Up at 6:35, I soon observed my weekly sun rise as I passed Carmel heading towards cave country. Hell spit fire and demons awoke as the engine revved between southern curves in the land where speed is dictated only by sharp bends and steep hills. Two minutes past my anticipated arrival, my 3 hour and 17 minute drive ended in front of Wyandotte Woods properly named after its distinguishing feature, Wyandotte Cave, not a politician. I was 10 minutes early.
Forty minutes later, the Purdue crew appeared two minutes before their anticipated arrival. Cold Friday Hollow Road displayed signs of construction. I paused only twice, hoping my cell phone would cling to Nate’s directing voice. I hoped to visit Caveski today and desired a verbal description of the cave’s entrance.
The caravan ended at the Birthday Plunge parking spot. We soon deviated from the normal route hopping fallen trees as we ascended 250 vertical feet up the old logging road. I carried all of the rope today to make the hike harder. We crested the ridge and begin the descent to the pit. My cell phone had signal again and rang as I was about to call Nate. Two more broken conversations secured directions to Caveski. Tom, Sigrid, and I continued towards Jays.
Nate’s directions, Brandon’s rock cairns, and an excellent GPS point led us directly to the pit entrance. I spotted the rock cairns first as I approached the shallow sink. The best nearby identifying feature is a large, dead tree. Sigrid rigged on a large tree and Tom soon disappeared down the small 2’ x 2’ entrance. Sigrid threaded her rack and worked her way through the entrance and I soon heard a faint “Off Rope!” from 73’ below. Instead of eating my triple decker PB&J sandwich I photographed their entry and stored the sandwich inside my helmet, a first for me.
Below the rather constricting entrance, the pit belled out. I bounced down pushing off the jagged, projecting shelves, and applied my break bars as I gracefully touched down. I was momentarily disoriented but a quick glance at the map confirmed what my senses had already determined; the cave continued to the left. A short breakdown stoop walk opened into a dome-pit. We traversed the sloping dirt ledge along the left of the pit to a breakdown floor that continued as a short crawl to a dirt ledge perimeter-ing the 27’ pit. We dead-ended in the passage to the right and came back to the 27’ pit. I traversed around the edge and asked if the other two were comfortable doing the same. We decided to rig webbing.
I had previously spotted their anchor point and told them where it was from my side of the pit. Then I came back across and ferried the webbing back with me anchoring it to a large boulder. I photo-ed Tom and Sigrid as they traversed the sloping dirt ledge above the 27 foot pit. The three of us were now standing atop the “floating breakdown.” A crawlway continued ahead and opened into the 55’ pit. A little surprised to have already reached our last pit, I climbed around to the right to verify the passage didn’t go. Up until this point I thought Greg Spaulding’s did an excellent job portraying the cave. I crawled back to the “floating breakdown” and rigged off a large rock. I felt pretty secure atop the chock-stoned boulders.
I crawled back to the pit, lowered the rope, attached my rack, and flipped around to begin my descent. I called Off Rope and set my strobe atop a breakdown rock preparing for Sigrid and Tom’s descent. Once everyone was down, I remembered an animal skeleton rest somewhere in the cave so we searched the perimeter of the dome room for it. We did find some horn corral fossils, a small geode, and a small bone that someone had placed atop a projecting rock near the bottom of the pit. We spotted many geodes in the limestone wall, possibly Harrodsburg formation, as we crept into an adjacent dome. Back at the bottom of the pit, I observed the water movement on the floor and jumped ahead proclaiming myself at the deepest point of the cave.
Sigrid ascended first. Tom held the rope so it fed through her ascenders easier. I photographed both their ascents and then ascended. I had to hold the rope between my feet almost the entire ascent so my croll would feed. Back on top of the “floating breakdown” we decided to drop the 27’ pit. I found an adequate boulder. I wanted to rig higher to make the undercut boulder easier to circumvent but found no other rig points. The rip in my knee pad caught the breakdown momentarily stunting my descent. I saw that many formations decorated the southern wall as I rappelled down.
Sigrid peered through a hole in the floating breakdown as Tom prepared for his descent. As they rappelled down I realized my camera had been taking pictures in raw format and switched back to jpeg. We discovered the skeleton in a shallow pool near the pit bottom. Both Tom and I had thought they rest on dry floor based on Nate’s picture.
I followed Tom and Sigrid back up after taking a quick self portrait. They traversed back around the edge of the pit and I de-rigged the webbing and showed both of them how to daisy chain their webbing. We crawled, traversed, and stooped back to the entrance drop where I prepared some flashbulbs and a small flashgun I’d had in my back pocket. After firing two bulbs, I realized the flashgun needed slaved. It retreated to my pocket and I once again wielded my strobe as Sigrid and Tom ascended towards the faint light atop the 73’ entrance pit.
I once again had to hold the rope between my feet much of the way up in order for my croll to ascend. The 73’ pit seemed more difficult than it should have been. I questioned my physical shape and determined I’d have to start climbing rope at home. Luckily, the somewhat exerting 73’ feet were explained away when I woke up sick the next morning.
We spent the next half an hour hiking along a bench above the lower of two cliffs overlooking the Ohio. I must have misunderstood Nate’s directions and eventually determined that we should have been hiking above the top cliff. We may have spotted Brandon’s cliff cave through trip from below. Purdue’s extended yet firm hold on its students started us back towards the cars; Sigrid had a test the next day. Sigrid noticed at an Ohio River overlook that Tom’s headlamp had fallen from her helmet. Tom miraculously walked right to it and had discovered the missing light before Sigrid and I had made it halfway back to the rendezvous point at Jay’s pit.
I navigated back to the car using a compass and topo map. My orienteering skills have grown rusty. As we finished hiking the slightly extended route, Tom spotted an Opossum in a tree alongside Cold Friday Hollow Road. Sigrid and I caught our first close-up glimpse of a live opossum. I never knew Opossums had fangs! Unfortunately, he didn’t hang by his tail for us but surely he can since both Sigrid and I recalled seeing cartoon possums hang by their tails <grin>.
I enjoyed driving back on Cold Friday Hollow Road. It’s a fun road to drive! I managed to dodge all but two pot holes :) I called Aaron on our drive back in case he could join us for dinner. We happened to drive by his house on our way to get Mexican and I spotted him on his bike and quickly swerved into his driveway to invite him along. The four of us enjoyed talking to each other during dinner. Aaron was glad to meet Tom because Tom had found a way around the exterminator in Two Bit. I didn’t remember that! Evidently, it’d only been briefly mentioned in one of the two trip reports because it made the canyon easier therefore making the trip report less bad-ass. During dinner, we discussed future caving plans, past trips, and marveled over Aaron’s new Willie Hunt headlamp. I warned Tom as he started to turn it on not to look directly into the beam. I occupied myself most of the way home talking on my cell phone.
Jays Pit Cave
Nate's excellent directions led us right to the pit. As I descended the hill, the first thing I saw was Brandon's improved Rock Cairn.
There are 3 identifying markers for this pit including 2 tall rock cairns and a large, dead tree.
Jays Pit Cave
Its no wonder Nate and Brandon had trouble finding this. The entrance is tiny!
Jays Pit Cave
Sigrid threads her rack preparing for the 73' descent.
Sigrid slowly descends into the not-so-gaping entrance.
Jays Pit Cave
A flash of red is all that can be seen of Sigrid as descends into the constrictive black void.
Jays Pit Cave
Sigrid carefully traverses along the sloping dirt ledge above the 27' pit.
Tom and Sigrid anchor webbing preparing their end of a soon-to-be horizontal traverse around the 2cd pit.
Jays Pit Cave
Sigrid Crawls along the dirt ledge above the 2cd pit.
Jays Pit Cave
Tom too crawls above the 2cd pit to safety atop the chock-stoned "floating" boulder floor.
Sigrid descends down the 55' pit.
Jays Pit Cave
Sigrid unthreads her rack at the bottom of the 55 ft pit.
Jays Pit Cave
Sigrid half-smiles as I snap a picture.
Sigrid looks above as Tom descends the 55' pit. Tom rappelled quickly only giving me a moments chance to snatch the picture.
Jays Pit Cave
Someone collected some fossils, a small geode, and a bone and sat them atop a projection at the bottom of the 55 pit.
Jays Pit Cave
Tom holds the rope aiding Sigrid's ascent.
Tom descends overtop the "floating" breakdown into the 3rd pit.
Jays Pit Cave
Sigrid works herself down around the large choke-stoned hunk of rock into the 3rd pit.
Jays Pit Cave
Sigrid rappells into the decorated 3rd pit.
In a shallow pool near the bottom of the 3rd pit rest the bones of a small animal.
Jays Pit Cave
Sigrid asked about the pictures of me. I told her my name went below all the pictures but soon after snapped a self portrait displaying the proper smirk.
Jays Pit Cave
Sigrid watches as Tom crosses back over the sloping dirt ledge across the top of the 3rd pit.
Sigrid ascends the 73 ft entrance pit.
Jays Pit Cave
Sigrid has nearly reached the top of the 73 ft entrance pit.
Jays Pit Cave
As Sigrid ascends I snap another self portrait. I preferred the slightly blurred version. I promise your rope will be pitch black upon return, Nate.
Be warned, this picture is .5 megabytes. I spotted some pretty cave crickets in the entrance room of Caveski. Look at the water droplets clinging to the cricket's back.
Jays Pit Cave
Tom claws his way out of the tight entrance to Caveski Cave. Nate's excellent directions led us straight to it.
Jays Pit Cave
Tom spotted an opussum in a small tree alongside Cold Friday Hollow Road. I never knew opossums had fangs!
Sigrid stares in awe at her first view of an Indiana opossum.
Jays Pit Cave
You tell me. Is this his better side?