Pushing past 1 mile.

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Pushing past 1 mile.

Postby SuckinOnSodaStraws » Feb 2, 2012 10:44 am

Anyone have any advice on a cave at least 2 miles long? Our caves seem to all come to about 1 mile, give or take a half. Were in Colorado, but are willing to drive to adjacent states. Anyways, I'm looking for suggestions from experience. In other words, you've been there, and know it would be a good trip. Anyone with a solid idea, please pm me. :waving: Thanks.

Also, an account of your first "long" caving trip might have some helpful tips for us, so feel free to post those.
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Re: Pushing past 1 mile.

Postby GroundquestMSA » Feb 2, 2012 10:56 am

When it comes to how much time a trip takes, more depends on the nature of the cave than its length. A five mile cave I occasionally visit can be almost entirely seen in 3 hrs. On the other hand, my longest trip has been in a local cave only 2200+/- ft. long. It required a lot of squeezing, a lot of crawling in the water, and a lot of resting. It took 9 hrs.
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Re: Pushing past 1 mile.

Postby Squirrel Girl » Feb 2, 2012 12:40 pm

GroundquestMSA wrote:When it comes to how much time a trip takes, more depends on the nature of the cave than its length. A five mile cave I occasionally visit can be almost entirely seen in 3 hrs. On the other hand, my longest trip has been in a local cave only 2200+/- ft. long. It required a lot of squeezing, a lot of crawling in the water, and a lot of resting. It took 9 hrs.


Exactly.
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Re: Pushing past 1 mile.

Postby Chads93GT » Feb 2, 2012 1:02 pm

Been on a 5 mile trip where its taken 13 hours. .... same trip, different group.....7 hours........being in shape has a lot to do with how fast you can move.

Are you simply looking for caves that are 2+ miles in length that are within a few hours drive of you? Im not sure what you are asking here.
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Re: Pushing past 1 mile.

Postby SuckinOnSodaStraws » Feb 2, 2012 6:38 pm

Yeah I was more so looking for caves that are 2+ miles within a state's drive or so. My idea is to spend time using a map to navigate a more complex cave. Maybe one thats a little mazey... Just wanted to go a little bigger. The longest trip we've had was non-stop caving for about 6hrs. The cave was about 1.5 miles.
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Re: Pushing past 1 mile.

Postby Extremeophile » Feb 2, 2012 6:54 pm

I'm also not sure what exactly you're looking for, but here are some CO long cave stats:

There are 12 publicly known caves in the state that are over a mile in length. Unfortunately only 1 of these currently has open access, but it requires dive gear to explore. Seven are on USFS land and currently adminstratively closed. Four are on private land (3 in Williams Canyon, and Glenwood Caverns - aka Fairy Cave). The privately owned caves can be visited with an approved trip leader. 4 of these 12 caves are over 2 miles.

To the north - South Dakota has about 6 caves over a mile in length, but this includes Jewel Cave (159 miles) and Wind Cave (138 miles). These are about 7 hours from CO Springs. Recreational and survey trips are possible with an approved trip leader.

To the south - New Mexico has several long caves, including 4 that are over 10 miles. These all require permits to explore and are ~7-8 hours from CO Springs. Some, e.g. Dry and Fort Stanton, are closed for WNS.

To the west - there are a couple long caves just over the border in Utah at around 5 miles (Big Brush, Little Brush) but I've never been there and don't know much about them. I believe they are open though.

Nothing to the east until Missouri.

Hopefully my compass bearing description of locations doesn't violate the TOS. Also, although I didn't refer to it, but Bob Gulden's long cave list can be sorted by state.
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Re: Pushing past 1 mile.

Postby Extremeophile » Feb 2, 2012 6:59 pm

SuckinOnSodaStraws wrote:Yeah I was more so looking for caves that are 2+ miles within a state's drive or so. My idea is to spend time using a map to navigate a more complex cave. Maybe one thats a little mazey... Just wanted to go a little bigger. The longest trip we've had was non-stop caving for about 6hrs. The cave was about 1.5 miles.

Groaning, at ~11.5 miles, has everything you desire. We've been pushing to get USFS caves reopened, but I suspect the intermittent bat colony at Groaning will keep it closed for another year or more. I don't expect any policy changes will be made before the current closure order expires in late July.
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Re: Pushing past 1 mile.

Postby SuckinOnSodaStraws » Feb 3, 2012 11:46 am

Sigh. July, what a joke. Ever since we began caving we've been waiting for July it seems. I guess my question was more to find larger caves and escape the WNS area a bit. We've been caving a lot in Williams Canyon with the trip leaders there. I think we'll go out of state for our next journey. New Mexico and Utah sound cool. I think the Southern Colorado Mountain Grotto is still running survey trips to Wind Cave on weekends. As far as permits, what kind of "credentials" are needed? I know a few members of the grotto have said they would happily write us some recommendation letters, but that was for becoming trip leaders ourselves... Thanks for the info. Gives me somewhere to look into.
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Re: Pushing past 1 mile.

Postby Extremeophile » Feb 3, 2012 4:39 pm

SuckinOnSodaStraws wrote: We've been caving a lot in Williams Canyon with the trip leaders there.

I'll be down there tomorrow - Narrows Cave.

I think the Southern Colorado Mountain Grotto is still running survey trips to Wind Cave on weekends.

Survey at Wind is an official project through the Colorado Grotto. Contact Roger Harris (Black Hills rep) for information about email lists and planned trips. You can find him in the members manual or send me a PM.

As far as permits, what kind of "credentials" are needed? I know a few members of the grotto have said they would happily write us some recommendation letters, but that was for becoming trip leaders ourselves...

This depends on the cave. For Williams Canyon you have to be voted in as a trustee, and it sounds like you may be making progress there. For Wind Cave you have to do 10 trips and go through the trip leader training. For Jewel you have to spend 100 hours in the cave and go through trip leader training. For LaSunder and Groaning you need to have been once before with an approved trip leader, and for LaSunder get approval from a Grotto. Basically it means you have to be a little social and get engaged with the community before you're able to control your own destiny, but there are worse things than caving with some of these good folks. I haven't encountered anyone in the many cave trips I've been on over the past 2 years in any of these areas that I would describe as exclusive or elitist. The only expectation is that you cave safely and with low impact.
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Re: Pushing past 1 mile.

Postby SuckinOnSodaStraws » Feb 3, 2012 9:11 pm

Mmm... Narrows. There's a trip that just never lines up quite right with my life's schedule. Doing some digging? You might know Charles... We helped him with a dig in Huccys last weekend. Everyone we've met so far has been pretty damn cool though. Let us know if you ever have room for a couple more.
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