Great story Steve. Thats a long way to crawl. I dont know about the sulfur
crawl, but I wish I would have been there with you. These memories would make
almost anything else easy. How did the sketch look? Did the notes stay clean?
Caveman Mark Gee
On Thursday, March 13, 2014 12:07 AM, John Corcoran
<john_j_corcoran_...@msn.com> wrote:
Mark,
Getting out wasn't too bad, once I realized I had to take off the web belt
to get through the bottom tight spot. Was pretty chilled by the time we got
to the surface, but had bright sunshine that day...
Regards,
John
-----Original Message-----
From: swr-boun...@caver.net [mailto:swr-boun...@caver.net] On Behalf Of Mark
Minton
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2014 9:10 PM
To: s...@caver.net
Subject: Re: [SWR] A New Thread: Crawlways
John,
That's a harrowing story! I can't think of having been in such a
desperate situation myself. Getting back out must have been interesting.
Glad you survived!
Mark
At 07:21 PM 3/12/2014, John Corcoran wrote:
>Mark,
>
>Your Deer Spring Cave crawl reminds me of a trip in the 1960s to the
>caves on Cave Creek in the Pecos Wilderness in New Mexico. Alan Hill,
>Carol Hill, and I had heard about these caves and knew it would be a
>beautiful hike (cave's entrances were around 9,500 feet in elevation
>as I recall) so decided to check things out. The first thing we
>spotted was an apparent resurgence in the creek bed and then up-canyon
>found the entrance to the first cave. About 1/3 of the water flowing
>down the creek (fed by snowfields higher up in the wilderness -brrr!)
>went into this entrance which is about 3-4 feet in diameter. Alan
>Hill, being an experienced wet caver of Mammoth/Flint Ridge fame, said
>he had seen two other entrances just like this back east and both led
>to caves with over ten miles of passage, so he immediately got his cave
>gear together (including coveralls on top of three pairs of thermal
>underwear) and entered the cave. Carol told me not to let Alan get too
>far ahead or go alone, so I got my gear together (coveralls, one pair
>of thermal underwear (not as prepared as was Alan!), and a
>military-style web belt with a pouch on each side to carry water and
>other
>supplies) and entered the crawl. The cave descends through a series of
>small waterfalls at constrictions along the passage - a series of stair
>steps with successively tighter pinches as you go downhill. I did not
>see Alan, so I hurried headfirst through the loud descent. I could see
>a faint light shining on the surface of a pool at the bottom of the
>last little waterfall In came to and, not sure I could turn around to
>go feet first, stuck my arms and torso through the small opening and
>tried to touch the floor of the pool. However, the water was deeper
>than I thought, so I tried to back out and could not do so since I had
>nothing to push against. Then I tried to finish going through the
>opening and jammed in the tight spot thanks to the canteen pouches at
>my waist. I could not reach my hands past my body to undo the belt and
>while struggling, noticed that I had almost cut off the whole stream
>flow with my body and could feel the water backing up above me. The
>water rose above my feet, and started flowing down inside my coveralls
>and exiting at the neck right into my face like a fire hose, making it
>difficult to breath and impossible to shout for help from Alan who was
>at the end of the long, narrow room trying to dig out some logs from
>the next constriction. Just when I thought my number was up, the water
>pressure became high enough behind me to tear one of the pouches off the
web belt and I plunged down into the pool and up to my elbows in soft
sediment.
>Immediately surfacing to get a breath, I saw a big wave moving away
>from me at roof level right towards Alan. When the wave reached the
>other end of the room, I felt a big concussion and then the wave
>bounced back at me and oscillated once more. I thought for sure I had
>injured or killed Alan since I could not see him at all during the
>commotion, but when I started forward to try to find him, his head
>popped up out of the water with a big grin on his face!
>
>Regards,
>
>John
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: swr-boun...@caver.net [mailto:swr-boun...@caver.net] On Behalf Of
>Mark Minton
>Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2014 3:56 PM
>To: s...@caver.net
>Subject: Re: [SWR] A New Thread: Crawlways
>
> Bill Tozer's post reminded me of an experience in Deer Spring
>Cave in Nevada. It has a rapidly flowing stream in passage that
>alternates between walking along the strike and crawls going updip. One
>of those crawls was body tight in 46-degree water. One couldn't remain
>in one place for long without backing up the water.
>To avoid drowning you had to move forward a body length or so and then
>squeeze to one side to let the accumulated water rush past.
>There was the added complication of occasional cobbles that had to
>loosed up and tossed to the side to allow passage. I've been in lots of
>low, water-filled crawls where you had to move gently to avoid sending
>a wave over your face, but that was the only one where you couldn't go too
slowly.
>
>Mark
>
>At 03:16 PM 3/12/2014, wto...@aol.com wrote:
> >All:
> >
> >I've also been through the gun barrel in Knox Cave, NY. As Dwight
> >mentioned it is tight and some crawling(?) on your side
> >required. Interesting how some crawls get reputations. Another
> >infamous crawl is the Blue Crawl in Tumbling Rock Cave, AL, not far
> >from the NSS convention site. Of course there is a walking bypass to
> >the crawl.
> >
> >I might add a crawl in water. I scrapped the ceiling with my back as
> >I pushed the sand/gravel floor aside. There is only 2 inches of
> >water, but it backs up when plugged with bodies. Don't drop you head
> >as you will drown. No sleeping in this crawl. Riverside Cave, Indiana.
> >
> >Bill Tozer
Please reply to mmin...@caver.net
Permanent email address is mmin...@illinoisalumni.org
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