Blue River Double Sinks
Sigrid Gardner, Sean Lewis, Justin Fitch, Nathan ?
I woke up around 7:30 but wasn’t really ready to be awake. The night before we’d got back from the casino around 2:00 and sometime about midway through Office Space I’d fallen asleep. I was kind of disappointed I’d missed listening to the part where the disgruntled staple guy burned down the building. Anyway, I rode with all the other bachelor party attendees over to my car at Dairy Queen and then went straight back to Aaron’s for some more shut eye. I was relying on my cell phone alarm. I don’t like relying on alarms that haven’t yet proven themselves to me. Luckily, Aaron came back looking for his wallet giving me barely enough time to make it to Marengo on time.
I felt a little better rested. Sean was waiting for me at Marengo. I told him about the bachelor party and soon Sigrid, Nathan, and Justin showed up. I went inside to put my contacts in and then we were off. We dropped Sean’s vehicle at the post office in Depauw. I was cracking up as we left because as soon as we pulled out a mail truck pulled in. I drove us directly to Blue River Double Sinks. There was a parking area at the bottom of the drive but we drove up to the owner’s house to verify that was where he wanted us and to say hi.
I got gear together and sent Sean off with the GPS to find the cave which was only 60’ away according to the GPS. Eventually, we were ready and we walked over to the cave which was about a 1 minute walk. Sean already had his rope rigged. He went down and belayed Nathan. I went down next to take some pictures as the others came down. The entrance drop was interesting. It’s formed in the Paoli limestone. I was surprised that sections of the Paoli really did look green. I rubbed it with my fingernails to make sure that it was just an encrustation. About 15 feet from the top, there was a ledge with trash and debris. About 25 feet from the floor of the drop there was a 1’ shale break and a very evident change in the limestone. It changed from a lighter tan color to a grayish color. I figured this was probably the switch from Paoli to Ste Genevieve. The floor of the pit was a slope scattered with trash. I was now standing in a 40’ tall canyon like passage. Ahead, this passage ended in a dome with an impressive 1’ wide drapery extending from floor to ceiling. Before the dome there was a hole in the right wall near the floor that looked like it might continue on. Directly at the bottom of the pit there was a larger off shoot to the right which was the correct way to go. I took some pictures as the others came down.
The pit was neat because the limestone hadn’t been eaten away uniformly but
instead there were natural bridges and other projections and interesting shapes
along the way down. Justin and Sigrid came down and I realized that I didn’t
have the rope for the next pit. They went ahead and I safetied onto the rope
and free-climbed back up with some assistance from the rope, retrieved the rope,
and descended back down. I went right down the walking passage and soon came
upon a crawl. Sigrid felt it necessary to carry the rope so I let her carry
it. I followed her through the crawl. It was rather interesting getting
through the rather tight canyon with a dry box on my waste, my stuffed pack, and
vertical gear dangling. The crawl opened into a 10’ climbable pit. At the
bottom of this pit we took another passage that almost angled back the way we’d
come in. After a short crawl we were in a dome room. The limestone walls in
the room were quite interesting. They looked striped, alternating between gray
and tan. There was a slot in the floor that opened in the second drop. Around
to the right was an impressive dome that likely extended up all the way through
the Paoli since I saw a block of sandstone lying on the dome floor.
Sean rigged around a breakdown rock and went down. I decided to change the rigging because it required you to get on and off rope very near the top of the slot which would be difficult for the others. I re-rigged on a .5 ft diameter, limestone projection. I rigged the rope diagonally around it so not only did I get the strength of the projection but also had another shorter projection helping the rope grip a much larger area of limestone that the projection was perched atop. I went down the drop next to take pictures at the bottom. The slot was about as large as me, my dry box, and pack. I had to work them a bit to fit them all through. I immediately liked the second drop. It was free fall and immediately opened up. I recall the limestone walls as being clean.
At the bottom I took pictures as the others descended. I zoomed in to take a picture of Justin's legs poking through the slot. I don’t like the way zooming in flattens everything in the picture. At the bottom we walked down the tall, 12’ wide canyon passage. Our objective was to check out the best lead in the cave. We climbed up an 8' and 10’ drop passing two tight leads on our left. Sean and Nathan continued to climb up a tighter canyon from here. I went the correct way and dropped down a slot, and climbed down a short 8’ drop. It belled out underneath but if you turned around and wedged your arm you could easily get a foot hold on the undercut wall and climb down. I instructed the others to descend this way and took pictures as they came and told Sean not to jump. The walking passage T’d here. We went to the left to check out the “best lead.” We squeezed through a tight hole that Sean and I both really enjoyed. On the other side the passage descended slightly. Sean said it didn’t look good. There was a small room. To the right the passage curved around and S’ed back and forth in a too tight canyon. I fed my body as far as it would go and sacrificed my brinkman’s long life setting it in water shining down the passage in hopes that I’d be able to feed my head a little farther if I didn’t have to hold the light and see if the passage was opening up. If you micro-shaved the first two curves the passage would be about 1.5 feet wide and 2 feet tall. Then you could see what it was doing from that point. There was currently no airflow though there also wasn’t much of a temperature difference today. I’d have to come back and see if there was airflow to know if this would be worth working on. Without air, it’s not.
Everyone had come through the tight hole so we all went back out into the walking passage where we’d left our “vertigo” gear. We walked ahead and encountered two more climb-ups. At the top of the first was a prominent corral colony fossil in the wall. I’d already seen horn corral a couple spots already. This didn’t look like anything that I recognized. Sean confirmed that I didn’t think it was Lithostrotrion proliferum or Lithostrotionell Castelnaui. I agree that it wasn’t. He thought it was horn coral; I’d never seen horn corral that looked like this but according to the picture on this website, I believe it was horn corral. It is footed and scleractinian; whatever that means. Later that night I called Sean and told him he was right. At the time he wasn’t in much of a talking mood but we did briefly discuss the poor, suicidal, pooch who missed his first objective.
Anyway, from here Sean and Nathan continued to climb high while Sigrid, Justin, and I went low. We crawled ahead and climbed down into a room that contained a small 10’ climb-down and a larger 15’ climb-down. Protruding from the wall was something I’d never seen the likes of in a cave before. It was a thin projection about 2 feet wide and 1.5 feet tall. It was as if somebody pieced together feathered pieces of limestone 2 rows high and 4 -6 columns wide. It was cool!
Justin climbed down the tighter pit and said it didn't go. I confirmed and then went down the deeper climb-down. At the bottom I followed the drain. Damn Nate for proving that anything could go! I bellied along in a tight, damp tube pushing gravel aside in spots so that I would fit and confirming that I would be able to push myself back out in other spots where my back and butt felt the ceiling pushing down from above. After about 25-30 feet the passage ended. The ceiling came all the way down to the floor leaving a tiny barely discernable crack for the water to continue through. I wondered if the cave was transitioning into the St. Louis. I pushed myself backwards out of the passage with my arms. I was quite surprised that I didn’t feel the least bit claustrophobic. I checked the upstream passage a little ways just to be through and climbed back out of the pit feeling a little more chilled now than before.
We climbed back up, then back down passing the coral, and put our “vertigo” gear back on. We then climbed back up and through the slot and then went back down the two climb-downs. I ascended the rope after Justin and Nathan to take pictures at the top. We ducked back through the short crawl, climbed up, slid into the tight canyon and were soon back at the entrance . I was rather chilled and was glad when everyone had finally climbed up. I again attached my safety and free climbed up. It was a little more fun with my pack and dry box attached. I really liked the cave. It’s only 450’ long and 110’ feet deep but it’s a neat cave. The sun had gone and I was greeted by a dreary cloudy day. I was famished and not too disappointed to here the POCers wanted to call it a day and get some food. We went back over so I could take an entrance shot and also took a group picture. I would have gone caving more with Sean after eating but he didn’t want to be out that late. We had Pizza Hut for dinner. I had around 6 pieces of Veggie Lover, a salad, and a breadstick. Luckily, they had cheese sauce. Marinara sauce will never live up to Pizza Hut cheese sauce, mmm.
By Brian Killingbeck © 2005
Blue River Double Sinks Gallery
By Brian Killingbeck © 2005
