Cave Mine Cave
Alan Cressler, Brandon Stephens, Jeff Moore, Greg Huston
We hiked almost back to the car to the entrance of Cave Mine Cave. Brandon went all the way back to the car and I bo’d him back up. Then we entered Cave Mine Cave. The walking passage dead ended ahead. We went down a hole to the left and did a slightly tricky climb down into a larger passage. Directly to the right, a circular passage angled in from above. The right wall showed evidence of mining. Above a beautifully sculpted rock ledge circled into the passage. Draperies hung along the edge from flowstone above. The walls were absolutely amazing! Once again the dip of the limestone was nearly perpendicular to the passage. We reached a climb up into a 5’ diameter circular hole. The limestone dip was very evident her. It was simply unreal! Evidently the mountain uplift had caused large limestone blocks to slide down the mountain in some of the nearby areas offsetting the angle of the bedding. Through the hole we emerged on a ledge 25’-30’ above a lake floor. Later, we planned to come back when I would set hangars on the bolts and rig a horizontal traverse along an exposed convex slope which after 6’ appeared to become easier to traverse. It looked like something I could do though I’ll rely a lot on the rope to begin with. We climbed back down through the circular hole and slid through a smaller hole climbing down a ladder into the room the exposed ledge had overlooked. This room contained a lake. The water was so clear I didn’t immediately realize where it began and had my leg not caught against a breakdown rock which I quickly used to sway my balance backwards, I would have stepped right into the lake. Looking above, towards the ledge I would later traverse, a really neat 90 degree fold in the limestone pointed down towards the lake. We exited the cave and drove back out of the mountains. I dozed and woke when we started looking for sustenance. Mexican it was. Back home, we caught some of Nip and Tuck and gave the annoying cat a bit of his own medicine before crashing. He’d systematically harassed us the night before.
By Brian Killingbeck © 2005
