An unbelievable day of discovery....

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An unbelievable day of discovery....

Postby Darklight » Oct 24, 2005 7:23 pm

WEBSTER SYSTEM TRIP REPORT: 10/23/2005
An unbelievable day of discovery....

I left home at around o’dark thirty (that’s 04:30 CST) to meet Pat Mudd
at Webster Cave this morning. Driving up the WK Parkway in a persistent
rain had me a little uneasy and a tad angry, as we were hoping to get
past the North Bore Sump once again. This would be the second
penetration in as many weekends. The water levels are so low right now
as to make entry an almost certainty. (For those unfamiliar with the
Mulu sump, it is a very tempermental entity!) The weather forecast was
for a 60% chance of light rain, with less than a tenth of an inch
expected accumulation. Life without risk is boring I suppose, and the
projected forecast was sun for another week, so I reckoned if we got
stuck on the wrong side, we’d be mapping a lot more cave! With food and
light enough for several days or more, the very remote possibility of
entrapment seemed less a worry…

We entered the drip line at 07:30CST and quickly made our way to the
Sump. It was actually about an inch lower than the week before. By
09:30CST we were at the last survey point of the previous weeks survey
trip (which saw us mapping through the sump and then about 1200 feet
into North Bore and then into East Bore). As there were only two of us,
and I hadn’t done sketch in over 15 years, I thought it was going to be
slow going. It was to a certain extent; Pat had to run back to the
previous point for our back sights, and then running forward between
shots to set the next station, etc. It went, however, pretty smoothly.
Soon, we had mapped about 800 feet of mostly stooping sewer-type passage
in East Bore. This passage is the upper end of the Parks Avenue stream.
Along the way we charted two side leads, small and muddy. Permanent
stations were set.

Eventually, we ran out of comfortable passage, and it quickly
degenerated to a low wide seam. Measuring only about 1.5 feet high, it
was over 25 feet wide in places. Nasty chert covered the floor, and a
small stream slot occupied the far left. Overly and unrealistically
worried about the sump levels, I suggested to Pat he go on ahead and see
if it opened up any, and take in some virgin cave (which I was 99% sure
it was). I supped and napped while he trudged off into the distance.

He was out of sound for about ten minutes, when I heard him yelling out.
I was unable to understand what he was trying to convey, so I packed
up and headed his way. He was really carrying on! I though he’d found
another entrance, and even had thoughts of him returning with green
vegetation or something. As I passed the low chert section, the stream
passage did in fact open back up into stoop walking height. After some
distance and past a section of breakdown, I slid back down into the
stream passage and called for Pat. A voice came from above.

When I finally found him, he was way up into a ceiling lead. On his way
back down he’d apparently taken a wrong turn into a tight section of
collapse. The whole passage was full of tight breakdown. He explained
he wanted me to know where he was, that he’d found a lead blowing some
air. What he had found was a significant upper level extension! In
fact, it would become one of the greatest discoveries ever in this cave.
Not since the 1991 Mulu discovery had a breakthrough of this
significance occurred. I followed him up, and soon we were sitting in
the floor of a dry trunk passage! This was an unexpected turn of events…

We split up, each taking a direction to explore. Pat took off down a
slightly stooping to walking section, and I pushed the other direction
and into a breakdown area. The area I was in was punctuated by some
nice speleothems, but didn’t look too promising due to the amount of
collapse. Pat came back after a while reporting about 500 or so feet of
pretty nice passage. Returning to the area of collapse, we found a way
through and headed that way (airflow beckoning).

After a few dozen feet of tight crawling through the breakdown, we saw a
black void ahead. Soon, we were standing in the junction of yet another
huge trunk passage. Back and to the right it stretched up and over a
mud bank into a large chamber. Ahead of us, twisting off in the
distance, was a 20-foot wide, ten-foot high bore hole. The passage here
was studded with spelothems: white soda straws, macrocrystalline
flowstone deposits, spar, what looked like gypsum crusts, and more. In
places, to avoid damaging the formations, we had to gently crawl under
ledges off to one side.

Further on, the passage turned into one of the nicest I’ve ever been in.
The floor was as smooth as concrete, with gently sloping mud banks,
and a wide flat ceiling. Soon, it became more canyonous, and in places
was nearly 30 feet high. Huge columns and flowstones punctuated the
trunk. Drains in the floor made negotiating the passage difficult in
places, but we persevered. I don’t know how many feet we covered, but
it may have been 1500 to 2000, or more. Eventually, we came to a
formation grotto. The soda straws, numbering in the thousands, dotted
the ceiling in white. The flowstone was immense, as were the many
columns. In fact, this flowstone very nearly blocked the way on. We
located a small crawl at the base of the mass, and got back into the
trunk, but it was much smaller in nature. The cave formations here hung
so low one had to bellycrawl to get underneath. I ran on ahead about
another 500 feet, through some hands and knees crawling, before it
opened back up and I turned around.

Back in the flowstone chamber, we noted another tight but blowing lead
that could be dug. We turned around here and headed back to the trunk
junction. Along the way, we spotted a high upper level lead that seemed
to be blowing air. Immediately below this passage hung a Pipestrelle
bat. We also spied a cave salamander and a germinating seed. I think
and entrance is nearby, but there was no way to get up into it. Needs
to be scaled or bolted…

Back in the grand junction, we headed the other direction, and explored
for about 500 feet before getting tired and stopping. Neither one of us
could comprehend what we’d found. Basically, this is a new upper level
sequence, adding a second and third level to East Bore. It is possible
some upper level activity noted beyond the Mulu sump may be associated
with this new section.

This new section, tentatively dubbed Upper East Bore, is dry but
characterized by what looks to be very old flood deposits. We detected
flood lines in some places, but looking at the speleothem activity, it
appears it does not flood very often (most likely back flooding). We
are still out under the valley floor, but the illusive ridges are
getting closer! To sum up, we now have four open ended trunk leads to
map and explore, plus associated side leads. This section lay at least
22 to 50 or so feet above stream level. And it moves air! This
discovery certainly rivals the initial breakthrough into Mulu some 15
years ago, but the passage here is far more grand!

We were unable to get a bearing on any of the new passage. No mapping
has been done here yet. And, no, I didn’t have my camera with me! I
propose we need to concentrate mapping here while we can, at the expense
of anything else.

After climbing back down into the stream section, we headed back to the
end of our survey. We picked it up and took it as far as we could
before running out of time for the day. The stream passage continued on
past here, and I slid down into it to see what it did. The passage here
is about 20 foot wide and two feet high, with a foot or so of water. I
floated along, pulling with my hands for about 75 feet, admiring the
many huge blind fishes here. The water was crystal clear.

Gazing on ahead of me, I was looking for the way on but all I could see
was wall all the way around. I scanned back and forth a few times
looking for the continuation of the passage when all of a sudden the
stream bottom gave way into a void of pure green water. It startled me
as I fought to keep from plunging into deep water. A terminal sump had
been reached. It was truly beautiful, well over 10, or maybe even 15
feet deep, emerald green, and hung with blind fish. This,
unfortunately, is the terminus for East Bore…or is it? There is a good
possibility that some of the drains we saw may lead back down into East
Bore beyond its now terminal sump.

We had been underground for about 8 hours or so, and it was getting late
for me. We turned around and headed back to the sump. It was as it had
been, and we rapidly made our way through, back down Parks to Webster
Avenue, and then on towards the entrance. With asses dragging, we
limped out the main entrance to a beautiful sunset about ten hours after
entry.

The next scheduled survey trip is November 5th. Roll up, roll up!

Webster Imagery at http://www.pbase.com/darklightimagery

Chris Anderson
C.G. Anderson
http://www.darklightimagery.net
http://www.pbase.com/darklightimagery
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WCCSG/

"I've done things God should have questioned, but I don't care".
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Darklight
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Webster System Trip Reports

Postby Don Hunter » Nov 2, 2005 3:38 pm

Chris,

These stories and accompanying pictures of your and your buds exploits in the Webster System are amazing. I can't wait to hear about the next trip. I'm crossing my fingers for you for favorable weather preceding and during your November 5 trip. Take that camera back in there, boy!! Good luck on maybe another entrance. I'm sure that would greatly facilitate exploration.
Don Hunter
NSS 12166
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Postby Darklight » Nov 2, 2005 8:20 pm

Don:

We thank you! Looks like a chance of isolated showers, but we are a GO for a big Saturday trip. We're hoping for three (!) survey teams of over ten cavers total. If all goes as planned, even if it is our last trip in this season, we'll have enough data to start ridge walking for a new way in. Oh, and the camera will be flaoting behind me on this trip.;-)

CG
C.G. Anderson
http://www.darklightimagery.net
http://www.pbase.com/darklightimagery
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WCCSG/

"I've done things God should have questioned, but I don't care".
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Darklight
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Joined: Sep 5, 2005 9:25 am
Location: Western Kentucky, US
  


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