On August 6 three cavers entered Cascade Sink to continue the survey of the
cave into new territory. The regular crew were unavailable so Jordan
Ogletree and Michael “Mowgli” Swartz were recruited, joining Marvin Miller
for the trip. As has become tradition, the little rattlesnake (Crotalus
atrox) was coiled on its ledge close to the bottom. Cavers and snake
avoided each other and the cavers went on into the cave. Travel time to the
end of survey was timed at about an hour. At Station D43, set on the wall
of a narrow fissure, a wider portion at the base of the fissure presented a
hole to drop down into a pool of water. Once there, passage could be seen
heading back towards known cave and also in the direction of the unknown.
There was some knowledge of the unknown, however. In 1975 caver Randy
Waters had explored these areas beyond the end of the published map and had
discovered going passage. He had sketched out his discovery with intriguing
notations to large rimstone dams, unexplored pits, and a final 51’ drop
into a large terminal room. The current team’s immediate goal was to find
that passage.
Marvin had an idea, based on climbing down into the water passage on the
previous trip, as to where to find the mystery passage. He headed
downstream in the deeper water, ducking under low-hanging stalactites to
stay close to the left wall, where the sketch showed the passage exiting.
In less than 10 meters water met walls and ceiling and there was no way on.
Disappointed, he turned toward the right wall which lay at the far side of
a broad shelf that broached the water’s surface. There was enough space to
move along the shelf on his belly, but barely. His wetsuit material
dragging over the rough texture of the rock did not make it easier. The
shelf could be seen to extend ahead in the passage and it looked like the
floor might drop a bit after 2 or 3 meters. Marvin and Mowgli discussed
options and decided the only thing to do was to survey the going passage,
even if it didn’t go where they wanted it to.
They headed back to D43 to prepare and then Mowgli took point position,
setting stations, while Jordan took measurements with the DistoX2. The new
stations used the designator “E”. After station E3, midway along the shelf,
Mowgli ran into a problem. A fracture in the ceiling had allowed some
formation growth and it was enough to prevent him from pushing through.
Jordan, being thinner, found another way around and got to the far side of
the tight spot. He discovered that the shelf ended there and dropped into a
shallow rimstone pool. The current water level overtopped the pool and left
about 20 cm of airspace, with lots of formations to dodge. Jordan had the
foresight to bring a hammer with him in his pack and this was provided to
Mowgli. Jordan also noted that to one side of a column, between the column
and the right wall, it appeared that the space was slightly taller. Mowgli
went to work with the hammer while Jordan explored ahead a little. He soon
made everyone happy by reporting that he had found a passage going out of
the water. This gave Mowgli greater determination to make it through and he
soon did. After this they shot E3 to E4, E4 to E5, and then E5 to E6, out
of the water.
In 3 meters from E6 the passage doubled back on itself and became a fissure
with the floor commonly in the water of a low, wide, water-filled portion.
There was not much mud present, but at E11, on the forward-facing slope of
a large piece of breakdown, Mowgli found a message from the past written on
a large patch of mud. The message clearly says “Randy Waters Dec. 75” and
above Randy’s name is the name “Doug”. 46 and a half years later the team
was sharing in their discovery. From E11 the passage went down a slight
slope into a pool of water and turned to the left, becoming suddenly much
larger. Small lily pads adorned the edge of the pool and from the pool the
water went trickling through an area of small rimstones to fall over a
meter-high drop into a nice, round, pot of a pool and then to the floor.
The ceiling here soared up into a tall rift along its center. A slight
duck-under led into the next room, bedrock floor and devoid of water or
formations. From there the passage turned again to the northeast and in 10
meters came to a 4-meter down-climb into a shallow pool, with a large
collection of stalagmites hanging above.
It was decided at that point to put the survey on hold and scoop ahead to
find the rumored 51’ drop into the final room. It would be advantageous to
know if vertical gear and a rope would be required on the next trip, and it
was thought that the drop was a good distance ahead. While Marvin was
finishing up the sketch, Mowgli reconnoitered ahead and much sooner than
expected was back to say that the pit was not far at all. With sketching
done the team went to investigate. There were two holes that dropped into a
void below. A light shown down revealed a running stream far down on the
floor of what l
