2002 FISHER RIDGE SUMMARIES

Compiled from the DUG SCOOPS

Fisher Ridge Summary January to March 2002 by Peter Quick (actually from V19 I5)

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.

Fisher Ridge Summary April & May 2002 by Peter Quick

April 5th, 2002 - Suzanne DeBlois, Brian Davis, Mike Fitch and Chuck Perkins went to the XR survey, the northeast continuation of Dose of Salts. There were high hopes that the passage would continue east toward Vinegar Ridge Cave but the passage ended just 200 feet beyond the end of the previous survey in a terminal fill. Apparently Peter Quick hadn’t scooped ahead on his pervious trip and had reported in the most glowing manner about the passage’s good potential. They picked off two other loops in the area and loops and looked down a pit lead at XR 15 but needed a rope to continue. They left the area after placing 24 stations for 434 feet of additional survey and went back to the Northtown Ave. Mini Camp to eat and sleep.

April 6th , 2002 - Brain Davis and Chuck Perkins exited the cave and were replaced by Mike Dowden. Suzanne DeBlois, Mike Fitch, Mike Dowden decided to head out to Dose of Salts for some guaranteed footage. They stopped first station U41 at the Screw Hat climb-up and started the MYK survey, a small crawling canyon. The survey ended after 13 stations at a breakdown. They needed a hammer to continue. The passage had real good air flow. They continued to Dose of Salts and picked of leads between UG6 and UG 45. They totaled 76 stations for 1017 feet of survey for the day. The Mini-Camp was returned to and Mike Dowden exited the cave.

April 7th , 2002 - Suzanne DeBlois and Mike (just won’t quit) Fitch started the day with a little random mop-up and then headed to the USA survey a tight crawling lead of the US survey. They placed 30 stations in USA and believed it still had good potential, good air etc.. before deciding to finally exit the cave. They totaled 37 stations and 516 additional feet.

April 23rd , 2002 - Shane Fryer, Joel Despain, Brad Hocker and Merrilee Proffitt decided to take a trip out to the end of the Eclipse Canyon to known lead off of a previously mapped side lead. They placed 15 stations for 174 feet in a 15 foot high by 1 foot wide canyon to tie in at EC 95.

May 24th , 2002 - Keith Ortiz and Mike Fitch returned to push the aforementioned USA survey. Picked up at station 30 and placed 40 stations in small passage before connecting 440 feet later into the low sandy but wide Screw Hat Passage at station U27. Thankfully they didn’t have to exit the way they had come in. It is funny how the sweat inducing belly whomps of the Screw Hat Passage can be considered a relief. They decided to camp at the Northtown Mini-Camp with minimal supplies, no stove, no hot water, no water bag, no sleeping pad. Tough stuff!

May 25th , 2002 - Ron Adams, Mike Dowden, Kevin Bruno and Adam Manship racked their brains to come up with a strenuous trip with survey potential. They decided to make their way out to Double Ready to finish off a crawling lead found a couple years earlier. They placed 46 stations for 593 feet to tie in as a loop, with a loop previously mapped off the Everready Extension. They managed to get their fill of short survey shots and crawling.

May 25th , 2002 - Suzanne DeBlois, Mark Folsom and Jeff Lobdell went to do digging and surveying out in the Dose of Salts area. They started at the MYK breakdown and beat at the breakdown with a sledge hauled in for that purpose. A really tight crawl and 120 feet of passage was pushed beyond the breakdown before they connected MYK survey into mid section of Dose of Salts. They had managed to find a big shortcut into Dose of Salts saving hours of hard travel. They went west in the Dose to get water and then started picking off leads working their way back, cleaning up leads between UG159 and UG 78. After 49 stations and 753 feet they decided to call it a day for surveying and went to the XR survey where Mark dropped a pit at XR15 to check for lead potential. He scooped some passage upstream but was stopped by another pit downstream. He reports survey to be done in this lower area.

May 25th Keith Ortiz and Mike Fitch after sleeping at the Northtown Mini-Camp headed to KN Canyon to check for possible leads. They stumbled across a lead at the climb-up into the main KN Canyon at station KN 26. At first Keith didn’t think the “lead” was anymore than a floor crack of a higher passage but Mike persisted and found a separate passage heading to the northeast. The passage was a comfortable hands and knees crawl in gypsum sand. 76 stations and 1386 feet later they were stopped at a 40 foot deep dry pit/dome. The passage could be seen to continue on other side 15 feet away. It will take a horizontal bolt traverse to continue. The good news is that the area is not too hard to get to. The new discovery was named the Second Thoughts Passage.

May 25th , 2002 - Steve Miller and Peter Quick took a couple of Michigan cavers in for a 9.5 hour tourist trip back to the Quiet City Trunk, Eclipse Canyon, Laura’s Dome, Northtown Throughway, multiple loops, and out. The trip was uneventful except when a handhold broke off on a tricky and very exposed climb in Laura’s Dome and Steve did a slow motion toe dance before regaining his balance instead of diving headfirst 15 feet down a nasty breakdown slope. He didn’t even drop his 4 pound portable hand hold.

May 27th , 2002 - Keith Ortiz, Charlie Pflanze and Jeannie Trowbridge decided to take a short trip to do a little mop-up at the beginning of KN Canyon continuing in the area Keith mapped two days earlier. They placed 14 stations and 93 feet to complete a loop.

In summary for the two months covered in this report a total of 377 stations were placed for an additional 5406 feet of passage in 9 separate survey outings. Of that, 3160 feet came out of the Dose of Salts / Rough Route area. There are still a number of loops and leads to be checked between UG 45 and UG 78 in the Dose of Salts. The length of the Fisher Ridge Cave System is now a bit over 103 miles. Three miles have been added since Memorial Day weekend of 2001 when the cave just broke the 100 mile mark.

Fisher Ridge Summary June to Sept 2002 by Peter Quick

There was caving activity in the Fisher Ridge Cave System over three weekends during this reporting period.

The first trip to report on took place on June 22nd. Mike Dowden, Suzanne DeBlois and Jon Smith decided to go out to the end of the U Survey. This was a follow-up trip to the scoop trip of Memorial Day where a canyon passage was dropped into from the XR survey (XR 15) by Mark Folsom. Rather than do the slippery climbs along the XR survey they decided to drop down a pit at U106 that had previously terminated the U Survey. They dropped about 30 feet to a ledge (the pit kept going way down) and stepped across a gap and climbed back up into the canyon passage. Their survey ended in a northern direction at a climb-up to a narrow slot where one could look down a 35 foot drop (rope needed) into a going canyon passage. They had placed 24 stations for 582 feet of survey.

Over the weekend of July 13th enough folks showed up to form three survey groups. Mike Dowden, Suzanne DeBlois and Eric Fredrickson, headed to the “Northern U”. This was the much anticipated follow-up trip to the Northern U to drop the pit beyond the tight slot to a canyon seen below. However, first the pit at U106 was dropped. In all, it is 95 feet from U106 to the bottom of the pit. They dropped into a mostly crawling height, near base level, stream passage going two directions. They went a few stations upstream to wet belly whomp and 18 stations (440 feet) of hands and knees crawl downstream to a scummy sump pool. Mike Dowden was rumored not to have enjoyed himself in this wet lower passage. They then made their way to the tight spot and drop. They placed a bolt and rappelled down into canyon ranging up to 40 feet in height and 10 feet in width. They mapped to the east and north for 28 stations and 772 feet. The canyon passage terminated in a mud fill under a big sinkhole separating FRCS and Vinegar Ridge Cave (2000 feet apart). Two visible upper levels were seen winding in and out along the canyon passage. Perhaps one of these will lead around the lower mud plug. In all 53 stations were placed for an additional 1344 feet.

Peter Quick, Pete Dickman, Charlie Pflanze and Chip Hopper formed the next group in the cave. Peter had a notion that he’d like to perform a horizontal bolt climb traverse around the side of a pit that had terminated a survey by Keith Ortiz and Mike Fitch a month earlier. Mike Dowden donated his 11 pound 36 volt Hilti hammer drill to the team, Peter brought along his aid climbing rack, a rope was hauled, and so on. The 1200 foot crawl out from KN Canyon previously described as an easy hands and knees on sand turned out to be a torturous belly crawl over much sharp rock for most of the distance. The 1200 feet took two hours to haul equipment through to the climb site. Peter executed the 21 foot blank wall traverse with efficiency placing 7 bolts and was across in not much more than an hour. The passage on the opposite side continued as a foot and a half high belly crawl that after 80 feet intersected an 8 wide by 12 high canyon passage. Pete Dickman came across and Pete and Peter scooped passage for nearly an hour. They saw over 1000 feet of gypsum filled passage and at least 8 side leads. They eventually found a connection with the Dose of Salts Passage near UG 67. They managed to place one station for 23 feet to take the survey across the pit so a survey from the Dose side could close the survey loop. The pit was de-rigged and the team left the cave. Even with their almost non-existent survey productivity they were in the cave for 17 hours.

The last survey team in the cave consisted of Jeff Zink, Nate Newkirk and Jamie Winner. They headed to the Dose of Salts Passage to continue picking off side leads in this ever productive area. During their explorations and mapping they came across the passage that Pete and Peter had scooped only an hour or so before. They were confused by the extensive foot prints and all the passage that had not been reported. As far as they knew they were checking unpushed side leads. They did note the foot high crawl that led to the pit traverse but decided not to go into it because it was so uninviting looking. In all they placed about70 stations and added 1022 of new survey feet in Dose of Salts. They left with many unchecked leads.

Over the weekend of September 13th, Mike Fitch, Jon Smith, Eric Daugherty and Suzanne DeBlois headed into the cave for a mini-camp stay and after setting up camp proceeded to Dose of Salts to continue the survey that Jeff Zink’s team had left off in. They placed 76 stations for 1285 more feet and still didn’t kill off all the leads. They did mop-up of leads off the Dose of Salts between stations UG54 to UG69. They picked off canyons, crawls and loops all in intense gypsum encrusted passages. They also tied their survey into Peter’s bolt climb traverse passage.

On September 14, Mike Dowden entered the cave with Nate Newkirk and Brian Killingbeck. When they reached the mini camp folks were finishing off breakfast. Jon and Eric decided to leave the cave and new teams were formed. Suzanne DeBlois, Mike Dowden and Nate Newkirk headed to the Northern U to try to find a way on to Vinegar Ridge Cave. They mapped a number of passages, all heading in directions other than north toward Vinegar Ridge Cave. All passages ended in fill, either flowstone or breakdown. Some very narrow canyons were not pushed. High bolting type leads remain to be pushed. (How about a return to the termination of the XR survey above to push the 1 wide by 10 wide damp belly crawl not pushed previously?). They were a bit disappointed by the reluctance of the cave but still placed 51 stations for 744 feet of passage.

The other team, Brian Killingbeck and Mike Fitch, headed back once again to Dose of Salts for the never ending mop-up. They closed a few loops and killed off a number of leads. They left with at least three leads unpushed. They had placed 35 stations for 771 feet. Upon returning to the mini-camp Mike broke camp and left the cave with Brian.

In all 5771 more feet have been added to the caves length. The Fisher Ridge Cave system is now over 104 miles in length!