Tom and I found Harmon’s pit pretty easily. Cave was spray painted in orange on all the trees surrounding the pit. The cave is located in a decently large sink hole likely just below the sandstone cap. The hillside sink was shrouded in forest and green vegetation. I spotted a place on the ground nearly void of poison ivy and laid my pack down. Then, I rigged the pit and rappelled over the lip through the 10 x 20' entrance. The shaft opened as I descended and I soon found myself standing at the top of a slope of dirt and rock. I descended the slope and took a few pictures as Tom descended. This was my first time using the $20 Wein slaves and I was having a little trouble with them. I didn’t really pull off a good shot. As soon as Tom was down I wrapped the rest of the main line around a large natural projection and rappelled down a short climb and followed the bottom of the tall 10’ wide canyon passage to a crevice in the floor which soon dropped into the next pit.
I rigged the second rope to the end of the first using a figure eight bend and rappelled down the second pit. I crossed the floor of the pit stepping over a dead, but not very smelly, possum and photographed Tom’s descent. I had placed two strobes facing up the pit and positioned myself a little farther back in the canyon to create a dark profiling border. I was pleased with the results. We climbed all the way up the slope at the back of the second pit, I took a couple pictures of Tom coming down, and then photographed his ascent.
Up top, I de-rigged the second pit and Tom and I climbed back up to the entrance drop. I once again set up 3 slaved strobes and had much better results photographing Tom’s ascent up the entrance pit. Once he was up, I packed my photo gear, strapped the rope and two dry boxes to me and climbed out. I’d hoped my GPS would acquire a good lock while sitting beside the pit entrance but it still had poor accuracy. I took a point and a couple entrance pictures and then Tom and I stowed our vertical gear and ropes and went ridge walking. We flailed around in the woods through numerous poison ivy patches traveling at least 4 miles. We did find one cave.
Tom spotted a small hole in the bottom of a sink. The hole was surrounded by chunks of sandstone. After gearing up, I descended a short 10 ft climb down and ducked into a small room with some formations on the left. It seemed like the wall had an irregular texture but I didn’t look real closely to see what type of rock it was. We checked both drains but nothing went. There were no leads out of the room. We climbed back out and after GPSing it continued our ridge walk. We eventually decided to call the cave Duselis Den. The only other point of interest on our ridge walk was a cow graveyard which reeked. We routed back to the car and ate at Subway in Corydon. We’d discussed which cave we should visit and Tom mentioned Two Bit. I’d never done Two Bit and thought it’d be a fun evening trip to go just past the canyon. To Two Bit Pit
Harmon's Pit
Tom gets off rope at the bottom of the first pit.
Tom descends the second pit.
Harmon's Pit
Tom descends the second drop.
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Harmon's Pit
Tom poses at a climb up at the bottom of the second pit.
Tom ascends the second pit.
Harmon's Pit
Good thing I had my flash. Those shadows would have got Tom for sure!
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Harmon's Pit
Scary shadows :)
Tom ascends the 84' entrance pit.
Harmon's Pit
Tom nears the top of the entrance pit.
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Duselis Den
Tom climbs out of his new self titled find.
It's a little tricky.
Duselis Den
Almost got it.
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