Flowing stone cave questions

[Camo Rambo]

Hey yall
I just recently made my first trip to ellisons and I heard if a cave that was on the way to the ellisons park spot. I heard it had a 225 ft entrance pit but I wanted to see if any one could confirm that and maybe the terrain to expect inside, and any vertical gear outside the norm?

[ON_ROPE]

Yes it exist. It is a long walk and hard to find. No I will not give directions or coordinates. The check in point is at the little kiosk just inside the gate on Blue Hole Road. The pit has a tight section near the top then is a free drop to a very sensitive floor. Watch where you walk. There is no additional cave passage.

[UnderGroundEarth]

Here is a picture that Kevin Bruff took of Flowing Stone:




And here is a video I did of Flowing Stone in 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o7b4dCc ... ature=plcp

It is well worth the hike...

Kelly
^V^

[rebelfirefighter]

It has special mention in the DCG Closed Cave list that should be looked at before you try and find it.

[Camo Rambo]

Thanks every one Thats great info

[dutchcontractor]

I was just there! Great pit. I thought I had some good pictures until I saw the one posted above. My pictures suck.

[skinnyp]

This is my first time posting on here and i also have a question about flowing stone cave. I know where the trail starts for flowing stone and I have walked it a "short" ways but I had a friend with me whom had a hurt knee so we didn't go very far. I am wanting to make a trip to do it but I don't always have the best luck finding what i'm looking for on my first attempt. So my question is how well is the trail flagged up the mtn and if you know where the trail starts is it still pretty hard to find. I have some cords. from the GSS but i'm also not sure how accurate they are. Would appericate any tips before I set out on the hike to find it. Thanks so much.

[Chads93GT]

When I went during the TAG fall cave in, we knew of no trail so we literally bushwacked straight up the mountain. We even managed to find a spring,which was probably the flowingstone resurgance. going straight up the mountain was actually fairly easy due to it being one giant staircase of ledges. The pit is in a large sinkhole and if your coordinates are fairly accurate, you can find it easily enough. But like I said, im an idiot and couldnt find the trail so we just did it the old fashioned way ;)

[trogman]

When I went during the TAG fall cave in, we knew of no trail so we literally bushwacked straight up the mountain. We even managed to find a spring,which was probably the flowingstone resurgance. going straight up the mountain was actually fairly easy due to it being one giant staircase of ledges. The pit is in a large sinkhole and if your coordinates are fairly accurate, you can find it easily enough. But like I said, im an idiot and couldnt find the trail so we just did it the old fashioned way ;)

LOL that reminds me of the first time my wife and I went to War Eagle. We had the coordinates, which of course were off a bit, so we parked and bushwhacked up the hill. When we finally did find it, we noticed the well-traveled trail leading to the cave. We felt like idiots, but the next time I went at least I knew where the trail was.

The trail to Flowing Stone is not quite as obvious as the one to War Eagle. I don't recall the sinkhole being that large; the entrance itself is certainly not. I think the GSS coords are pretty close to correct, so if you have that, you should be able to get there. Be careful-about 15' down from the top there is a ledge that should be padded; at least it was that way the last time I was there.

Trogman

[Chads93GT]

Well the sinkhole was maybe 30-40' across. fairly large anyway. amazingly big sinkhole actually for such a clean pit. I mean, the bottom of the pit wasnt aboulder field. I didnt' walk around much once we got there so I didn't notice a trail leading to it, but I know there is a trail there, i just dont even know where it is at.

padding that lip is a pain in the butt too because if soeone climbs up and climbs out to the surface the rope is most certain NOT to be on the pad and it can get cut. What we did was, on rappel and on climb we always had one person AT the lip, so when the person climbed up to the lip, the guy at the lip would climb to the surface and the guy who just climbed would reposition the rope when it was all said and done for the next climber, repeat till everyone was up.

[trogman]

padding that lip is a pain in the butt too because if soeone climbs up and climbs out to the surface the rope is most certain NOT to be on the pad and it can get cut. What we did was, on rappel and on climb we always had one person AT the lip, so when the person climbed up to the lip, the guy at the lip would climb to the surface and the guy who just climbed would reposition the rope when it was all said and done for the next climber, repeat till everyone was up.

I agree- good plan. My wife and I had a very scary experience in that pit, and we learned a valuable lesson about using pads. When in doubt, pad it!

Trogman

[skinnyp]

Thanks guys for the info. Hopefully I can make a trip there soon. I might even just do a day hike first to find it before I carry all that gear up the mtn and hike around all day only not to find anything. I have learned that sometimes it's better to just do a scouting trip first. We hiked around all day once trying to find byers cave for the first time. Little did we know that the mtn had been hit by a tornado and needless to say we never found it that day. Since the scci cleanup it is alot better and easy to find.

[Elliott-Hellmann]

Here is a picture that Kevin Bruff took of Flowing Stone:




And here is a video I did of Flowing Stone in 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o7b4dCc ... ature=plcp

It is well worth the hike...

Kelly
^V^

This cave looks Awesome!! Wish there was more at the bottom. Love living in TAG.

[trogman]

I am trying to remember how much of a factor the water is in this cave. It has been a long time since I have been, and I am planning a trip this weekend, but I was wondering if we would be getting totally soaked. We may want to delay this trip until drier times...I have been two or three times before, but don't recall there being much water when we went. But we have had a good bit of rain in recent days.

Info, anyone?

Trogman

[Chads93GT]

I wore just a t shirt, but take a light rain jacket to put on at the bottom as the water sprays quite a bit and if its raining it would obviously be worse. I did this pit at the cave in, and i only got water spray from splattering. trash bag would work too hehe