Trip Report - Photo Trip (see below for a 2nd report on this trip from Eric Hertzler)
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2005
22:29:41 EST
From: Rickhines@aol.com
Subject: Lower Thunder Photo trip 2-26-05
Lower Thunder Photo trip 2-26-05
Participants: Rick Hines, Bill Gee, Marty Griffin, Eric Hertzler, Charlie
Knight, Terry Sherman
Bill and I arrived Friday night. Sometime during the night Charlie and
Terry arrived. Eric and Marty arrived Saturday morning. We carpooled from the
schoolhouse to the silo only to find that I left the trip permit with the
lock combination back at the schoolhouse. After that minor delay we started down
the shaft at 10:40 AM, not to surface again until 11:00 PM.
We came equipped with a variety of equipment to facilitate our trip down
Thunder River. Marty and Eric carried a staff, Charlie carried a kickboard and I
wore a neoprene life-vest. Bill for once, even added a wetsuit to his
caving attire. Terry came with experience from several prior trips down Thunder.
I was determined to try to float as much as possible and although there is
no good or easy way to get down Thunder River I would recommend floating. I
wore a 2 mm Farmer John wetsuit with a second short sleeve 2 mm top and I wore
the life-vest. All of that did not keep me warm enough to stay in the
water fulltime. If I were to do it again (and that’s a big if) I would wear two
Farmer John wetsuits. Both suits would be light weight 2 mm suits with
sleeves. I would replace my leather gloves with neoprene gloves and I would not
use the life-vest. I think two wetsuits would provide enough warmth and
enough flotation. Two-thirds of the way to DL7, when you leave the Forevers and
reach the breakdown, I would peel off one wetsuit.
Floating varied from belly crawls over rapids to swimming. There was only
one meander overhang where I backed out because of low overhead space and one
tight belly crawl where it was a struggle to get me and my life-vest through.
Much of the time you pull yourself forward with your arms and when the
water was deep enough you push with your legs. The ideal was about 4 feet of
water where the water carried your weight and you could lean forward at about
45 degrees and move forward with very little effort. Unfortunately, most of
the time the water was too shallow for that mode of operation. I still found
floating less work than trying to walk up and down the banks, trading through
the deep boot sucking mud. But when I started to shiver in the water I
would switch to walking to build up body heat. When walking my legs would soon
give out and I would decide to get back in the water or more likely I would
just fall down and crawl to the water.
Others on the trip with younger stronger legs didn't seem to mind the mud as
much. Charlie, with his 6 mm wet suit and the kickboard did some floating
with me but the rest of the crew stayed vertical most of the time.
Although lower Thunder River certainly is nearly void of flowstone there
were enough photo ops to provide numerous breaks on the way down. What little
flowstone there was, was eroding away. Black Rock Riffles, long passage
shots, Horseshoe Falls and large breakdown boulders provide ample photo
opportunities to justify the trip. A photo of Marty at Horseshoe Falls is
attached.
Check www.carrollcave.org soon for additional photos.
Rick Hines
PS Food for thought. The large room where DL7 leaves Thunder River could
provide a good location for a 9-inch shaft to supply a base camp to make
survey and exploration beyond DL7 somewhat easier. Wouldn't a sauna at DL7 be
nice?
Photos in the Photo Gallery
February 26th, 2005 I met with Rick Hines, Bill Gee, Terry Sherman, Charlie Knight, Marty Griffin, at the school house near the back entrance to Carroll Cave. We were to go down the Thunder River passage for a photo trip lead by Rick. Our goal was to make it to DL7, and we were planning on a 10 to 12 hour trip. We all stood around and talked cave, and then made our way over to the silo where Bill Gee rigged a rope. I opted to descend on the new cable system. By 11:00 we were all standing at the bottom of the ladder. We quickly made our way to Thunder Falls, climbed down the rope ladder and stood in the lake below. The rumble of the falls was powerful. We turned and started down stream. I had heard that this part of the cave was very exhausting due to all the water and deep clay. I was prepared for the worst, but I packed very light, carrying 1 flash unit, candy bars, heater meal, batteries, iodine tablets, and a small water bottle. I also wore a 3mm wetsuit and carried an aluminum walking stick. Rick Hines and Charlie Knight, decided to try swimming down stream opposed to walking the clay banks. Rick used a life jacket and Charlie a small swim board. While Terry and Marty followed Rick and Charlie in the stream, I decided that I was going to stay out of the water as much as I could. The mud banks were easy to walk. Thanks to all the cavers that had gone before me, there were paths and foothold to follow. The walking stick also helped out immensely. I was so thankful I had brought it. We all traveled at a good pace through tall, meandering passage. High banks of clay walled the stream. In a couple hours we reached “Black Rock Riffles”. Here the stream flows over scalloped, black chert. We stopped here, and Rick took some photos. We continued on making our way into the “forever’s”, a long stretch of passage that all kind of looks the same, winding passage, clay, water, repeat. Through this portion of the cave, I was forced to walk in the stream, which actually felt very nice. At one point the ceiling lowered to within a couple of feet from the water, but soon it opened into a room that had a nice flat clay bank on the left. Not only was it “dry”, but there also some very interesting formations there. We had seen very few thus far, so again we stopped to take photos. The formations were being eaten away either by high stream water, or a reverse effect of the drip water. The dissolution had highlighted the inner bands of mineral deposits, making for some really nice photos. We soon began onward and suddenly the cave really opened up. Ceilings rose, the walls belled out and the floor became large chunks of breakdown. Before us was a huge room, some 30 ft. tall, 100ft. wide and 200ft. long. Large pieces of breakdown lie in the stream. We all scattered with flash units for some photos. I climbed up to the left of the room up to where the breakdown met the ceiling. Splashing down behind me was a small “waterfall” pouring down out of the breakdown pile. I filled my water bottle, changed my batteries, and went back down to the bottom of the room to meet the others. We were going to have to do a little crawling to get around the breakdown pile. I got my knee pads out of my pack and put them on. I had not had to use them thus far. We were at 4 and a half hours underground at this point. The crawl tuned out to be more of a duck walk for 200 feet around the breakdown. On the other side the cave continues to average 20 ft. tall and 25 to 30 ft. wide. On ahead we could hear a low rumble. It was “horseshoe Falls”. Just like Thunder Falls, Horseshoe Falls is so loud you have to yell to the person next to you. The whole cave seems the rumble from the power of the falls. What an awesome sight! Seeing the falls invigorated me. I wanted to see more! Up ahead the passage was filled with massive breakdown boulders forcing us to climb up over them. The going was slow, due to uneven slick surfaces. The passage around us opened up and we made our way around a corner. In front of us the passage “t’d”. Or so it appeared. What we were actually seeing on the left was “major side passage” (a.k.a DL7). Two house sized boulders sit at the entrance which is tall and narrow. We had arrived at our destination in 6 hours. While the others prepared to eat Marty Griffin and I went into DL7. We stood in a 30 ft. tall passage that meandered to the left in front of us. I climbed down a clay slope and crossed the DL7 stream and went up the other side. On top of the next clay slope I used my high powered flashlight to see up ahead. What I saw was a very large meandering passage that snaked out of sight. Marty and I returned to the others and we all ate. After 30 minutes we were ready for the return trip. Before we left, we took some photos of the DL7 entrance area. I had always wondered what that “major side passage” on Helwigs map looked like and now I knew. I couldn’t of been happier. We all returned without incident and made our way back up the ladder. We had been underground for 11 ½ hours, and were tired, however we all agreed that the stories we had heard about the difficulties of Lower Thunder had been exaggerated. The trip was no where near as tough as I had thought it would be.
1 Bat and 2 Cave fish were observed
Eric Hertzler
[Editors note: It really wasn't all that hard but very aerobic. Avoiding some of that boot sucking mud (concealed under a foot or so of water) would be nice if an easy way can be found to float on the water on some sort of indestructible closed cell raft. I personally just can't see wearing the full wet suit unless it's real comfortable. Charlie had on a full 6mm and swam some but usually trudged the mud with the rest. I had a shortie and was plenty comfortable with the exception that my legs got cave burned. I guess from the constant wet all day cold. My best guess would be a long closed cell foam floatie and floatin' on a dry bag as well and a comfortable bottom wet suit with a comfortable top. My top half was silk, my shortie and polypro with kevlar arm sleeves and rubber gloves under neopreme gloves. I was almost ready to survey, just a little more dialing in to avoid all the mud which sucked.]