We were soon parked next to a barn, in front of a farm house and began packing gear into our backpacks for the hike up to Mellet pit. Aaron started across the field and up the forested hill to find the pit while we finished preparing. Not long after, Tom and began climbing up the hill. I felt that I had much more in my backpack than I probably needed but despite it feeling quite heavy in my arms, it didn’t feel that bad on my back. We started hiking up the hill and I Bo’d occasionally to see where Aaron was. Soon we were at the pit. Aaron rigged the rope and I was ready to rappell. The drop was quite nice. It was somewhat against the wall but I saw that the pit was opening up below me and I soon found myself in a 16’ diameter dome room. The wall I was rappelling down consisted of flowstone and interesting textures.
Once down, I yelled Off Rope and set my flash facing up the
pit. I photographed Aaron as he came down and was surprised how nice the
picture looked. Even though only one of my strobes was working (the other’s
batteries were dead), the picture still looked quite good. The light really
brought out the formations, and texture of the pit walls. Once down, Aaron
started down a narrow canyon at the far side of the pit which quickly led to a
climb up into another dome. He didn’t want to climb up into it so I passed
around him and climbed up into a dome room of similar height to the one I’d just
left. The bottom of the dome was about 8’ in diameter. The floor was covered
by a shallow pool of water and cobbles. I climbed up a little higher in the
canyon to look around and retreated back to the main pit where Aaron was
climbing up.
I again set my flash below him and came back into the canyon to try a profile
shot. He climbed out and I soon followed after checking out the other lead at
the bottom of the pit. I photographed Tom as he climbed out of the pit. Aaron
had found the entrance to Little Mellet. What he’d found was bizarre.
Aaron reported that he almost hadn’t found the pit because somebody had camouflaged the entrance with brush. He also said that there was a metal ladder descending into the pit. We contemplated that it might be a hidden Meth lab and wondered what we would find at the bottom. I took a picture of the pit with and without it’s camouflage and then we hauled three heavy 6’ tall metal ladders out of the pit lashed together with rope and held in place by rope and a large metal rod. Finally, I rigged the pit and after sending a rock down in case it was booby trapped Tom went down. He reported that there was nothing at the bottom which was rather disappointing. It must have just been some local kids.
I rappelled down a rather tight entrance into a small 6’ diameter room. Below I could see a dark hole and a smaller hole above some breakdown. I could see 10 - 20 feet below. It seemed like a good place to dig. I ascended back out and we routed back down the hill. Aaron talked to the owners and it turns out that they had been missing the metal bar. It used to be behind their house. We drove over to Keys Shaft and were very hospitably turned down so we didn’t get to drop that pit. We headed to New Albany so that I could judge the NSS Covers Salon.
Mellot Pit
Aaron descends the surprising photogenic entrance pit.
I used a canyon to profile Aaron's ascent.
Mellot Pit
Tom pauses for a picture as he climbs out of the pit.
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Mellot Pit
Tom crest the lip of the pit.
Where's the cave?
Little Mellot
There's the cave!
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Little Mellot
Someone camouflaged the entrance and rigged ladders inisde the pit.
There's the ladder.
Little Mellot
What were they trying to hide?
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Little Mellot
We pulled up 3 sections of heavy metal ladders lashed together.
After tossing a rock in case of booby traps, we send in Tom.
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