2001 FISHER RIDGE SUMMARIES

Compiled from the DUG SCOOPS

Fisher Ridge Summary - February to April 2001 by Peter Quick

There were five survey trips into the Fisher Ridge Cave System during this reporting period. The first two survey trips took place over the President’s Day weekend, February 17th.

Brian Davis, Pete Dickman and Jon Smith made their way out to the trunk passage at the end of the western Rough Route. Upon arriving at their destination the leads quickly dried up. The managed to place 31 stations for 583 feet of new survey. The encountered two pits as possible leads that they didn’t push for lack of rope and vertical gear. They were in the cave for 18 hours.

Also on February 17th Steve Miller and Chip and Eileen Hopper did mop-up in a crawling tube off Northtown Ave. They mapped about 450 feet of passage before leaving the cave. The passage is reported to continue.

March 3rd. Suzanne DeBlois and Liz Turpin did yet another trip out to the Other World area. Suzanne got much closer to her goal to map and kill off all remaining leads in the Other world area. They placed 60 stations for 780 feet of new survey. Most of the mapping was spent knocking off loops.

March 24th. Ron Adams, Peter Quick, James Burkhart, Greg McNamera and Suzanne DeBlois lugged a hammer drill, ropes and vertical gear to the back reaches of KN Canyon. The objective of this trip was to do a pit traverse that had stopped Peter a few years earlier. With the hammer drill and proper protection the traverse was very simple. Unfortunately not too far beyond the traverse (perhaps 500 feet) the passage ended at a much nastier looking pit that ate the floor. The rock around the pit was so rotten that another bolt traverse was not considered. The team backed off to other parts of KN Canyon and mopped up various loops and dead end leads. In total 61 stations were places for about 1200 feet of passage length.

Over the weekend of April 20 to 22 Suzanne DeBlois, Radu Moga and Jon Smith decided to do a mini-camp trip out to the Giant’s Pass and Park Avenue. They first camped in the Giant’s Pass and mapped about 185 feet before running out of leads. They then moved to Park Ave. and mapped a variety of passages, the longest being a 450 foot long muddy canyon. Over the two day trip they mapped a total of 760 feet and placed 57 stations. They also enjoyed hauling camp packs, and vertical gear they didn’t use through the endless Not Too Bad Passage. Of special interest was during this trip they dumped three different types of die in three places in the cave. On die dump was in the Park Ave. stream. They did another die dump in the stream draining the rimstone dams near the Too Low For Comfort Trunk and the last die dump in the Lost Lagoon. Joe Meiman the Mammoth Cave National Park’s hydrologist will be monitoring die traps along the Green River to see where these streams drain to.

Thus another 3773 feet were added to the caves length. This new survey along with another 618 feet of previously non-entered survey adds 4391 feet to caves length. The cave is now 99.13 miles long. Another 4600 feet is needed to break 100 miles.

FISHER RIDGE SUMMARY - MAY TO JULY 2001 by Peter Quick

Since the last Fisher Ridge Summary in April there were a few trips to the Fisher Ridge Cave System. The most notable being the 20 year reunion and 100 miles of survey celebration. The big reunion weekend was planned for the Memorial Day weekend and anybody who had ever been involved or was even interested in the project was invited.

Folks started rolling into Steve’s Karst Resort on Thursday night, May 24th. Steve Miller had arrived earlier in the week to prepare for the reunion/celebration party. On Thursday Chip Hopper, Eileen Ruddert and Bob Anderson arrived after picking up Keith Ortiz at the Lexington airport. Pete Dickman and I drove in from the Louisville airport, Suzanne DeBlois showed up from Georgia and a little later Eric Fredrickson arrived after flying in from Seattle, Washington. Throughout the weekend a whole bunch more folks showed up including Larry and Kathy Bean, Joan Miller, Charlie Pflanze, Ron Adams his girlfriend and child, Brian and Laura Davis with kids in tow, Dan and Geoffrey Crowl, Jonathan Schwer, Mike Dowden, Les Carney, Tammie Heazlit, Jeff Josefosky, Liz Turpin, Danny Dible and sons, and a bunch of other folks, all of whom slip my mind. Also passing through to say hello were Jim Borden, Roger McClure, Alan Glennon, and Chris Groves, all veteran cavers from other projects in the area. We also had some good company from our immediate neighbors on Northtown Ridge.

The only possible hitch with the weekends plans was the fact that the cave wasn’t exactly 100 miles long even though part of the weekends focus was to be the cave having reached 100 mile in length. Tee Shirts had even been made that said “20 Years - 100 Miles”. In fact the cave lacked 100 miles by around 4400 feet. Mapping that much cave on demand without any known leads that would yield even close to that much survey was a tall order. Especially since very few folks actually planned to do any real lead pushing and surveying during the weekend.

Two teams entered the cave on Friday the 25th. Suzanne DeBlois led Keith Ortiz and Bob Anderson on a long trip to pick off a muddy tube she had found trending to the south off the far end of Park Avenue. A few hundred feet of survey was known to exist in this lead and it also moved a good draft of air. The survey held together for longer than expected and 1125 feet was mapped due south before the passage pinched out. It was mostly crawling in dimensions. Keith and Bob headed out of the cave and Suzanne headed over to the mini-camp in NW Northtown Ave. to sleep and await the other team’s return. The next day she would survey with them.

The other team in the cave consisted of Pete Dickman, Eric Fredrickson and me. We planned on a two day trip into the cave and had dumped our camp gear at the mini-camp on the way in. Our objective was to go to the eastern end of the Rough Route (Pete’s good idea) and push a crawl we had left off in back in January of 2001. We ground our way along the eastern Rough Route as the sweat poured off my forehead and flowed burning into my eyes I thought a lot about how the last time through I had stated that if one had a heart condition that this passage would surely kill him. Upon reaching station U70 we picked up the survey. The passage actually became easier as we progressed. More or less a 5 wide by 7 high ragged walled canyon passage. We passed a few low wide side leads moving good air and soon were up into a bigger canyon passage with comfortable walking dimensions. The passage took off to the north but soon ended at the edge of a big dome and pit complex. The passage could be seen to continue beyond what would be a 20 foot smooth wall traverse (aid climb). We back tracked and climbed up into a high canyon we had passed under and ended up in a very complex area. There were crawling sized passages, tubes and narrow canyons going in a variety of directions. Some will most likely be simple loops but some leads seemed to hold more promise. We picked and surveyed our way through the complex and headed back to the south and east. I determined that we were now at a higher level than the Northtown Ave. level. We were more on a par with the Lost Carbide Complex level. A great place to be in the cave system under a big fat section of ridge top. The passage was never particularly large (walking in some places, crawling in others), comfortable or easy to travel along. But what it lacked in size was made up in side leads. After 100 stations were placed and 2325 feet had been added to the cave we called it a day and headed back to the mini-camp. First I did run ahead another 600 or so feet just to determine that the passage didn’t crap out any time soon. Many more hundred feet of passage had also been checked out in the various side leads we had passed. Hours later back in camp I reviewed my notes and found I had at least 28 side leads listed in the new area. Heck I figured, even if we didn’t break 100 miles this weekend in official survey, I knew I had scooped enough passage to put us over, at least in my mind.

The next day suffering from burnt out knees and elbows, we opted not to do any surveying in any direction other than out of the cave. A detailed examination and survey into every nook and cranny along the Lost Carbide Complex wrung another 580 feet of passage out of the cave before we finally gave up and exited the cave. On the way out we encountered Steve Miller, Brian Davis and Mike Dowden who were returning from a short 350 foot survey in the Doll’s Head section of the cave. We also bumped into Les Carney and a couple others who had mapped a whopping 43 feet of additional passage before giving up. We heard that on Saturday there had also been a few other groups in the cave on tourist trips, mainly in the Lost Carbide Complex area.

By and by everyone left the cave and a few of us were sitting around a table in the Karst Resort adding up the various surveys to see if we had actually been able to break the 100 mile mark. It was 3:00 AM on Sunday morning and a roasted pig had just been delivered in Steve’s back yard for Sunday’s feast and party. We added the survey data twice, three times and finally came up with a figure that put us over 100 miles by only 100 feet of so. It was nearly unbelievable that we could have had such a cliff hanger ending to the weekend. The results were better than if they had been contrived for tension.

Sunday morning rolled around soon enough. Most folks put on their 100 mile tee shirts. A great day was had eating roast pig, drinking beer, and telling silly stories about past cave adventures. The day was ended with slide and video shows and a surprise award given to the project from Chris Groves and Alan Glennon who were representing the Hoffman Institute for Environmental Studies out of the Western Kentucky In Bowling Green, KY. The gist of the award was in recognition of our great accomplishments with the Fisher Ridge Cave System over the last 20 years of exploration.

In June there were two small survey trips into the cave. On June 16th Suzanne DeBlois and Liz Turpin headed into the cave to do some photography in the Other World section where Suzanne has been thrashing herself for the last couple of years. While they were back there they also managed to map another 110 feet of so of narrow canyon passage.

Also toward the end of June was a survey and photo trip into the cave by Gary Berdeaux, Pat Kambesis and another person or so. I don’t have the specifics of the survey because I’ve temporarily misplaced the survey notes. Basically they toured the Doll’s Head area and mapped a tight 200 foot long canyon before heading out of the cave.

The last trip to report on was over the weekend of July 20th. Basically the entire focus of this weekend was to perform two cave radio locations at the southern end of Northtown Ave. and at the northern end of Chartres Ave. These two passages were though to be very close and the cave radio locations were going to be used to close a multi-mile loop and to determine the feasibility of digging a connection between the two passages. See trip report in this issue for the specifics of the trip. The radio location work was a great success overseen by radio wizard Brian Pease from Connecticut. The two passages were determined to be not much more than a 20 to 30 foot dig apart. Certainly a good prospect for digging a much needed connection to the Chartres Avenue area of the cave.

Fisher Ridge Summary - Jul - Oct 2001 by Peter Quick

July 22, 2001 Chris Printz, Tom Malabad, Pam Tegelman, associates of Gary Beardeaux put in 8 stations in lead off Doll’s Head (continuing a survey) for 170 feet. Passage continued as 4’ wide by 3’ high tube with a clay floor.

July 30, 2001 As part of a larger trip led by Jonathan Schwer, Don Coons, Barbara Am Ende, and J. Cheraze, did some mop-up survey off of the Doll’s Head Trunk. 19 stations and 327 feet adding detail and some loops.

August 19, 2001 Jonathan Schwer, Peter Zabrok and Shamus Decker took a trip to the eastern end of Over The Top Passage to probe down into a lead in upstream Gleem Stream. 111 stations placed, 1304 feet mapped. Found a complex area in between Over The Top and the Gleem Stream further below. Gypsum canyons, complex loops, mostly walking height stuff. A few leads left of smaller dimensions.

October 5, 2001 Mike Fitch, Eric Daugherty, Suzanne DeBlois as one team accompanied Peter Quick, Brian Davis and Jeff Zink as another team, out the Eastern Rough Route through the Screw Hat digs and to the upper level canyon complex that had been found over the Memorial Day weekend. Suzanne, Mike and Eric commenced picking off leads and loops near the beginning of the canyon complex at station UG 5. They placed 36 stations for 658 feet when Suzanne had to leave the cave to prepare for another trip she was to lead into the cave the next day. Mike and Eric continued surveying and placed another 14 stations for 156 feet before heading out of the area back to the Northtown Mini-Camp to eat and sleep.

Peter, Brian and Jeff continued to the end of the UG survey (station UG 62) to pick up the previous survey. The way out there wasn’t very clear as the survey route changed from level to level and in and out of various side leads seemingly without reason. As described in the last Dug Scoops, the passage isn’t particularly comfortable or pleasant to travel along but what it lacked in comfort it made up for in side leads. They placed 66 stations for 1803 feet when the trip was routed when Brian had an attack of diarrhea. Peter ran ahead for another 300 feet or so to confirm that the passage still continued strong. The UG survey contains a tremendous bunch of gypsum formations. Peter discovered that there were also numerous deposits of mirabolite or epsomite (both types of salt mineral formations). Nowhere else in the 100 miles of the Fisher Ridge Cave System have these minerals been found. Peter thought they looked funny for gypsum, some crystals looked like ice or pieces of window panes and others looked like rotten snow. The rotten snow formations felt sort of greasy in Peters fingers so he duly started tasting them. Salt! The glassy crystals also tasted of salt when sucked on. Due to the remarkable discovery of these salt formations and the coincident diarrhea attack that Brian was undergoing the passage was named “Dose of Salts”. The trip out of Dose of Salts took its toll on Jeff. The skin was worn off both his knees. The trip from the end of the Dose of Salts to the Mini-Camp took 4 or 5 hours of hot sweaty labor.

Upon waking 10 hours later Brian had to leave the cave because of commitments at home. Jeff’s knees were examined and they were now bright red, oozing and had apparently established a nice staff infection. Eric was looking a bit overwhelmed by the whole experience. Jeff and Eric decided to exit the cave with Brian, leaving just Peter and Mike in the cave. On the way out of the cave Brian, Jeff and Eric found a nice unmapped lead and picked off a quick 165 feet and 6 stations.

Peter and Mike headed off to the beginning of the Northtown Throughway / Penny Lane intersection to see about fixing a hanging survey. On the way they managed to map 7 overlooked loops and came up with 31 stations and 504 feet of survey. They were not able to find and resolve the hanging survey problem they had set out for because flooding had removed all stations in the area in question.

Earlier in the day Suzanne DeBlois had led Jim Currens, Bill Walters and Mike Dowden on a tourist trip through the Quick Exit and to the Lower Crust area. While they were there they mapped a few loops, placed 21 stations and added 307 feet to the caves length.

In all, the footage from these trips added another 5394 feet to the length of the cave.

Fisher Ridge Summary November 2001 to March 2002 by Peter Quick

In the five months since the last Fisher Ridge Summary was compiled there have been relatively few trips into the cave. Because of this relatively low level of activity and thus low survey productivity Wind Cave in South Dakota has recently passed the Fisher Ridge Cave System in length. Wind Cave now stands at 103 miles of mapped passage while the FRCS stands a just about 102 miles of mapped passage. The positions of 6th and 7th longest caves in the world have temporarily been switched.

August 4, 2001
This trip was missed in the last summary. Based on a lead recommendation from Peter Quick, Ron Adams, James Burkhart, Danny Dible, Daniel Dibble (Danny’s son) and perhaps someone else, took a long trip in the Quick Exit and back through the Other Way Passage to a lead near the junction of the start of Other Way and Penny Lane. This lead was originally scouted but not mapped by Peter Quick and Steve Miller in 1993 before the route through Penny Lane and into the passages under Northtown Ridge was known. It was guessed that at least 500 feet of survey was available, mostly consisting of a hands and knees crawl on damp mud floored passage. Ron’s group managed to map 630 feet before the lead filled with mud and got too low. As they worked their way back through the Other Way to pick off some more side leads, Daniel’s pack had a tremendous carbide gas explosion. His pack was blown to bits, he sustained a fat lip and his eyes were burning the rest of the trip. This event ended the trip and all exited after 20 hours in the cave.

December 1, 2001
Suzanne DeBlois, Will Summer and Chuck Perkins decided to take a trip out to Park Ave. to close a suspected loop with passages in the Chasm Drain. Considering the objective, the trip was a cracking success. They placed 10 stations and mapped 124 feet and in the process connected to the Chasm Drain and closed a loop of around 4 miles.

December 15, 2001
Suzanne DeBlois, quick on the misery index rebound, returned to the cave two weeks later and joined up with Jon Smith. Peter Quick and Jeff Zink failed to materialize as anticipated, because of canceled flights in New Hampshire. Suzanne and Jon gamely continued back to the continuation of Dose of Salts to see where it would take them. The passage was mostly walking and easy mapping. They placed 75 stations for 1921 feet before the passage ended in breakdown. A number of leads were passed although far fewer than the number of side leads encountered near the beginning of the Dose of Salts Passage. It turned out that the passage veered north before its termination and ended very close to and at the same elevation as the southern end of the Chasm Passage. This discovery made the whole flow route and genesis of the Other World, the Sand Swim, the Chasm, the Rough Route and the Dose of Salts suddenly fit together and make more sense.

The following is also located in the 2002 Summaries!

January 11, 2002
Jon Smith, Suzanne DeBlois and Jeff Zink headed to end of Dose of Salts to start systematically mapping side leads and to hopefully find a route around the breakdown termination of Dose of Salts. They mapped a few short side leads. One of the side leads descended and dropped them down a narrow crack and through the ceiling into the lower level Rough Route. This connection had been suspected as possible two trips earlier, even before the Dose of Salts had been extended so far. As so often happens when an unexpected easy exit beckons, the resolve of the surveyors to continue surveying faltered and they headed back to the Northtown Mini-Camp. They had placed 31 stations for 480 feet of additional passage.

January 11, 2002
Peter Quick and Pete Dickman formed a survey team and decided to start doing mop-up survey in the Screw Hat area, just before the climb-up to the Dose of Salts complex. They mapped 3 good loops and a couple short leads before climbing up into Dose of Salts and taking the survey to the north at station UG4. This direction had not yet been checked. They placed 30 stations in this tube atop a canyon passage. The passage hooked to the east and continued. At XR30 they abandoned the survey and headed out of the cave. The passage continued as a two level passage. The upper passage was about 10 feet wide and 3 feet high with an occasional dirt fill problem. This can be considered a good lead. They had placed 66 stations for an additional 1488 feet of passage.

January 12, 2002
Jeff Zink, Jon Smith and Suzanne DeBlois opted for a short survey trip on the way out of the cave after their stay at the Northtown Mini-Camp and made their way into the mid-section of the Lower Crust Maze. They placed 18 stations for 263 feet of additional survey and confusion in this complex area.

March 8, 2002
Chip Hopper and Eileen Ruddert closed their real estate deal with Kent Lloyd and purchased approximately 70 acres on Fisher Ridge including the ridge area around the old field house/trailer, the Historic Entrance and the land down into the valley known as Blue Grass Hollow, abutting the parcel containing the Remington Entrance. This brought to close a process that had been started nearly a year ago when a non-compete deal was struck with Kent Lloyd in the purchase of much of the Fisher Farm that was going up to auction. The agreement was that in return for us keeping the general caving community from competing (thus keeping the price down) with Kent Lloyd in his larger purchase attempt of much of the farm, he would negotiate the sale of the Historic entrance parcel to Chip Hopper with certain hunting access concessions on the property leased to him. We accomplished this by waving off all interested parties except for one, that of Karl Niles and a companion of his. Karl Niles developed a bad case of cave greed (he wanted to cash in on the glory of big cave ownership without having put in the years of work and commitment of exploration and survey), compounded by some perceived slight he had received from DUG (go figure, we’ve never pissed off anyone in the region!) and a good dose of xenophobia. Niles also misrepresented his actions and intentions to other cavers to get them to pledge funds to help him try to purchase the property. Armed with his confused notion that his actions were noble he tried to muscle in on the process by bidding up the price on the Historic parcel. He failed in his attempt to throw a bunch of money at Kent Lloyd to wreck the deal made with Chip. Contact Chip for information about access to the Historic Entrance and his property in general.

March 17th, 2002
Jonathan Schwer, Erin Green and Chris Schotter went to the Walnut Grove area (a lower level lead area near the southeastern end of Over the Top). They mapped 400 feet in various short loops. After many days of heavy rainfall on the surface water was running heavily everywhere in the cave. High water and water falls kept them from their best lead destination in the Walnut Grove area, the upstream part of the Gleem Stream. Upon exiting the cave after a 14 hour trip they encountered waterfalls on the bottom two drops of the entrance and had a very wet trip exiting.

A few trips are planned for later in the month of March and perhaps a trip in April. After that will be a large get together over the Memorial Day weekend when more surveying and perhaps a through trip from the Historic Entrance to the Quick Exit will take place.