Brandon Stephens, Brian Welp

Late Saturday afternoon I found myself on 65 again driving south.  I veered off onto 265 and called Brandon to report my early arrival as I neared Corydon.  I’d made excellent time :)  Brandon was still 20 miles off so I encouraged him to drive faster.  I arrived at the Corydon Dairy Queen, ordered a Hawaiian blizzard, and spread maps and data across the table trying to decide where we’d go.  Ten minutes later, Brandon and Brian arrived.  Brandon ordered his own blizzard and the three of us sat down and determined that we’d do Limekiln Hollow Cave and pit, Daly if we had time, and Schotter Pit cave after dinner. 

We remained in separate vehicles and I led the way into HC losing Brandon on 62 when I passed a slow moving RV.  A few potholes developed on Cold Friday Hollow Rd since my last visit but it's still in pretty good shape.  I parked where I’d normally park for Daly and started compiling gear.  I heard a vehicle in the distance and Brandon soon joined me.  NPR news emitted from Brandon’s truck as we dressed.  Soon, we were ready and began our hike to the pit.  We followed a poorly maintained trail for awhile and then cut through the woods and downhill eventually passing over a gravel road.  We continued further down the hill toward the cave. 

The GPS said we were there but of course we saw no cave.  Having experienced bad points in HC before, we split up in search of the entrance.  We all headed further down the valley with no luck.  I eventually climbed back uphill and followed a trail back toward the GPS point.  I remembered a trail in the description.  Across the ravine, I saw a suspiciously dark spot.  I contoured in that direction and found an obvious pit entrance.  50 feet below, a large crack in the rocks narrowly progressed into darkness.  I bo’d Brandon and Brian in and we first tackled the “pit.”  It’d grown dark outside.  Brandon shone his light down the “pit” and free climbed down.  Limekiln Hollow Pit isn’t a pit at all!  I soon followed Brandon.  The 10’ entrance climb-down led to 30 feet of horizontal passage that soon pinched. 

Brandon proclaimed his disappointment and pointed out a hole in the floor he hadn’t checked.  I poked my head inside and saw cave.  I wriggled my body down into the hole and bellied to the left soon encountering a small pool with a large blind crayfish above a tight hole which dropped into a small room.  I continued ahead.  If I remember correctly, the cave soon pinched in this direction.  I turned back around and looked into the small hole.  As far as I could tell, there was no continuation off the bottom of the small climb-down room though I couldn’t see all walls.  I decided it wasn’t worth squeezing down into it and getting my feet wet, so I crawled back toward the awkward squeeze and continued the other way, bellying  for about 10 feet before reaching a tight spot, where I squeezed my body over a rock in the floor.  Further ahead, I saw an end and worked my body back around in the awkward passage and bellied back out reporting to Brian that it didn’t connect to Limekiln Hollow Cave. 

Brandon had climbed out of the cave and descended to Limekiln Hollow Cave in hopes of making a voice connetion.  I reached the entrance and soon came to a 9’ climb-down that looked a little scary.  I called ahead and heard Brandon’s voice coming from a crack across the room near the ceiling .  After a little discussion, I realized he’d climbed down here and then climbed back up on the other side.  He yelled that I should come over and "check this out; it's cool."  If Brandon had climbed down this then I surely could.  I began down and found that though the climb looked exposed, it was really pretty easy.  I crossed the room noting a small elliptical tube 4’ feet above the floor on the left wall and ducked through a canyon bend into a dome room. 

Brandon was right.  This is neat!  To the right, I saw a fluted, clean washed limestone dome with water dripping down.  I climbed it to the top and agreed that the continuation looked very tight.  Brandon commented, and I agreed that the water from Limekiln Pit probably came in here.  As I descended the dome, I crossed onto a ledge midway down and Brian climbed to the top of the dome.  I then returned to the room with the elliptical crawl and bellied ahead.  The passage soon became a sloping canyon.  To the left we saw a hole in the floor.  I continued ahead and the narrow, windy canyon became more awkward and tight in a couple spots.  I worked my body another 30 feet before deciding to turn around.  The passage kept going but I saw no need to follow it. 

The hole we’d saw was definitely the way to continue.  Brandon had already tried to make his way down but found himself awkwardly wedged.  He finished extracting himself as I pulled back out of the awkward canyon and positioned myself to descend the small hole.  The tight walls made the descent rather awkward and tight but not too bad.  I climbed down into a walking canyon room and scouted ahead.  I called up to Brandon that cave lied ahead and watched him squeeze down.  I helped him place his feet and then climbed up through the canyon.  I’d learned that the easier way was to crawl belong on my scouting trip but hoped that Brandon would take the high route.  On my scout trip I’d squeezed either my stomach or quads through the tightest spot.  Brian started through but didn’t approach it quite right so I encouraged him to let Brandon come through as I saw that Brian had noticed he could go below.  Brandon started the hard way and also discovered the lower route. 

I crawled ahead passing a crack to the right that dropped down to a pool.  Eventually, the floor dropped out into a lower level.  The upper level remained a 10 wide crawlway that gained height when occasionally opening into the lower level.  I followed the lower level and wormed through a narrow canyon and climbed back up into the upper level.  I crawled ahead to a muddy formation room and ascended a slope to a couple domes.  Brian joined me and I retreated back down the passage where I soon saw light from knee-pad-less Brandon. 

I had stayed in the upper level this time and crawled over top the canyon as Brandon traveled below.  I climbed down a somewhat tricky spot and we headed back towards the entrance.  We’d seen a long crawlway on the map but didn’t really feel like searching for it.  I crawled back to the room with the climb down and built a rock wall so that Brandon and Brian would go high.  I then ascended out of the awkward hole into the somewhat awkward canyon passage and crawled back out the elliptical tube into the room with the first climb down.  I waited for Brandon and Brian to catch up and then we climbed out of the cave and walked back to our stuff higher on the hill.  It was now very dark outside.  We climbed back up the hill to the gravel road and followed it until it seemed to veer off course.  We hiked the rest of the way through the woods and uphill to Cold Friday Hollow Road and walked back to the car.  As we approached the cars I sarcastically exclaimed “What a Work Out!”  To which Brandon replied, “Brian, what’s happened to you!”  I’m not sure they heard the sarcasm in my voice indicating that our trip thus far had been extremely easy.