Mountain Cove Cave Complex

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Re: Mountain Cove Cave Complex

Postby trogman » Jan 13, 2011 10:04 am

The "others" are a few misc. small caves in the area. I found a couple of them, and a caving buddy of mine found one as well. One was listed as a karst feature on the GSS, but we moved some rocks and found some more passage which allowed it to qualify. None of these "other" caves are very long or interesting.

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Re: Mountain Cove Cave Complex;hogjowl death trek

Postby foxbat » Jan 23, 2011 4:11 pm

Hello. Yesterday marks the 4th time,a friend and I ventured into this rough area. We are explicitly looking for the secondary entrance into Richards.This was a true death march. We carried a ton of gear,and went the 1.1 k or so upstream.(GETTING TOO OLD FOR THIS @#$%). The hole we thought for sure was the 2nd entrance,wasn't. This had a drop of 20-30 ft but at the bottom,orienting southeast as the survey drawing has it.,this dead ended. One of the ''others''.At a loss,we combed the terrain again.for several hundred meters uphill,towards the top clift band and west..The furthest point out and the point at which we called it,was there is a serious debris trail,rock fall from the top band,very slightly beyond what is the boundary.We know this is at the very limit because of all the faded pink survey markers.. The hole we were in is a little ''off'' too much to the east,.Gps had us dead in the center of landslide debris.We contoured it. If this is the primary site and buried,than the 2nd entrance has to be within 80-200 ft northwest from here.Contouring-I stayed up high,and my friend stayed at creek level.-we found nothing. So,here it is..the flood that ruined this area was 2 yrs ago.the very central question is..has anyone been in the 2nd entrance within the past 3 months?? I was at an elevation of 1480.Pm me please! we are going in one more final time,hopefully next Sat.. Is this 2nd entrance still there,and if so..where?i can give excat coords where we were,and where Richards is listed as being and we ,for the 3rd time..are at a total loss.Next Sat,if you want to come ,you can,the consolation prize to this will be a drop into dragfold.. .Assume the debris field is the primary entrance.The 2nd HAS TO BE NW from there,and at a lower elevation.The 1 place we did not look was across the creek.ruled that out.distance would be too great..not to scale.Remember,the scale has the 2 entrances anywhere from 80-200 ft apart.Is this 2nd entrance here anymore? ps we found a dead dog at the base of four kings.tried calling the owner.no luck..This area doesnt just look savage..it is.
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Mountain Cove Cave Complex

Postby monkeycrawl » Feb 7, 2011 10:22 am

What is the cave that is down mountain from Drag Fold? The entrance is under a boulder and is about 2 ft x 2 ft. The entrance looks vertical but I did not have a light on me to see how deep the pit was.
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Re: Mountain Cove Cave Complex

Postby trogman » Feb 7, 2011 3:24 pm

Hmmm... Sounds like a new one. Send me the coords and I'll go check it out for you. :grin:

I don't have access to my maps right now, as I am at work. Off the top of my head, though, I can't think of anything in that area that would fit that description. The big flood probably closed up a few caves, but it may have opened up a couple of new ones as well.

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Re: Mountain Cove Cave Complex

Postby UnderGroundEarth » Mar 8, 2011 1:41 pm

For those who may not have heard, ULLA Cave now has a gate. While I don't like it, I certainly understand why the state wanted to gate the cave... The state is going to have a management plan that allows for access. I'm sure they will release more details about it soon.

If you are interested in seeing what the new gate looks like go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kristenbob ... 204240902/
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Re: Mountain Cove Cave Complex

Postby graveleye » Mar 8, 2011 4:57 pm

I saw the new gate yesterday and the first thing I thought was "that is one of the ugliest things I have ever seen in my life."

I'm glad I got to go before the gate and have pictures of it without that thing there. In our haste to preserve nature, we've sure found ways to just butt-ugly things up in our efforts. I do hope the state paid for that without the help of any grotto or NSS money - they were begging grottos for funds a while back and I thought it would be a bad idea to contribute to it. I am certainly glad to know that my organization didn't have anything to do with that ugly thing.

Oh yea... its "bat friendly".

SINCE WHEN DO BATS SWIM?

If they would have made it bat-unfriendly, they might save some poor bats life one day by keeping them from getting trapped behind the sump.

Sorry, and no offense to the folks who built it... just doing what the state was paying them to do, but I do not like this gate. I might have cared less if it was back in the cave a bit, but it's an eyesore where it is.
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Re: Mountain Cove Cave Complex

Postby trogman » Mar 9, 2011 7:35 am

graveleye wrote:I saw the new gate yesterday and the first thing I thought was "that is one of the ugliest things I have ever seen in my life."

I'm glad I got to go before the gate and have pictures of it without that thing there. In our haste to preserve nature, we've sure found ways to just butt-ugly things up in our efforts. I do hope the state paid for that without the help of any grotto or NSS money - they were begging grottos for funds a while back and I thought it would be a bad idea to contribute to it. I am certainly glad to know that my organization didn't have anything to do with that ugly thing.

Oh yea... its "bat friendly".

SINCE WHEN DO BATS SWIM?

If they would have made it bat-unfriendly, they might save some poor bats life one day by keeping them from getting trapped behind the sump.

Sorry, and no offense to the folks who built it... just doing what the state was paying them to do, but I do not like this gate. I might have cared less if it was back in the cave a bit, but it's an eyesore where it is.


Yea, dittos to the above. While I am somewhat glad that this might help preserve Ulla Cave, I thought the gate was rather ugly as well. (No offense towards Kristen; I'm not sure how you could have made it any better)Trying to remember if I saw any bats in there. There sure is plenty of room for them, but the large colony type of bats seem to prefer caves with large entrances. Who knows, maybe there is an upper entrance that nobody has found yet. I've looked around up there a bit, but saw mostly sandstone.

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Re: Mountain Cove Cave Complex

Postby graveleye » Mar 9, 2011 9:34 am

There must be another "entrance" somewhere because I've seen leaves and hickory nuts way back in the stream. Not sure if it would be a human or bat sized entrance though.
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Re: Mountain Cove Cave Complex

Postby tncaver » Mar 9, 2011 10:49 am

graveleye wrote:There must be another "entrance" somewhere because I've seen leaves and hickory nuts way back in the stream. Not sure if it would be a human or bat sized entrance though.


Seems like that area might be perfect for a ridge walk project.
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Re: Mountain Cove Cave Complex

Postby CKahl » Mar 9, 2011 10:13 pm

Is anyone going to be up that way this weekend? Me and my father are going to be doing some ridgewalking and possible caving on Saturday. PM me if you'd like.
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Re: Mountain Cove Cave Complex

Postby driver3871 » Aug 21, 2011 10:41 am

I made my first trip over to MCF #1 yesterday and could almost swear that there was some sort of pipe uncovered at the entrance?? PM ME
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Re: Mountain Cove Cave Complex

Postby UnderGroundEarth » Aug 22, 2011 7:56 am

driver3871 wrote:I made my first trip over to MCF #1 yesterday and could almost swear that there was some sort of pipe uncovered at the entrance?? PM ME


It is very likely there was a pipe at the entrance. A lot of TAG caves were once used as water sources for homes and communities. This is not uncommon.
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Re: Mountain Cove Cave Complex

Postby driver3871 » Aug 27, 2011 11:26 am

Heading there now.. My sons first trip to this side of the mtn. Hes stoked!!
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Re: Mountain Cove Cave Complex

Postby Shane S » Mar 11, 2013 4:29 pm

I recently made a trip to MCFC 1 myself. Wanted to go into MCFC2 as well but it appears to be in someone’s yard. I must say there are better caves on Pigon Mt. than MCFC1 but it's worth a crawl once I guess. I've also dropped D.F. cave but was pushed for time that day and didn't explore what little cave is available below. I would love to drop it again and at least check out the dome. That’s about the extent of my knowledge on those 4 caves in particular; never the less I do have a question I’d like to post.
MCFC 1 and 4K cave show a dig on the map that appears as a connection. I had no luck connecting the two. My plan was to go into MCFC1 and come out of 4K and walk the stream bed back to the terminal. So for the case of this map does the term dig mean that someone did a die test to show hydraulic continuity or does it actually mean that someone dug a manmade passage and made a connection? If anyone has ever made this connection please let me know.
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Re: Mountain Cove Cave Complex

Postby Shane S » Oct 8, 2013 6:12 am

I finally got back to 4 Kings. So far I have done MCFC 1 and 2 and Dragfold. 4 Kings had a few pretty rooms and was tight. I can't say I was all that impressed but worth doing once. The one time I went on a trip to ulla with a permit, the cave was sumped. Dragfold was ok but I've dropped it several times. It makes for a great pit do after work when you don't have time to hike or drive. Maybe soon I can do Richards Multidrop and get on a trip to Ulla. That would check off that part of the mountain. I'm not sure if Andersons Spring would be considered part of this complex or not as it is a bit around the mountain. I ventured about halfway through Andersons a few years back as it was sumped as well, but that one is definitely a re-visit; Hopefully find the waterfall.
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