Karst Window

Of The

Louisville Grotto

Volume 40, issue 3

September 2008

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Welcome to the Karst Window newsletter of the Louisville Grotto! In an effort to rebuild membership levels within our grotto and to be a bigger contributor to the caving community in general, we are bringing back the Karst window. Any items of interest or caving photos you would like to see published in this quarterly newsletter should be forwarded to Sherry Gowens at runnerzgrl333333@bellsouth.net. The newsletter will be published during the months of March, June, September and December. Please have any news items, articles, upcoming events, etc. submitted no later than February, May, August, and November 15th. If you forward articles authored by someone other than yourself, please forward their name for proper credit in the newsletter. Please feel free to forward copies, electronic or paper, as needed. If you would like to be added to the mailing list, please send your request to runnerzgrl333333@bellsouth.net.

Grotto Officers

Chairman Jim Carter therunnerjc@bellsouth.net Vice-Chairperson Jimmy Nelson Jimmy_nelson@insightbb.com Treasurer Kim Gentry Cavernkim@aol.com Secretary Shanni Fox Shanni tf@hotmail.com Directors J Pat Stephens cavealong@yahoo.com John Benton jbenton@fullnet.com Dave Weller dweller@bellsouth.com

Be sure to visit our website at: www.caves.org/grotto/louisvillegrotto

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Grotto News and Upcoming Events

The Grotto has regularly scheduled meetings on the first Wednesday of each month. The meetings are held at the Bon Aire Public Library on Goldsmith Lane in Louisville, beginning at 7 p.m. The meetings are open to the general public. Directions can be found on the Grotto website as well. The Grotto has a 50/50 raffle that we will host beginning now until Speleofest 2008. Tickets are $1 each or 6 for $5. Please contact Kim Gentry at cavernkim@aol.com for more information. Proceeds to benefit Lone Star Preserve (LSP). As of the printing of this issue, the raffle is growing each month so be sure to purchase your tickets for a chance to win! The fundraising cookbook is still available for purchase. Cookbooks can be purchased at any Grotto meeting or function as well as online. Contact any Grotto officer for ordering information if needed. The cost for the cookbook is $10. Online orders are $15 (which includes shipping within the U.S.). The Grotto will be scheduling monthly cave trips as part of our effort to improve our membership levels. Be sure to watch our website for details on upcoming cave trips. If you have a cave you’d like to explore, contact any Grotto officer. The Grotto has adopted a two-mile stretch of Falling Springs Church road located in front of LSP. Please watch the website and Yahoo message board for notice of the next event. Member support is appreciated not only by fellow Grotto members, but the LSP community as well.

A Request from Jimmy Nelson Hello My Fellow Cavers!! No, its not a speech announcing my candidacy for President, LOL. I've just wanted to say that for awhile now :-)

During the Grotto meeting, I had asked if anyone might be interested in serving on the LSP Committee. So, if you are interested, please let me know. We would like to see at least 5 members serve on this Committee. However, that does not mean the limit is five. If you feel you would like to "help out", please shoot me an email. Our Grotto has had the property since 1999. Its succeeded thus so far with all the great talent within the Grotto. Let's continue it.

Again, this Committee will be charged with overseeing the maintenance and upkeep of LSP. However, to ensure this "upkeep and maintenance" of our property and caves, it will take all of our help.

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So far, we have a few members interested and, they have come up with some really awesome ideas. However, we would like to see more talent come out and help. Folks, we are very blessed with the talent that we have here, in the Louisville Grotto. And I for one, would love to see those talents put to use, to do more improvements for LSP, our caves and, the Grotto.

You are more than welcome to shoot me an email at: jimmy_nelson@insightbb.com. Thank you all for your time.

Most Humbly, Jimmy

WHITE NOSE SYNDROME

By MARY ESCH | Associated Press Writer Submitted by Steve Gentry ALBANY, N.Y. - Researchers, cavers and others interested in bats traveled to Albany from across the U.S. and Canada for a three-day brainstorming session on the mysterious, mass die-off of bats in the Northeast. The cause of the deaths, which have been documented in about 20 bat hibernation caves in New York, Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut, remains unknown. The

phenomenon is called "white-nose syndrome" because a mold-like fungus is found powdering the snouts of many of the dead bats. "The purpose of the meeting

was to bring everybody together to share information so we're all working from a common knowledge base," Susi von Oettingen, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist from Concord, N.H., said as the meeting wound down on Wednesday afternoon.

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The massive scale of the die-off was recognized in early January. This week's meeting was an effort to coordinate various research studies; share theories on possible causes; develop priorities for field studies during the summer breeding season and next winter's hibernation; map the progression of the die-off; explore funding sources; and create a clear definition of the syndrome. Task forces were set up to study a broad range of issues _ for example, developing a common scoring system for bat-wing damage to be used by researchers examining bats in the field. Participants came from 14 states, eight universities, several federal agencies, and Canadian wildlife agencies.

The only comparable mass die-off, von Oettingen said, is colony collapse disorder, which started mysteriously wiping out honeybee colonies in the winter of 2006-07. In response to that phenomenon, federal agencies and universities held a major workshop in April 2007 to share knowledge and develop an action plan. Several scientists involved in that effort presented a workshop at the Albany bat

meeting to make suggestions for coordinating team research. "They basically were training us in how to deal with something of this magnitude," von Oettingen said. "The push now is to recognize this as a major regional, potentially national issue, and go after secure funding so we can continue to investigate it," von Oettingen said. "This is the first opportunity to get together to discuss what we've found and where do we go from here," said Alan Hicks, a wildlife biologist with the New York Department of Environmental Conservation. Peter Youngbaer of the National Speleological Society and Northeastern Cave Conservancy, which own and manage caves, said many members of caving groups have been helping research the bat die-off. "As cave owners and managers, we're very concerned about what's going on with the bat

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ibernacula," Youngbaer said. The speleological society owns three caves where white-nose syndrome was first identified. "The 12,000 members of the NSS are involved in sampling both in the affected region and in other areas which will serve as controls," Youngbaer said. Beth Buckles is an anatomic pathologist at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, one of the labs that has been doing autopsies on bats. "We're looking for tissue changes as well as infectious agents or contaminants," Buckles said. "We have found that many of the bats coming out of the affected hibernacula are very thin. We want to pursue why they're thin. It could be because of physiologic problems, environmental problems, or an infectious agent." A priority is to evaluate what's going on in the summer before hibernation, Buckles said. "We'd like to look at population numbers, how well the bats are breeding, and what's happening to them right before they go into the hibernaculum. If they seem to be OK going into the caves, that would indicate there's something in the caves that's affecting them." Working groups set up at the meeting will decide which bats to look at, and when, Buckles said. "If there's a maternity colony that we have a lot of background data on from before the outbreak, that might be a priority area to look at," she said. If bats disappear from the landscape, there could be major ecological consequences, von Oettingen said. Bats are voracious predators of insects, with lactating females eating up to 73 percent of their body weight in insects per night, she said. "This is unprecedented," von Oettingen said. "We don't know what effect it will have on the insect population and the environment if bats disappear. But it's going to be a hole in the ecosystem and we don't know what's going to fill it."

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A Park in Kentucky That Shines Brightest Below Ground

By HENRY FOUNTAIN submitted by Steve Gentry

MY brief Floyd Collins moment came about 100 feet underground in Mammoth Cave, face-down on a rock slab. My group — 14 people on a three-hour “Introduction to Caving” tour, accompanied by two park rangers — had been crawling single-file for about 30 yards between two layers of rock, the human filling in a limestone panini, and now we were stalled. An opening ahead was so tight that Leslie Price, our lead ranger, had told us the only way through was to turn our heads to one side — otherwise our helmets would get stuck —and blindly reach our arms forward, feel around for some ridges and pull ourselves up. Now someone was having trouble negotiating the passage. Tired of waiting on my hands and knees, I laid down on the bare rock. “This would be a nice place to go to sleep,” came a voice from behind. Whoever said that must have been blissfully unfamiliar with Collins, a local cave operator who got his foot stuck while exploring a hole a few miles from here in 1925. Collins eventually went to sleep — the Big Sleep — where he was trapped. I thought about that ultimate nightmare as we got moving again. I was aware of Collins because as much as Mammoth Cave National Park is about geology — about ancient ocean sediments turned to limestone and about water coursing through that limestone to carve labyrinthine passages and huge chambers in one of the most extensive cave systems on earth — it is also about history. It’s about the native people who explored these caves 4,000 years ago, leaving behind artifacts and mummified remains. It’s about the settlers who dug up nitrate-rich cave soil to make gunpowder during the War of 1812, and the doctor who set up a tuberculosis sanitarium in one of the chambers in 1838, thinking that the cool cave air would be good for patients (it wasn’t). It’s about the 19th-century guides who for a small fee would allow

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tourists to graffiti their names with candle soot, and the private operators who fought for business in the “cave wars” of the early 20th century. And it’s about Collins, whose dire straits during the two weeks before he died captivated the nation and inspired songwriters: His face was fair and handsome His heart was true and brave; His body now lies sleeping In a lonely sandstone cave.

Mammoth Cave is one of the country’s less heralded national parks, a quiet gem in the rolling hills of central Kentucky. It’s one of the older ones, too, first authorized in 1926, helped along by the sensation over Collins’s plight and the futile attempt to rescue him. Two weeks of front-page articles in newspapers around the country focused attention on the region and the desire to end the cave wars by bringing

many of the caves under government ownership. It took about 20 years to acquire the roughly 80 square miles of land that make up the park. Because much of the property was homes and farmland that have been allowed slowly to return to nature, the landscape lacks the kind of awe-inspiring features found in other national parks. There are no old-growth forests or shimmering canyons, no tabletop mesas or half-domes. The park facilities are spartan — a two-story brick hotel with a coffee shop, a restaurant and fast food; some rustic cabins; and four campgrounds, three of which are tiny. Above ground, the feeling is more quaint than spectacular, with hiking and biking the chief pursuits. It’s out of the light of day that the park really shines. Below those 80 square miles are roughly 367 miles of tunnels and chambers that formed on five levels as the water table fell over millions of years. And

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cavers are still exploring the unknown here, adding a mile or two each year to the underground maps. An accident of geology has preserved these caves. Most of Mammoth is covered by a layer of shale and sandstone, cap rock that keeps surface water out. So the caves haven’t eroded to nothing and are now largely dry. But they also lack many of the fancy calcite features, like stalactites and stalagmites, that form when water seeps down through limestone for millions of years. To see a real “show” cave you have to travel just outside the park, to a private operation like Diamond Caverns, where a

break in the cap rock has allowed the surface water to seep in and create spectacular frozen folds in the rock called draperies and “cave bacon,” translucent multihued sheets of calcite. What Mammoth has, as the name suggests, is size. A few of its chambers are as big as basketball arenas, and some of its major arteries are as wide and long as the Champs-Élysées. To see the sights, both geological and

historical, the park offers about a dozen tours. Most are relatively easy one- or two-hour walks along the major arteries, with plenty of steps but no crawling or tight spaces. On a few of the tours the rangers keep the lights off and visitors proceed by lantern light, an attempt to recreate the ambience of the early cave tours. One lantern tour visits the remains of the nitrate mining site and two stone huts that were part of the TB sanitarium. Like most things in the cave, these are well preserved. It’s as if you’re walking through a natural museum.

From there it’s on to the Star Chamber, an enormous room with a high ceiling of natural gypsum that has been blackened over the years by soot from torches and lanterns. But there

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are little chips where the white gypsum shows through, and if you look up in the dim light it’s easy to imagine yourself in a deep canyon, with steep rock walls on either side framing a cold, starry night above.

This tour is the only one that visits Gothic Avenue, a long, low chamber that was a prime tour destination in the 1800s. On the walls and ceilings are thousands of names in soot, as black and clear as when they were written 150 years ago. Another tour visits Frozen Niagara, a cascade of calcite that is one of Mammoth’s few spectacular formations. This tour begins at the “new” entrance, one that was blasted open in the 1920s at a break in the cap rock that functions as a drain, allowing water to dissolve the rock vertically. Here visitors descend through limestone domes on a winding 260-step steel staircase. That was breathtaking, but I had gotten caught up in learning about Collins and wanted something a little more heart-pounding. Pieces of Collins’s story are all over the park, though the park service doesn’t draw much attention to them. I had walked a mile down a closed road to the entrance to Crystal Cave, his old private operation, where his empty three-room house and ticket booth still stand. I had gone to the entrance to Sand Cave, where on a Sunday in February 1925 a crowd of more than 10,000 had gathered as a crew dug a shaft in the futile effort to rescue him. And I had visited his grave at a nearby Baptist church, the headstone adorned with a bottle cap, a nickel and a few other meager tokens. Having seen all that, I wanted to get a sense of the kind of challenges cavers like him faced. So I signed up for the “Introduction to Caving” tour. The description had included numerous warnings. Those under a certain age, or over a certain girth, were not allowed. Those with an aversion to heights or a tendency to claustrophobia were strongly discouraged. I’m squeamish about such things but not that squeamish, so there I was, looking slightly ridiculous with a helmet, light and work gloves, wearing a pair of volleyball kneepads on the outside of my jeans. Among the 13 others on the tour that day were

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families with children who I’m sure were pushing the lower age limit of 10. We descended the same steel staircase, with only our helmet lights. It was somehow less scary than when it had been fully lighted. At the bottom we diverged from the regular tourist route to a rubble-strewn path. Ranger Price said we were to go through a narrow uphill opening, a “keyhole” that would allow us to gauge whether we could handle tight spaces. It would be our last chance to back out. THE keyhole was mildly difficult, but everyone made it through with at least no outward signs of anxiety. From there it was a scramble: along some boulder-strewn inclines, through some narrow crawlways, across a few easy ledges, and generally up, down and around so much that at one point we backtracked on ourselves without anyone except the rangers realizing it. Toward the end we stopped in a small chamber and sat down on the boulders strewn about. The rangers had us turn off our lights and stop talking for a few minutes. The total darkness was strangely calm and relaxing. I could hang out here for hours isolated from the world this way, I thought. Just never go to sleep.

Underground 'Snowy River' Alive Again

Larry O'Hanlon, Discovery News submitted by Steve Gentry and J Pat Stephens The largest calcite cave formation in the world has astonished researchers by coming alive with water, according to volunteer cavers who have dug a new, safer entry passage into the New Mexican treasure. Previous study of the calcite encrusting the two-mile-long "Snowy River" in Fort Stanton Cave just after its

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2001 discovery had indicated that 150 years had passed since it had flowing water. So it was with great surprise on June 30th when volunteer cavers reached the cave by a new route and found a foot of flowing water.

"It will presumably dry up and precipitate another layer of calcite," said cave researcher Penelope Boston of New Mexico Tech in Socorro. The wetting, drying process appears to have been going on with less and less frequency since the end of the much wetter

Pleistocene epoch, she told Discovery News. The discovery of flowing water underlines the great scientific importance of the spectacular cave formation, she said. Snowy

River's calcite is thought to contain a natural archive of Southwestern climate, including El Niño conditions, going back tens of thousands of years. The calcite crystals are a lot like ice cores, but better, said Boston. For one thing, they stay put,

whereas ice can flow. Calcite can also entomb and fossilize rare microbes as well as preserve a lot of chemical information about past climates and temperatures. She and her colleagues are hoping to carefully extract a core of the many layers of calcite from a plunge pools in the river, where the calcite appears to be thickest.

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Wolf Creek Dam Repair

By BILL MARDIS, Editor Emeritus submitted by Steve Gentry

Accelerated grouting to repair leaky Wolf Creek Dam is still suspended, but plans are on track to award before the end of July a contract to extend a diaphragm wall through the earthen section of the mile-long structure. Officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have said the concrete wall, the second to be inserted in the troubled dam, will make the structure safe until the end of the century.

Allison Jarrett, public affairs specialist for the Corps, said Thursday that grouting has not resumed because new instrumentation is still being installed near the juncture of the earthen and concrete sections of the dam. The southbound lane of U.S. 127 atop the dam is still closed to accommodate the drilling equipment. Jarrett said the target date for re-opening the closed highway lane is July 17. A flagman is on duty 24 hours a day to direct traffic across the dam.

Ed Evans, chief of public affairs for the Corps’ Nashville District, said additional monitoring devices are being installed in response to an inaccurate reading on an inclinometer, an instrument that measures fractional movement in the dam.

Jarrett said there are other issues separate from the faulty reading. A news release from the Corps late last month said “In the area adjacent to the concrete (section of the) dam, we are re-evaluating our grouting program. This is the area with the most caves and voids in the foundation and we are finding that closing of the grout line with our current grout processes is not possible. Grouting is pumping chemically enhanced

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liquid concrete into the dam to fill cavities in the limestone karst. Construction of Wolf Creek Dam was begun in the early 1940s, then interrupted by World War II before being completed in December 1950. It was built on limestone karst and cavities in the limestone base were packed with clay. Uncontrolled seepage was halted in the 1970s with a concrete diaphragm but the Corps decided in early 2005 that a major rehabilitation of the dam is necessary.

An accelerated grouting program was begun in January 2007. Two grout curtains are planned, one on each side of the proposed diaphragm wall to be inserted in the earthen section. Proposals for the second diaphragm wall, longer and deeper than the original wall, currently are being evaluated. Corps officials have said they will evaluate the lake level upon completion of the initial grout curtain. However, this was delayed because of the aforementioned problems with closing the first curtain. Lake Cumberland was lowered more than 40 feet in January 2007 to ease pressure on the dam. Evans said recently there will be no change in the level this season, ending speculation that the water could be raised 10 feet this year. LTC Bernard Lind-strom, commander of the Nashville District, said in the news release that some of the Corps’ most talented engineers are fully engaged on the dam rehabilitation project. He said all available scientific and financial resources are being employed to ensure successful completion of the project while maintaining the absolute highest standards of public safety.

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Health officials in Lexington find 2nd rabid bat

Submitted by Steve Gentry Health officials in Lexington say a second bat has tested positive for rabies. The health department says it is warning people in the area where the bat was found on July 17 to keep an eye on pets. The health department received the positive test result Tuesday and began posting signs in the area on Wednesday. It is the second rabid bat found in Lexington in July. Health officials says there is no known human contact with rabid bats. Two years ago, a person was bitten by a rabid bat after several of them were found in three neighborhoods. The victim received medical treatment and was released from a hospital.

Rabies from bats suspected in Venezuela deaths

Submitted by Steve Gentry CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - At least 38 Warao Indians have died in remote villages in Venezuela, and medical experts suspect an outbreak of rabies spread by bites from vampire bats. Laboratory investigations have yet to confirm the cause, but the symptoms point to rabies, according to two researchers from the University of California at Berkeley and other medical experts. The two UC Berkeley researchers - the husband-and-wife team of anthropologist Charles Briggs and public health specialist Dr. Clara Mantini-Briggs - said the symptoms include fever, body pains, tingling in the feet followed by progressive paralysis, and an extreme fear of water. Victims tend to have convulsions and grow rigid before death. Dr. Charles Rupprecht, chief of the rabies program at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, agreed with their preliminary diagnosis. "The history and clinical signs are compatible with rabies," Rupprecht told The Associated Press on Friday. "Prevention is straightforward: Prevent bites and vaccinate those at risk of

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bites." Venezuelan health officials are investigating the outbreak and plan to distribute mosquito nets to prevent bat bites and send a medical boat to provide treatment in remote villages on the Orinoco River delta, Indigenous Peoples Minister Nicia Maldonado told the state-run Bolivarian News Agency on Thursday. Outbreaks of rabies spread by vampire bats are a problem in various tropical areas of South America, including Brazil and Peru, Rupprecht said. He said researchers suspect that in some cases environmental degradation - including mining, logging or dam construction projects - may also be contributing to rabies outbreaks. "Vampire bats are very adaptable," Rupprecht said. And when their roosts are disrupted or their normal prey grow scarce, "Homo sapiens is a pretty easy meal." More study is needed to confirm through blood or other samples from victims that it is the rabies virus in Venezuela, researchers say. At least 38 Warao Indians have died since June 2007, and at least 16 have died since the start of June 2008, according to a report the Berkeley researchers and indigenous leaders provided to Venezuelan officials this week. All victims died within two to seven days from the onset of symptoms, Briggs said. One village, Mukuboina, lost eight of its roughly 80 inhabitants - all of them children, he said. During a study trip Briggs and Mantini-Briggs made through 30 villages in the river delta, relatives said the victims had been bitten by bats. The couple have worked among the Warao in Delta Amacuro state for years and were invited by indigenous leaders to study the outbreak. "It's a monster illness," said Tirso Gomez, a Warao traditional healer who said the indigenous group of more than 35,000 people has never experienced anything similar. Another tropical medicine expert, Dr. Daniel Bausch of Tulane

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University in New Orleans, agreed the symptoms and accounts suggest rabies transmitted by bats, and if confirmed, "probably a vaccination campaign would be in order." The common vampire bat, which feeds on mammals' blood, swoops down and generally approaches its sleeping prey on the ground. The bat then makes a small incision with its teeth, and an anticoagulant in its saliva keeps the blood flowing while it laps up its meal with its tongue. The researchers in Venezuela have begun taking precautions. Mantini-Briggs, a Venezuelan former health official, said she started to wonder about her own health Friday while talking with biologist Omar Linares, a bat expert at Caracas' Simon Bolivar University. She remembered there was blood on her sheet after sleeping in a hammock in a village two weeks ago. Initially she dismissed it as nothing important, but she also remembered her finger hurt that morning and that she saw two small red dots there. Linares suggested she get rabies shots immediately. "They're vaccinating me," Mantini-Briggs said. "I'm sure a bat bit me."

Barracks development plan halted while builders make luxury home for bats - Submitted by Steve Gentry

Lanark, Scotland -

Builders have been forced to build a luxury home - for bats. Kier Homes were blocked from turning Winston Barracks on the outskirts of Lanark into 350 houses because it is illegal to disturb the creatures. Instead, construction workers built a £50,000 bat cave - the first of its kind in Scotland - complete with under-floor heating, solar panels and its own tree-lined driveway in a nearby forest. Jim Collins, area site manager

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with Kier, said: "We can't do anything to disturb the roosts, so we decided to build them a new home. "They have it pretty good really."

Incredible Discoveries Made in Remote Caves

By Robert Roy Britt Submitted by Steve Gentry This cave, Cuevita de Catarpe, is one of several in the Atacama Desert in Chile being explored by J. Judson Wynne's team. Credit: J. Wynne et al.

Scientists exploring caves in the bone-dry and mostly barren Atacama Desert in Chile stumbled upon a totally unexpected discovery this week: water. They also found hundreds of thousands of animal bones in a cave, possibly evidence of some

prehistoric human activity. The findings are preliminary and have not been analyzed. The expedition is designed to learn how to spot caves on Mars by studying the thermal signatures of caves and non-cave features in hot, dry places here on Earth. Scientists think Martian caves, some of which may already have been spotted from space, could be good places to look for life. No hot place on Earth is drier than the Atacama Desert. Many parts of the high-plateau desert have never received rain that anyone can remember. Average rainfall across the region is just 1 millimeter per year. (Parts of Antarctica are considered the driest places on Earth, however.) So nobody was looking for water. Total surprise

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The research team was exploring Cueva Chulacao, the largest known cave in the Cordillera de la Sal. Naturally curious, they took note of things they saw while conducting their primary research. Other than a single black hair that was likely from an indigenous person, this cave was pristine, virgin territory, explained J. Judson Wynne, a cave expert with the SETI Institute and Northern Arizona University. "There were no footprints where we were going, and I only saw the slightest evidence of human use," Wynne told LiveScience by

email Monday night as the day's work was sinking in. Wynne and his colleagues moved carefully through the cave to place a sensor along the wall, part of their NASA-funded research. "Much to my surprise, as we moved about halfway through this passage, my foot completely sunk into the soil," Wynne said. "It was mud! There was a lot of it. It was all contained within the salt stream flow that meandered through this passage." There is no known source of water nearby. The finding may prove exciting for scientists searching for water on Mars. Water is considered a prerequisite for life as we know it. "In arguably the driest desert in the world, we’ve found water in a cave far away from any known water source," Wynne said. "Essentially, we found water in a barren area below the Earth’s surface. Why was water there? What are the mechanisms for the presence of water in these hyper-arid caves? Is this merely a phenomenon related to these caves in particular? Is there some sort of moisture sink that results in the water concentrating in certain caves and not others in the Atacama Desert?" Bones, bones, bones . . .Another discovery yesterday left the researchers just shaking their heads. In a different cave in the same region, they found animal remains. Lots of them. "We found hundreds of thousands of

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bones and skulls eroding out of the cave walls," Wynne wrote in his blog. "So, we’ve renamed this small cave Cuevita de Huesos (or Small Cave of the Bones)." The researchers had to climb about 13 feet up to find a walkable passage. "This is where we found all the bones mixed in with tree branches," Wynne wrote. It's not clear if the animals were dumped into the cave by prehistoric people or if perhaps they were trapped by a flood. After all, the expedition is related to figuring out the thermal signatures of Mars caves, and the finding was made just this week. "Whatever the mechanism for their deposition, this find was incredibly cool and rather exhilarating," Wynne said. Pete [Polsgrove] and I had a blast marveling over the extent of this deposition as well as discussing what could have possibly led to the deposition of these bones. Once the sensors were deployed in this feature we moved on." Wynne's colleagues on this expedition: Pete Polsgrove, a Northern Arizona University Ph.D. student in microbiology; Dan Ruby, associate director of Fleischmann Planetarium and Science Center in Reno; geographer and speleologist Knutt Peterson; self-taught astronomer John DeDecker; expedition doctor Lynn Hicks; commercial pilot and wilderness guide Christina Colpitts; U.S. Geological Survey astrophysicist Tim Titus; and Guillermo Chong, a geologist with Catholic University of the North, Antofagasta, Chile. The research is funded by NASA's exobiology program. Caves on Mars "Our overall goal is to define mission and instrumentation requirements for detecting caves on Mars using thermal infrared imagery," Wynne explained. That means figuring out what caves look like in infrared, and what time of day the heat signatures of caves and surrounding features is optimal for cave hunting from, say, a craft orbiting Mars. The air around a cave entrance can be cooler or warmer than what is being radiated off sunlit rocks.

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“Martian caves have already been detected through techniques developed by this project, and are significant as a potential habitat for microorganisms and other extremophiles that might exist or have existed on Mars,” Ruby said in a statement prior to departure earlier this month. “They may also serve as future habitats for astronaut explorers to the red planet, as they offer protection from radiation and the harsh environment of the surface.” The work will continue in various visits through 2010, and a similar program will be conducted in the Mojave Desert in California. Teenager Finds Baby Bat In Her Bra Submitted by Steve Gentry

A teenager was stunned to find that a baby bat had been curled up inside her bra for five hours - as she was wearing it.

Miss Hawkins said the bat looked 'very snug' inside her bra Abbie Hawkins, a hotel receptionist, thought her mobile phone was ringing when she felt vibrations coming from her clothes. But she later discovered the tiny creature tucked away in the padded pocket of her underwear. As staff and colleagues crowded around, Miss Hawkins, 19, produced the frightened bat, which was the size of her hand.

"Once I realized it was a bat I was shocked, but then I felt quite sorry for it really. "It looked very snug in there and I thought how mean I was for disturbing it." Miss Hawkins said she got dressed at 7.30am and arrived for work at the Holiday

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Inn Norwich North, near Norwich International Airport without noticing anything unusual. "When I was driving to work I felt a slight vibration but I thought it was just my mobile phone in my jacket pocket," she said. It was not until her lunch break, at midday when she felt a strange movement inside her bra, which had been hanging on her washing line the previous night. "I plucked up the courage to investigate and I pulled out a little baby bat. I just lost my breath when I saw it and I did not know what it was at first," she said. The teenager's general manager freed the bat in the hotel garden. "I keep thinking how could I have not known it was there?" Miss Hawkins said. "I will certainly be checking my bras every morning from now on." Jaime Eastham, of the Bat Conservation Trust, said they had never heard of a bat being found in a bra before. But she said the animals roost anywhere that appears dark and safe.

Journey to the Center of the World:

Submitted by Jimmy Nelson

Far from civilization, hidden within the darkest jungles of Guatemala, an elite team of professional cavers and scientists penetrates one of the deepest, most mysterious caves in the world--Naj Tunich. This cave is considered sacred by the Maya and was once a shrine to their Naj Tunich is a natural cave and an important archaeological site in Guatemala.

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The discovery of the Naj Tunich caves, in Poptún southern Peten, Guatemala, in 1979 initiated the interest for Cave

Archeology among the Mayanist. Naj Tunich is the preeminent Maya cave site, boasting the most cave architecture ever found, the only elite masonry tombs reported from caves and the largest (and most exceptional) corpus of Maya cave inscriptions and paintings. The investigation of the site throughout the 1980s and the attempt to

understand its obvious importance was the catalyst that led to the formation of the field of Maya cave archaeology. Naj Tunich has dozens of hieroglyphic texts and figures, as well as some handprints and about a half dozen incised petroglyphs.

This cave is so rich in artwork, artifacts, tombs, and monumental architecture that it effectively revolutionizes our picture of caves as an element of Maya social and religious life, particularly among the elite. The site possesses unique features, and gives evidence of child sacrifice, ritual bloodletting, and intercourse - sacred activities which may have been accompanied by alerted states of consciousness induced by alcoholic or hallucinogenic substances. Members of Maya royalty may be included among those who were buried there. A sacred site from as early as the late Preclassic period, around 100 B.C., this cave continued in use until the Late Classic era (A.D. 550-900), although its greatest use occurred during the Early Classic phase from A.D. 250-550.

Naj Tunich is the Maya term for cave and literally means "stone house", because caves were conceived of as places where the gods lived. But among caves, Naj Tunich must always have been something extraordinary. All the Kek’chis' Maya in the area agree that it is the largest cave and, shortly after its discovery, one man expressed the opinion that this was where the maize god dwelt, or the entrance to Xibalba. During the Late Pre-Classic and Classic Maya era, Naj Tunich

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was an important pilgrimage center on at least a regional scale. The site has always produced its share of surprises. Initially, the large corpus of inscriptions and paintings located

deep within the tunnel system received the greatest attention. In carrying out the archaeological survey of the cave, Dr. Andrea Stone and Dr. James Brady, undertake the task of recording each and every image. In 1988, geologist George Veni found a previously unknown passage that dramatically increased the size of the cave and yielded a number of important new paintings. While recording the paintings Drs. .Brady and Gene Ware in 1999 using a multiespespectral imaging system discovered several totally unexpected cases of over-painting that are now yield to suspect that the history of the paintings is far more complex than previously thought.

ancestors. A thousand years ago, the ancient Maya made incredible advances in mathematics, medicine, and astronomy. But deep inside Naj Tunich, the expedition team discovers a disturbing, more menacing side to the Maya: human skeletons, razor-sharp obsidian needles and ritualistic and sexual paintings. What does this mean? What were the ancient Maya doing so deep within the bowels of the earth? To find the answers, the team travels deeper into Naj Tunich than any modern human has ever gone.

Naj Tunich is a natural cave and an important archaeological site in Guatemala. The discovery of the Naj Tunich caves, in Poptún southern Peten, Guatemala, in 1979 initiated the interest for Cave Archeology among the Mayanist. Naj Tunich is the preeminent Maya cave site, boasting the most cave

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architecture ever found, the only elite masonry tombs reported from caves and the largest (and most exceptional) corpus of Maya cave inscriptions and paintings. The investigation of the site throughout the 1980s and the attempt to understand its obvious importance was the catalyst that led to the formation of the field of Maya cave archaeology. Naj Tunich has dozens of hieroglyphic texts and figures, as well as some handprints and about a half dozen incised petroglyphs.

This cave is so rich in artwork, artifacts, tombs, and monumental architecture that it effectively revolutionizes our picture of caves as an element of Maya social and religious life, particularly among the elite. The site possesses unique features, and gives evidence of child sacrifice, ritual bloodletting, and intercourse - sacred activities which may have been accompanied by alerted states of consciousness induced by alcoholic or hallucinogenic substances. Members of Maya royalty may be included among those who were buried there. A sacred site from as early as the late Preclassic period, around 100 B.C., this cave continued in use until the Late Classic era (A.D. 550-900), although its greatest use occurred during the Early Classic phase from A.D. 250-550.

Naj Tunich is the Maya term for cave and literally means "stone house", because caves were conceived of as places where the gods lived. But among caves, Naj Tunich must always have been something extraordinary. All the Kek’chis' Maya in the area agree that it is the largest cave and, shortly after its discovery, one man expressed the opinion that this was where the maize god dwelt, or the entrance to Xibalba. During the Late Pre-Classic and Classic Maya era, Naj Tunich was an important pilgrimage center on at least a regional scale. The site has always produced its share of surprises. Initially, the large corpus of inscriptions and paintings located deep within the tunnel system received the greatest attention. In carrying out the archaeological survey of the cave, Dr. Andrea Stone and Dr. James Brady, undertake the task of recording each and every image. In 1988, geologist George Veni found a previously unknown passage that dramatically

26

increased the size of the cave and yielded a number of important new paintings. While recording the paintings Drs. .Brady and Gene Ware in 1999 using a multiespespectral imaging system discovered several totally unexpected cases of over-painting that are now yield to suspect that the history of the paintings is far more complex than previously thought.

Nature Conservancy protects Cave River Valley Acquisition to be managed by Spring Mill State Park Submitted by Steve Gentry

CAMPBELLSBURG — Several extensive caves in Washington County were permanently protected recently, which means the rare and endangered animals that call these caves home — particularly the Indiana bat — have also received protection. The Nature Conservancy, working with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Divisions of State Parks and Reservoirs and Fish & Wildlife and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, purchased approximately 316 acres known as Cave River Valley from Cave River Valley, LLC.

One of the most noteworthy features of the property is its caves. Two scenic and significant caves accentuate the valley. The first, River Cave, has 3,900 feet of underground stream passages where a population of the state-endangered northern cavefish is found. The second, Endless Cave, is 6,900 feet in length harboring an important colony of hibernating Indiana bats.

“Cave River Valley presented a wonderful opportunity for The Nature Conservancy to preserve critical habitat for several cave species and the threatened Indiana bat,” said Mary

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McConnell, state director for the Conservancy’s Indiana chapter. “Areas that contain populations of both Indiana bats and northern cavefish are extremely rare and therefore the protection of these areas present us with a nearly unparalleled opportunity for cave conservation in Indiana. Equally important is the additional recreation opportunities this land will provide to Hoosiers for generations to come.”

In recent years, Cave River Valley has become increasingly important for hibernating Indiana bats. Prior to 1990, few Indiana bats were known to hibernate here. But since that time the number has grown significantly. By 2007, almost 1,700 Indiana bats were found here along with an additional 1,500 little brown bats and 200 bats of other species. Endless Cave is the eighth most important Indiana bat hibernaculum in the state and the second largest little brown bat hibernaculum. The Indiana bat has been a federally endangered species since 1967, one of the first species to be placed on the list. It is also on the Indiana Endangered Species list.

The Indiana bat received its name because the first one of this species was collected at the Wyandotte Cave in Southern Indiana. It hibernates in caves and mines within the state in the winter. “These bats hibernate for approximately six months in the winter,” said Lori Pruitt, with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife. “They don’t eat for approximately six months and they need to be undisturbed for the hibernation period. The less they are disturbed the less fat they burn off during hibernation.”

“During the past few years,” she added, “there has been a lot of winter visitation to this cave. The site will now be closed during the winter hibernation period, allowing the bats an undisturbed hibernation.” Pruitt said the Indiana bat isn’t the typical bat Hoosiers see fluttering around at night. “The Indiana bat can migrate up to 300 miles from its hibernation area. It traditionally migrates to wooded areas, where the females form maternity colonies and bare their young under

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the bark of dead or dying trees. They can be common in some areas, especially near densely wooded areas.”

The Indiana bat is similar in size to the little brown bat. Typically they have a six-inch or smaller wing span and weigh six to seven grams. “They are small fragile things,” said Pruitt. The Division of State Parks and Reservoirs is applying for Indiana Heritage Trust funds that will allow the DNR to purchase the property from The Nature Conservancy in the coming months. Financial partners include The Nature Conservancy, the DNR’s Divisions of Nature Preserves and Fish and Wildlife, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Nature Conservancy will transfer the property to the Division of State Parks and Reservoirs in the coming months.

Spring Mill State Park will be assuming temporary management during this process. “The DNR understands the significance of this site, both from a natural heritage perspective and from a human perspective,” said Ginger Murphy from the Division of State Parks and Reservoirs. “We want to provide recreational access for the caving community, but we are also accepting responsibility for managing the unique and fragile natural communities at the site.” Caving will be allowed on the property, but the site will be temporarily closed, as all partners further assess the management needs and plan the work needed to reopen it next year.

“The Indiana Department of Natural Resources should assume ownership of the property sometime in the October to November time frame,” said Mark Young, property manager at Spring Mill State Park. “The Nature Conservancy is not really designed to manage the operation of properties. This will become a satellite property to Spring Mill and we will oversee its operation when it reopens to the public next year.”

Young said the property will offer some limited day use, such as picnic areas and hiking trails, and will also have small primitive campground. He said improvements to the property will be made, including improvements on the roads inside the property. The property is currently closed to the public and

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will be closed from public use during the winter months, which is when the Indiana bat hibernates in the cave. Young said plans are to reopen the property to the public on or around March 22. Woman Drowns While on Cruise

Submitted by Steve Gentry

A 52-year-old woman on a Carnival cruise drowned yesterday while on a shore excursion in Belize. She was tubing on the Caves Branch River—in what some say were questionable conditions—when, according to one account, she was swept under a rock. Reports USA Today: “A local news station in Belize, Channel 7 News, reports that most local tour companies that operate on the Caves Branch River had canceled their trips Wednesday due to poor conditions.” Obviously, her trip wasn’t canceled. Her husband, who was with her at the time, offered a chilling account to the country’s Channel 5 News. They were screaming for help when they were sucked under, he said, adding:

“I don’t remember anything because I think we flip upside down. Somebody was watching my wife and I and it was just second and we keep going down, down, down and you can tell the water pressure is pushing us inside the cave. I kind of panicked and I am trying to keep my mouth shut to keep little air, trying to find my way. I was trying t o find where to go. It took maybe twenty seconds, fifteen seconds and I was like no more air. I said, I am dying right here.”

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Carnival says it has suspended the excursion offering and is investigating.

Petzel Helmet Batteries Submitted by Steve Gentry If you have purchased a Petzl Myo headlamp (any in the series) please go to this link: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml08/08403.htmlfor important information concering using rechargeable batteries. Please accept our apologies if this item does not concern you, or if you got one with no text. The system is relatively unused. The information is critical to those who have purchased a Myo series headlamp.

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Wind farms put pressure on bats

By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News website Submitted by Steve Gentry Bats are at risk from wind turbines, researchers have found, because the rotating blades produce a change in air pressure that can kill the mammals. Canadian scientists examined bats found dead at a wind farm, and concluded that most had internal injuries consistent with sudden loss of air pressure. Bats use echo-location to avoid hitting the blades but cannot detect the sharp pressure changes around the turbine. The scientists say wind farms are more of an issue for bats than for birds. "An atmospheric pressure drop at wind turbine blades is an undetectable - and potentially unforseeable - hazard for bats, thus partially explaining the large number of bat fatalities at these specific structures," said Erin Baerwald, who led the research team at the University of Calgary. Route cause Bat deaths around wind farms have been widely documented across Europe and North America. Two years ago, EU nations formally agreed to make developers aware of the risks, and find ways of monitoring bat migration routes. Earlier this year, a bid to build a wind farm near Bideford in north Devon was turned down because of the potential impact on the mammals.

The rotating blade produce a pressure drop that can harm bats

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But among all this, understanding of how turbines affect bats has been lacking. The Calgary team collected carcasses of hoary and silver-haired bats killed at a wind farm in south-western Alberta. Examinations showed that fewer than half had external injuries that could have been caused by collision. But about 90% had internal haemorrhaging, most notably in the chest cavity, a condition that puts pressure on the lung and can be fatal. The idea is that the pressure around a rotating turbine blade is lower than in the surrounding air. A bat flying into the low-pressure zone finds its lungs suddenly expanding, bursting capillaries in the surrounding tissue which then becomes flooded with blood. Birds, which have more rigid and robust lungs, do not undergo the same trauma from a sudden drop in pressure. "Given that bats are far more susceptible to barotrauma than birds, and that bat fatalities at wind turbines far outnumber bird fatalities at most sites, wildlife fatalities at wind turbines are now a bat issue, not a bird issue," said Ms Baerwald. Some research groups are investigating ways to keep bats away from wind farms, and a University of Aberdeen group recently suggested radar emissions might act as a "bat-scarer".

Research is underway to find ways of scaring bats from wind farms

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Saltpeter Pit Cleanup Report Pulaski County Kentucky August 2008 Steve Gentry August 22nd I traveled across the US highways to Somerset Ky., then on to Saltpeter Pit the site of a trash dump known to cavers as “Mt Trashmore”. Saltpeter Pit is an 80 ft pit with a pile of trash over 40 ft tall. The pit also has a colony of Rafinesque’s bats. The ACCA (American Cave Conservation) and BCI (Bat Conservation International) over the past 3 years have been working on cleaning the trash from the pit. I met Chris Clark of the ACCA early afternoon at the pit. We worked on setting up and repairing the trolley and pulley system. We also sorted out the tools needed in and out of the pit. Dave Foster of the ACCA and Mudpuppy and Spot (Pups 4year old dog) of the Sewanee Mountain Grotto arrived later in the afternoon. We then finished securing the frame of the haul system. We left for the day and headed for the cabins. The ACCA rented three cabins in Nancy Ky. Each had 3 bedrooms, two baths, washer dryer and a hot tub. Chris and I took one cabin, Dave and Mudpuppy took one of the others. Before long the Ohio group arrived to claim the other. August 23rd Mudpuppy, Spot and I loaded up in the truck with a quick trip thru the drive thru headed to the pit. We were the first ones there, so Pup had the unlocked the gate. We dressed out, rigged the repel rope and waited the rest of the crew. The crew

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divided up into the top and bottom teams and we went to work. My job of the morning was in the pit, helping digging trash

and filling the large haul bags. The morning was spending working out all the kinks within the haul system. The bags weighted 300 to 400 hundred pounds each with up to 3 redirects in order to remove the bags from the pit. Tony (Texas caver) and I finished rerigging the last redirect just before lunch when Pup, who had climbed asked me to climb out to help solve a problem with the rack that controlling the movement of the pulley. We found the spacers we needed for the rack in the bag of

goods that I carry. The rope that held the rack was rerigged and after quick lunch back to work we went. My job the rest of the day was controlling the rack. Days end we hauled out 10 bags , one dryer, large post with wire and a deep freezer lid for a total of 13 hauls. August 24th Pup, Spot and I were off again for the pit. My job for the day was top haul control. Pup and crew in the pit, with Chris on the loader and Dave back in the haul vehicle we were hauling bags out of the pit again. We were short handed but we were hauling up bags one after another. The highlight of the day was the refrigerator coming out. The refrigerator being longer than the haul bags caused concern as it passed a very large slab near the

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entrance of the pit. The slab looked as it could slide down into the pit at anytime if it was not for an old deep freeze holding it up. This deep freeze had been tied off with a kevor rope the first year of the cleanup. We watched very close when large long hauls were made. We hauled 10 bags and junk by early afternoon. Lunch was once again provided after which 2 of the crew needed to leave for the day. We had loaded all the bags in the pit but were short the crew to remove them, so it was off to the cabins and the hot hubs. August 25th Spot, Pup and I were the last to leave but found ourselves first at the pit behind Chris. Chris always left before everyone else so he could stop in Somerset to pick up any needed supplies we would need that day. Pup and I had been talking about losing our flat shady parking spot only to find one car there besides Chris’s truck. Today we were to have new help coming and the first one arrived late Sunday night and spent the night, along with 3 more that morning. We also had 3 more show up the night before at the cabins. We were off to work with 7 more people than the previous days. Pup had a full crew in the pit and we had a full crew on top with 2 waiting for their turn in the pit. My job today was back on the rack. Chris back in haul control, Dave in the truck and the top bag crew in place Pup and Tony were sending up bags as fast as we could pull them out. We had made some short cables to use on the redirects so bags were move faster and smother today. The pit crew was filling bags as fast as Pup and Tony could get them hooked for the pull. We pulled out an old deep freeze, a set of car ramps along with car tires for a total of 22 hauls before it started to rain. Pup reported that there was about a half a day work left in the pit. The trash was all but gone and except for picking up smaller items, then dressing mud bank. 6 of the 7 new people left for home, the rest of us drove back to the cabins for the night. It rained the rest of the day.

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August 26th Today we awoke to rain, it had rained all night. During the night Jim “Crash” Kennedy from BCI arrived. He stopped be the cabins to find a few of us awake then he was off to his hotel. Dave called off work due to the rain. We meet Crash in Somerset for lunch after lunch I headed home. Everyone was leaving today or early Wednesday for 2 days off. Dave, Chris, Tony Crash and a few others will be back on Friday to remove the frame work of the haul system along with finishing up the odds and ends of this long project. Crash gave LSP a donation of $40.00. $20 of that was for 1970s, 80s Speleofest Guidebooks CDs. September 1st

Chris Clark posted the following message to the ACCAVounteers Yahoo Group The Saltpeter Pit FINALE. It is 99.9% complete!! Once again, the cave is back to it's more natural state. We had several volunteers come by and help finish the last week of cleanup and now the bats have a safe, clean home once again. And, the groundwater should start to improve, for all the residents of the area.

On Friday, we pulled the last 8 bags of trash out of the now 60 some foot deep pit. The haul system was dismantled, and all other steel was cut up for recycling. The only things left to do, is make sure that the dumpsters are removed from the fields, the fence that was cut to bring in the dumpsters is repaired. Once that is complete and I have snapped the gate lock one last time, I will then say that Saltpeter Pit is 100% complete. This project could not have been accomplished without the help of the countless volunteers and the donations from wonderful corporate sponsors such as River Metal Recycling, Waste Connections, Inc., Eastern Kentucky PRIDE, and Bat Conservation International.

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I would also like to say a big thanks to Dave Foster for all of his hard work to secure the funds necessary to make this project roll as smoothly as it did. It was great to work with such a dedicated group of people that have a passion to make cave conservation a priority. To do the job that no one else is willing to take on the challenge. Thank you to everyone that gave to this project. No contribution was too small and without it....we might still be there. We are going to be monitoring this site over the next few years for any new material that might be put into the cave or anything that might be cleared away from rains and washing.

I will post some pictures as soon as I get everything load. And we are now planning a Fall Cave Cleanup in the Horse Cave area, details to come. Chris

Trip Reports

Bridges To The Past Trip Report By Chris Stoops

First we set off to Tioga Falls, supposedly the tallest waterfall in Kentucky, and I noticed it would make a great repel. You might have to use 3 rope pads, but it would be worth it. I noticed two anchors at the top, but one was missing the anger, maybe someone stole it, and the other had a bent bolt with a loose hanger and you could see the shank behind the hanger,

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and so don't use this anchor if you plan to go repelling there, there's plenty of trees to use instead. The waterfall is a dangerous place, and there is even a cross at the bottom to prove it. I don't like to bring stupid reckless people there, but Tim decided to bring one of his anyways and the guy was throwing rocks off the top. First I thought he came close to hitting Tim and I told him to stop, then he threw some more, and one came just a few feet away from me while I was standing near the edge holding on to a tree. Next we all went caving, and my friend who was visiting had never been wild caving before. The first one was mostly walking and a little bit of crawling. I forgot how cool that cave looks inside and everyone seemed impressed with what they saw. I found a tiny lizard that was see though with tiny legs, and it had a spot on it's belly. I think this is the same thing that I thought was a cavefish in Dillon’s Cave. When we got to the second one, a non-stop crawling one, my friend said he was a bit claustrophobic and tired, and so he said he would wait outside, even though he admitted that the last cave was really fun. I had never pushed this one before, and the crawl was insane. There was tons of cobblestones and black exposed rock pieces on the ground(I forgot what type the black rock is called). We saw a huge lizard, must have been over a foot long and was as big around as a snake. I was a reddish purple with purple spots, it was definitely the coolest one I have ever seen in the wild. The ceiling was really low and the water was freezing, but we finally made it to a small room you could stand up in. The crawl must have been over 200 feet, and we timed how long it took to crawl out at 14 minutes. Everyone complained about their wrists hurting, I think it was because they got so cold and we had so much weight on them the whole time. On the way back a lady told us about a third cave above a 25 foot high waterfall. I told Tim earlier that I thought one was up there. After we traversed up the steep muddy hillside we got to it and it looked familiar, I think we just forgot about it. Tim crawled in and reported that it was extremely muddy and

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concluded he never wanted to go back in it again. All of the caves might be on Fort Knox property, but just barely because they're not far at all from the old turnpike which I'm sure we're allowed on. I just wanted to let you know before you decide to go out there, cave at your own risk. I think the signs are put up just so people don't go and vandalize the caves which there is allot of at the entrances. My brothers friend was a great caver carrying out a giant wine bottle out of the first one that we found in the very back of the cave. And then he found an old rusty D sized battery in the second cave and crawled with it in his bare hand for over 100 feet to take it out of the cave. Chris

Eric’s River Cave Trip Report By Chris Stoops Tim, Shawn, and I drove out to Indiana and met up with our caving friend David and his cousin. We had a little bit of trouble finding the cave, but unlike most of our Indiana caving trips it didn't take long at all before we found the cave. First you crawl in to a small hole, and then you have to go strait down through a barrel. The barrel was once used to gate up the cave, but the gate no longer exists. After that is about a 75 foot really tight crawl, and then you get to a brake room where you can stand up. Another 75 feet of crawling is encountered, and then the whole cave opens up to a big cave averaging 20 feet wide and 12 feet tall. David and his cousin were pretty mad that they didn't bring kneepads on the trip, I can't imagine doing that tunnel without any.

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First the creek wasn't that deep at all, and you could walk on giant flat mud banks to avoid the creek most of the time. Then we got to the deep parts, where we would walk as close to the steep sloping banks as possible to avoid getting freezing cold in the deep water. We ended up seeing lots of cave fish which was new for me, well I saw some in Mammoth over a decade ago, but never while wild caving. For almost the whole way we managed to stay in ankle to knee deep water. After about a half of a mile of this repetitive traversing we finally got to spot where we all had to go in waist deep water to continue. Everyone yelled and laughed and had a great time at this spot. Next we got to the Jumping Blind Cave Fish Passage. You had to stand on top of a pile of rocks and climb up about 5 feet more. The passage was pretty big, and the water was freezing, and waist deep in places. We got to do some crawling and then Tim spotted the back of the tunnel so we turned around. David and his cousin didn't do that passage but instead walked a couple hundred feet further in the cave and reported that they got to a super muddy part. David said he was walking in the water when he got stuck in mud up to his knees. He said he thought his shoes were going to be gone for sure, and he even said that he got stuck and his cousin had to pull him out. We decided to skip that part since David's cousin (an inexperienced caver) reported to us that he was getting really cold. Tim really wanted to go on since that is how you get to the Rumbling Passage, a small tunnel where you can here rumbles from the highway above you when cars pass by. On the way out we got to a big lead that we forgot to explore and Tim, Shawn and I couldn't resist but to explore it. At the end of a large passage we decided to crawl down a small stream passage. It was a very challenging crawl, you had to slide across on your belly some parts were so small. Then there was a giant rock you had to crawl over, and then a tight climb up, which I had never done anything like that before. It all paid off and it opened up to a huge room with a 20 foot tall

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waterfall in it, but it was just a big trickle, not a whole lot of water gushing out or anything. After further inspection I realized we were in a breakdown room with a ceiling full of giant cracks. We wanted to go in the tunnel where the waterfall was coming out but it would have been far to dangerous, and then we heard David yelling to hurry up because of his cold cousin that we seemed to have forget about. On the way out of the big lead we saw another smaller lead to the right, and Shawn explored it real fast and reported that he saw a formation room and another waterfall. I wanted to check it out but we needed to get David's cousin out of there. His cousin was showing great signs of fatigue on the way out, he had flat bottomed shoes and his legs were so tired he just kept falling all of the time. Tim stayed close by to him and kept a watch over him, but the rest of us were going at a pretty fast pace and then taking a brake, it seemed to warm me up, and I also didn't have to hold my head sideways for as long during the lower ceiling parts. David and his cousin were dreading leaving the cave through the small entrance. His cousin had such a ruff time that I often heard David assuring him that it was just a little bit further. We all took tons of pics of us crawling out of the barrel, and I even recorded a video of David crawling out of it. Shawn and I thought that the tunnel at the entrance might have been the funnest part, but David said he thought it was just the opposite of that. Shows what a difference kneepads make, and not just that but we learned to embrace the hard parts in caving. When I exited the cave I found Tim cleaning everything he had in the creek where the spring let out, and I joined him. There actually isn't any water when your in the entrance tunnel, it is all far below you and lets out about 10 feet below the entrance of the cave. Chris

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Raymonds Cave

August 2 2008

Steve Gentry

Party Members:

Pat Mudd Ty Sparta Kevin White Steve Gentry

On August 2nd 4 cavers entered Raymonds Cave to work the dig at the far reaches of the cave. The first plan was to check a hole dug out this past June in the “Mud Room” to see if it was connected to a large pit room discovered over 10 years before. A rope was rigged for a hand line, two the cavers went thru the hole across a pool of water into a steep walled room. One of the other cavers climbed to the top the Pit room to discover that the large room was indeed the same big room. The bottom of the pit had change dramatically over the past 10 plus years since it was first bolted it and jumped. The pit room cone like drain had eroded away with the large death rock no longer setting over the hole that was once in the floor.

The group had come prepared for a major assault on the dig. They were hauling ropes, vertical gear, battery powered hammer drill, extra batteries, complete bolting kit along the means to make little rocks out of a very large rock. The trip into the cave took two hours of passing and hauling gear thru the cave to get to the dig site. With part one completed it was time to check out all the leads in and around the pit room. With no way out of the very bottom the leads up the wall were checked. The first leads near the pool only went a few feet. The next lead led down about 25 to 30 ft thru a series of tight very muddy slides to a 25 ft long by 10 wide by 20 ft tall room. There is a small stream enters and exits this room both ends are only small crack in the room lower walls. There’s a high level lead out of the room that only goes a few feet before

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ending. The climb out of this room and back up to the pit room turned into a grand adventure of what was coming to haul all of the gear back out of these muddy passages.

Those of you that have been in Raymonds Cave know that the cave if a very well decorated formation cave that is damp to dry for almost the whole cave. The dig site was well away from any of the dryer sections of the cave. This part of the cave is very wet and muddy. There is a series of low crawls and exposed climbs that lead to the “Mud Room”, from there is get even muddier. The mud in the pit room and the lower lead was very sticky and was sucking our boots deeper down. The climb up and out of the lower level was very hard indeed. Once back into the pit room a high level lead was checked. Foot hole were dug into the wall to help climb. The lead quickly ended, a hand line was rigged to help the descent. The hand line was loop around a rock so it could be pulled down. This hand line became stuck and is still in the cave.

The trip out was uneventful outside of all the gear along with the cavers were now covered in a thick layer of mud. The goals of the trip were fulfilled. The pit room had been fully explored with all leads checked and about 200 ft of virgin cave for the 6.5 hour trip.

A BIG thanks to all who submitted items for this quarter’s newsletter. It’s the efforts of people like our Grotto members who help educate the public on our environment.

Dream as if you'll Live Forever, Live as if you'll die today Author Unknown. Submitted by Rose Sisler