knees" in water. A couple of nice survey shots led quickly to where Larry had stopped upstream exploration in an elbows & thigh in 6 inches of water. Chip engineered a small rock island and survey continued. The stream comes out of the immense breakdown blocks which makes up the right hand wall. The dry stream bed continued 60-70 feet to a BD collapse.

At this point Chip worked his way up through the BD and reoorted that someone else had already been there. That someone was Keith who remembered now that he had reached the same stream bed from up above. He had wormed his way through the upper BD maze on the Feb 14 trip (SCOOPS #6) but failed to realize that the stream bed was related to the stream at the end of Toothless. Since Keith had thoroughly explored the BD on the Feb trip, the survey was aborted. Total survey 123 feet and 7 stations.

Heading back to Rio Bueno, Keith talked Chip into a "few easy 80 foot shots in a north trending stream crawl at PB60 in Toothless. After 196 feet the 3' H x 18' W passage splits: a small waterfall dome is on the right and a 1' H x 6' W bellywhomp continues straight. The bellywhomp moves a gale or air. This crawl was given the name "Not Checked" since it didn't appear on Coon's sketch of Toothless. Total footage 196 feet in 5 stations.

Next they continued to Rio Bueno. A nice dry, silt-floored canyon led steeply downhill to a pothole section. The roar of Rio Bueno could be heard getting stronger. Finally the 8ft high waterfall (2CFS) comes out of a crawl at shoulder height and plunges into a 10 ft diameter pothole. A magnificent sight: After another 200 feet, including a few 8-10' climbs on chert, a 20 ft drop stopped further survey. It's a mirror image of the Fisher River experience! A bolt will be needed to rig the drop. 381 ft with 17 stations.

Back at Toothless, Chip checked his watch and determined that if they left immediately the sun would not yet be up. Keith suggested a nice cut around in Toothless offering about an hours worth of survey. It was supposedly an easy hands & knees with a dry silt floor and 80 foot shots with 40 foot wide passage. In reality it turned out to be 1-2 ft high with damp sand and only 10' wide. Two hours later (8 stations) the loop was completed and Chip was wondering whether backsights would be necessary. Of course they were! Total footage in the Laughing Water Loop (LWL survey) was 336 feet in 8 stations.

Fisher Ridge Summary October 1982 #11

Missing this issue - to be added soon!

Fisher Ridge Summary November 1982 V1 N1 By Dan Crowl

Oct. 16: Peter Quick, Dan Crowl and Dave LeClerc entered FRCS via the Historic Entrance with Keith's crew and Tony Mulbrecht. Tony was dropped off at the Base Camp to meet up with Joe Saunders while Pete, Dan and Dave continued through the Stomach Pool into Ice Cave Ridge. They picked up mapping at the passage off PA-1 at the first meander of Pedigo Ave. where Keith and Bruce had left off at PAD-10. 26 stations were set for a total of 754 feet. The dome at the end of the passage was bolted, descended and was mapped for 100 feet to the passage's termination. No good leads were noted. (This passage and dome was named the Stooge's Passage and Curly domes due to the many Three Stooges imitations that were performed during the trip -- Ed.)

They then continued to the Rio Sueno stream halfway along Toothless to drop the pit encountered by Keith and Chip on the Sept. 18th trip (FRCS SCOOPS #10). The rock in the vicinity of the pit was very rotten and it took a long time to find rock in the proper place for placing a bolt to rig the 20 foot deep pit with a cable ladder. Peter finally placed a bolt and descended the drop only to find another unclimbable drop 25 feet down the passage. The drop appears to be about 20 feet deep and the only rigging that was found was a boulder at the bottom of the first drop room that would require about 50 feet of rope to rig to the top of the second drop. A cable ladder could then be used to descend the drop. The crew started to head out but decided to map the loop first encountered in Toothless between stations PB-5 and PB-2. 250 feet of passage was mapped and one side lead heading south was noted. They then exited the cave via Splash. The water was very cold and when they exited, found a heavy frost in the valley bottom. The mile long walk back to the van was very cold and uncomfortable as Dave (the zombie) can attest.

Oct. 16: Joe Saunders and Mel Church entered via Splash and met up with Tony Mulbrecht in Fisher Ave. They proceeded to the wet canyon off Fisher Ave. at DA-39 that Joe had mapped with Peter and Chip in Sept. 1981 (FRCS SCOOPS #1). They mapped the left fork for about 450 feet until it got too grim: 2 feet high in water and narrow. They then went down the right fork that had already been mapped and picked up surveying at the breakdown crawl on the left that Peter and Chip had pushed upwards into a large room a year before. Joe's crew mapped about 200 feet through the breakdown and in the room. All leads except for a pit in the low end of the room were checked. Tony found a Remington bullet shell near a passage full of nuts (a nut sump) and so the room was named the Remington Room. The room is likely to be very close to the surface. Perhaps it is the route that the Indians used to get into the cave 2000 years ago.

Oct. 23: Peter Quick, Joe Saunders and Nancy Colter entered FRCS through the Splash entrance. Splash was drier than it had ever been. Virtually the entire muddy section was dried out to the extent that it was wet mud rather than muddy water. Naturally the last pool was full of water. It is thought that with a bit of work and the help of periodic floods, the gravel and mud that hold the water in the last pool can be removed enough to drain the pool of much of its water. The crew dragged a 40 foot rope and a cable ladder into the cave so that the climb and drop encountered by Tony Mulbrecht in upstream Roaring River could be ascended and going descended. Joe suggested to the end of Double Easy to dry off and to do some surveying before attempting Roaring River. First they re-mapped the left hand side lead that leads to a pit that Joe's Indiana cavers had mapped previously with some errors. Nine stations were placed for a total of 96 feet. The drop was plumbed at 33 feet deep. A drain could be seen on the bottom of the drop although it is suspected to be too tight for pushing. They then went to where Dan and Joe had left off surveying in Double Hard and surveyed about 360 feet to the Rhino Dome at the end. No good leads were noted. They then headed back out to Roaring River and mapped an upper lead of Roaring River back over Fisher Ave. for 150 feet. They decided to put off the climb in upstream Roaring River for another time. All in all, 44 stations and 600 feet were mapped this trip, 70 feet of which were re-survey.

Oct. 16: Larry Bean, Reid Beauchamp and Keith Ortiz surveyed the Junction Stream going south from the Grand Junction. The passage went south for 490 feet as an easy tube crawl, with a small canyon in the floor. The passage then turned southwest for 330 feet, with four to six inches of water standing wall to wall in pools. The tube headed west for 320 feet as a low two foot high passage and then dropped into one of the West Room trunks. The crew followed the Junction Stream paleo upstream and up-hill from the Grand Junction. However, as the passage approached the West Room it remained paleo upstream, but went down hill so that water was actually flowing up-hill. This indicated that the Junction stream was a flood route for the West Room trunk when the water rose above the ceiling of the trunk. Two good leads remain going east. One at JS-27 and the other at a waterfall into the West Room trunk near JS-44.

Fisher Ridge Summary December 1982 V1 N2 By Dan Crowl

The weekend of Nov. 13 was indeed an impressive weekend for Fisher Ridge. Well over 4000 feet of new passage was surveyed. Most of this footage was from the Grim Route and Joe's Lost Lead areas. However, significant total footage was obtained in 600 to 700 foot sections throughout the cave. The total system length is.now 15.85 miles with about 700 feet of additional footage yet to be entered into the computer. This means that Fisher Ridge is now the 20th longest cave within the US! This is substantial, considering that the system is less than two years old.

The most significant new find was the Grim Route - Pickle Passage area off of the Junction Stream. The Grim Route was named after the decidedly wet suit conditions that prevail here. Certainly not a welcome sight for a passage that appears to be heading for significant new finds.

Joe's Lost Lead is an upper level lead above the Pressure Passage. The computer plot indicates that, indeed, it is an upper, but separate component of the Pressure Passage. The survey was stopped at an unclimbable dome. - It is believed that the lower Pressure Passage will also intersect these domes providing an alternative to the wet suit conditions of Pressure.

Survey footage was also totalled in New Year's Passage (now complete to the previously found domes), Dairy Queen Passage (off of Pressure), and a small loop near Base Camp.

Significant progress was made by Steve Miller in gating the Historic Entrance. This gate is not necessarily being built for security reasons but to prevent winter frost wedging in the unstable entrance area. The possible new entrance is still being considered. A choice sink on the surface immediately above a surface adjacent passage was found to blow considerable air thru a debris pile. Could this be the entrance that the Indians used?

Additional improvements are being implemented in the cave data processing program. Recently, the LRTB processing section was improved to leave a blank data field if the data is absent. Previous versions printed a zero, implying that the data was indeed measured.

Nov. 13: Peter Quick, Dan Crowl and Bill Walters entered through the Historic Entrance of Fisher Ridge Cave System and headed towards the Giant Room to check out the high climb to a canyon previously checked out by Don Coons. The canyon was reported to go for a few hundred feet and continue. After reaching the Giant Room a few re-survey shots were necessary to place a station in the Giant Room to go up to the climb. The survey was named the CK survey and the canyon was tentatively called the Cracked Kanyon. How else do you get CK? About 200 feet were surveyed in the area below the Cracked Kanyon. Peter then followed Don's climb to within five feet of the canyon floor but decided to route when a key handhold came off and the realization that neither Dan nor Bill would be able to make the climb anyway.

They then proceeded to the upstream waterfall dome in Tin Can Alley to make the climb opposite the waterfall to a canyon that Peter had noted on an earlier trip. The climb was a little difficult at the top but Peter made it up. The canyon turned out to be a segment of passage previously surveyed by Keith Ortiz that led to the Fossil Dome. A handline was rigged and two shots were taken to tie in the loop. The crew then decided to partake in some treachery and headed to Joels coveted Pressure Passage climb-up. Peter had previously seen about 500 feet of nice dry stoop walking passage atop the climb. About 1500 total feet were surveyed going both east and west of the climbup. The western lead terminated in a too tight canyon. One lead was noted in the floor of the western passage at the bottom of a 15 foot deep pit. The eastern passage was the first surveyed and was dutifully named the JL survey (Joe's Lost). It continued to the side of a dome where a ladder would be necessary to descend and continue surveying. About 1850 total feet were surveyed, although 150 feet were re-survey, and 69 stations placed this trip. On the way out they encountered Joe's crew at the Base Camp returning from the end of the New Year's Passage. Joe tried to drum up some enthusiasm for more surveying but everyone else voted to leave.

NOV. 11: Tony MulbreCht & Keith Ortiz decided to return to the 3 X 3 side lead discovered during the Junction Stream survey (SCOOPS # 1). What was described as a nice, scalloped bedrock tube turned out to be a 1'H X 3'W mud whomp which Tony immediately named "Grim Route". With Tony on compass and Keith on notes, the slow grind of the survey began. After a few stations Keith noticed that Tony had developed a unique method of reading compass so they switched tasks. Survey continued verrry slow when Keith had difficulty backing 'against the grain' of the scallops and Tony had difficulty keeping his Premier functioning. Tony mentioned that this was the type of shit passage that he and Joe were "saving" for Keith in the Fisher Avenue section of the cave. Keith was thinking of "saving" Grim for Joe & Tony at about this time.

After about 13 stations it was apparent that efficient surveying was just not to be. Keith and Tony were not prepared for the grimness of Grim. It was decided to continue survey until Grim took a change for the worse, which would be really grim, or to a breakthrough. They didn't have to wait long. At station 16 passage cross section changed to sacrifice height for width and Grim became a flat out belly whomp on mud. Put away the survey gear!!!

A strong breeze promised more delight as they endured the belly whomp. Relatively nice hands & knees followed for about 500 feet with no end in sight. Grim apparently didn't want to quit. Keith decided to stretch out and snooze on a dry patch of sand and he convinced Tony to check ahead around the next few bends. Tony squeezed through a low spot: "Keith, I hit a canyon, you might want to see this!"

A 6H X 3W canyon sloped downhill slowly enlarging to become a 25H X 8W canyon. They quickly peered into a wall to wall water side lead before continuing straight in the canyon. After about 800 feet of respectable passage it was decided to continue the Grim survey as far as possible. By the time the last station was reached this ambition vanished in the mud. It was almost too much an effort to pick up the backsights on the way out. Grim would have to wait for a better prepared crew.

NOV. 13: With Keith promising a miserable 50 stations for 500 feet, Chip Hopper, Pete Crecilias & Keith returned to Grim passage.

The survey crew was less than enthusiastic. Pete was a guest caver from Ropple and was willing to survey anything: a perfect candidate for Grim. Keith wasn't certain he could endure a second trip to Grim, but two azimuths were not noted on the previous survey and either Keith or Tony had to return to find the stations. Tony volunteered for an even less desirable trip to New Year's and Keith was obliged to lead the Grim trip. Chip, neck and neck with Keith in the statistics game, felt he couldn't afford to pass up the footage in the trunk at the end of Grim. The Grim crew was assembled.

Crawling through the frigid waters of Junction Stream, Pete wondered out loud whether Fisher Ridgers "enjoyed this kind of caving." After seeing Grim, Junction Stream started to look quite spacious and comfortable. Chip was in full wetsuit and didn't seem to mind the total immersion necessary for the two missed azimuths and the 16 stations from the previous Grim survey quickly passed. Pete set backsight point and stopped asking questions about what Fisher Ridgers enjoy.

After 500 feet / 30 stations Pete (apparently a graduate of the Joe Saunders School of Continuous Talleying) reminded Keith that Grim was only supposed to be 500 feet x 50 stations long.

Keith guessed that the number of stations estimate was more accurate than the footage estimate. After a few more "it's around the next bend" stations, GR5O popped into the trunk.

Keith had a craving for pickles and the Pickle Passage (PP) survey was born.

Pickle Passage starts as a 6H x 3W silt-floored canyon sloping downward to the southeast. As the floor sloped down, pasage dimension increased until Pickle was a 25'H x 8'W canyon. Pete noticed that survey direction was paleo upstream (downhill!).

Stopping for a snack at a major (wet) side lead, Pete noticed that survey direction was now paleo downstream. Apparently flood waters shoot out from the side lead and split in Pickle Passage.

The upper 20 ft of Pickle Passage split off and mudded up to the ceiling leaving a 3'H x 15'W crawl, first on damp silt then in 2 feet of ponded water. Equipment failures and increasing FS/BS differences indicated the end of the survey was near so an honorable retreat had to be negotiated. Pete agreed that less than 100 stations was acceptable considering passage conditions. An obvious permanent station clinched it.

While Pete and Chip cleaned up the closing details, Keith ran ahead 600-700 feet to see where the breeze came from. A damp sand crawl left the source of the breeze a mystery. They dried off at the Grand Junction, chowed down some energy food and exited after 20 hours from Historic Entrance. Total footage 1512 feet in 66 stations.

(Editor's Note: The members on this trip were Reid, Tony Mulbrecht and Joe Saunders.)

Saturday morning at breakfast the decision was made to survey the water crawl and domes beyond the end of the New Years Special (NYS) Passage. This would be an interesting trip for several reasons. First, we would be entering the cave via the Splash Entrance, probably the furthest point from NYS Passage, secondly, it would be the first trip into Ice Cave Ridge for Tony and Joe, and the first trip thru Splash and South Fisher Ave. for Reid.

About 1:30 we dipped into the entrance crawl and about a half hour later we were standing in South Fisher Ave. After about 4 hours we were staring at the beginning of the one-half mile NYS crawl. Pacing ourselves, but moving steadily, we proceeded.

At a point about two-thirds the way we stopped to explore a canyon in the floor taking water from further in the passage. Probably 250' was seen downstream in tight canyon 1' wide, 5' to 8' high. A nice Colony Coral like the one in the Fisher River can be found in this canyon on the left about 75' in. Joe postulated that this stream canyon may be an upstream feeder for the Sweetwater Canyon in the Toothless Tube.

Back in the crawl we soon reached the end of the previous survey. Here the passage continues as 1.5' high, 4' wide with 6 inches of water at the deepest points. Although Reid remembered this passage as a tolerable 25 to 30 feet, it turned out to be a grim 90' wet crawl to reach a series of domes it presumably drains. Here a chain of 5 domes maybe 30' high gave us another 175 feet before continuing meant back into the water crawl past the fifth dome. Unprepared for the thorough soaking a survey in water causes, Reid's chills prompted leaving the domes before exploring any further than was seen in July with Steve Miller and Peter Quick. But at least now the most miserable part of the survey is complete and a prepared (wet suit) team may be able to push the crawl past the last dome. These domes are under the lowest spot above this point to the Green River to the North.

Again moving steadily wee exited the NYS and then the crawl out of Ice Cave Ridge. While resting at Base Camp we were joined by Peter's party returning from survey in South Fisher Ave. At 4:45 AM we headed off toward the entrance and about 2 hours later were shaking off the cold from the ice-crusted entrance crawl. Excluding approx. 4 hours in survey, the trip to reach the domes past NYS took about 8 hours one way. A good part of this is walking passage and made for an impressive trip in FRCS.