We decided that our goal for the day would be to go and continue our survey in Marathon Crawl, whose depths have not been visited since June 10th. Steve O'Nan and I went in the cave ahead of Pat so I'd have time to get my Kayak in the water and I must say you get warm pretty quick dragging one into the cave in a wetsuit and caveralls. Steve puttered around the foot of Epitome lake in my yak while we were waiting for Pat to catch up and he pretty quickly decided that a yak was very danged handy in the cave. Pat showed up, I got in the yak and off we went. I heard Steve O'Nan gasping pretty good getting used to the water temperature as he and Pat got in the water and started a death march.
I zipped ahead to the first portage in my yak and got out to set up to take some movies and pictures as Pat and Steve came by. The water was up as high as I have ever seen it in the cave. Flow was coming over the first portage, a first for me. I took a movie and I think one picture there as Pat and Steve went by. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbW4mliP3vo
After that I tried to stay relatively close to them, usually navigating by their lights with mine off. I gave Pat Mudd my lifejacket, (He'd left his in the car) and Steve stopped to put up his caversalls hood. We seemed to be making slow time and by the time we got to Blind Fish Alley, I was starting to get a sense that Pat and Steve where having a considerably rougher go than normal. They climbed up out of the water to sit on the mud bank for a while. Steve was complaining about his little toe going numb, thinking he had the circulation cut off some how and Pat was saying that the water seemed colder than normal.
The intersection with Blind Fish Alley, normally a noisy spot because of all the water coming over the rimstone dams at her entrance was almost perfectly quiet. If you listened hard you could hear the faintest hint of water flow coming from deeper within. While sitting there, some discussion took place about an alternate goal for the day, as Marathon Crawl started seeming uncomfortably distant for the two Death Marchers and Pat worried it would be carrying too much water to get into it to survey. A common understanding seemed to be sensed by all that today might just turn into a fun trip.
We started forward again and I was expending so little energy sitting in my yak I was concerned I was going to start feeling chilled. From my vantage point, I could have taken such wonderful movies of the two aquanauts swimming the remote depths of a big bad dark cave if my camera could only capture what your eyes can. I finally decided to motor ahead a bit to try and generate some heat and it wasn't long before I came to a spot where I actually had to duck a bit to get under the ceiling in Webster Avenue in my kayak! I got turned around and scooted back out just in time to meet the others about 20 yards downstream and by now Pat was openly talking of calling the trip, which Steve was ready to be down with fairly readily as well. I think they were getting cold because of being so up to their necks in water so much, and I was getting concerned about what we were getting ourselves into if we kept pushing deeper into the cave in these conditions. I was relieved a bit when they decided to call the trip and turned around. I told them I was going to go forward a bit and that I'd be back soon. I wanted to see if I could get all the way through the low part of the ceiling in my yak.
All I had to do was a severe slouch and I was able to paddle through. I figured I'd go up to Parks Avenue and then turn around just to see what things looked like at this water level. When I got there I'd say the water was up close to 4 feet. That means that for all practical purposes, if you weren't in a yak you were swimming the entire way. I pushed on a little farther and then decided, what the heck, I'll see if I can paddle all the way to Marathon Crawl. It was interesting that the very foggy conditions that had been present in Webster Avenue quickly disappeared past Parks Avenue. All the showerheads and tributaries and stalactites were carrying a lot of water and it was quite noisy in a couple places. I finally had to get out of the yak at Marathon Portage and walked up to Marathon Crawl. The water flow there was up a bit but we could have easily negotiated the passage had Steve and Pat been able to get there. I shot a quick video and some pictures and then decided I needed to get moving if I was going to get back before Pat and Steve got back to the beach. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAgE350trgw
I checked my watch to see how long it was going to take me. I wanted to stop and take some pictures along the way but I was afraid if I did, I'd be to long and the guys would have to wait on me. I caught up with them just at the last turn in Webster Avenue where the ceiling break is. They were both ready to get out of the water. Pat said he couldn't get warm no matter what he did. It had taken me 23 minutes to get back out from Marathon Crawl.
Webster 1, Surveyors 0. I think Pat and Steve are really starting to think they might have to start looking into a yak themselves. After we got out and changed, Pat and I went back down to try out the pulleys and ropes to see if we could come up with an easier way to get the yaks in and out of the cave. I think we came up with a pretty good solution by lowering and raising them on the south side of the karst head. Mother Nature, a little less rain please.
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