The original explorers (Sul Ross Speleological Society, 1962) often referred to that as the "putrid pool." It was waist-deep at the time and hitherto undisturbed. Their presence released large bubbles of ammonia and methane (?) and the whole experience was nearly overpowering. Those conditions surely do give that area a lofty position in the ranking of "worst guano experiences" and Vivian's personal episode of spending the night encrusted in frozen bat poop must would easily surpass more recent tortures such as "water-boarding."
===Carl Kunath ----- Original Message ----- From: vivb...@att.net To: Texascavers Mailing List Sent: Friday, December 05, 2008 9:32 AM Subject: Re: [Texascavers] guano question David wrote: >I am just curious which cave passages have you experienced your worst encounter with bat guano. The Vampire guano in Japones Cave in Mexico was pretty bad. Really deep red and sticky-slimy gooey. And the vampires were in a complete frenzy filling the passage and stirring up the choking smell. But we only had to walk ankle deep in it. It didn't even top my boots and wet my socks. Then I thought I had experienced the worst the time I plunged one leg into a 2' diameter pothole full of semi-liquid quano in Borneo. Those potholes were everywhere so we really had to watch it. But even then, only one leg was completely saturated with the stuff, and I was able to wash off in the river that night. But the true pinnacle of guano came the time George Veni took us to Sorcerer's cave here in Texas. It was the Boil-Boil-Guano-and-Trouble passage. This is a full on lake of pudding-consistency guano with a frosting of insect casings and dead bats. It's actually a series of these lakes. Apparently some of the original explorers wore hip waders (a rally good idea), but George swore he could cross the lakes without getting his balls wet, and it wouldn't be that bad. But then, no one had been there is some time, and the guano dam on the far side had grown. It was at least waist deep for everyone, that is if you could maintain your perch on invisible ledges deep in the pools. Once on the far side, it was decided to take out the guano dam (something like a rimstone dam, but all pure guano)to lower the lakes to their previous levels. I thought the amonia and methane would kill us all for a minute there, but eventually the air did clear somewhat, and we all made it to our objectives. At the bottom of the cave is a really nice stream passage, so we could get nice and clean down there. But the trouble was you have to exit the cave through the guano lakes. On my way out of the cave, I was the lucky one who actually did fall full on into the over-my-head shit. I managed to barely keep my lips above guano, but my hair was saturated. It was freezing cold outside and we were in a 100% dry camp, so when I stumbled out of the cave in the wee hours, I just washed my hands and face as best I could with a nalgene of water and crawled in my sleeping bag. I was pleased to learn that the climb I did the next day did not require traversing the dreaded cesspool. Poo-falls? Shitslide? guanoflow? --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.9.14/1832 - Release Date: 12/5/2008 9:57 AM
