Compiled from the DUG SCOOPS

Fisher Ridge Summary Dec. 1999 & Jan. 2000 by Peter Quick

Over the weekend of December 12, 1999 there was a trip into the Quick Exit by Jonathan Schwer and Shane Fryer. They headed in to push one last known lead in the Quiet City Trunk. They lugged in a short handled eight-pound sledge hammer to mash off the edges of a too tight drop into an apparent canyon passage in the floor of the Quiet City Trunk. After the edges were mashed enough to admit entry it was found that the apparent canyon wasn't really a canyon but a dead end pit. They set about a doing a little mop-up survey in some lower loops and managed to place 17 stations for 376 feet of survey. The loop was an easy connection from the Quiet City Trunk to the canyon that leads to it, bypassing the unstable squeeze through breakdown that was originally used to enter Quiet City.

On the weekend of January 15 - 17 there was another mini-camp trip in through the Quick Exit. Peter Quick, Brian Davis and Mike Fitch entered the cave prepared for two days of survey and one nights sleep while Jeff Zink, Pete Dickman and Suzanne De Blois were prepared to stay an extra day to squeeze in a third survey trip. Additionally Jonathan Schwer, Shane Fryer and Chris Caswell entered the cave late Saturday for a regular survey trip, no camping.

On day one (Saturday) two teams were formed. Suzanne, Mike and Brian headed out to the leads in the Other World and the Chasm. To reach the Chasm the trip through the Other World is a long 6000 foot stoopwalk and crawl. Other World trips are always fairly tiring. They tied in a survey to the Chasm and did some lead checking at the end of the Chasm. They also picked off a few leads in the passage that connected to the Chasm, but none went very far. They headed back to camp after surveying about 700 feet of passage. They report a couple of leads left to check. Meanwhile Peter, Pete and Jeff headed back to KN Canyon to survey a twisty gypsum canyon they had discovered on their previous trip. Thirty stations were placed in the twisty canyon before it intersected a larger tube passage. The tube twisted and turned and nearly did a complete loop by the time if finally ended, 98 stations and 2650 feet of survey later. The passage ended up terminating at the same sinkhole that terminates all the other passages in the area (Northtown Ave., KN Canyon, Giants Pass, Park Ave.). This is the big sink just to the northwest of the old tobacco barn on Peter's property. Also during this time Jonathan, Shane and Chris went to a side lead near the beginning of the Eveready Canyon. The lead had been previously described as 20 feet high by 2 feet wide and had been scouted for 100 feet of so. They placed 28 stations for 538 feet of survey in a nice walking canyon before it terminated in a dome complex. The passage trended southwest but oddly seemed to have been formed by waters flowing in a northeast direction.

On Day two the teams were reformatted. Peter, Brian and Mike broke camp and headed out to do a bunch of mop-up survey in the area of the Uppercrust and NT13 Canyon passages. They stumbled across a tube maze and in just a few hours they managed to map about 15 loops and add 1135 feet of survey to the caves length. At one point three pages of notes fit on a single cave sketch page, so dense were the looping tubes. They were out of the cave by around 3:00 AM on Monday morning. Pete, Jeff and Suzanne had been set off in the direction of the transition zone between Penny Lane and Northtown Thruway to check for leads vaguely recalled by Peter. Peter contended that once cavers got out of Penny Lane and were able to stoop walk they rushed as fast as they could to get to the walking passage in Northtown Thruway, not stopping or even slowing to check for side leads. This was because the only trips through Penny Lane were on the old kick ass base camp trips from the distant entrances on Fisher Ridge and by the time one reached the stooping passage at the end of Penny Lane the trip was already 8 to 9 hours long and Base Camp was only 1 to 2 hours away. Thus it seemed reasonable that something might have been overlooked. The first lead checked, a tube at station PXM 30 took off and led into a confusing canyon and dome complex. 800 feet of passage were mapped. A number of tube and canyon leads were not even checked, let alone much of the dome complex. About 500 feet of crawling passage was checked but not mapped. This area still has plenty of potential and certainly will get another survey trip. They returned to camp around 2:00 AM Monday morning to rest up for a final survey trip out in Park Ave.

Later on Monday the crew woke up and broke camp. They ditched their camp packs at the beginning of the Not Too Bad Passage and worked their way out to the lead off Broadway that Suzanne had started mapping on her November 1999 trip. They picked up at station 35 and proceeded to place another 52 stations heading south east for an additional 1500 feet of new survey. The passage was explored ahead for another 300 feet and it kept on going. The passage alternated between a low wide tube, in some places a belly whomp, to a nice walking canyon. In places the passage was floored with mud, other places sand, gravel, breakdown and so on. The nature of the passage continued to change back and forth. There was strong air flow sucking away from Park Ave. Might one be tempted to think it could be the key to connect to the postulated continuation of the Too Low For Comfort trunk passage? Only another trip will tell.

The total footage added to the Fisher Ridge Cave System over the weekend on January 15 was 7335 feet, not too shabby a showing. It goes to show what can be accomplished by using the mini-camp technique for surveying. The Fisher Ridge Cave System now stands at a bit over 93.7 miles in length.

Fisher Ridge Summary, February & March 2000 by Peter Quick

The first trip to report on for this reporting period was a trip on February 6 by Jonathan Schwer and Shane Fryer. Jon and Shane once again made their way to the Forever Ready area in the northern parts of Northtown Ridge. Jon has been plugging away in this area for some time slowly working his way through a canyon complex seriously interrupted by domes and pits. They placed 22 stations for 330 feet of additional survey. Once again they were stopped by a pit. A lower canyon was noticed and is presumed to be the canyon they have been fitfully following since the beginning of the survey at the first pit in Forever Ready Canyon. A return trip with vertical gear will probably be made in the next few months.

Over the weekend of February 19 Suzanne De Blois and Jake Kiser made their way out to the long Other World stoopwalk/crawl. Their destination was leads in the Chasm Drain. They made their way through much of the Other World almost to the Chasm when they decided to get distracted by a side lead. The lead turned out to be a walking canyon passage which somehow went under the Chasm and ended up tying into the first known side lead in the Chasm Drain. They had placed 38 stations for 510 feet of survey. They headed out of the cave, never having made it back to the alluring wet mud belly whomp that had originally been their objective.

The final trip to report on took place from March 11 to March 13. Jonathan Schwer and Shane Fryer did a two day trip into the cave. They placed a mini-camp near the end of Eclipse Canyon and set about doing mop-up survey. Their first destination was a tight canyon lead off the waterfall dome near station EC94. This lead started off as a 2 wide by 20 high canyon. They wedged themselves to the top of the passage where it was a little easier to map but soon abandoned the canyon for a hands and knees gypsum crawl that they intersected. They passed a couple of intersections as the passage got progressively bigger and continued the survey until they hit a 35 foot deep pit. Fifteen feet across the pit they could see their canyon lead continuing into the ridge beyond. They had placed 60 stations and were burnt out because of lack of sleep. The returned to Eclipse to sleep. The next day they went to a side lead off the Gleem Stream survey and picked off a walking canyon that mudded up after 130 feet. They then left the cave. As with so many trips into the Fisher Ridge Cave System Jonathan left the cave with more leads than he started with.

The trips described above added another 1770 feet of survey to the length of the Fisher Ridge Cave System, just pushing the caves length over 94 miles.

Fisher Ridge Summary, March thru June 2000 by Peter Quick

I’ve been a bit remiss in my timeliness in preparing FRCS Summaries lately. It is a bit harder to keep the various trips straight in my mind if I don’t quickly write about them. If my omissions or interpretations are grosser than usual, my apologies.

Shuffling through my collected survey notes I see that the first trip to report on during this period took place over the weekend of March 25th. Suzanne DeBlois sucked Shane Fryer into a trip back to the Chasm Drain (see last newsletter for full story). The objective of the trip was to push a lead near the end of the Chasm Drain. I had described the lead to Suzanne and she then named it the Slime Swim. The weird thing is that she was still interested in pushing it. They managed to place 15 stations for 315 feet of survey to the logical end of the passage, a breakdown pile. Shane tried to get hypothermia on the trip but when that failed they decided to head out of the Chasm Drain area and warm up by leaving the Other World. When they got out of the Other World they were sufficiently dry and warm to head over to the Penny Lane area and continue some mop-up survey by placing 20 stations for 456 feet of additional survey.

April 29th this trip saw Peter Quick, Suzanne DeBlois, Jon Smith and Pete Dickman go out to Park Ave. to continue the survey of the JX survey. This lead had already taken two survey trips into it and hopes were high for a bunch more passage leading into an area of blankness on the cave map. It turns out the trip was really a mop-up trip as the passage crapped out not too far beyond where Jeff Zink had scooped ahead on the previous trip. Various leads were picked off on the long way out of the JX survey. A total of 71 stations and 1208 feet of survey was added to the caves length. To add injury to the insult of a burnt out survey, I took a fall when a handhold broke off in a canyon passage and I landed on my tail bone and gave it a good bruise. It hurt to bend over and to sit on the pot for nearly three weeks. Between my arthritic hip and bumped tail bone I decided to leave the cave a day early after serenading the others with my snoring at the Northtown mini-camp.

April 30th saw Suzanne DeBlois and Pete Dickman head over to Penny Lane and Northtown Thruway to do a bit more survey in the abundant leads that had been turned up over the last few months in that area. They first mapped about 350 feet of passage in the Penny Lane area before becoming daunted by the complex passage they were attempting to map. They abandoned the area to do a bit of mop up in some easy loops in the Northtown Thruway on the way out. Instead they stumble/crawled into a nice crawling tube that then took them 1000 feet before tying into the Lower Crust Passage. They headed out of the cave with another 1305 feet and 65 stations.

There were a number of trips over the Memorial Day weekend. One team did a two day camp trip while two other teams did single day survey trips.

May 27th, Suzanne DeBlois, Mike Fitch, Jon Smith and Pete Dickman decided to go out to the Other World/Chasm area to continue picking off leads and loops that folks had been working on since December of 1999. In passages that were less than excellent but better than a sharp stick in the eye they managed to place 76 stations for 1066 feet. They did some poking around at the end of the Chasm Drain and did a disappointing climb up into a promising looking tube only to find it mud filled. They left the area still talking about a number of other leads that hadn’t been checked or mapped yet.

May 28th , After a couple hot meals and a nights sleep at the Northtown mini-camp Suzanne, Mike, Jon and Pete made their way once again to Penny Lane and Northtown Thruway to do ever more mop-up survey. They surveyed into a nice big dome that was adjacent to Laura’s Dome (at the end of The Other Way). They did some loops in the area of PXM 63 in the Northtown Thruway and finally surveyed into a lead off the Lower Crust Passage near station LC3. In all they had placed 57 stations and bagged another 1050 feet of survey.

Also on May 28th Jonathan Schwer and Peter Quick (opting out of a mini-camp trip this time) headed into the cave to Eclipse Canyon and over to the Exfoliator Passage that Jonathan had turned up on a previous trip (see last issue for his trip report). The Exfoliator turned out to be formed in what we fondly know as the Crumbly Shale Unit in the Fisher Ridge Cave System. The Crumbly Shale Unit is usually found when in a canyon passage at least 30 deep, at least that is where it is always remembered. The first trip down passages formed in the aforementioned unit feet is usually exciting as the walls and ledges sluff off by the wheelbarrow load under ones feet. I remember a trip over New Years weekend, probably in 1983, where myself, Dan Crowl and Reid Beauchamp were perched on a high ledge in the Crumbly Canyon at the end of the MoFo Tube. I had charged along collapsing shelves of the crumbly shale to check the passage ahead. Dan and Reid were so unnerved by the noise of the collapsing rocks cascading down the canyon below that they opted to stay alive for the new year (their New Years resolution) and not map the passage.

Getting back to the Exfoliator, what was thought to be a passage with good potential turned into a gnarly and somewhat uncomfortable survey. We placed only 17 stations for about 210 feet of survey before being turned back by very narrow passage in two places. We retreated to the beginning area of the Gleem Stream survey (in the area that connects into Penny Lane below) and mapped a bunch of loops in dry dirt crawls. The only lead we left with any potential was a pit we couldn’t get down into without a rope. We left the cave with 574 feet and 47 stations.

A third team of Joe Meppelink, Colin Owen, David Sisson and Maggie? also entered on May 28th for a good hard trip to some remote part of the cave system. Two of Joe’s companions were first time cavers. They also planned on camping in the cave. I armed Joe with survey notes pointing him at the near end of the Eveready Extension to a ceiling tube lead I had noted perhaps in 1994. The Eveready Extension takes some effort to traverse so I figured Joe’s new timers would get their moneys worth of sore knees on this trip. The ceiling tube at station AL 137 went in a southeast direction and was mapped for 20 stations and about 450 feet to where it started splitting up into smaller uninviting tubes. They headed out of the Eveready Extension and went looking for the other folks camped at the mini-camp in Northtown Ave. but got disoriented and ended up camping at the old Base Camp at the base of the Lost Carbide Complex. The next day they exited the cave.

Over the weekend of June 24th there were two survey trips into the cave. Brian Davis, Mike Dowden and Kevin Bruno planned to take a long trip out to the Nebulous Borehole to check out a blowing dig and do mop-up survey. They ended up burning up a lot of time checking leads along the way in the Double Ready Passage. They found a couple virgin walking canyons leads off the top of the Double Ready Passage. They decided to map the second one they came to and put in 20 stations for 271 feet. They scouted ahead and scooped another 400 feet of passage before turning back in going passage. They continued along Double Ready and Mini Ready as far as the Gerry Garcia Passage when they started to burn out. They placed 6 more stations, about 90 feet, at one end of the Garcia Passage to a belly whomp. They also scouted out another hands and knees side lead that had been missed by others. At this point they headed out of the cave with 26 stations and 358 feet of survey.

The other trip on June 24th was taken by Suzanne DeBlois, Jon Smith, Elyse Katz and Liz Turpin. Their destination was some grim survey mop-up in Park Ave. When they got to Park Ave. the cave gods smiled down on them and exposed a nice lead to Suzanne only a short distance away from the main travel route down Park Ave. The ropes and vertical gear that they had dutifully lugged back through the Not Too Bad Passage never reached their destined wet nasty spot and were dropped at the beginning of the side lead and the survey ensued. After just a few stations the survey dropped into a lower level canyon passage of very pleasant dimensions, typically 8 feet wide by 15 feet high. Ultimately the passage intersected a low wide stream passage, going both up and down stream. The dimensions became 20 feet wide by 2 to 3 feet high with wall to wall water. Since they didn’t come with wetsuits the survey was left for a future trip. They did a little more mapping in drier passages and then headed out of the cave. They had placed 34 stations for 1247 additional feet of survey. The capacity for the Fisher Ridge Cave System to continue to turn up such good leads still seems fairly great.

The final trip to report on occurred on July 1st. Ron Adams and James Burkhart both apparently suffered the same memory loss and decided to have yet another look at the extreme end of the Eveready Extension. The last time Ron had been to the end it was deemed to be too nasty to continue but there was some good strong air flow. Ron and James packed light and made their way back to the end of the passage. Many hours later when they arrived at the end of the Eveready Extension they discovered the end was even worse than reported and remembered. They would have to dig in a gravel floored passage barely 3 feet wide to continue. They decided to retreat to better survey pickings in the Eveready Passage. Hours later they dragged their beaten bodies out of the Extension and took a short nap. They then picked up a lead at station 99 in Eveready Passage. The lead turned out to be a pleasant hand and knees crawl on a soft dirt floor. They mapped 18 stations for perhaps 325 feet and decided to scout ahead before calling it quits. The passage continued north for another 500 feet and just kept going. Ron will most likely return to this lead as a nice change from beating the pulp out of his body.

In summary during this reporting period 8400 feet of survey and 449 stations were added to the Fisher Ridge Cave System, bringing the length of the cave to just a bit over 95.5 miles. Since the beginning of the year a total of 3.25 miles has been added to the caves length. One of the main reasons as much has been accomplished is because of the extensive use of mini-camp trips (2 days of survey split by a one night stay in the cave). This has turned out to be a very efficient way to get the most out of a three day survey weekend.

Fisher Ridge Summary, July, August, September, October, November 2000 by Peter Quick

The first of many trips to report on took place on July 9th. Jonathan Schwer, Chris Caswell and Jason Barron took a trip out to Forever Ready Canyon to continue pushing IP Freely survey. The previous trip out there had stopped at a pit that needed a rope to continue. They managed to place 13 stations for 198 feet of additional survey. Their productivity was diminished when they tossed their push rope down a pit, as a coil not rigged to anything. They stopped their survey when the passage ended at a pit and a technical (bolt) climb.

To break up the monotony of continuous survey in Fisher Ridge, on July 20th Jonathan Schwer and Shane Fryer followed up on a hot tip they were given and were shown a cave entrance on Northtown Ridge by an obliging land owner. The elevation of the entrance was at about 680 feet and had great air flow. The cave’s name is either Gillock’s or Devil’s Backbone Cave. They placed 40 stations in a narrow winding canyon passage for 352 feet. The cave continued beyond where they left off with good air.

On July 23rd Jonathan Schwer, Gary Berdeaux and Shane Fryer headed to the end of the Too Low For Comfort Passage to push the NA survey. The NA survey is a small tube that goes south off then end of the Too Low For Comfort Passage. The survey started by Danny Dible, Peter Quick, and Brian Davis years earlier when there were still dozens of big walking leads to push elsewhere in the cave. They placed 11 stations for 201 feet to the end of the passage a 30 to 50 foot high dome. Later plotting revealed this dome is right under a big surface sink with an unchecked hole in its bottom. There is probably no more than a 30 foot difference between the top of the dome and the bottom of the sink. I looked at this property originally as my first choice of where to dig an entrance out on Northtown Ridge. But the property wasn’t for sale.

The last trip in July was on July 29th. Jon Smith and Matt Reece made their way back to Park Ave. to check/scoop what appeared to be a lead heading up to a possible trunk passage. They mapped a short chunk of trunk passage before it ended in breakdown in the killer sink that kills all other passages that get near it, including Northtown Ave., Park Ave., KN Canyon, Not Too Bad Passage and the Giant’s Pass. Saved the work of traversing a dangerous pit to get to the passage by finding a route up through breakdown from a lower passage. They managed to mop-up 8 stations for 170 feet of passage. Survey productivity was reduced because they only had one set of instruments. Ahem!

August 6th saw the return of Jonathan Schwer and Shane Fryer to Devil’s Backbone Cave. They placed 20 more stations for 182 feet to cave’s termination. The cave is 534 feet long and is primarily a fairly horizontal narrow canyon passage, averaging about 2 feet in width and 10 feet in height. The cave has been added to the regional FRCS map data base.

There was an attempt on August 11th by Peter Quick and Suzanne DeBlois to map Burnhole Cave (to the south of Fisher Ridge, Between Fisher and the Roppel part of Mammoth Cave) Six stations placed for 149 feet before sumped passage was encountered and forced a retreat. According to the landowner it had rained about 6 inches a few days before.

On August 20th Jonathan Schwer, Shane Fryer, Gary Berdeaux, Wade Berdeaux, and Chris Printz took Jonathan’s hammer drill into the cave and performed a short 15 foot bolt climb up into a hole in the ceiling of the Doll’s Head Trunk. A nice walking passage was found and named the Doll’s Attic. They placed 43 stations for 893 feet before the passage ended in flowstone fill. The passage paralleled Doll’s Head for a distance before heading south toward a south eastern edge of Northtown Ridge. One possible high bolt lead was noted just before the end. The passage overlies the walking section of Chartres Maze before it gets to the Penny lane turn off.

Over the Labor Day weekend there were three survey trips into the cave. On September 2nd Ron Adams and James Burkhart returned to a crawl going north off of Eveready Canyon they had started surveying in early July. They placed 54 stations for approximately 700 feet of survey. The passage continued an estimated 10 more stations to degenerating leads.

At the same time as Ron’s trip, September 2nd, Suzanne DeBlois, Liz Turpin and Damien James ventured out to Park Ave to do some lead checking and possible survey. They headed to a side lead I had been promoting, the AN survey, and managed to place 12 stations for 181 feet in some cruddy mud crawls before having to stop because of coldness. As they were heading out of the AN survey they noted a 3’ X 3’ ceiling tube that Liz went down for 200 feet and continued with good air flow. They also turned up another crawling lead that they thought had good potential (for another trip).

On September 3rd Jonathan Schwer, Joel Despain, Chris Caswell, Shane Fryer and Jason Borror took what turned out to be the final trip out to Foreveready Canyon and the I P Freeley survey. They retrieved the rope tossed down the pit on the previous trip, performed a 15 foot aid climb and dropped a good sized pit. The aid climb led them into passage the quickly terminated in breakdown and the good sized pit didn’t go. They surveyed the pit and mapped a known loop passage. They placed 16 stations for 259 feet of additional survey and pronounced all decent leads killed off. Jonathan had returned to this area five times, every time having to perform technical climbs or to conquer vertical obstacles. He was able to wring a total of 1400 feet out of this challenging area.

A big survey weekend was planned over the Columbus Day weekend, October 6, 7 and 8. One survey team consisting Mike Fitch, Suzanne DeBlois, Radu Moga, and Lavinia Hanachiuk entered the cave prepared for a three day camp trip. On the first day of survey they headed out once again to the Other World NW for yet more lead checking and survey. This area just keeps sucking up survey effort without running out of tough little passages to map. Then placed 37 stations for 520 feet in a variety of passages before returning back to their mini-camp in Northtown Ave. The next day they managed to talk themselves out of going out to Park Ave. (wet, burrr) and instead checked a lead near the Lost Lagoon and survey some short passages. They then headed back to camp via The Other World South and picked off any and all obvious side leads and loops. The final lead popped them right into camp just feet away from Suzanne’s sleeping bag. They had choked 59 stations out of the cave that day for an additional 850 feet of survey. On the final day of their stay in the cave they once again talked themselves out of going to Park Ave. (too long, too late) and started picking off unlikely looking tight canyons in and around camp and the watersource. Despite the large number of trips through this area and numerous mapping trips in this area they were able to turn up some fairly nice leads. One started out as a low crawl but got larger and much nicer shortly into it. The passage ended up going 750 feet and looping back into Northtown Ave. a few hundred feet down the passage from where they started. The most interesting news of this trip was a crack in the floor of the 750 foot loop through which a larger sandy floored trunk passage was seen below. The problem being the crack was too small to get through. This lead will surely be revisited to be mashed open by whatever methods are necessary. This final day of survey totaled 55 stations and 1240 feet of survey.

Also during this weekend on October 6th , Brian Davis and Mike Dowden entered the Quick Exit and made their way to the Old Base Camp near the watersource at station NT75. They entered a ceiling level tube and mapped an easy hands and knees crawl for 9 stations and 243 feet (exclude tie in shot of 74 feet) The passage ended in a mud plug. They then took a nice tourist trip down the Doll’s Head passage and checked out a number of reasonable looking unmapped leads. Later that weekend Jonathan Schwer also took a trip down Doll’s Head to check for leads. Between Jonathan and Brian there are reports of at least 1000 feet of mop-up survey and a couple of going narrow canyon passages.

The next day on October 7th , Brian Davis, Mike Dowden and Adam Manship. Headed to the Lower Crust area to pick off loops and side leads. The did all sorts of loops and got plenty confused. I can’t even try to summarize what they did only that the left the area with 42 stations and 862 feet. Brian reports more passages to map.

The final trip to report on over this weekend happened on October 7th. Jon Smith, Bart Nutt and Eric Higbie made their way out to Giant’s Pass, the first return trip to that area since it had been found and mapped. They had a number of leads that had been suggested to them to check out. A few leads didn’t go but they did manage to turn up a complex canyon area that needs to be further checked and mapped. They put in 33 stations for about 400 feet of survey.

To finish up this summary of activities there was a trip on November 5th. Jonathan Schwer, Chris Schotter and Joel Despain took a trip with ropes and bolting gear back to Eclipse Canyon and the Over The Top area. They executed a climb at the waterfall dome near end of Eclipse by tossing a bag of sand (tied to a small line, connected to their rope) into their high lead and into a crack in the leads floor. The crack in the floor dropped into the waterfall dome where the tied the end of the rope they pulled through the crack. They secured the other end of the rope to a rock and then climbed up the tight rope into the lead. The climb was a great success but the tube lead filled with clay in just 50 feet. They then traveled a short distance into the Over the Top passage and dropped a 25 foot pit into a waterfall dome and some going passage. Twenty stations and 359 feet were mapped and then the passage connected back into the Over the Top survey at an overlooked side lead. They did find another 50 foot pit but did not drop it. Jonathan will probably return to this area soon to continue lead checking.

The cave now stands at a bit over 96.5 miles in length.

FRCS stats. 467 survey trips, 19373 stations. What the statistics list neglects to mention are all the other trips that have been taken into the cave, most having been work trips. Things like the video trips, photo trips, lead checking trips and busted survey trips. Perhaps there are at least another 100 trips that have contributed to the success of the project. In the last summary I neglected to mention at least two trips into the cave that didn’t result in survey. Charlie Pflanze has taken a number of photo trips into the cave that should be acknowledged. And how about the grueling Quick Entrance digging trips, talk about much work with no statistical recognition. Statistics are great and many of us thrive on them, just let’s not loose perspective on the total effort that has gone into making this cave so tremendous and significant.

FISHER RIDGE CAVE SYSTEM SUMMARY NOV, DEC 2000, JANUARY 2001 by Peter Quick

During this reporting period there were seven survey trips and a gear retrieval/tourist trip into the cave. The first occurred on November 18th. Suzanne DeBlois, Rick Shanley and Elyse Katz made their way back to Park Ave. and then to a damp crawling lead that had been turned up on Suzanne’s Labor Day trip . The tube moved strong air and demanded a return trip. Eighteen stations and 208 feet later they entered a tall room where the passage continued 15 off the floor. Elyse managed to get up (pushed/climbed) to the lead and checked it for another 600 feet and reports it continues as a crawl. They called it quits and headed out of the cave.

The next trip to report on occurred on December 3rd. Jonathan Schwer led Gary Berdeaux and Rick Olsen to the Doll’s Head Trunk to some mop-up survey of leads that Jonathan had turned up on the Columbus weekend in October. They picked off three loops and a side lead for 872 feet of new survey. These loops were lower levels of the Doll’s Head Trunk, mostly walking, virgin and full of formations. Really nice survey being so close and easy to get to from the Quick Exit.

Over the weekend of December 8 and 9 there were two survey trips in the cave both by the team of Peter Quick, Pete Dickman and Suzanne DeBlois. The three entered the cave fully loaded with gear for every occasion, Rope, vertical gear, a Hitachi hammer drill with extra battery, aid climbing rack, 250 feet of wire, extra pack full of explosives, not to mention their camp duffels for yet another two day mini-camp. The first objective was to try to blast open a crack at station UE23 (the loop survey that had been found near the mini-camp over the Columbus weekend). Suzanne reported a big void below, possibly a trunk passage! The blast was executed and while waiting for the fumes to clear they decided to map a lousy looking crawl that was near the blast site. This lousy looking cheese grater floored crawl decided not to die and consumed the rest of the day. The crawl got a bit better after 5 or 6 stations and at station 33 it intersected a 10 wide by 3 high passage going in two directions. The survey turned to the northwest and proceeded for another 60 stations before the team ran out of energy and headed back to camp. It was 93 stations and 3000 feet of crawling on sharp bedrock nearly the entire distance. The passage was named the Rough Route.

On day two Peter, Pete and Suzanne revisited the blast site and determined that another blast would be necessary to get through the crack. They initiated the blast and then packed up and headed out of the cave. They didn’t want to wait for the fumes to clear to check the blast site. On their way out they mapped 525 feet of small side leads along Northtown Ave. in five different places

The last survey weekend to report on was over January 13th and 14th. Pete Dickman, Peter Quick, Jon Smith, Suzanne DeBlois, Liz Turpin and Will Summer all headed into the cave, some for a one day stay others for a two day stay. Suzanne, Liz and Will formed a team and brought a rope and vertical gear to the aforementioned blast site at UE23. They dropped into a room or rather a migrating shaft and followed a canyon passage to a big dome that they couldn’t enter for lack of additional rope. They mapped about 135 feet in this area before deciding to head out to the northwest end of the Rough Route for better survey pickings. At station US93 they took up surveying in the Rough Route and found the survey improving in size every shot. After 10 stations they intersected a trunk passage, perhaps 15 feet wide by 10 feet high that went in two directions. They first mapped to the south where after 4 stations it ended in a dirt fill. They switched directions and mapped about 700 feet in a westerly direction to a point where a dome had cut into the passage and they were left standing at the bottom of an overhung 15 foot climb with the blackness of the trunk continuing above. Their total survey for the day was about 1200 feet.

At the same time as Suzanne’s team was mapping to the west, Peter, Pete and Jon started surveying the other direction in the Rough Route at station US33. The survey first headed north and then east and then northeast. For the first few stations the passage was crawling height and about 10 feet wide. It got lower and lower and stayed as a belly whomp for many stations. Pete Dickman was on point and he had to dig for long distances to continue. Finally at station 27 a small canyon was intersected allowing the surveyors to squat rather than slither. Just 10 stations later the canyon filled with gypsum dirt. Pete tore into the dirt mound and was soon through into an upper level canyon, 15 feet high by 2 feet wide. The survey continued to the northeast along the top of the canyon. The canyon was entirely gypsum encrusted. Where the walls were coated with a clear to yellow sparry crystals the travel wasn’t so bad but in places the walls were covered with a brittle gypsum crust that had the habit of sloughing off when being used for foot holds. The survey ran out of steam after 77 stations had been placed for 1776 feet of new passage. The canyon continued as two components both easy crawling and moving good air.

As both teams were exiting from opposite ends of the Rough Route they coincidentally joined up at station US33. Liz and Will were going to head out of the cave as they hadn’t come prepared for a camp trip. Jon volunteered to lead them out of the cave and call it quits for the weekend. The next day Peter, Pete and Suzanne packed their gear and then roamed Northtown Ave. for leads to pick off on their way out. Pete had spied an obscure tube lead high on the wall a few stations from the watersource of the mini-camp. 450 feet were mapped in this not too unpleasant stoop walking passage. The passage terminated in some domes with lots of pretty formations. A few more pointless leads were mopped-up before they left the cave with 760 feet of additional survey for the day.

The last trip to report on occurred on January 20, a cast of 9 cavers mostly from Indiana led by Mike Dowden made their way back to the Nebulous Borehole to do some lead checking and gear retrieval. Twenty four hours were spent in the cave yet nary a foot of passage was surveyed. Hopefully some inspiration was gained for future survey trips.

At this point the Fisher Ridge Cave System stands at a bit over 98.3 miles in length. Crossing the arbitrary yet significant 100 mile mark seems to be inevitable, perhaps by mid-summer or earlier this year.