Aaron Atz, Nate Newkirk, Sean Lewis
I picked Sean up and we headed down south. A Walmart run set us 10 minutes back due to some jack-ass buying 19 items in the 10 item line and the cashier trying to charge me for 8 watermelons instead of 8 kiwi. Record breaking speeds brought us to Cold Friday only 5 minutes late. If only Sean hadn’t looked at the Speedometer when we were descending along my favorite passing spot I’m sure he wouldn’t have guessed we’d broken into the triple digits because it certainly didn’t feel that fast descending the steep hill on a long straightaway. I enjoy that route way too much J
We met Aaron, Nate, and Nick at the DNR office next to Cold Friday Hollow Road. About 20 minutes later I was leading the way to the Ted’s dig parking spot. Once ejected from our vehicles, we soon geared up and routed to the entrance of Ted’s dig. I’d forgotten a few of my identifying markers along the trail.
From the parking pass the first cemetery, climb a
hill, turn right onto Trail 2, your first right, follow that past the spring,
down a hill, across two ravines and start watching for the cave on your right
across the dry bed. As it always does in the warm summer air, the entrance blew
rustling the nearby vegetation. I would soon have to reacclimatize to 50 degree
caving.
Nate had a surprisingly small amount of gear for the climb so I for some reason I decided to bring the full arsenal of photo gear encased in two dry boxes. I packed my vertical gear, dry boxes, Nalgene, and Nate’s rope into my bat pack nearly stuffing it to the brim. The bulk of my pack exceeded Nate’s and I think they were comparable in weight! I followed Nick into the cave and stuff my bat pack through the squeeze closely following it with my face since I always do the squeeze face first for the fun of it. Nick didn’t have any trouble fitting through which was surprising since he’s a big guy.
We continued into the cave passing packs past down climbs and through tight or awkward sections of passage. The monster pack wasn’t really too annoying on the way in. I was waiting for a really tight section of passage that on a previous trip elicited an “I hate you” by sliding right through it. I couldn’t remember if I’d slid my belly through or my quads. I should have known I’d slid my quads because that’s my normal maneuver. Instead, I first said belly. I watched Sean surely compress and jostle his internal organs a bit as he slid his belly through commenting to me how much it hurt while maintaining a grin.
When we reached the fork to heaven we ditched our
packs and galloped up the climbs into heaven. It’s too bad there wasn’t more
water because this section of cave would be absolutely spectacular during high
water. I sense a future photo trip. Anyway, heaven was much like I remembered
it. We slid and crawled among many pretty formations over to the room on the
far side of heaven, circled back, and rendezvoused back with our packs.
We crawled around the edge of the 40’ pit which would be another awesome spot to be during high water because almost the whole passage would dump water into this pit. I was enjoying the cave more this time than my previous visit. The pit reminded me a bit Big Rock Swallowhole. Past the pit we climbed up into a room and geared up for the traverse. I’d forgotten vertical gear was actually a requirement for this trip though I would do the traverse without V-Gear if I hadn’t had a monster pack attached to me. I rigged Sean a diaper sling harness and let him borrow one of my ascenders and some rope. I traversed along the sloping dirt slope above another pit and got into position to photograph Nate as he came across. Those photos came out pretty good.
Just ahead we carefully descended a steep mud slope and caught our first glimpse of the climb, a tall waterfall of flowstone above a massive flowstone stalagmite. I set up some strobes as Nate and Sean prepared for the climb. I then spent quite some time photographing the climb. First Sean free climbed up about 20 – 25 feet and set a rope. Nate double and triple checked that Sean thought his rigging was good and then Nate ascended to Sean. From there I’m sure a few hmms and ahs were involved while they further climbed and investigated. Eventually, they determined that the lead didn’t go and retreated back to the floor.
On our way out Aaron showed us to the M survey and Nate, Aaron, and I climbed the rope and toured the first couple hundred feet of the M survey. The upper level paleo tube was pretty neat. We encountered a pit that led down to a crevice which filtered water to a neat pothole canyon that we’d just checked out. We crossed over the pit and the passage became dry. I remember really likig the texture of the ceiling and noticing that the walls were very banded in places. There were also some calcite decorations here and there along the walls. We turned around as the passage began to lower and rappelled back out of the M Survey.
After that we routed out of the cave. Both Nate and I were sure that our packs had gotten heavier. We wrestled with them the rest of the trip until we re-emerged into the daylight and became horse fly bait. We drove back to the beginning of Cold Friday Hollow and ate at the restaurant there which was extremely slow. About 1 hr and 45 minutes later we were following Aaron as he showed us the entrance to Manhole Cave and arranged our access to Penny Pit.
Ted's Dig
Nate drags his heavy pack along the steep, narrow traverse.
Nate drags his heavy pack along the steep, narrow traverse.
Ted's Dig
Nate drags his heavy pack along the steep, narrow traverse.
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Ted's Dig
Nate descends a steep, muddy climb down.
Steep, muddy climb down. Not a problem when your name is Nate Newkirk.
Ted's Dig
Sean free climbs up toward the lead.
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Ted's Dig
Sean free climbs up toward the lead.
Sean free climbs up toward the lead.
Ted's Dig
The team patiently waits below.
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Ted's Dig
Sean rigs a rope so Nate can climb up.
Sean looks down from the top of the climb down.
Ted's Dig
Sean looks down from the top of the climb down - cropped.
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Ted's Dig
What lies above?
Sean finally convinced Nate that the rope was properly rigged.
Ted's Dig
This cave is naturally a nasty orange color. Go Photoshop Go!
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Ted's Dig
Aaron poses below one of Indiana's largest formations.
Coming down!
Ted's Dig
Wow! Did I climb all the way up there.
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Ted's Dig
You better believe I climbed up there! I'm Nate Newkirk! :)
Looks tough doesn't it.
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