1994 FISHER RIDGE SUMMARIES

Compiled from the DUG SCOOPS

Fisher Ridge Summary January 1994 V11 N12 By Peter Quick

There was one base camp trip into Fisher Ridge during the last reporting period. The trip took place over the New Year's weekend. Big plans were made for an extended 5 day trip into Fisher Ridge with multiple survey teams. The natural progress of surveyor cancellations soon scaled back the scope of the trip to one survey team in the cave for five days and another survey team in the cave for four days.

The four day team consisting of Joe Oliphant, Tina Shirk, Ron Adams, Mike Fitch and Raquel Fitch entered the cave on Thursday, Dec 30th. On the way back to basecamp Joe, Tina and Ron did some mop-up survey in Penny Lane at station PTX 9. They mapped a sharp bedrock tube to the southwest for 15 stations and 490 feet. They passage continued low and sharp moving lots or air. They named this clothes shredding gem "The Cheese Whiz". They continued to base camp and crashed for the night. Mike and Raquel made it to the base camp 11 hours after entering the cave.

On Friday, the 31st, the five aforementioned cavers ventured out to the northern reaches of the Eveready Canyon area. They mapped a passage they named Forever Ready Canyon to the east and then to the north for 800 feet and 61 stations and were stopped by a large pit. The canyon could be seen to continue across the pit.

On Friday, the 31st, Peter Quick, Jeff Brummel, Don Coons and Jeff Zink entered the cave and comprised the second survey team. On the way back to base camp they did some mop-up survey in Penny Lane. They mapped a crawl to the southwest off of station PTX 23. They places 21 stations for 700 feet of survey. The passage split up and continued as a complex belly crawl. They then headed to base camp.

On the Saturday, the 1st, both survey teams headed to the Eveready Canyon area. Joe's team surveyed a sinuous canyon to the northwest from the junction of Forever Ready Canyon. The canyon had many delicate gypsum formations, mainly long and delicate needles and large clumps of gypsum hair. They placed __ stations for 900 feet of survey. They reported the passage continued as a narrow canyon.

Mike and Raquel Fitch opted not to survey on this trip and decided to exit the cave instead. Apparently Raquel had whacked her knee on the way into the cave and figured it would take her a while to exit the cave. They had a slow but uneventful trip out of the cave until they finished the 1000 foot crawl. They went to Pedigo Ave. via the blast connection. Mike couldn't remember his way along Pedigo to the Tall Wall Dome. They spent many hours working their way along Pedigo and even took a wrong turn and crawled all the down the Hunkey Dorey connector to Hunkey Dorey before realizing their mistake. Eventually they did make it out of the cave, 16 hours after leaving the base camp.

Peter's team headed back toward a high lead opposite the intersection of Eveready Canyon and Double Ready Canyon. On the way to the potential continuation of Eveready Canyon his team got sidetracked and surveyed several side leads that turned into loops. They placed 30 stations in one loop and 20 stations in another loop. The second loop connected station 52 in Eveready Canyon to station 40 in Forever Ready Canyon, making for a great short cut to the northern reaches of the Eveready area. The loop cuts off 3500 feet of travel to this area. They placed another 20 stations in a tiny canyon before heading toward their original destination, the eastern continuation of Eveready Canyon. The continuation of Eveready was mainly crawling on sharp bedrock. After 40 stations were placed, the crew grew weary of surveying and decided to scoop ahead for a bit. Just a few stations beyond the end of the survey the passage improved to stoop walking height and a little further in improved further to a 12 foot high by 4 foot wide canyon. They trotted down this wonderful canyon for over 1000 feet. The canyon had strong air flow and trended to the southeast. They turned around when they encountered shallow pools of water on the floor. The passage remained large. Their total survey for the day was 2400 feet and 110 stations.

The next day, Jan. 2, Joe, Tina and Ron exited the cave, while Peter, Jeff, Don and Jeff decided to do some easy mop-up close to base camp, in the Lost Carbide Complex. They managed to pick off 7 side leads and complete 3 loops. Their most interesting find was an upper passage that eventually tied in to a lower passage, the Super Frog Passage at NTZ 26. This day netted about 2300 feet of survey and __ stations. A short walk took them back to base camp.

The plan for the last day, Jan 3, was to pack up camp and to continue the survey in Eclipse Canyon, and then exit the cave. The Eclipse Canyon survey changed its trend from the southeast to the east and then to the north. Shortly after the survey began an upper trunk segment was found. The passage measured 30 feet wide by 10 feet high. It was a few hundred feet long but was blocked by gypsum shattered fill in both directions. Two leads were left unpushed at either end of the trunk passage. One was a 4 x 4 crawl and the other was a wide belly whomp moving good air over massive gypsum crystals and breakdown.

The survey then recommenced in Eclipse Canyon. The passage worked its way to the north and over an intersection with a lower canyon complex. Enough leads for entire survey trip were found in this area, as well as some scuff marks and a sooted question mark in the mud. It is thought that the scuff marks came from a side lead in Penny Lane although this was not verified. Eventually the passage ended in a sand fill. Just before the end of the passage was a tube high on the right wall. This crawling tube turned into a canyon that was filled with the most amazing gypsum deposits yet found in Fisher Ridge. There were dozens of gypsum flowers 10 inches in diameter with petals up to 12 inches long. The ceiling was covered with pure white gypsum crystals and the floor was ankle deep in gypsum crystals. The survey was called off at an intersection with a pit. The pit has a waterfall and stream passage below. The upper passage continued to the right of the pit and ended in fill after a few hundred feet. 125 stations had been placed for about 3300 feet of survey. The survey team then exited the cave via The Other Way, the Penny Lane bypass.

Between the two survey teams 2 miles of passage was added to the length of the cave and 471 stations were placed. The caves length now exceeds 70 miles.

NEXT SCHEDULED CAMP TRIP

The next scheduled base camp trip is planned for the President's Day weekend, from February 19th to the 22nd.

Fisher Ridge Summary February 1994 V12 N1(no Fisher Ridge Summary this issue, archaeology instead)
Archaeological Data Concerning The Fisher Ridge Cave System By Joan Miller and Peter Quick

The Fisher Ridge Cave System, located in Hart County Kentucky contains a number of archaeological artifacts that indicate visitation by the Woodland Peoples of the American Southeast some 3000 years ago. All of the artifacts are found in and around the section of Fisher Ave. near the present Remington entrance. It should be noted that the Remington Entrance is a 65 foot deep pit that was made by cavers who dug and blasted open the top of a dome close to the surface to make the entrance. It was not the entrance that the ancient visitors used. In fact the only natural entrance to the cave is the grim and nasty Splash entrance, a belly crawl in water and mud, nearly a mile away from the artifacts. It should be further noted that the Splash entrance passage had to be modified considerably to permit passage through it. Rimstone dams had to be broken and much breakdown had to be moved. It is altogether unlikely that this was the entrance used by the cave's ancient visitors. Apparently the entrance used no longer exists.

During a survey on New Year's Day 1982 a passage was found by Peter Quick, Chip Hopper and John Bransteder that looked as though it had footprints in the dry sand floor (they weren't really footprints just faint indentations). The passage was duly named "Aborigine Way" somewhat in jest. The passage was an upper level component of Fisher Ave. Joe Saunders was told about this passage. A little later while on a trip in the cave he decided to check out the reported footprints but climbed up into the wrong passage, one that hadn't yet been explored. He was amazed to find footprints nicely preserved in a section of muddy floor around a small stalagmite. A couple of weeks later Joe took Larry Bean to see the footprints. Larry was convinced that this was a find that was worth scientific examination.

Also during the New Year's 1982 survey trip, Peter Quick and Chip Hopper were surveying a side lead off Fisher Ave. they named the Deluxe Crawl. At the junction of the Deluxe Crawl and Fisher Ave. they found a large breakdown block with numerous scratch marks etched on it. They were perplexed, they knew they were the first cavers to explore the passage, certainly the first in recent history.

Within a couple of months of the footprint and pictograph finds, cane torch debris, soot marks, and a "slow match" (a piece of wood that had a burning ember at one end used to light cane torches) were found.

Larry Bean contacted Dr. Patty Jo Watson of the University of Washington in St. Louis, Missouri and asked her to examine the recent finds. She consented and in the late spring of 1982 entered the cave via the Splash Entrance accompanied by several of her students and Larry Bean.

Dr. Watson intended to examine the footprints; measure each print; place a mylar tag on each print; photograph the area; and then find other evidence which could be carbon 14 dated. Only artifacts that at one time were living can be tested by the carbon 14 dating method. Evidence was easy to find because many small pieces of charred cane were near the footprints. Dr. Watson too samples of torch debris and also cut a small piece from the "slow match" found in Raccoon Passage. The "slow match" is a cut piece of white oak with a charred end. It is believed that this was used as a way to carry a slow but steady fire inside the cave, and perhaps used to re-light cane torches.

In March of 1983 the Smithsonian Institute Laboratory determined the carbon 14 dates for these two different artifacts to be:

White Oak 2750 +- 85 B.P. or about 757 B.C.

Charred Cane 31755 +- 80 B.P. or about 1182 B.C.

However, in 1988 George Crothers sent Joan Miller a copy of his Masters Thesis, in which eleven cave systems were given further statistical analysis based on the sources of the dated material. George clustered caves by what was being done in the caves, then gave an average date for the time that these things were done. George stated that the Fisher Ridge Cave System dates are "statistically justified" for a date of 2953 B.P. or 960 B.C. Ceremonial caves are grouped on the more recent end of the time scale, quarry caves are grouped in the middle, and the footprint caves are the oldest. Fisher Ridge is known as a footprint cave; there is no evidence at this time of mining or any ceremonial use of the cave. George's conclusion was that exploration was the only thing done in any of the caves that long ago. At the present time, the Fisher Ridge Cave System carbon 14 dates are the third oldest dates found in the American Southeast used to determine early cave exploration by Woodland People.

The cross-hatched line design scratched into the breakdown block just off Fisher Ave. on the way to Raccoon Trail was also examined by the group headed by Dr. Watson. The scratches appeared to be fainter and older than an experimental scratch made some distance below the design. If a scratch was made over a smoke smudge, a date could be surmised. Although there are many smoke smudges around this area, none overlap the design, and so no date could be determined for the scratch marks. The scratch marks on the breakdown block is close to a wall making picture taking difficult. Larry Bean took three pictures that were assembled into a collage. Dr. Phil DiBlasi of the University of St. Louis examined this collage and he believes the design is a typical Woodland motif and similar to cross-hatch marks found in other caves, particularly those of Salts Cave of the Mammoth System.

The footprints inside the Fisher Ridge Cave System and along the passages of Mammoth Cave, as well as inside several smaller caves of the southeast were made by feet wearing light slippers. Many of these slippers or fragments of these slippers were found by historic cave explorers in parts of the Mammoth Cave System. These twined artifacts are presently curated in many museums across the country. Joan Miller extensively researched the slipper artifacts, experimented with many twining processes, and published a paper in Southeastern Archaeology which documents the replication of the Early Woodland Slipper. (see photo of replicas on front cover of this issue) The slippers were made from a yucca plant still found in Kentucky today; although difficult to find, several small plants are alive and thriving within the Mammoth Cave National Park grounds. Joan Miller's slipper replicas (made from jute fiber) are on display along the Historic Tour in Mammoth Cave and also in the American Cave Conservation Museum in Horse Cave, Kentucky.

Fisher Ridge Summary March 1994 V12 N2 By Peter Quick

There were two trips to Fisher ridge over the last reporting period. The first trip was over the weekend of Feb. 5 led by Joe Saunders. His group placed 35 stations for a total of 560 feet of survey in the Roaring River area(off of South Fisher Ave.)of Fisher Ridge.

The second trip was an attempted Base Camp trip back to Northtown Ave. over the weekend of Feb 18th. Ten cavers were scheduled to make the trip back to Base Camp. Three dropped out at the last minute. The remaining seven, Peter Quick, Keith Ortiz, Chip Hopper, Brian Davis, Jeff Brummel, Mike Fitch and Dennis Kendrick made their way into the cave and most of the way through the 1000 Foot Crawl to Chartres Ave. They were stopped at a dip in the passage that was nearly full of water. There was about 9 inches of air space over one foot of water. Unfortunately due to the geometry of the slope leading into the pool, total immersion would be necessary to get through the pool. After about ten minutes of deliberation the trip was aborted. They knew that two days of rain was forecast for the area. It seemed that since the passage was already quite full of water and since the soil on top of the ridge was already saturated, it wouldn't take very much water to flood the passage shut. By the time everyone got back to the beginning of the 1000 Foot Crawl everyone was fairly soaked on their front side. No one was interested in any surveying or exploration, just dinner in Cave City. All were out of the cave just six hours after entering.

In order to salvage the weekend, surface work was planned for Sunday. On Sunday morning the skies darkened and a torrent of rain ensued. Surface work was called off and everyone headed home, pleased not to be on the other side of the 1000 Foot Crawl this weekend.

Fisher Ridge Summary April 1994 V12 N3 By Peter Quick

During the last reporting period there were two survey trips into Fisher Ridge. The first trip was over the weekend of March 5th. Joe Saunders rendezvoused with Charlie Pflanze and Bob Danielson and made their way back to the Mulbrecht Connection area of the cave. One can get to this area by going from Fisher Ave., near the Rotunda, through the Sabbath Passage. The Mulbrecht Connection joins this passage with Fisher River at the climbdown near the Raisin Room. They mapped a couple of small loops in this area and two passages that soon got too low for easy travel. Both continued as one foot high by four foot wide belly whomps. They placed 16 stations for 306 feet of survey.

The next trip to the cave was over the weekend of April 1st. There had been much rain over the preceding weeks so a base camp trip wasn't planned. The Green River was flowing over its banks and the ridges were very wet. Rain was also predicted for the weekend. Peter Quick, Steve Miller, Tammie Heazlit and Leigh Ann Vaughn assembled at the cave and decided to do some mop-up survey in the Hunkey Dorey area. Peter had found some leads on the previous months route from the flooding 1000 foot crawl to Chartres Ave. They mapped passages in three areas of Hunkey Dorey. The first area yielded 314 feet of passage and loops. The second area was a loop in the main trunk of Hunkey Dorey that added another 101 feet. The last area was a high loop around the rimstone dam area that turned up 287 feet. In total 39 stations were placed for 702 feet of survey.

Since the last base camp trip in January there have been three mop-up survey trips into the cave which have added 1578 feet of passage, or about .3 miles. Not much but certainly better than nothing. The cave is now 71.33 miles long.

UPCOMING BASE CAMP TRIPS

Once the wet weather is put behind us, some major caving is in store for Fisher Ridge. There will be a base camp trip over the Memorial Day weekend. There ought to be a lot of interest for this trip. Priority for placement on this trip will be given to those who can stay in the cave for 4 days. The trip should take place from Friday morning of May 27th to Monday noonish May 30th. Contact me soon about this trip.

The next base camp trip after Memorial Day will be over the 4th of July weekend. I'm pushing for a five day trip on this weekend, probably from July 2nd to July 6th.

Fun Facts About Fisher Ridge

The trip from the Remington Entrance to the base camp in Northtown Ridge covers 4.86 miles of passage. On the way to basecamp over 5300 feet of crawls must be negotiated.

The Fisher Ridge Cave System trends from southeast to northwest. A rectangle drawn around the cave measures 4.75 miles along its long axis and 1.75 miles in width. The cave lies under approximately 8.3 square miles of land as presently mapped.

The furthest point from the closest entrance is the end of the Doll's Head Passage. It is 5.87 miles one way from the Remington Entrance.

YEARLY SURVEY PROGRESS OF FRCS SINCE DISCOVERY
1981: 9.49 miles
1982: 9.08 miles
1983: 9.47 miles
1984: 3.36 miles
1985: 6.23 miles
1986: 3.25 miles
1987: 4.85 miles
1988: 1.63 miles
1989: 2.86 miles
1990: 2.65 miles
1991: 0.60 miles
1992: 2.75 miles
1993: 15.40 miles

Fisher Ridge Summary May and June 1994 V12N4 By Peter Quick

There was one trip to Fisher Ridge since the last update in the April DUG SCOOPS. The trip took place over the Memorial Day weekend. Peter Quick, Jeff Brummel, Mike Fitch and Eric Fehlauer entered the cave on Saturday and exited the cave on Tuesday for a 72 hour trip.

The trip into the cave went smoothly. The 1000 foot crawl to Chartres Ave. was extra damp and slimy but manageable. The team opted for The Other Way crawl instead of Penny Lane. At station PDA 54 in The Other Way they checked a side lead in a tube for nearly 1000 feet and turned around in going passage. They determined that it was a good objective for a later survey trip but not mop-up on the way in. They made their way through Laura's Dome and to a side lead a few hundred feet beyond the dome in the Air Current Tube. The side lead was at AKA 1, a nice 8 foot wide by 4 foot high tube. They placed 18 stations for 345 feet and tied in a loop to Eclipse Canyon. As they worked their way toward Base Camp in Eclipse Canyon they did a bit more lead checking and turned up a nice lead to be returned to later in the trip. Eclipse Canyon, NT13 Canyon, Northtown Ave., the rest of the trip to Base Camp was a pleasant stroll. Unfortunately they found that Base Camp had been invaded and somewhat trashed.

Cricket Attack! One wouldn't believe that it was possible for cave crickets to have caused as much damage as the had. Many of plastic bags containing the gear stashes, food, long underwear, sleeping bags were chewed to pieces. The nasty crickets had eaten through multiple plastic bags, and the foil freeze dried meal bags and other food bags and had a feeding/breeding frenzy and in general sweated and excreted much fluids all in the confines of the plastic bags. I lost seven freeze dried meals and other foods. The inside of the big plastic bag stunk (rotten food) and was soaked. Luckily enough of my gear was compartmentalized so a number of things were spared. But it was a bad feeling to be back at Base Camp with not enough food for the trip. Others were luckier. Some had had just a few holes chewed in their outer plastic gear bags and no loss while others lost a few freeze dried meals. Some were hit even worse. Larry Bean's stash was completely destroyed. I did an inventory of his gear and came up with some good candles, toilet paper, and his cup. Everything else of his had been chewed and soaked. All of his meals were eaten, holes were chewed in his long underwear and socks, and worst of all his sleepingbag looked like it had been shot by a shotgun. Holes all over it with stuffing pulled out in three inch tufts. It was also wet and smelly. Brian Davis lost all of his freeze dried food and his sleeping bag had been fairly well chewed up and soaked. We checked out most of the other gear stashes and suspended everything from ledges on tethers, hopefully to make it a bit more cricket resistant.

The next day, after some delays sorting gear and taking pictures, the survey team was off to the Eveready Canyon Extension heading east. The passage was remembered as a stoop walk leading to a great walking canyon 15 feet high by 5 feet wide going for over 1400 feet with no end in sight. The reality was a bit different. There was lots of stoopwalking, some walking, and a fair amount of crawling. 105 stations were placed for 2400 feet of survey. The passage headed mainly east and ended up under a valley to the northeast of Northtown Ridge. The passage continued and moves good air but was not pushed because of some shallow pools of water on the floor of the crawling height passage. Many leads were passed during the survey.

On the final day of survey the team opted to do a survey in the Eclipse Canyon area. A lead checked on the way in the trunk segment over Eclipse Canyon was the first destination. The trunk segment was mapped in two different directions for a total of 440 feet. Both directions filled with either breakdown or silt. The next destination was a tube with a canyon in the floor at station EC78. This was the same place the AKA1 survey tied into. The tube headed paleo-upstream and eventually picked up a pirates stream. Five or six leads were noted along the survey. The active stream passage is the first one to be found to the northwest of Hunkey Dorey, the only one in 20 miles of mapped passage. The stream had some quality trash in it. We discovered Clorox bottles, a shoe sole, Spam cans, milk cartons, and best of all, a Gleem toothpaste tube. The floor of the passage was stained rust red. The passage, Gleem Stream, moves good air and may be a candidate for an entrance search. The survey team turned around after 36 stations and 900 feet of survey at a point where it was necessary to crawl in water. It was getting late and time to leave anyway.

All in all, 189 stations were placed for about 4500 feet of survey, easily pushing the caves mapped passage length to over 72 miles. Hundreds of leads remain. The next trip is over the 4th of July weekend from Friday, July 1st to Tuesday, July 5th. Following that the trip in August should take place from Thursday, August 11 to Sunday, August 14.

Fisher Ridge Summary July 1994 V12 N5 By Peter Quick

A very sad event has taken place. Howard Fisher, known fondly to us as Doc, passed away at home on Tuesday night, June 14th. He was the patron of the Fisher Ridge Cave System project. All of the entrances to the cave system lie on his property. Over the years he was tremendously supportive of our caving efforts. He gave us free range to all of his property and even suggested that we place our field house in the spot of our choice on his property for easier access to the cave system. We took him up on this generous offer. We will miss Howard Fisher. At the same time we are looking forward to continuing our good relationship with his son Todd Fisher. Todd has told us that we are welcome to continue exploration of the Fisher Ridge Cave System.

During the last reporting period there were two trips into Fisher Ridge during the month of June. The first trip was over the weekend of June 11th. The trip was precipitated by a report by the Ropple Cave folks that one of their members was busy with a dig heading towards the Fluffy Sand Passage. They thought that they were within 350 feet of Fluffy Sand. The digger perhaps sees glory for himself if his venture is successful. A closer analysis the proximity of Ropple, specifically the dig off of Bunnell Ave., and the Fluffy Sand Passage puts the digging distance at closer to 800 to 850 feet. An ambitious undertaking if it is the same passage and is full of debris the entire way. Then again it may open up for a good distance. Never the less, it seemed prudent to give the southern end of Fluffy Sand another look for its dig potential and to check for air flow.

Mike and Raquel Fitch decided to go into Fisher Ridge on the weekend of the 11th for a look around (see following trip report for the details). They did some digging and managed to find and map 80 feet of passage in a lead heading to the east off the southern end of Fluffy Sand. They report no air flow and a total debris fill at the southern end of Fluffy Sand, easy digging though.

The next trip into Fisher Ridge took place the following weekend, of June 18th. Steve Miller, Reid Beauchamp and newcomer Joel Sparks decided to follow up on the Fluffy Sand reconnaissance with a trip into the Kahn Entrance of Ropple for a look at Bunnell Ave. and the dig prospects from the other side. They did some surface reconnaissance and also took a trip from the Historic Entrance of Fisher Ridge out through the Splash Entrance.

Fisher Ridge Summary August 1994 V12 N6 By Peter Quick

There was one trip into Fisher Ridge over the last reporting period. It took place over the July 4th holiday weekend. Lack of interest by DUG cavers resulted in only four cavers making it on this five day planned trip. Peter Quick picked up Massachusetts caver Jeff Zink at the Louisville, KY airport on Thursday night and continued to the fieldhouse. The next morning John Rosenfeld and Mike Ficco both from Pennsylvania showed up. That was it for the extended base camp team.

The crew entered the cave after the usual dallying about and slowly made their way through the usual obstacles. Peter decided to go in via The Other Way as opposed to Penny Lane so some survey could be put in a side lead that was checked out by Jeff Brumell on the Memorial Day trip (the PDB survey). 24 stations were placed for about 500 feet of survey in a crawling passage that was in places somewhat damp . They stopped at a sharp bedrock crawl 3 feet high by 6 feet wide moving air and trending south. They then made their way back to Base Camp via the Eclipse Canyon connector. At Base Camp the various gear stashes were inspected for cricket damage (see last month's newsletter for the details of the cricket attack) and only minor losses were experienced. Peter lost a few more candy bars even though they were in a bag hanging by a string. Meals were cooked and the crew passed out.

The next day Peter announced his intention to push the extreme end of The Other World to the northwest. A rope and vertical gear would have to be hauled, along with a bolt kit and hammer just in case. The question was how long would it take to get there from Base Camp. Peter guessed about 2.5 hours. Wrong. It took closer to 4 hours to get to the pit that had stopped the previous survey crew. A nice rigging spot was found. Mike Ficco tested the rigging and reported that at the bottom of the 40 foot drop was a nice walking canyon, 8 feet wide by 40 + feet high. Survey ensued. The canyon was mapped to the northwest for about 1200 feet and 39 stations until it was stopped by a breakdown fill at the base of a dome complex. The passage at this point is under a valley. The crew was disappointed and they spent a few hours poking around trying to find a bypass to no avail. They decided to leave the area and to check out a crawl near station KK 78 about halfway out of the Other World crawl. While the first couple of people climbed up the rope drop Peter decided to check out a muddy crawl that hadn't been pushed on the survey of the big canyon on the way in. The crawl was moving strong air and soon increased to stooping height and as the floor dropped, to walking height. An infeeding stream was picked up and the passage increased in size. A second infeeder was picked up and it increased some more. The passage was 12 feet wide or more and about 10 feet high, with a triangular cross section being wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. The entire passage was draped with gooey mud and was hard to travel along. Peter scooped about 700 feet of passage before turning back. The passage trended to the northwest and moved very strong air. It was decided that perhaps another trip would be necessary to map the new find. The muddy rope was a pain to climb because the worn out teeth on the old Jumars kept letting go, giving the climbers a scary back slide of sometimes over a foot before catching again. After regrouping at the top of the drop a retreat was made halfway back through the Other World crawl to KK78. The tube at KK78 started off as a nice crawl but soon degenerated into a low wide sand swim. The passage moved good air but the surveyors tired out after 15 stations and 500 feet. The passage continued 10 feet wide by about 1.5 feet high, floored with deep dry sand. Base Camp beckoned.

Back at base camp John was complaining about his sore knees. After peeling off his coveralls, knee pads, and long underwear he found he had raw holes on the end of each of his knees. The skin was missing and the wounds oozed. It wasn't a pretty sight, especially knowing what lie ahead for the next few days, crawling, endless crawling.

On the third day a leisurely day of lead checking and mop-up was planned. The group headed south down Northtown Ave. and the Dolls Head Trunk to verify that there were no leads as reported by a previous survey team. Much to the groups dismay the report turned out to be true. 460 feet were surveyed in a few loops along the main trunk passage. They went the other direction from Base Camp, to the north, and managed to find some small canyons to map for another 380 feet. Finally when just about back at camp Peter remembered a lower level lead that was checked but not pushed because of its damp mud floor. The lead was virtually under the Base Camp. One direction of the lead was mapped for 186 feet to a mud plug. The other direction of the lead was mapped for 470 feet of low crawl in damp mud and was abandoned when the passage dimensions decreased to 8 feet wide by 1 foot high. It was nice to get back to base camp right after finishing surveying.

On the final day of the trip it was decided to break camp and to head to the GYP survey. The GYP survey is the northern lead in the Eveready Canyon area somewhat close to the end of Vinegar Ridge Cave. First Jeff did some field dressing of John's knees. Duct tape sure comes in handy. He just taped right over the oozing wounds, a new layer a silver skin.

It seemed like it took quite a while to get to the GYP survey and then to where Joe Oliphants team had left off. They had mapped through some pretty low and twisty passages and then had left off just when the survey hit a large canyon passage. This passage the, GYP Canyon, had some amazing foot long gypsum needles and large shoebox sized wads of gypsum hair. GYP Canyon trended to the northwest for 680 feet and then mudded up. An infeeder at the end was mapped back to the southeast for 870 feet before the survey was called off to begin the long exit of the cave. 82 stations had been placed.

A little over a mile (5500 feet) of hard earned survey had been added to the cave's length. In four days 18 miles of passage had been traversed. The cave now stands at 73.2 miles in length.

Fisher Ridge Summary September 1994 V12 N7 By Peter Quick

There was one trip into Fisher Ridge during the month of August. Peter Quick once again led the trip and was able to convince Brian Davis to join him. He also recruited a near total newcomer to caving, Joe Meppelink, from Ann Arbor, MI. Joe was told that the trip would either make him a believer in Fisher Ridge caving, or it would kill him. Once in Kentucky they met up with Dick Market, a veteran of the Kentucky caving scene. Once again only four cavers could be recruited for the four day trip (three days underground). The trip took place from August 18th to the 21st.

On the way into Base Camp the survey crew did some mop up mapping at station PXM 14 in Penny Lane. This is a small canyon in the ceiling of Penny Lane that Danny Dible checked out when first mapping Penny Lane. After just 15 stations the survey was connected into the Gleem Stream canyon near Eclipse Canyon. Six stations were placed in another canyon and surprisingly tied into station AKA 16, a lead off of the Air Current Passage (which is a lead off the beginning of Eveready Canyon). On the way to camp the cave got the better of Brian. Near camp he was left to throw up in peace.

The next day the big survey plan was to push the limits of The Other World to the northwest. A tough trip indeed. Peter took pity on Brian and changed the plans to doing lead checking and mop up starting at the end of N.W. Northtown Ave and working back toward camp. The end of Northtown Ave. seemed to be a no go, as well as some mud funnel holes in the floor near the end of the trunk passage. The first real passage found was a ceiling level tube a station K42. The tube quickly turned into a canyon and the canyon then took off, 6 feet high by 2 feet wide, with tremendous air flow in. After about 550 feet the small canyon "T"ed into a beautiful 40 foot high canyon with a 14 foot wide tube at its top. It was decided to take the survey paleo downstream to the west first. After about 800 feet the canyon complex ran into the same sinkhole that stopped Northtown Ave. and filled with breakdown. A side lead was mapped about 400 feet close to the end of Northtown Ave. before it too ended in breakdown. Back at the intersection of the small entry canyon the survey crew took the survey to the south and east. The canyon continued large for about 1860 feet before it ran into a breakdown problem and ended. Various side leads were noted along the survey route. Later analysis discovered that this passage (the KN Canyon) is the obvious continuation of part of the Lost Carbide Complex, getting within 200 feet of connecting to it. A really nice upper level tube was noted and scooped for about 600 feet before the team headed back to camp. 100 stations had been placed for 3631 feet of survey. The survey members concurred that Brian should get sick more often on the way in the cave so that there could be more mop up trips like this one.

The next morning camp was broken and the survey trip and exit was planned. Because of the relative ease to get to KN Canyon , a return trip was made. The survey commenced in the dry upper tube that had been scooped the day before. After 730 feet the passage ended at a climb up into another upper level, this time a 10 foot high by 15 foot wide tube, going in two directions. The team was pleased. The passage was first mapped to the northwest for 200 feet to a deep 3 second pit (90 feet deep perhaps). The passage was seen to continue, as large, on the other side of the pit, some 15 feet away. A technical traverse looked possible along the right wall. The survey then went the other way to the south and east. About 890 feet were mapped in this direction before the passage split up and ended in either mud fill or collapse domes. 47 stations had been placed for 1880 feet of survey. From this point in the cave the exit to the surface took 9.5 hours. All in all 5750 feet were added to the caves length, putting Fisher Ridge somewhere around 74.3 miles in length. To top things off , Joe made it in and out of the cave with barely a complaint, just some lost skin here and there. Not bad for a first real cave trip.

Fisher Ridge Summary October 1994 V12 N8 By Peter Quick

During the reporting period of September there was one trip into Fisher Ridge. The trip took place over the Labor Day weekend and was attended by Keith Ortiz and Chip Hopper. Keith and Chip entered the cave on Friday and slowly made their way back to Base Camp. Chip reported that his gear had undergone some damage from the hungry cave crickets, although it is suspected that it was damage done before his gear bag was hung up over the Memorial Day trip.

The next days survey objective was the recently discovered passage beyond the drop at the end of The Other World. Somehow , Keith and Chip managed to talk themselves out of the hard trip to the end of the Other World and opted instead to mop up some side leads off Northtown Ave. They decided to check out a lead at NT26 that Peter had told Chip about before the trip, a nice bedrock tube 4 feet high by 8 feet wide. The choice was a good one. The passage was mostly walking and stoop walking and headed mainly west. The placed 72 stations and came to an intersection with a passage heading north. They took their survey up to station NTB90 and also placed 10 stations up the side lead at station 72. The passages continued in both directions, to the northwest and to the north. They decided to return to camp with 100 stations and 3115 feet of survey.

After a welcome nights sleep at camp they had no trouble deciding what lead to survey the next day. It was back to the Not Too Bad Passage that they had mapped the day before. They resumed survey in the northern lead at station NTC10 and placed 18 stations in a mainly sandy crawling passage until they intersected a side lead that shortly led to a 25 foot deep pit. They stopped survey at the side lead and Chip checked out the passage ahead. The passage broke up into many too tight canyons and further progress is doubtful. The 25 foot deep pit seems to be the way to continue exploration. They then resumed survey at station NTB90 and placed 60 more stations where they decided to call it quits for the day. Chip pushed ahead for 100 feet and intersected a migrating shaft complex. He looked around a little bit and then started to head out. He got turned around in the complex and walked down a passage that he soon realized was not the passage that he came in by. He found the right way out and later decided that the other passage was the continuation of the Not To Bad Passage. For the day they had placed 78 stations and 2019 feet of survey. Base Camp beckoned.

Because of the long trip into the cave and two long survey trips, Keith and Chip's survey schedule was running behind. When they awoke after the second survey trip they found it around 10:00 PM on Monday. How time had flown. They realized that they had little time for anything other than leaving the cave, certainly not survey. On the way out they checked out the Eclipse Canyon route to Gleem Stream and then climbed down through the recently connected loop into Penny Lane at station PXM14. The rest of the trip out went slow but steady. Two people had managed to add yet another mile to Fisher Ridge. The cave is now 75.3 miles long.

The next scheduled trip to Fisher Ridge will take place from October 14th to 17th. After that there will probably be a Thanksgiving trip from Thursday to Sunday. Finally, a five day trip is being planned for the weekend following the New Years weekend, probably January 6th to January 10th. Remember to get your caving in soon because later in the winter access may be questionable because of flooding in the 1000 Foot Crawl. Base Camp was inaccessible from February to May 1994 because of a very wet winter in Kentucky and the resultant flooding.

Fisher Ridge Summary November 1994 V12 N9 By Peter Quick

In the month of October there were two trips into Fisher Ridge. The first trip took place from Friday, October 14th to Monday, October 17th. Seven cavers turned up for the trip. Mike Fitch, Brian Davis and Peter Quick drove down from Michigan. Joe Oliphant, Ron Adams and Jonathan Schwer drove down from Indiana. On the ridge they met up with Russ Conner from Kentucky. The Indiana cavers were going to exit the cave a day early, on Sunday, so they formed one survey team. Russ joined up with the Michigan crew to make up the other team. On the way into the cave Joe's team stopped at the end of Penny Lane and surveyed a lead at PXM 25. They placed 8 stations for 223 feet. The passage got real low and seemed to loop back to Penny Lane. They then headed to Base Camp. On the way into Base camp, Peter's team climbed up into Eclipse Canyon at the PXM 14 lead in Penny Lane. They checked out a breakdown room above Eclipse Canyon, and they started mapping a nice 4 foot wide by 15 foot high gypsum canyon heading to the east. They placed 25 stations for about 550 feet of survey before calling it quits and heading to Base camp. They turned around in going passage taking good air. After the trip, the survey plot placed this passage following above the Gleem Stream Passage. It is an old upper level component of the Gleem Stream drainage.

The next day, Saturday, the two teams left camp for their survey objectives. Joe's team headed back into the Eveready Canyon area of the cave and proceeded to the end of the Double Ready Passage. The previous end of the Double Ready survey ended under the Dolls Head Trunk Passage. They placed 29 stations for 384 feet of survey in mainly 3 feet wide by 4 feet high twisty canyon passage before calling it quits to exit the cave. Before they left the cave they scooped ahead in the small canyon for about 300 feet where they intersected a large canyon passage, perhaps 35 feet high by 12 feet wide. This big passage was about 300 feet long and ended in fill at both ends. The twisty Double Ready Passage continued across the big canyon and moved good air.

Peter's teams objective was the continuation of the Not Too Bad Passage found on Keith Ortiz and Chip Hopper's Labor Day trip. The Not Too Bad Passage was perhaps not too bad to survey, lots of nice long shots, but it was not too nice to travel if you didn't want to get your feet wet. There was lots of knee deep ponded water for long stretches of passage. Brian Davis proved if you wanted to spend too much energy, one's feet could remain dry. The survey was taken up at NTB 150 and was a nice dry walking passage, no more water on the floor. After 10 stations a semi-dangerous pit traverse was crossed. The survey continued to station NTB183, about 930 feet from the start of the survey, when it ran into a breakdown fill. Just before the breakdown fill a breakdown slope led up about 40 feet into a large breakdown room. Some time was spent mapping the breakdown room and checking for leads. An upper canyon was found continuing north in the same general direction of the lower canyon survey. After just a few stations this canyon turned into a big passage 15 feet wide by 20 feet high. After 300 feet it intersected a lower trunk passage. The combined passages ranged from 12 to 20 feet wide and up to 40 feet high. This nice trunk passage headed due north. Not northwest and under a large new ridge inside the National Park, but north under a series of large sinkhole valleys. Not a particularly good direction for miles of survey. The trunk managed to hold together for 950 feet until it ran into the bottom of the same large sink valley that ended N.W. Northtown Ave. The trunk ended in a mud fill. There was however a low cut around passage at the end of the trunk that was mapped to some breakdown needing a hammer for further progress. The dig moved good air. The trunk was then mapped to the south for just a couple of hundred feet from where it was entered from the higher canyon. It ended in breakdown. It is speculated that this lower trunk passage may be the continuation of the Too Low For Comfort passage. A little more survey in an upper canyon was accomplished before the survey team pooped out and headed back to Base Camp. 91 stations had been placed for 3000 feet of survey.

On the final day, Sunday the 16th, easy mop up was the survey objective. Peter had a bunch of easy leads along Northtown Ave. to check out. The various leads are too numerous to describe. Seven loops were closed between stations NT27 and K21 in Northtown Ave. A nice gypsum crawl was found off one of the loops near station K21. It was mapped for about 600 feet before the team decided to call it quits and start their exit from the cave. The exit from Northtown Ave went smoothly and quickly. It only took 7 hours to exit the cave. The day of easy mop up had yielded 70 stations and 1910 feet of survey. The trip total for Peter's survey team was 5413 feet. This combined with Joe's teams total of 607 feet added another 6020 feet of length to the cave system.

The second trip of the month into the cave took place over the weekend of October 22nd and 23rd. Joe Saunders led a trip into the base level passage Thunder River in the "old" section of the cave. He was accompanied by Tony Mulbrecht and Dave McFarlane. Joe's method of accessing Thunder river consists of going through a low crawl, Pins and Needles, in the floor of Fisher Ave. and then walking down Cascade Canyon to a short waterfall drop near the Chert Block Room. The drop must be negotiated with a rope. At the bottom of the drop one is in the knee deep water of base level. They made their way through the Chert Block room and into the downstream end of the Thunder Passage. Their objective was a sharp bedrock crawling size tube near station TP 60 in Thunder River. They managed to place 14 stations for 260 feet of survey before running low on carbide and leaving the cave. On the way out Joe did some lead checking and found a number of interesting tidbits that he wants to return to and map. Anyone interested in mapping in this part of the cave should contact Joe.

LENGTH OF FISHER RIDGE CAVE SYSTEM

The Fisher Ridge Cave System now stands at 76.5 miles in length. A couple of phone calls revealed that Wind Cave is at 75.3 miles in length and that Lechuguilla Cave is 79.06 miles in length. This puts Fisher Ridge back as the fourth longest cave in the United States. Fisher Ridge is definitely on the top ten list of the world's longest caves, perhaps the 8th longest in the world.

Upcoming Trips

There will be a Thanksgiving trip down to Fisher Ridge. There will be both a base camp trip, from Thursday to Sunday, and a ridgewalking and digging trip, Saturday and Sunday. The surface trip will be doing some Global Positioning work on the three FRCS entrances as well as on some of the other cave entrances in the area. This is in anticipation of getting a digital data base for the area topo quads, specifically the Horse Cave and Mammoth Cave Quads. This will enable the project to generate topo overlays at the same time that the line plots are drawn up. If this works, the project will be expanded to cover other caves in the region, Ropple, Mammoth Cave, Vinegar Ridge etc... The next planned trip after the Thanksgiving Trip will be in January from Saturday the 7th to Wednesday the 11th. It will be four days underground. Perhaps as many as 12 to 15 people can be rounded up for this trip.