Doghill-Donnehue Cave System
Sigrid Gardner, Tom Duselis, Sean Lewis
The next morning we headed down to enjoy the some of the limestone capitol’s finest. We rendezvoused with Sean condensed into one vehicle and were off. I was rather disconcerted that my map of the area had disappeared so I looped around to see if anything sparked my memory. Nothing did, so we stopped back in at the parking spot and I dug through my papers again until I ran across the quad which gave me a general feel for where I wanted to be. On our second round I zeroed in on the road and we were soon at the landowner’s house. He’s a nice guy. We got all our stuff together and I turned on my GPS. It quickly died so I turned it on again and said we’d have to hurry before the battery died again. We ran to the Doghill entrance for that reason and more and just as we reached it the GPS died. I was expecting a lot of bathtubs so I stowed it in my helmet which was somewhat bothersome.
The entrance took me a bit by surprise. I wasn’t expecting such a nice, large, walking entrance. We did a lot of stoop walking early on as the passage S’d back and forth. There wasn’t anything real special about the cave yet. I did wonder if the wetsuit had been a bad idea upon entering the warm, humid cave but I figured I’d rather be slightly warm than cold the whole time and this way I could enjoy the water more. I’d informed Sigrid and Tom that the water treatment plant dumps their sediment tank into the stream that feeds Doghill the night before so we were all a little anxious about the bathtubs. It almost never fails. Either the caves are described worse than they really are, or I initially perceive the description as being worse than what it really is. Maybe, I elevate the description to what I would consider bad conditions which edges towards the extreme. As we stoop walked and crawled in I mentioned that this seemed like more crawling than the map indicated. Twice during the trip I thought about how cave maps often make the passage seem nicer than it really is. As a drafter and surveyor, I understand this because you’re proud of your cave and want it to appear as appealing to others. I’d prefer if maps accurately portrayed the amount of crawling and stooping. Maybe, it’d even be better if maps made the cave look nastier than it is. Then you’d be happily surprised that it’s nicer than you anticipated and that might also cut down on the cave’s traffic. On a side note, I just remembered that when I’m not enjoying surveying a nasty passage, it definitely gets portrayed as nasty. I wonder if there’s a correlation between the sketchers mood and the portrayal of the passage. I’ll certainly take that into consideration next time I’m putting in cave ceiling heights.
Anyway, we reached a wet crawlway that somewhat resembled what Anmar had described as the only place you would drown if the treatment plant dumped its water though I thought that it was supposed to be a bathtub. It was hands and knees and wider and taller than anticipated. It may fill all the way to the ceiling when it dumps it’s tank but if the water only rises two feet all of it wouldn’t. Upon entering, I measured and exclaimed: one foot, two feet, AIR SPACE and we all quickly crawled through the sludgy organic mud.
From here some of the time we were hiking through large borehole passage that reminded me of the area near the Block Room. From here only the highlights stand out. I recall nice canyon passage with caramel colored formations. I recall coming around corners or from under a duck-under and seeing the passage drop off and viewing a beautiful flowstone formation coming down the entire wall in front of us. The only bathtub we did encounter that couldn’t be bypassed, was about 6 feet long and was an ear dunker, cake.
My favorite part of Doghill was when we reached the dams. The passage was quickly down-cutting and the water was pooled behind many rimstone dams. It was strange because the rimstone was black. I’d never seen black rimstone before. It didn’t quite look like rimstone either. It’s possible that some of them weren’t actually rimstone dams at all but were instead a different type of rock that didn’t erode away similar to the natural bridges in Donnehue. Or maybe they received higher water flows than most dams and therefore weren’t as pitted as normal. The blackness might have been caused by the chlorine or something else the treatment plant pumped in. The smell of chlorine was very strong in this section of the cave. I wondered if it was always this way or if that meant they had dumped the tanks recently. There were many pools of water that the chlorine might be trapped in. Anyway, this section of the cave was awesome!!! The water was cascading over many dams. We’d slide down each dam not knowing how deep the water would be. A couple of the pools were neck deep. It didn’t feel like any other Indiana cave I’d ever been in. I felt like I was in TAG. I simply love cascades and following the water as it down cuts through the limestone. During the climb-ups and climb-downs I noticed that both Sigrid and Tom were climbing very well. They looked like cavers. Soon after, we were bypassing our last bathtub. I didn’t even realize we were around the last bathtub until we saw the rope leading to the Donnehue connection. I turned around and walked back to the previous bathtub to see if it was how I remembered it from this side; and it was. From here, there was a little more, tall canyon passage before we got to the next low area. There was a rope hanging down so we sent Sean up to check it out. I was almost certain that there wasn’t a high connection because we’d checked for one on the other side last time we were there but I didn’t remember if we’d checked this side. Sean had been gone long enough that my interest had peaked and I was about to climb up after him when he called back that it didn’t go. He kept talking but we really couldn’t understand what he was saying. I interpreted it as “don’t come this way.”
I remembered the next section as being low for 100 – 200 feet. I also recalled Anmar long ago saying that this section does disappear under water. Sigrid was glad that she was through the worst of the bathtubs before she even knew it, they weren’t anywhere near as bad as anticipated. However, I agreed with her that going through a 100 – 200 ft stretch of passage that could flood was more of an unnecessary risk. Anyway, I’d seen it all before so I was glad to stay behind and keep her company while Sean and Tom went on ahead. Tom explained a perfect example of the attitude I’ve grown accustomed to from male cavers in my age group. I did my best to describe what they were seeing to Sigrid after they’d gone.
I told her that the last time I went down that passage was with the POC two years ago and that I remembered it being quite impressive. After crawling through water for awhile and barely managing to keep my chest dry in spots we emerged into a large walking passage. I was glad that I’d chose to wear my wetsuit bottom. Everyone else was in polypro and was shivering before the trip was through. Behind, was a large flat area higher up that we climbed up into to snack before heading back out. As we walked down the passage I remember the canyon passage being quite tall and impressive. There were spots where the flowstone followed the wall down from ceiling to floor and many impressive examples of large formations. I also recalled a huge breakdown block that had either fallen or was suspended on the right side of the passage. Eventually, we came to a breakdown area that we traversed over into another room. Ahead, the passage dropped down and eventually pinched or sumped. I recall an impressive display of formations hanging from the ceiling on the left. Nearby the breakdown room there was a belly crawl in gravel taking off to the left. After about 20 feet of belly crawling the passage enlarged into a narrow duck-walk in water. I remember it being one of the few times I’d actually used the duck-walk technique. After 100 feet the passage height enlarged further and the water depth increased. We were now walking sometimes waste high in a narrow passage around 6 feet tall. There was one spot that we had to nearly soak ourselves to get under some sort of constriction and then the passage ceiling lowered to within inches of the water. I seem to recall roots in the ceiling. At that point in time, since everyone was in polypro and few were accustomed to low airspace we turned around. We went at least 200 feet off the map likely heading in the direction of the Donnehue Spring. I wonder if there’s a hydraulic connection at least during flood overflow between Doghill and Donnehue in that area.
Sigrid and I were glad we’d worn our wetsuits. Eventually we heard Sean and Tom coming back. I laid myself down plugging the hole they would emerge from to which they reacted by trying to startle me with a loud exclamation. It didn’t work. I quickly maneuvered out of the hole just above Sean’s emerging helmet. Climbing up the rope was about how I remembered it. The loops were too small to get your feet into and a fair amount of upper body strength was required. Looking back, for me, it’d have been easier to just chimney up. Before, we’d managed to get all the POCers up and down this spot. I think Nate and I only had to catch one of them. Today, between Sean and me we helped Sigrid up the difficult rope climb. Tom followed and Sean chimneyed and climbed up the wall which was probably easier than ascending the rope.
We continued through Berg’s squeeze. Sigrid had stowed her Nalgene in my pack and had insisted on helping carry it. I was impressed how well she was coming through the squeezes with the pack. The first time we went through them I remember that Nate and I were surprised that what we’d just gone through was Berg’s squeeze because the guidebook made it sound tight though I can certainly see how this description depends on the person writing it. Anyway, we were soon crossing over the drainage divide. It was strange to be walking through what looked like a stream passage since we were in an upper level. Tromping through suck mud, Tom must have stepped on the drain and it begin draining water. Neither Sean or I had ever heard anything quite like it in a cave. It was neat!
We were soon looking down the crevice far below into the Donnehue side. I mentioned that during my photo trip, I’d chimneyed down that to save time and Kyle provided a foothold at the bottom when it belled out. From here I had already determined that I would have Sigrid and Tom lead because anyway we went we would eventually find our way out and given passage proportions, it was more likely that they’d take us down a route I hadn’t seen before. Sigrid went exactly where planned and I was soon in unknown territory. It’s so amazing that an upper level passage can be this big, such an old cave. We started out walking and were soon crawling. We encountered an unexpected and ornate formation room and there were a few spots where I had the others come over to look up at very nice flowstone and formations displays.
Sigrid tag teamed the lead to Tom and he led us through the crawl. We paused to check out a dome and I was so glad that without hesitating Tom led us ahead through sloppy, slimy belly crawl. He soon encountered a hole in the floor that I crawled up to check out. It wasn’t where we wanted to be and looked to slimy to climb down. I had begun to climb down when I determined this and positioned myself to spot the others as they traversed around the ledge. Tom went down the next drop off, he climbed down very gracefully. I sent him ahead to see what lied ahead and called Sean and Sigrid down as soon as he heard water. We were near the culvert entrance; we headed downstream. I couldn’t help but think picture #1, picture #2, etc as we headed down the passage. It was kind of strange to see the “Strange Place to Meet a Friend” photo spot. I really liked the backlighting in that picture and the passage texture. It’ll eventually go on my wall with other excellent photos though it elicits mixed feelings so we’ll see if it stays there. Onward. I pointed out the crack leading up to the upper level when we came upon it and how you recognize that you’re there by looking at the hammer shaped limestone block mentioned in the guidebook. Sean wanted one of us to slide down the flowstone into the water. It was only 2 feet deep but I did my best to enjoy the water anyway.
From there I pointed out the upper level connection still spotting each place I took a picture. Sean pointed out the formation identified on the map that helped him figure out where it was. We were soon in the natural bridge passage going over and under bridges. Tom and Sean went up and over every chance they got. We arrived at the flowstone constriction and Sean pointed out that some asshole had scrawled on the flowstone with a rock; jackass! I was once again in new territory. This wasn’t much of a bathtub at all. I could likely get through it keeping my chest dry. It reminded me of a spot in Toliver Hollow in high water. Once again I mainly remember the highlights. We did do some crawling but I recall coming out into a large tall room that might be shaped kind of like a widened cartoon rocket. This section of the cave was pretty cool. In another spot we saw many bats roosting. My favorite area was a walking elliptical tube that brought us back down into the water. I wondered if it formed totally underwater. As we neared the end, crawlways and stream were popping into the main passage left and right. Thinking back, I’d like to explore them. There was a spot that dropped us back into water. Tom said it was deeper to right so I went that way in hope of water over my head that I could swim through. No such luck. There was another larger room nearby with many bats roosting. The passage was mostly walking towards the end. Sean let out an exclamation of disgust when he saw light. I picked the nearest pool and floated on my back to clean off and enjoy the cold water running top to bottom through my wetsuit. I was again surprised how large and nice the cave exit was. It would have been a gorgeous site from below. The rather large walking passage emerged high up on the hill above the river. From here the water cascaded down to the river. I wouldn’t quite call it a bluff because when I picture a bluff I picture a vertical drop off.
I was dismayed that my GPS wasn’t getting better than 185 ft accuracy. After the bathtubs it had been transferred to my coverall pocket. I needed points on both the Doghill and Donnehue entrance but wasn’t able to get them. I’ll have to stop by later. The Donnehue entrance is quite near the road.
Anyway, we hiked back to the parking spot. We enjoyed the beautiful day and I waved at every passing car, “Always wave,” as we walked through the residential neighborhood in full caving garb; though, we held our helmets to our side. Sigrid let me ride in her passenger seat still in full gear and we both drove back to change and get my car. After we changed, we walked up to thank the owner. She was very nice and asked us if we knew about the cave behind her house. I love it when landowners say that. Sure enough, the spring feeding Doghill was directly behind her house. It was definitely a cave but since it was heading upstream I doubt if it gets bigger. I’ll certainly be checking for it in the database. As we walked back to the car, I told Sigrid that I wanted a spring like that right behind my house too. I went on to tell her about how I’d been keeping an eye out for caves to transplant into my backyard, which is likely a job for the Incredibles. Prior Cave Spring is high on that list ;)
As he waited Sean was reminded of another time he’d been waiting on me in the cold which was a good example that’s its always best to take responsibility for every situation yourself (aimed towards me, not Sean) to make sure people don’t get left waiting in the cold. “THE TOWEL IS DIRTY, <crackle> I REPEAT <static> THE TOWEL IS DIRTY.” LOL.
By Brian Killingbeck © 2005
