Redman Cave

Redman Cave

Spike Selig, Jerry Litaker, Mark Kraus, Mark Hermending, Sean Lewis, David Strickland, Dave Black, Nate Newkirk, Anmar Mirza, Mark Deebel, Scott Fee, Dave Everton, Rob Serbent, Ryan Moran, Burnis Piper, Dave Tibbets, Justin Drake, Chuck Cummings

July 21, 2002

Today Spike Selig, Jerry Litaker, Mark Kraus, Mark Hermending, Sean Lewis, David Strickland, Nate Newkirk, and I met on the property to check out the cave. Spike had arranged for Dave and Mark H. to scuba dive the sumped cave entrance. The divers hadn’t been gone long when they reemerged and told us that the cave opened up into walking passage. Mark K. got his dive gear ready and the three of them did a scoop trip to see what we were dealing with. The rest of us were really excited. Eventually, one of the landowner’s relations discovered that a nearby hole was blowing air. I confirmed that it was major air. Nate, Sean, and I began digging. The divers came back out of the cave and reported monstrous passage that still continued after about half a mile. Nate and I continued digging until reaching a constriction that neither of us wanted to squeeze through.

July 27, 2002

Mark, Dave Black, Dave S., Nate, Anmar Mirza, and Mark Deebel met to begin the first survey and investigate blasting a new entrance. I was on vacation in Montana dying to find out how the trip had gone. Mark, Dave, Dave, and Nate dove the sump and surveyed 1127.7 feet of borehole. Rather than blasting the sump, the group decided to dig on the crawlway. Anmar took care of the constriction that had halted Nate and me before and Spike worked on digging. The survey team scheduled another survey the weekend during Capers, two weeks away. This gave the rest of us one weekend to open a new entrance. Otherwise, most of the project members would be left out of the survey.

August 3, 2002

Anmar, Nate, and I came to Redman determined to get in. Nate and I took turns squeezing through the crawlway and removing large bags of dirt. After awhile we decided to try to blast a turnaround. Everything was setup, Boom! Nate noticed fumes were emitting rocks left of the entrance. After the fumes cleared we began clearing the debris. It sounded like the person in the crawlway was very near the outside wall. To promote the dig we blew the wall out. It was rather exciting. After clearing the new entrance, it didn’t take Nate long to tell us “It gets huge.” Huge turned out to be 2 feet high and 10 feet wide which was welcome news. We entered a crawling room full of coon crap and followed the air down a tube. The second dig began at the end of the tube. Finally, the hole was large enough to slide through. We emerged in another crawling passage which was quickly enlarging. We saw a hole ahead and were soon yelling in excitement into big borehole. The connection was named the Hell Yeah Connection based upon that breakthrough. After dinner, the three of us scooped all of the walking passage. The cave was huge containing massive breakdown rooms and big river passage. Near the end, the passage was shaped in a canyon with a deep water floor. It was amusing hearing Nate yelp as he learned how deep the water was. I tried to chimney across and ended up plunging into the deep water. Late that night, I called Mark to share our victory.

August 4, 2002

Today Nate and I dug a large trench and ledge making the drop into the main passage possible without vertical gear. We could now slide down a big rock. I tired of digging that day though it was fun watching huge chunks of mud splash land into the borehole. Nate loves digging.

August 9, 2002

Nate and Ryan Moran completed the drop-down dig and scooped a crawlway that was supposedly 1000 feet. Dave Tibbets, Gary Maloney, and Mark K. were kind enough to survey the entrance crawl. A rope ladder was rigged.

August 10, 2002

Today I was joined by Mark K. Rob Serbent, Nate, and Sean. Our task was to survey the neglected side leads and continue on with the borehole. The first lead was a dry upper level passage which crossed and reconnected with the main passage. Crossover Crawl began as a crawlway and turned into walking passage towards the end. We didn’t make it to the borehole, but we managed to survey some of the “1000 foot crawl.” Mark decided to call it London Bridges because a mud bridge fell as we entered the crawl. This trip yielded 841.4 feet. Nate enlarged the second dig making it much easier to exit the cave. During the survey, we thought we heard some sort of animal barking.

August 11, 2002

Sean, Nate, Mark, and I finished up the London Bridges which yielded 422 feet. We were treated to 264 feet of borehole before encountering the next side lead. We stopped surveying just as the lead enlarged to 20 feet wide. This passage appears to completely flood.

August 23, 2002

The owner was going to visit the cave on Saturday so I spent a couple hours enlarging the entrance crawl for easy access; Mark and I also brought a ladder through the sump to replace the rope ladder.

August 24, 2002

We had two teams surveying today. Nate led the owner and his relations on a fun trip. After investigating the crawlway we'd been working on before, we decided one team could handle it since it was low and nasty. A team composed of Rob, Sean, me and later Nate started in the borehole and surveyed for 7 hours. The team became very familiar with breakdown since the breakdown rooms began after only a few stations. The largest of the rooms measured nearly 50 feet across and 25 feet high. Our team pulled in 1,176 feet before calling it a day. The gate was installed by Mark D. before we came out. Mark & Burnis thankfully surveyed the side crawl. They were gone much longer then I expected since I expected it to end quickly. But after a couple hundred feet of very low, wide, cobbly passage they were rewarded with 200 feet of walking canyon passage. They surveyed 497 feet. The crawlway was named the Promised Land because Mark had promised Burnis borehole.

August 25, 2002

Mark and I weren’t joined by any more surveyors so we went back and mopped up two leads in the Promised Land and attained a whopping 35 feet.

September 7, 2002

We had two teams again this weekend. My team consisted of Rob, and Sean. We finished up the borehole and met up with Mark K. Scott, Mitch, and Ian. They were cold after surveying the Formation Loop and the beginning of Deep Blue Sea so they left the cave. My team knocked off another side lead, the Endowment Passage. The beginning of the passage had very good air movement, but it didn’t end up going anywhere. There were many pretty formations. We mopped up a little that the other team had left for us and then surveyed an upper level crawlway. It is named for the crystals on the floor. Scott thought the beginning of the cave has bad air because he was abnormally winded. The rest of this had felt these affects but attributed them to trudging through water and suck mud in wetsuits. We broke the one mile mark today, the cave was 6,100 feet.

September 8, 2002

Mark, Sean, and I surveyed Deep Blue Sea to the end of the cave while Ian and Mitch scouted ahead. Everyone enjoyed swimming through deep blue sea, lol. One side lead was left and the end of the cave was blowing good air. I only felt the air and didn’t look into the passage; big mistake. Chuck Cummings and Justin Drake joined us but the last lead wasn’t a good spot for them to learn to survey. I visited the formation loop on the way out and was impressed by the large columns.

October 5, 2002

Nate and I went to the back of the cave to dig. As soon as I looked in the hole I realized it was a hopeless dig. Always check out leads yourself. I dug on London Bridges with Nate and we uncovered 25 more feet of belly crawl. Sean helped Dave Everton take pictures. They turned out pretty good for his first photo trip. Nate encountered a foot long catfish on his way out.

October 6, 2002

Mark, Nate, and I surveyed the last 202 feet near Deep Blue Sea. We found an upper level passage that comes within 85 feet of the Endowment Passage, and we surveyed a jagged canyon passage name the Temple of Doom. It opened up into a decent room at the end. The cave was now finished and taped in at 6,304 feet.

Redman cave was quite a find. We’ll lucky that Spike rediscovered it. All of us enjoyed surveying in such a large cave. It’s not everyday you get to survey borehole this big. Unfortunately, the cave was not virgin. There were historical signatures including an ancient NSS number. The cave contained a lot of wildlife: ducks, raccoons, muskrats, cave salamanders, isopods, blindfish, cave crayfish, crayfish, bluegill, catfish, and a few bats. I was rather disappointed the cave ended; it had the potential for another mile. I guess it’s time to find a new big cave. I’d like to thank everyone who contributed to the project. It’s quite an accomplishment surveying 1.2 miles in about 2.5 months. The owner does not want people visiting his cave so Redman Cave is now closed and gated.

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