Birthday Plunge
Sigrid Gardner, Tymme Laun, Dillan ?
I didn’t have an alarm so I wanted to put a note on the front door for Sigrid to wake me up if I wasn’t already awake. I asked Nate for paper and he took it upon himself to write the note which read “Sigrid wake my ass up.” It wasn’t quite as descriptive as I’d planned. Luckily, my body knew when it was supposed to get up. I glanced at the clock and it was 6:45 AM, dozed for a few more minutes, and got up slightly before 7:00 AM. It didn’t really feel like I’d slept. I loaded my car and laid down on the couch in the front room secretly hoping they’d be late. I soon heard a car pull up and voices. After a quick stop for coffee and bagels we were off to Corydon. 3.5 hrs later we met Tymme at the Wyandotte parking lot. We’d changed plans slightly and were now heading down Cold Friday road to do Birthday Plunge.
We geared up and were soon hiking. I must have zoned out because I missed the trail turn off but the added up and down and bushwhacking was “good training.” Anyway, it was an awesome day to be outside; it was warm and the sun was shining. The GPS point was 200 feet off. We came at Birthday from above and passed it before I recognized where I was and reoriented myself. Then I walked directly to the pit.
The four of us geared up and Sigrid rigged the first drop with the stealth rope. It was her first time rappelling down first. The rest of us followed, climbed up a forth climb up and Sigrid helped me rig at the beginning of the rectum crawl. I rigged the rope at the drop. I’d brought some webbing to rebelay the rope to make ascending back up easier. I rigged it but felt that there was still a better solution since the rope still went down the crack more than I wanted it to. I descended second drop and decided against rigging a rebelay before the third drop because either spot we rigged would make getting over the undercut lip much more difficult. Instead, I padded the undercut lip and decided to pad another spot on the way back up. Everyone was enjoying the cave so far. We climbed up the breakdown slope, did a short crawl, stoop walked over the 19’ climable pit and emerged into the next room where over a dozen bats were sleeping / hibernating. I decided we wouldn’t bounce the 22’ pit in this room because I’d done it before and it wasn’t that impressive. Instead we were going to bottom the cave today. I’d checked the map earlier and the passage leading out of the room was right where it was supposed to be.
After a short crawl we emerged in the next room. I was immediately impressed upon seeing a large column of flowstone and formations. I first rigged to the spot that had obviously been used in the past but we then decided that another spot looked safer. I re-rigged and descended the pit. It’s a nice 37’ open pit against a wall with much flowstone decoration. The column of flowstone and formations extended from ceiling to floor. To my right I saw the hole we would continue down to bottom the cave. Everyone else came down and rappelled down the short drop to a climb down which led into a small room at the very bottom of the cave. Water exited through a tight canyon that had been visible from above when I climbed down. I climbed back up to examine the canyon. I could see the bottom and it looked like it could go. I remembered hearing Aaron Atz say there was potential in this area for Indiana’s deepest pit cave since the bottom of Birthday plunge is about the same level as the top of Ted’s dig. If only I’d brought a rock hammer I could check it out.
But wait, I saw a spot that might just be Brian size. I also saw evidence that a small chunk of rock had likely been hammer off before. I had to check it out. I maneuvered my butt in different positions until I found a spot where the rock was shaped just right to get through. I lowered myself down through the tight slot and was soon at the bottom which was more open. The passage continued but it was too tight for a person. It was about 2’ tall and less than a foot wide due to rock projections. I knew that no one much bigger than me could get down here without a great deal of effort; I wondered if I was the second person to see this particular spot.
I climbed back up and worked back through the only spot that my body fit and was soon out of the slot. We climbed back into the room and ascended up the pit. I determined that the pit wall wasn’t climable. It was slick and there were potentially loose rocks. I was able to climb most of it while safetied on rope. This pit had been so nice I really wanted to see the next pit. The others wanted to as well. After an even shorter crawl than the first we emerged at the top of the 37’ pit. This one had a better spot to rig to. I used webbing as an anchor but should have just wrapped the rope around the rock jug. The webbing was unnecessary. This pit also had some nice formations and flowstone. The edge was rounded and the walls were sometimes composed of flowstone and quite slick. The floor of this pit was rather mucky. I liked the previous pit more. We climbed back up and I told everyone that they had made no vertical progress towards the entrance since we would climb back down a breakdown slope to a point slightly below the depth of the pit we’d just done. Sigrid did a fine job leading us back to the bottom of the 3rd drop.
I went up first so that I could add a rope pad and provide assistance if needed at the top of the 2cd pit. I decided the current rebelay wasn’t helpful since you still had to climb (rather than ascend) the last 6’ of the pit because the rope went through the tight canyon. I placed the rope around a rock projection that I’d used on past trips and made and made a hand line and foot loop out of the webbing. I think this is the best rig for this particular drop. Dillan didn’t have any problems. I’d forgotten to tell Dillan that it was important to make sure the rope was placed back on the pads when he came up so the rope had made its way into the crack in the undercut ledge at the top of the 3rd drop. I was considering down climbing to help Sigrid out when I heard heard pull off a sweet maneuver that I really wish I’d seen. She’d pushed off the wall and flung the rope out of the crack and back onto the ledge of the undercut lip. She didn’t have any trouble at the top of the second drop either. We crawled through the rectum and waited on Tim to ascend then Tim pulled the rope while Sigrid coiled. We reviewed knots with Sigrid and Tim showed us a really cool way to tie an alpine butterfly. I thought it seemed rather like a magic trick.
Dillan had been chilling at the bottom of the first pit. He reported had that the sun was slowly disappearing. It was dark when Sigrid and I climbed down. I passed the rope to Tim so he could get on rope at the top of the climb down. He swang across the pit to the opposing wall and climbed up. I was last to come up. I expected it to be cold outside but was glad when Sigrid yelled down that it was warm. As I climbed, 20 lbs of ropes and pack danced below me.
I moved my backpack over to where I’d shed gear and said that it was already heavy. I was a bit suspicious and pulled 2 large rocks out of it. Tim seemed surprised when I said there were two. He had found a rock in his pack when he got up and assumed I put it there so he transplanted it to my pack. However, my pack had also been rocked (with a larger rock than his I might add). We found it quite amusing that somebody had rocked our packs while we were caving. We wondered which cavers had stopped by.
It was really warm outside; another gorgeous, starry night. We packed up and checked to make sure nothing was left on the ground. This was the last time I saw my safety ascender, though I didn’t miss it until the next day. Hopefully, somebody else accidentally packed it with their stuff. We hiked down the hill and soon felt a very noticeable temperature shift as we entered the valley. I showed everyone the entrance to Ted’s dig. It wasn’t blowing or sucking so the outside temperature must have been in the lower 50s. We hiked back out to the cars staying on trail this time.
I felt great. I felt like you do after a good workout or great day of caving. I’d totally forgotten that I had been sleep deprived the night before. What a fun day! We flew down Cold Friday road. It’s so much fun to drive! We’d decided to have Mexican; amazingly the restaurant was right where I’d remembered it being. I’m almost certain they remodeled since I was last there because the interior was very nice. I don’t remember it being anything special before. The four of us socialized and enjoyed our Mexican meals. I had ordered a burrito, enchilada, and tamata. I thought it rather strange that the only apparent difference was the shells. They were all filled with beef. Towards the end of our meal a man came up to the table and flashed a police badge at. I immediately felt a slight squirm in my gut; “what’d we do?” Luckily, he was just out to bust the restaurant for not having a liquor license and wanted to know how many of us were of age.
Afterwards, I directed Sigrid on how to get back to Lafayette and Tymme and I made our way to Stage Stop where Dave Everton had said he’d be camping. I continued my thanks for shelter during a previous thunderstorm by buying gas at a station on 62. I was enjoying the drive and blew right by stage stop. I didn’t really care too much; we turned around and soon found out that Stage Stop was closed. Wonder where Dave decided to stay. I was trying to think of places to camp when Tymme mentioned going back out on Cold Friday. Then it clicked; we’d stay at the new “Secret Campsite” since I doubted if I could find the old one having never stayed there. We found a relatively flat spot to camp and set up Tim’s cool, orange tent. Before going to sleep I let Tymme know that we really weren’t supposed to camp here but he couldn’t here me ;) I could now definitely feel the lack of sleep from the night before. Continue to Paradise Lost Cave
By Brian Killingbeck © 2005
