Clicks, in IN, March 12th

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Clicks, in IN, March 12th

Postby self-deleted_user » Mar 6, 2011 6:48 pm

Heyyyy
So I posted on sjvg fb page and group and so far no dice...
...it is 8 hrs for me to get to just the meeting point Saturday morning. I cannot drive 16 hrs one day with caving in between on my own. Not only is it not economical, but I have never driven 8 hrs in one shot before and I get really sleepy after 6 hrs of driving and that's not when I was already up uber early and with caving in the middle.

Is there *anyone* in kindasorta area/on the way (like northern IN or northwest Ohio) that would want to go and carpool for part the way with me and be cool with me sleeeeeping part the way? It'd be an easy 20 hr day with me driving on my own, I figure, maybe even a 24 hr day (I assume it is about 3-4 hrs of caving? I guess I could be wrong). Which I cannot do without some sleep *somewhere* Well not to mention that would be a good $130 or so in gas for me to go on my own. Which, at that point, I may as well save my money and throw in another $20 and do a long weekend and 3-4 caves in TAG. (Seriously, this is what I keep running into, faster and cheaper to fly to TAG :/ )

Edit: oh yay woo beth is being awesome and sharing a ride with me from Elkhart :D woot woot! I get to cave this weekend! *happy dance* and yeah my happy dance looks like :bananabat:
Last edited by self-deleted_user on Mar 13, 2011 8:10 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Clicks, March 12th...need rideshare...

Postby David Grimes » Mar 6, 2011 7:26 pm

Just a suggestion, you may want to specify what state and county you are headed to. I would assume you mean Clicks cave in Washington county Indiana but I may be wrong. I would also recommend you get in touch with some cavers from the area, there are plenty, and see about maybe staying the night somewhere and maybe even do some more caves while you are in the area. There are tons of great caves in Indiana and I am sure you could find a place to stay for one night. You might even try to find a ride share by contacting other grottos along the route using the grotto email network (usually yahoo groups). Good luck and have fun. :cavingrocks:
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Re: Clicks, in IN, March 12th...need rideshare...

Postby self-deleted_user » Mar 6, 2011 7:36 pm

Indeed, as I said I have posted stuff on fb and also yahoo groups.

Just there isn't anything so far.

I guess I have grandparents in West Lafayette I could stop off at. But it still means me eating the cost, which I can't do that all on my own right now.

LOL my current idea if I don't get a reply in the next day or two is to see if my mom wants to visit her parents in WL and see if we can split the cost, drive there on Friday and then I just get up early for the rest of the way on Sat morning and we could come back home Sunday.
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Re: Clicks, in IN, March 12th

Postby self-deleted_user » Mar 13, 2011 8:46 pm

Well I figure I may as well post some sort of Amystyle trip report, eh? Ok also I just have some cool photos I want an excuse to post :woohoo: This was a St Joseph Valley Grotto trip :)

So Friday afternoon I left to drive the 3.5 hrs to Beth's place in northern Indiana where Jason and Rebecca and John met up with us and the five of us piled into her car and headed down to southern Indiana. It was about a 5 hr drive to...people's place where apparently lots of folks crash overnight for caving the next day I really don't remember their names and I'm not sure I met them, it was after midnight I was exhauseted and I swear there wre 20 people there (I'm sure there wasn't that many, it just felt like a whirlwind of activity to walk into being exhausted). I only got names of like, 2 people, the whole trip and I know there were 13 of us at Click's, lol. So I only knew names of 7 folks of out 13, and there were others at the house not on the trip. Got up in the morning and went to a restraunt (another almost hour away) for the meetup with others coming in then headed out to the cave!

On the drive to the restraunt though, we stopped at this cemetery to take photos...warning for future generations: that new lead? watch out for caskets...lovely sinkhole in the middle of it, heh.
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Once at the cave, we decided to get some pre-caving experience for our group that had driven so far...
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Ahh in the cave now, woot! The first bridge crossing...I guess someone brought in new board...the next 5 crossings were just the 2 steel bars - frames from Model T, I was told (iirc, maybe it was a different model, heh). Made interesting crossings, I did the stradle and scoot method once, but then opted for the faster just crawl across and use your balance method :P Assuming I remember what I was told right, it was a show cave ages ago (late 1800's to mid-1900's??? something like that) so the bridges are leftover from that, of course, wood long since rotted away but the metal beams still in place! If all rusty and slightly creepy and sometimes wobbly, ha!
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There really weren't many formations in the upper level going back into the cave. I'm guessing, since some areas seemed like there were some, they were just long since taken/destroyed. But there was an area with a few, and lots of widdle soda straws, and the ceiling was this cool honeycomb like texture thing...anyone know what that's called/how it forms? It's really neat!
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I should've taken more photos of the other (harder) "bridges" but I guess I just crossed them fast and sat chatting waiting for the rest of the group to cross, and was distracted to take photos! heh. Anyway so here we get to where you climb down into the river, woo! It's a funk angle, looking about 12 ft down and I dunno how many feet out, maybe 20, and it's at like a 45 deg tilt too. But it's pretty.
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A straighter image of it, from after I climbed down, hehe
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Headed to the back of the cave...pack on Jason's head so it wouldn't get soaked at the deep bit, haha. (Personally, I went for the "screw this, it's up to my nose, I'm just gonna swim!" method) shaky photo I know, but i love the light reflection in the water and the sense of movement it gives :) I kinda like dark cave photos better...this is how I see it when I'm there anyway :)
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There are, however, neat formations in this lower part of the cave. I guess they didn't make their visitors swim for the cave tours, hahaha! In fact, going back upstream (we stayed in the river back up to the entrance) there was a part of it where there were sooooo many small helictites along a good long portion of one of the walls that I didn't dare try to use the wall for stabilization in the river for fear of breaking them. I've never seen so many before 0.o and certainly never so many in one place. It got to be slightly creepy, like some sort of horror movie worm attack!
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So yeah, wooo I got to go underground!!! It still sucks that I was basically in the car for 9 hours on Friday night, then 6 hrs Saturday and the rest 3.5 home today. But it's what I have to do...maybe I'm a little crazy though, lol. It still makes just flying to Atlanta for getting to TAG for the weekend enticing...a 1.5 hr flight then 20 min train airport to my friend's apartment, 2 hr drive or so to the NW corner of GA...lot less time! lol.But carpooling for SJVG trips does keep it *slightly* cheaper to do those instead (by only like $50, though, lol).
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Re: Clicks, in IN, March 12th

Postby JR-Orion » Mar 14, 2011 12:36 pm

Looks like a good time.

Nice photos, too.

:)
Letting the days go by / water flowing underground
Into the blue again / in the silent water
Under the rocks and stones / there is water underground.
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Re: Clicks, in IN, March 12th

Postby wyandottecaver » Mar 14, 2011 8:28 pm

We almost met Amy :) I was planning to show but had vehicle trouble. I was wondering about the water and it looks like it was definately up some. Yes, the cave was commercialized previously and those were Model T frames. I generally just drop to the stream rather than cross most :)

Did you guys reach the "lake" in back created by the Mill dam? Also, did you guys visit the Mill? (right down the road) its really awesome! (alias for cave name is Beck's Mill as it is technically another entrance...just underwater!)
I'm not scared of the dark, it's the things IN the dark that make me nervous. :)
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Re: Clicks, in IN, March 12th

Postby self-deleted_user » Mar 14, 2011 9:02 pm

Noooooooooo! You should've come!!! I love meeting Internet people in real life!!! You should have called someone...maybe we could've picked you up!

Water levels were up but fine, no swirling toilet bowl at the entrance, lol. The few deeper spots in the river, as I said, I just swam. It kept my head further out of the water that way (and it was easier!) then again I"m 5 ft 6. Jason, who is like 6 ft, was fine, lol. It was use shorter folk who were "drowning". :rofl: It was a blast though, I love water caves, so much more fun! And that is the first time it's been deep enough to warrant swimming so woo first time caveswimming! hehe. Actually it was also easier because I wasn't all "eeps where is my foot going can't see...is this a dropoff, a rock...where is it landing..." I should've just swam more of it than I did. It was up to my lower ribs in a lot of places, at least.

Yes we did go all the way down to the "lake". We did not visit the mill, but drove by it (twice!) of course and saw the dam.

Do you know what makes that cool honeycomb ceiling? I've only seen it two places now. I can't figure out how that forms!
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Re: Clicks, in IN, March 12th

Postby Spike » Mar 15, 2011 9:17 am

Are you refering to the fractures on the ceiling making boxes about 1 foot square or the texture in between the fractures?
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Re: Clicks, in IN, March 12th

Postby self-deleted_user » Mar 15, 2011 10:44 am

The honeycomb texture, not the fractures.
Here is a photo I took at Diamond Caverns in Ky, the only other place I've seen it, this one shows the texture better with the lighting and is closerup.
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Re: Clicks, in IN, March 12th

Postby Spike » Mar 15, 2011 5:18 pm

I've seen the texture at Diamond Caverns and there folks explained it as dolomite rather than limestone. I've been in hundreds of caves in dolomite, and seen lots of textures but those are usually a result of preexisitng vugs being exposed as the cave walls(or ceiling in this case) are weathered away. In any case the textures are pretty different, and the dolomite is very coarse grained relative to the voids. When I saw your ceiling photo, and there isn't quited enough resolution to tell for sure, I suspected a condensation corrosion texture. At Diamond Caverns I suspect there was a mineral(like a sulphide) or maybe organics, that where somewhat evenly distributed in the carbonate, but at discrete places, that either during dolomitization of the carbonate controlled the cementation of the dolomite, or during dissolution reacted to produce a little extra acid deepening the pockets. Without seeing an unweathered part of the rock the cave is formed in I'm guessing, but we do see zones of alteration, called oxidation-reduction zones, around particulates of organic material, and sulfide minerals in various rock types. Feel free to google all the big words, I do :)
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Re: Clicks, in IN, March 12th

Postby self-deleted_user » Mar 15, 2011 6:17 pm

How would you tell (visually) limestone vs dolomite (Also, I only googled vug, haha).

Yeah I guess it's not as pronounced as diamond caverns was, but it was the same looking thing, which I'd never seen before anywhere else.
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Re: Clicks, in IN, March 12th

Postby wyandottecaver » Mar 15, 2011 7:01 pm

I cant remember about that part of clicks, but it looks like most dolomitic limestone I've seen. In caves it generally it seems "browner" and softer than most limestone. Most "penny ceilings" in commercial caves are dolomite.

Another thing to confuse you...before the mill it's believed the cave had a large open entrance overlooking the creek, and many upper passages like your photo showed what we (I was part of a BCI study) *think* were roost staining from previous large bat colonies. In those circumstances it's not uncommon to find slight pitting of the rock due to the high acidic content of bat excretions.

Soooo...it could be corrosion from water condensation, pockets caused by now dissolved mineral inclusions of dolomite, or eroded pitting from bat urine.....
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