The DUG SCOOPS Archives - 1985

COMPILED FROM DUG SCOOPS VOLUME 3 & 4

Fisher Ridge Summary January 1985 V3 N3 By Dan Crowl

Missing this issue. To be added soon!

Fisher Ridge Summary February 1985 V3 N4 By Dan Crowl

FRCS has finally passed the 31 mile mark with about 6250 stations. Chip Hopper tells me that there is 1961 feet (102 stations) of footage that must be excluded since these shots were taken as alignment shots in previously surveyed passage. Anyway, this last mile has been most difficult, with no single area providing dominant footage.

Several groups ventured into FRCS during the weekend of January 12th. Myself, Steve Miller and Dave LeClerc made one last vigil to eastern Chris - Cross on mopup. Only 13 stations with 225 feet were shot in reasonably grim passages. This area has now turned into spaghetti on the map.

Keith Ortiz, Peter Quick and Bob Anderson made a major assault on the upper level lead in the Giant Room. I remember years ago looking up at what appeared to be a huge passage about 40 feet off the floor. I also remember remarking about how much effort would be required to reach it. To make a long story short, this ambitious venture netted 13 stations with 351 feet in a narrow and terminal canyon off of an apparent alcove. Tough luck!

Joe Saunders and Chip Hopper did net 31 stations with 488 feet in a variety of leads off of south Fisher Ave.

My FRCS data base has been stoked up again. It took me two full days to get the data reorganized, and several phone calls and data transfers to Chip Hopper.

I have two Inspired Leads for this month. First, I noticed on my last trip into Raccoon that there were two canyons at the bottom of a steep, downward mud slope near Happy Face. They did not appear to be surveyed. Where do they go? Also, what of the holes that one must traverse around near Happy Face? What is at the bottom? This whole area appears to be a complicated junction area. Has it been thoroughly checked?

Second, quite some time ago I noticed a virgin crawl near the climb down from Friendly Crawl to the Giant Room. This crawl led to a small hole where one could peer up into what looked like a dome. I dismissed it as simply one of the other domes already discovered in the area. However, I keep getting this feeling that things just don't work out right. Perhaps this is a separate, undiscovered dome? Also, have we given this area all that it's worth? 'Nuff said. Go get em!

Fisher Ridge Summary March 1985 V3 N5 By Dan Crowl

On the weekend of January 12, 1985, Joe Saunders and Chip Hopper discovered that a major mudbank in South Fisher Avenue had been rearranged by the May, 1984 floods. What lay before them was a newly opened passage heading south into Eudora Ridge! Due to time restraints they were only able to survey twenty stations, enough to verified that a major new trunk and area in the cave had been opened.

The following month a veritable feeding frenzy ensued, with a total of 518 stations being placed in an eight day period by just four survey teams. 3.03 miles of additional cave were added, bringing the total taped distance for Fisher Ridge to 34.35 miles!

The main trunk, dubbed the South Fisher Avenue Extension continued for several thousand feet undiminished until it terminated in an immediate gravel fill. Many side leads, heading both east and west were noted, with some being surveyed.

Of major importance is the Nick - O - Time passage towards the southern part of the South Fisher Avenue Extension. This large passage initially heads east, but soon takes up a southeastern trend. Survey in the logical passage was terminated in a dome complex, but a side lead (called the Millie River) continued the southward trend into, Eudora Ridge proper. Survey was terminated when the passage lowered to a water crawl. But the strong sucking airflow will certainly lure future trips. The Millie River and other sections of the Nick-O-Time Passage glance the main body of Eudora Ridge, fueling the fires of possible additional discoveries there.

At this time speculation is rampant on the ultimate fate of this area. Numerous side leads and complicated passage areas will certainly keep the survey fueled for the months to come. The chances of finding a way to baselevel are also good, with several major rivers being discovered. A connection to upstream Thunder River might be possible through baselevel connections.

I am now almost with a mechanism for dumping cave data directly from my processing program into a computer drafting package. This would improve quality and efficiency for producing final maps. A few details on a grid system and symbol libraries are yet to be worked out. I hope to have a major article on this subject in the future.

Fisher Ridge Summary April 1985 V3 N6 By Dan Crowl

Only two teams visited Fisher Ridge during the last reporting period. I guess everyone was resting after the February feeding frenzy.

On the weekend of March 14th, Larry Bean, Chris Amore and Ken Dixon continued the survey of the BX side lead in the South Fisher Avenue Extension. As you might recall, Keith Ortiz, Larry Bean and Bob Anderson began this survey during the week of February 19th. The new team added 50 stations and 840 feet in a southeast direction. At one point they came into a dome that they feel is connected to a domepit observed from the top in the Big Side Lead. Larry says that a crawlway at the end remains to be checked.

On the weekend of March 30th, myself, Peter Quick, Dave LeClerc and Reid Beauchamp began surveying the downstream paleoflow passage of the Nick - 0 - Time lead. We surveyed 600 feet to an overlook of what appeared to be a huge trunk passage. By using small pieces of available webbing, Peter Quick was able to climb down the 15-foot drop to determine that indeed this was a huge trunk. The others were not so confident of the rigging arrangements and decided to return to the Ex-Plug area to pick up their vertical packs and additional webbing pieces. They returned and scaled the drop.

The trunk passage, now called the April Fool's Trunk, was surveyed about 1500 feet southeast. Passage dimensions were typically 20 x 20 with a square cross section and a flat dirt floor. At the end of the large trunk section, the passage continued but as a crawlway. Several hundred additional feet were surveyed until a small room was reached with a very small crawlway continuing. Pete pushed the small crawl a short distance until the water and small dimensions took their toll.

In the opposite direction (northwest), the April Fool's Trunk continued for about 200 feet to an overlook to a large dome. The floor of the dome was about 30 feet below the floor of the Trunk. Since a rope was not available, the drop was not done. However, examination showed the Trunk passage to continue on the other side of the dome at the same level. Thus, continuation would require not only a ladder for dropping into the dome, but also a scaling pole for climbing up the shear wall on the other side. Want to improve your scaling pole percentages Keith?

FRCS now stands at slightly over 35 miles. Considerable footage still remains in the South extension area. Furthermore, it is now becoming apparent that Fisher Ridge Cave System is the dominant drainage cave from Eudora Ridge.

Fisher Ridge Summary May 1985 V3 N7 By Dan Crowl

During the last reporting period, three teams of cavers have ventured into Fisher Ridge on separate weekends. Needless to say they all journeyed to the new South Fisher Extension area since discoveries in this area continue at a modest pace.

Steve Miller, Reid Beuchamp, Dennis Kendrick and Denny Kendrick returned to the April Fools Trunk intent on reaching the trunk continuation seen on the other side of the domepit. Even though they were apparently armed with plenty of vertical gear for the expected bolt climb, they managed to find a non-vertical way to gain access. Unfortunately, only several hundred feet of trunk continuation was found.

Returning to the domepit, they began to survey an obvious drain (the Almost Heaven Canyon). After several hundred feet of survey, they routed.

Keith 0rtiz, Chip Hopper and Bob Anderson started looking at side leads off of the end of the South Fisher Avenue Extension. They were able to find an additional connection passage to the April Fool's Trunk. After a brief sightseeing jaunt down April Fool's Trunk, they continued their survey down the Almost Heaven passage. After a considerable distance, the stream passage became too low. However, a side lead further upstream was surveyed with this passage eventually turning into a stoop stream passage with good airflow. They routed after about 1800 ft.

Finally, myself, Joe Saunders and Peter Quick continued exploring side leads off of the Fisher Avenue Extension. First, we checked the side lead to the left near the White Column area. This side lead, dubbed the Boob Tube, was surveyed several hundred feet until hammering would be needed to continue. Strong airflow out of the passage was noted. A small canyon in the floor near the beginning of this passage gave visual, but not physical access to a deep pit. Depth estimates were on the order of 50 ft. A huge passage modification and improvement effort would be required to gain access.

Moving to the White Column Canyon, a dig at the end of the previously known passage was opened to reveal substantial new passage beyond. Many side leads were noted in mostly stoop sized and bone-dry passage. Eventually the survey turned into a sandy crawlway that led to a small dome complex at its end. 1006 feet were surveyed in 57 stations.

Fisher Ridge now stands at 35.69 miles. Penetration into Eudora Ridge has not increased do to the recent survey activity.

Fisher Ridge Summary June 1985 V3 N8 By Dan Crowl

Did you ever have a nightmare where you accidently find a huge new passage discovery but don't have survey gear to map it? Well, a real "nightmare" of this type occurred to Peter Quick and Larry Bean during a Memorial Day weekend trip into FRCS. Pete decided to lead a photo trip and talked Larry Bean into coming along. Of course, this trip would be into well explored areas of the cave and survey gear wouldn't be necessary. Wrong! Pete discovered that another mudbank near the Grand Junction (Explug II?) had washed out, revealing a passage that ultimately connected to a reasonable stream passage. Since no compass gear was available, the trend of this passage is not known. However, my theory is that it drains the area of Fisher Ridge near Doc Fisher's house where no present passage is known. Anyone for a new Crumps connection theory? More than a thousand feet of new passage was observed with numerous sideleads. Another feeding frenzy?

Also during that weekend, Keith Ortiz and Bob Anderson returned to the South Fisher Extension area to tie up some loose ends. First, they travelled to the Millie River area in hopes of pushing further into Eudora Ridge. They were able to find a climb up near the end of the previous survey that led to an upper, more accommodating level. They surveyed this level a reasonable distance to a flowstone choke that marked the logical conclusion of the Millie River. Next, they returned to the forty foot drop in the Big Side Lead and found a respectable downstream passage at the bottom. They surveyed this passage a good distance until it became too low or clogged with breakdown (my memory is failing --- HELP ! ).

I have not received the latest survey data so I am not able to report a new total length. However, I suspect that we are very close or possibly just over 36 miles.

Fisher Ridge Summary July 1985 V3 N9 By Dan Crowl

A number of interesting trips have occurred since the last report. First, Steve Miller, Reid Beauchamp and Dave LeClerc, with visions of easy surveying, decided to scoop Larry Bean and Peter Quick and gobble up the just opened Oakleaf and Cascade Canyon passages. Humorously, they lettered their survey SP, for Scoop Peter. Unfortunately, as the plans of mice and cavers sometimes go, they surveyed down the right sidelead instead of the left! (Someone has already suggested that yours truely made a typo in the last newsletter and switched the left and right directions in Peter Quick's trip report. I checked this accusation and found the trip report to be reproduced exactly as provided by Peter.) Anyway, the team was rewarded with a most difficult survey down a slimy grodehole. After many hours of this, they finally realized their mistake and returned to the original junction. Now, totally exhausted, they decided to abandon the survey and rout. Reid and Steve did have a chance to run for a short while down the walking passage that they should have surveyed.

I don't know if there is a cave god or not, but if there is, this god must be just!

One week later, Peter Quick and I returned to survey the correct passage. After 84 shots in the Oakleaf passage, the stream junction was reached. The survey was continued downstream over a number of very interesting cascades to the small drop that had stopped Peter and Larry the previous month. After rigging a ladder, Peter descended down through a sizable spray to find that this passage was the West Room River Passage. The loop was connected and survey was continued upstream from the junction. After several more stations (running the numbers up to 112 and the distance to about 1600 feet), the decision was made to rout. This decision was reinforced by low carbide supplies, brought on by my carelessness of forgetting my second carbide bottle. (I'm beginning to think that there is indeed a cave god. This is the first time in my total caving career that I forgot a bottle of carbide. Is the cave god limiting the survey station count feeding?)

The upstream passage continues in an unknown direction. Certainly one additional sizable survey remains here. As for the main part of the passage, it does not head northwest as originally conjectured last month in this column. Instead, it merely complicates the area around the Grand Junction and West Room areas. Anyone for multi - level cartography?

I am now firmly convinced that the Mercator grid system is the best way to lay out the final map. The Mercator system represents a more accurate projection of the earth's surface. As most of you are probably not aware, the regular topographic map is merely a photographic projection of the earth's surface. As such, it is distorted to a small degree. If you look carefully at a topographic map, you will see that the top and bottom are different lengths, and that the "straight" lines around the sides are not straight! (Use a large straight edge to confirm this.) An additional interesting feature about topographic maps is that a line drawn between two points does not provide the correct azimuth for travel between the two points. This amazing fact was first noted by artillery gunners and was the single most driving force for the Mercator system. The Mercator system, abbreviated for International Mercator System, represents a much truer representation of the earth's surface. On an IMS map, a line drawn between two points provides a better azimuth for travel. It can also represent a better azimuth for launching artillery shells (perhaps to Mammoth?).

Reference points for the Mercator system are provided by various sections. The United States is divided into 20+ sections with the counting starting in the Pacific Ocean somewhere and terminating in the Atlantic. All IMS grid references are with respect to the section origins.

An additional advantage to the IMS system is that it is metric. Since each IMS grid section is 1000 meters square, a 1/500 scale map will provide a scale of 500/12 = 41.667 feet per inch. This is a good scale to work in since 50 fpi. is too small and 25 fpi is too large. This also provides a good plot sheet if each IMS grid is broken into six sheets, each 250 meters wide and 500 meters long (This represents a sheet about 19x39 inches, giving plenty of room for border, etc. on a 36 inch wide plotting sheet.)

Anyway, you will be hearing more about the IMS grid in the future.

A work trip is being planned for early fall. The purpose of this trip will be to 1) perform a surface survey to locate the entrance on the IMS grid, 2) prepare the Fieldhouse for Winter, 3) repair the washout damage at the Historic Entrance gate, 4) any other miscellaneous chores that need completing. It is proposed that no caving trips occur in order to maximize surface activity. As a bonus, it is proposed that the Grotto pay for a Saturday night party at the Fieldhouse as a reward to participants. More about this in the September DUG SCOOPS.

Fisher Ridge Summary August 1985 V3 N10 By Dan Crowl

Only two survey teams ventured into Fisher Ridge during the last month.

Peter Quick, Steve Miller and Tony Rudnitsky returned to the Cascade Canyon area to continue the survey started in this area the previous month by myself and Peter Quick. They placed 51 stations in 850 feet, pushing the leads down to the near nitty - gritty. Apparently, mostly mop - up, and maybe a surprise or two for the hardy remains. (See the trip report by Pete in this ish!)

On the same weekend, Keith Ortiz and Chip Hopper returned to the Big Side lead off of the Fisher Avenue Extension to push a poorly described, but going, lead at the bottom of a pit. This lead eventually connected to the unfinished survey of Larry Bean, et al. from another sidelead off of Fisher Avenue. An upstream lead also eventually led to a fork and poor prospects for continuation. (At least that's what they tell me.)

The work weekend discussed in last month's summary is being planned for early October. Full details will be provided in the September SCOOPS. This weekend will be devoted to 1.) a surface survey, 2.) shoring up the Entrance gate, 3.) winterizing the Fieldhouse, and 4.) organizing the survey archives. Item four has been recently added. It will provide an opportunity for the FRCS archive to be updated with more recent survey books. Cavers that still have original survey books in their possession are admonished to bring them to this event to be included in the archives. Orders will be taken at that time for copies of the notes.

I have started the next, and hopefully last, revision of the cave data processing program. This new version will be data format independent. That is, this new version will be capable of processing cave data in any format. Furthermore, am writing the new code in Fortran 77, using its structured and character string manipulation features. This should provide greater transportability of the result. Presently, over 300 lines of program have already been coded out of an expected total line count of about 2000.

In a related incident, William Safire in his weekly ravings about linguistics in the New York Times MAGAZINE, finally discusses the origin of the word "nerd." (Yes, he says the correct spelling is N-E-R-D, not N-U-R-D.) He claims that nerd is a combination of nerts, a previous slang word for disgust (derived from nuts), and terd. How he came to this conclusion, we'll never know. But I do remember hearing the usage of this word first in the caving community.

Fisher Ridge Summary September 1985 V3 N11 By Dan Crowl

The big central Kentucky work weekend us scheduled for the weekend of October 5th. Enthusiasm is running high and most regulars have verbally agreed to appear. The list of tasks to complete has now grown quite large and is perhaps a bit too unrealistic. The occasion should be fun for all, with a slide show and a grotto paid party being the reward for those who contribute. I have also just been notified that the electricity is now on in the Fieldhouse. Hurray! Be sure to bring your survey notebooks for addition to the FRCS archives. Plans for making copies of the notes will be developed at that time.

Several interesting trips occurred during the month of August. First, Steve Miller and Peter Quick returned to the Cascade Canyon area to "mopup". Despite their plans, they managed to push a lead that Joe Saunders gave up on and came to an overlook to a pit. Since they didn't bring vertical gear, exploration of the pit bottom was defered. However, the pit itself is quite intriguing since it is near base level.

On the same weekend, Keith Ortiz and Bob Anderson made a grand tour of the Detroit River area. Since they managed to forget two different sets of survey gear, their objective was exploration. First, they pushed the Detroit River nearsump a short distance to a complete sump with continuation apparently completely underwater. Next, they found an overlooked side lead (Discovery Stream) that they pushed to an upstream sump. From there they travelled to Angst Canyon to confirm (after great effort) that it terminates (but they did manage to find a new blowing lead at the bottom of a dome that they left unexplored). From Angst Canyon they travelled to Bad Dreams Stream and turned around after some obstacles.

I hope to have the data back in order for the October meeting. New maps and data listings will be auctioned at that time.

Fisher Ridge Summary October 1985 V3 N12 By Dan Crowl

Fisher Ridge now stands at 37.25 miles total taped distance with just over 7500 stations. I am happy to report this based on the recently completed computer analysis. (Yes! The data has been brought up to date!).

Three trips of interest occurred in September, all on the same weekend.

On the first trip, Peter Quick and Steve Miller returned to the Oakleaf Canyon to yo-yo the recently discovered drop in the XT sidelead. Much to their chagrin, the booming passage below turned out to be none other than the West Room Trunk. Sorry boys!

On the second trip, Larry Bean and myself returned to the Fisher Avenue Extension to continue mopup work on the sideleads. Several dendritic side leads were pushed to their logical conclusions here. Some 600 plus feet and 30+ stations were completed.

Finally, Bob Anderson and Keith Ortiz returned to begin surveying the footage observed in their previous grand tour of the Detroit River side leads. In Angst Canyon, they pushed the "blowing hole" through an apparent "ear-dip sump" to a complex dome area. After surveying around in some side leads, Bob managed to push through a hole so small that Keith was unable to follow. He found passage growing in size and heading east! When he turned around (due to light problems) the pasage was of comfortable size and continuing. Later plotting showed this area to be just due east of the "It's Got to Go" Trunk. The conjecture is that Bob found a way into the continuation of this passage beyond the breakdown plug. Furthermore, the area to the east is a small ridge with no known passage. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what develops here. Personally, I'll wait until an alternate way is found since the present Detroit River path is difficult and very wet.

By the time many of you read this, the October 5th work weekend will be history. I'll provide complete details next month on how things worked out.

Fisher Ridge Summary November 1985 V4 N1 By Dan Crowl

After all that planning for the work weekend of October 5th, the deed didn't actually come down until the weekend of October 19th. Cavers are just so damn unreliable!

All of the Founding Fathers of the Fisher Ridge project participated in the weekend. This is perhaps the first time in several years that these individuals were gathered together to discuss matters of importance with respect to FRCS.

The most important result of the weekend was the surface survey. This was motivated by the necessity to accurately determine the position of the Historic Entrance with respect to a relatively accurate topographic feature. This information is needed in order to produce section maps based on the Universal Trans - Mercator (UTM) system. The original surface survey (performed the first year of FRCS) tied Historic into the nearby barn structures, features of low accuracy on a topographic map. The current surface survey was considerably more ambitious, tying Historic to a benchmark feature almost 10,000 feet away.

Performing a surface survey of this length using a conventional 100 foot tape would require more than 100 stations. To facilitate this effort, an alidade device was borrowed from the Department of Geology at Wayne State University. The alidade is capable of measuring long distances (1000+ feet) with an accuracy at least (if not better) than our present compass and tape surveys. The principle of operation is simple: A telescope device containing two calibrated horizontal crosshairs is sighted at a stadia rod at the next station point. The stadia rod contains markings (to the nearest 5 feet) indicative of distance. The further the rod is from the sighting device, the more stadia rod markings are contained within the crosshairs of the telescope.

Almost all of the station distances were measured using the alidade. Only three stations at the beginning and end of the survey were done in the classical fashion. Of the alidade shots, the shortest was 144.5 feet and the longest was a whopping 1170 feet! (I now have dreams of cave passage large enough to accommodate this survey technique!) A total of 26 shots were required to complete the survey.

The present results show that the Historic Entrance is essentially where we thought it was. I have yet to utilize a program that is available to me to accurately determine UTM coordinates on a topographic sheet by using a digitizer. This program accounts for distortion on the topographic sheet due to the type of projection used. Thus, I will use the program to 1) determine the UTM coordinates of the benchmark, and 2) determine the actual Historic Entrance location on the topo sheet using the computed UTM coordinates.

A problem in vertical control was noted in the surface survey. The survey showed that the Historic Entrance is 59.1 feet below the benchmark. This gives an altitude of about 821 feet. Using the computed entrance coordinates, the topo sheet indicates an altitude of under 800 feet! For a survey of this distance, we can expect an estimated accuracy of about 0.5 percent. This represents about 50 feet for this distance. While 50 feet is small compared to the horizontal scale of the map, it is large with respect to the altitude. I propose that we use the coordinates to determine the horizontal location on the topo sheet and then use the sheet to provide the altitude. This will provide a consistent set of data.

Steve Miller managed to restore the Historic Entrance gate to good form. Not only has the washed out material been replaced, but the door now stands open without a rope. I must admit, the concrete and reinforced steel construction completed by Steve is impressive.

Steve also made an attempt to blast the mud out of the Ex-plug using dynamite. His plan was to bury dynamite sticks in the mud close enough that adjoining sticks would be detonated by the shock waves. This is, in theory, called a propagation blast. Unfortunately, after the sticks were buried, the propagation effect did not work as planned, with the result being a number of undetonated sticks still prevailing. I suggest that we rename the Ex-Plug to Miller's Minefield.

Also during the weekend, Keith Ortiz planted several flats of ivy plants around the Remington Entrance in the hopes of stabilizing the rampant mudslides there. It will be most interesting to see how this develops in the future. If the plants thrive, a most picturesque entrance pit will result with all the nasty rocks hidden from view.

With respect to the Fieldhouse, only limited work was accomplished. However, the two new bunkbeds were installed compliments of Peter Quick.

Despite the incessant rain, a good time was had by all. My thanks to all that participated!

Due to the work weekend, no new trips occurred in Fisher Ridge during this reporting period. FRCS still stands at 196,670 feet (37.24 miles) with 7572 stations.

Fisher Ridge Summary December 1985 V4 N2 By Dan Crowl

Two weekends during November saw cavers in the Fisher Ridge Cave System area.

During the weekend of November 8, Peter Quick, Reid Beauchamp, Bob Anderson and Keith Ortiz journeyed back to the Angst Alley area to supposedly scoop up all the goodies observed by Bob Anderson the previous month (refer to last month's DUG SCOOPS article by Keith Ortiz). As you will recall, only Bob was capable of squeezing through the tight spot in the continuing canyon lead. Anyway, after working to expand the constriction, only Bob and Peter were able to continue. Keith was still frustrated by the squeeze and Reid was stopped at an earlier constriction. Pete describes the passage beyond as a "non-passage." Apparently Bob had "overestimated" the size of the "continuing" passage. After thrashing around somewhat in the so-called scoop, Bob and Pete found an upper level passage that went a short distance both ways until dome intersections occurred. Being without the necessary climbing gear, they returned to the others and the entire group routed. On the way out, a good side lead was observed in the Detroit River. This lead is before the Angst Alley intersection. Previously, this lead was noted to be filled with water. However, on this trip the water was considerably lower. The explorers found the passage to open up to a reasonable size, but was only followed for a short distance. Another "non-passage" to suck in unwary cavers?

Also on that weekend, Joe Saunders and Dennis Sexton did mop-up survey in the Fisher Avenue Extension. (See Kentucky Cave Log this issue.)

During the Thanksgiving weekend, Steve Miller, Peter Quick and Dennis Kendrick visited the Fisher Ridge area but did not have any trips into Fisher Ridge proper. Instead, they decided to first, mopup in Skaggs Creek Saltpetre cave, and second, continue exploration in the blowing hole in the field down from Doc Fishers house. The report is that they were able to progress past the breakdown that stopped Larry Bean on previous efforts. They soon found themselves in a maze of domepits, some of considerable depth and height. After some hairy climbing, they determined that no obvious leads were present. They estimate that the deepest point is about 90 feet below the entrance hole.

I am presently making arrangements to use the digitizing routines for locating the entrance based on the surface survey. Hopefully next month .... ?