Help! My cave is too straight!

[GroundquestMSA]

I've surveyed 1173' of this cave with about 3000' to go. The entire thing is almost perfectly straight. Since the width ranges from 30' to 3', I don't know the best way to layout my final map. I plotted my initial sketch at a size that would allow me to show some detail, but putting the whole thing in one piece on one page would make is far too thin to see anything. Here's my sketch of the first 1173'.

Does anyone ever layout their map in segments in cases like this? I'm thinking about cutting the scale about halfway and filling up a couple of pages with segments. It would probably look stupid, but I don't know what else to do.

[gindling]

There are quite a few cave maps that do that. Most notably that I can think of is Castleguard Cave in Canada. Here is a link to the Alberta Speleological Society's downloadable cave map, http://www.caving.ab.ca/castleguard . Blood cave in Montana is also very similar, very straight, narrow and tall. Only the entrance series to the junction area is drafted and it takes up a few pages itself. A few things about your map that would help:

Label the entrance so people know where to start in reading the map. (It may not always be as obvious as you think)

Label the sections to be joined like A'-A' B'-B' C'-C' and so forth. If that top segment is the entrance then how do you get to the rest of the cave? One of the side passages to the right? It seems to end in a TT section at the end of the first segment and then the next segment below starts as a terminal end with breakdown? Having the letters allows the map reader to easily see what is the progression of the map.

Good job on the amount of floor detail, not too much but enough to get the feeling of what kind of passage to expect.

[GroundquestMSA]

None of the lettering has been done yet. I planned on doing exactly the A-A, B-B thing you suggest. The top section is the entrance level and the rest of the cave is accessed my means of the 56' pit. I'm only a quarter of the way done with the survey, so with x-sections I'll have at least three pages, even if I cut the scale in half. Do other maps of this nature have running cross sections or do they group them all together with notations?

[gindling]

It all depends i'd say. Some people have them all grouped on one page while others will have them offset from the running map. I personally prefer them with the running map so I don't have to keep referencing a separate page. You should figure some way to show that the pit is the way to the lower level. Like a ghost image of the passage below or some guidelines showing how the next passage sketch is under the preceding one.