Sean Ryan wrote:Ralph E. Powers wrote:But what I am looking for is the toughest cave YOU'VE (the reader) done so far in the state that you live (or frequent for your caving trips) ... personally... both Horizontally and Vertically (meaning you had to put on a harness and use vert gear to get in and out of the cave).
In that case, I switch New Jersey's hardest cave to Leigh Cave, which is essentially the only cave in New Jersey anyone visits. Everything else is of Beaver Valley quality (no offense, Delaware).
ha! If it's a Jersey cave, i've probably been in it, lol. (there's a dubious honor).
The trouble with Jersey Caves is that they're relatively small (on the order of hundreds of feet long rather than thousands) so they are one trick ponies for the most part - and you are comparing apples and oranges. So it winds up being a matter of personal distaste. Therefore, CS has your low and nasty crawls (ask Maurice Dubois) whereas Leigh has exposure.
Interestingly, some of the smaller caves are literally one trick ponies. All they have is the one problem area and that's the cave. Some examples:
Wormscrew Cave - has a fissure entrance more annoying than anything in Leigh. Twenty feet of upwards chimenying through very smoothed walls.
Mud Pond Cave - has an unusual corkscrew passage which opens up into a nice room, but four feet off the floor! I don't know why, but I can never do it feet first (it wouldn't matter, as there's nothing to push off of. You basically have to drop in three quarters of the way and then grab onto a projection to sort of climb upside down into the room).
Kerregenot Cave - is a simple phreatic tube, but the really annoying thing is the glass. People have been throwing beer bottles in it for years and the first hundred feet is an all glass floor. So you wind up chimenying in a crawlway to avoid cutting yourself.
Having said all that, the most aggravating cave in NJ has to be (envelope please)
Van Syckles Cave.
Van Syckles is about 300' of the worst crawling / stooping I have ever seen. First off, the cave is a stream passage so you're in water the whole time. Now during most spring and summer (and fall months) the stream's high enough to flood the cave, leaving only the coldest months (and consequently the coldest water) to explore the cave. Brr! And of course everything washes into the cave from garbage to dead animals. Yuck!
But that's not enough. Lets talk about the cave. Half of it's length is in hillside breakdown. This is recent stuff, which has eroded sharp, jagged edges that rip into clothing and flesh. Halfway through there, there is a squeeze through the water - riiiiip!
Past the squeeze, you can actually stand for a moment in a spot where the stream disappears under a ledge. You can follow it for the other hundred or so feet , half in the water, on your side, wedged (at last) in a good tube. There's no room to turn around in and the stream slopes down a bit, so you're backing up uphill through winter water. There's a zig-zag at the beginning where it's really helpful to have someone spot you. The one time I did it, it took about a half hour to go the length, check the end and come back. It's truly miserable.
So what's the kicker? The cave blows lots of air. The stream resurges eight tenths of a mile away and over a hundred feet lower in elevation (you can't even get in that end). The miserable passage ends in large breakdown overhead (you'd be digging overhead, in cold water, with nowhere to go if something should shift). But beyond it you can see about three feet of airspace!!!
Odds are, it's New Jersey's largest cave, with the possibility of a mile of passage, but there's little chance of getting at it from within. So it's sad.
And that's what makes it the most toughest cave in NJ. You know you're so close to having a good time and you get stopped at the last minute.
John
The NSS and WNS: Cooperation, not confrontation.