March 9-10, 2002 - Dig #18 "More BOOM yields lower gain"

I apologize to everyone for the timing of this report. I've got an awful lot of stuff going on and this just seemed to be not getting done. So, here goes:

I arrived at the dig about 8:30 am. One of the first things I did was check the hole to see if the plug had successfully held water. It had. I grabbed the chain to see if there was alot of pressure on it, there was. I really couldn't judge the depth of the water from there, but I was confident that it had worked. I would wait for others to arrive before measuring.

Around 9:00 am Dave McCool arrived packing a newly marked truck and lots of necessities. We were alittle disappointed to be the only ones there, but wasn't all that anxious to get out into the 26 degree temperatures or face the 30-40 mile an hour winds on the hill.

We did try to motivate about an hour later, and decided to work on the gravel that was recently dumped at the gate. With the cold and the wind, along with both of us having our mind on blasting, we were back in the truck before to long.

As it was approaching noon, and still being the only ones there, we had our work cut out for us. Then, like an angel, Bill Copeland arrived and the dig begun.

The first order of business, removing the plug, was taken care of for us. Apparently, when I had jerked around on the chain, it broke the seal. The hole was empty. 1st job done, but I was still cold. Must be time to move to the storage building and plan number 2. (winnies, huh) I told Dave I would drill if he did the loading, and hopefully someone would be there, by that time, to clean up the hole.

I got down the hole at 1:45pm, and preceded to drill the 8 holes on the template.We would be using Dave's drill and a 4' shaft. Most of the holes were still averaging about 10 minutes a hole. Looks like the fastest one was 6 minutes, longest one taking 12 minutes.With the holes drilled, I was lifted out at 3:22pm. (I would also like to add, what a wonderful; job the previous crew had done in leaving the hole all ready to drill. We were able to start right off with a very smooth floor and plenty of room for the template. Thanks)

Dave was lowered down the hole at 3:45pm to load the explosives. He had brought us enough to load 3 sticks per hole (4' deep), 3 times. With our first blast getting ready to go off at 4:00, we had alot to do. Thoughts of working into the late night were starting to seem inevitable.

Shortly before, and during, this same time, Marty Griffin and Mark Aldrich arrived along with Chris Wolters, Ken and Danny Long. Unfortunately, they came for the MVOR Committee meeting, which wasn't going to take place because of being short handed. I do thank them for jumping in and lending a hand while they were there.

Around 5:00 pm, Chris went down the hole to clean up. After his work, he informed us the blast had blown out the bottom and top creating ledges in the center. He recommended we drill and blast to remove them. At the same time, Chris, Ken and Danny would have to be going. But, if we would continue with just the three of us again, they promised to return later in the evening to help.

Soo, appox. 7:15 pm I was lowered down to drill holes in the ledges.We had two major pretusions, and a two minor ones. Both were measuring around 2' thick. I drilled 6 holes 2' deep on hard angles to try to free them.

Keeping to their word, Ken and Danny once again arrived followed shortly by Chris. This time they came for the night.

We did finally blast around 9:30pm. Ken offered to clean up the hole since everyone else was already tired. Big help. Ken was lowered down around 11:00pm and continued his work till almost 1:00am. Once the ledges were blown out and the hole was once agian clean we had a measurement of 71' 4". We also checked the nine inch hole and had risen to a height of 117' 7". Thanks to everyone's late night help, we would only have one blast to get done on Sunday.

On Sunday morning our team consisted of myself, Dave, Chris, and Mike Hartley, who had arrived late Saturday night. (and did come up and offer a hand late night with us)

Chris volunteered to do the drilling, so we lowered him down at 9:20 am. He would drill a whole new set of 8 holes along with 4 extra to use some of the left over explosives. This total of 12 holes took him till 11:15 am. Still averaging about 10 minutes a hole. He too told us of the soft area, blown out in the first blast, had created a wider hole than 36".

Dave, once again, loaded our holes at 11:40 am and was pulled up at 12:15. 12:27pm, with appox. 11 extra sticks, and 4 extra holes, we heard BOOM!

One thing to also note, because of our hole getting ever deeper, it takes almost an hour for the hole to clear out for a man to go down. We experienced this on every blast. Note also, the cave was blowing out this weekend. Didn't seem to help.

Mike wanted to go down and do clean up, so he was lowered at 1:25pm. He would tell us the blast appeared to blow out more of the soft walls around our perimeter. He also tried to deal with the floor which was fairly level except for a triangular alcove blown out off the 9" hole. Later, measuring, this alcove is almost 2' deep. This made it impossible to use either plug in the hole when we finished.

Another surprise, our final measurement for blast two (or three) was only 73', give or take with the floor. (not counting the 2' deep cut down the 9" hole. So this only added a little over a foot on the last blast. ? Didn't understand that, but I guess that's how it goes. It's obvious we lost some out the sides.

Another tired victim, Mike, was pulled out a little after 3:00pm. Dave had to leave following the blast, so Mike, Chris and myself cleaned up, Got the swivel installed, broke camp and peeled.