Blackfathom River Cave, July 2015: Lost Canyon

Blackfathom River Cave, Saturday, July 4, 2015:  Lost Canyon

               Michael Bradford traveled to Inseminator Cave and met with the land owner who was getting ready to bail the hay in the field. He told us about the recent June flood event which covered the road in several feet of water. This water came from a Pond and completely inundated Inseminator Cave, to the point where it could no longer take on all of the water and it spilled over to the next sinkhole, which was in part, the road. The cave entrance itself had opened up quite a bit and was no longer that tight of a crawl to get in to. Water was flowing down the creek but it was being swallowed by a hole 100’ up the creek bed from the Inseminator Cave entrance. The “new” cave entrance northwest of Inseminator was flowing steady as well. The owner informed us that the new hole has always been open and always has been flowing with water since he was a child. The previous owners used to water their cows with this water stream, likely, the main source of the Blackfathom River Cave system, as a start.

               After traveling to Historic, we suited up and headed up the creek bed. The creek bed leading to Historic had been scoured out tremendously and lots of bedrock was now exposed that had never been before. Two large trees have also fallen over the creek bed, making the walk to the cave rather difficult.  Once we were inside, I noticed the gravel jam up inside the entrance had been majorly rearranged and shoved further downstream. The water level was up 4-5” over normal and was quite cloudy. I also noticed that the water was much warmer than normal, nowhere near a typical 58* cave temperature.

               Once we got to Docking Station #1, we swam under the first duck under which was manageable, but again, the water was up 4” above normal. Once we were at the Roman Bath I noticed the clay packed bank we have always skirted around has eroded immensely, leaving nothing to grip to when making the way around to the crawl to the Tar Pit. Once we were at the tar pit we noticed that the water had a green scum floating on the surface. We rigged a webbing foot loop and hand hold on a rock outcropping to facilitate climbing back up out of the tar pit. The next duck under after the tar pit was the worst. It was 3-4” of air and the helmet had to be removed. Next up of course was the wind tunnel which had 4” of air as well, making our way through was not very much fun.

               After the wind tunnel we approached the next duck under which again was low air followed by Big Bertha, which was nearly sumped with 1” of air. For the first time ever I had to climb over the top, which was not easy. Kudos to the first team who had to do this as well. Bradford and I made our way over the top and back into the water when we continued making our way upstream.

               We started hitting the “Lost Canyon” fragments which were practically 40’ high, and we started looking for ways up to the top. We made our way into one fragment and decided a bolt climb is warranted. After making our way further upstream, past more lost canyon fragments, we finally reached the New Discovery. Our goal was to make our way up into the canyon above the stream, just outside of the New Discovery. After Michael climbed into a section and began attempting to hand bolt the canyon, I made my way into the New Discovery to check out the only lead that I remember not getting into. I had to dig my way back into the short cut into the larger area of the New Discovery, but after a few minutes I had opened up the crawlway immensely.

               Bradford joined me and I boosted him up 6 feet into a chute, where he climbed up further then traversed on a bedrock outcropping. From here he rigged one 30’ section of rope, to which I climbed to the top so I could spot him while he climbed on towards the top of the canyon. Once at the top he rigged the second rope to a few columns then after a few minutes I joined him at the top. The top of the canyon is a phreatic trunk line that comes directly out of the new discovery. This is the continuation of the canyon that Hartman and I surveyed years ago. Michael and I made our way down the canyon and came to an extremely sketchy series of canyon traverses that I was able to do, due to my long legs and arms. Michael stayed behind while I went ahead to scout out what it was going to take to survey this new discovery in ………. The New Discovery. With 40’ drops to the stream below if you slip, the anxiety was high, but I made my way through and was greeted by slabs of breakdown, coated in popcorn with large columns and draperies. After stepping over a chasm of doom I got into a crawlway with an unknown lead to the left. I continued straight ahead through the phreatic channel and ended up finding several columns and an ancient lilly pad type room.

               The passage turned into a belly crawl and I saw the cave open up again past this crawlway. I left it for survey as I had seen enough. I was approximately 150’ from where I left Michael and I took several photos of the newly discovered formation room. The canyon continued and was likely leading to the lost canyon segments that are visible from the main stream below.

               On my way back I knocked a bunch of clay off of a ledge below and Bradford joked that I was probably burying our cave packs below. Once I got back through the sketchiest portion of the canyon we down climbed the entire route back down, mainly because I didn’t even bring anything to rappel on. Our ascenders were so jammed full of clay that they didn’t even work and I had to spend several minutes cleaning out the clay from my gear so it would even grip the rope.  After down climbing and exiting the New Discovery we reached main stream and I saw the result of all of the clay that I dumped down from above. It had shower my gear from above, knocking several items into the water, which resulted in them being lost forever, or until the next trip into the cave.

               The exit of the cave was slow and uneventful, but I was riding on the high of the newly discovered lead in a section of the cave that we had written off as “done.” Looks like there is more survey to be done through Historic. Unfortunately, this is not for the faint of heart, extremely sketchy and advanced vertical skills are needed. Future traverse lines for safety may need to be bolted.

 

I have decided to name this new passage the Lost Canyon. Michael and I will start surveying it on our next trip in; however..................where in the hell a tie in station is at is going to be a fun one.............

Michael in his new black cavesuit on the first pitch of the climb into the lost canyon.       

 

Turnaround point of the Lost Canyon discovery.

 

Turnaround point of the Lost Canyon discovery.

 

So muddy my vertical gear was useless.

                                                                               

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