ADAM HAYDOCK

WOLF RIVER CAVE-TREMENDOUS TRUNK

August 06, 2013

Entrance to the Enchanted Forest

It was a long drive from Chicago for us to Monticello Kentucky where we got a shady ass motel for the night to rest and prepare for our summer TAG trip. Noboru Sakabe, Adam Haydock, met up with Chris Parks at the roach motel to rest for a trip into Wolf River Cave and the attempt at our lofty goal of TAG pits. The weekend was to include, a horizontal trip into Wolf River Cave, and vertical trips into Conley Hole, Mystery Falls, Green's Well, Moses Tomb, and South Pittsburg Pit.

We woke up early Thursday morning so we could get a head start into Wolf River Cave. After getting lost by going the wrong way (CHRIS!), we made it to the property where Wolf River Cave is located. We geared up and entered the cave large entrance.

Wolf River Cave Entrance

The Cave's passages reminded me of War Eagle Cave a bit with the large walking breakdown sections and a large stream running through it. We got to the Towering Inferno room which was a mountain room that we had to scale in order to continue on to more cave passage. At the top of the Towering Inferno it must have been 70-75 degrees!!...It was fucking hot up there. That's pretty warm for a Tennessee cave. The reason why its so hot is because its a heat trap and the heat collects up there so it stays pretty freakin warm towards the top.

Wolf River Cave Towering Inferno

We scaled the Towering Inferno and thought we were on the right course but ended up finding ourselves going in circles in some side passage rooms that I refer to as the merry go round section. We came back around to the Towering Inferno and found a crawl that took us up to the Tremendous Trunk.

Wolf River Cave, entrance to the Tremendous Trunk

The Tremendous Trunk is one of the two main sections in Wolf River Cave. The Tremendous Trunk has large connections to the Enchanted Forest, Milk and Butter room, Aborigine Avenue as well as some other side passage ways. We spent the bulk of our time in this section of the cave. The other section is called the Horrendous Highway which consists of waterfall rooms, Jaguar bones and foot prints.
Originally we wanted to go down the Tremendous Trunk but decided on the horrendous side to save time but found out that we were on the Tremendous side of the cave. Yup, we got turned around a bit in this one! We continued down the passage and found a side section to the cave that had Gypsum Flowers growing on the ceiling. This was a interesting encounter to see as the crystal curls around on itself and creates this flower looking design. They look like the finger nails of a witch and if I had discovered these crystals, that is what I would have named them, crazy bonnie the witch crystals or some shit like that.

Gypsum Flower Crystals

We continued down the passage and encountered large rooms with mounds of breakdown to climb over in order to continue on to the Enchanted Forest and the Milk and Butter Room.

Wolf River Cave, Tremendous Trunk

The passages got bigger and the breakdown mounds took some time to scale but we were able to get to the Milk and Butter Room in decent time.

Milk and Butter room. Can you see the two hobbits in the picture? :)

The Milk and Butter room has a pit on one side and a series of waterfalls on the other side that contained small fossils and break down that appears to be pretty new. I am not sure why they call it the Milk and Butter room unless its because of all the mud that gets caked onto you but we continued on to take a short cut so we could get into the Enchanted Forest quicker to save time so we found a hole in the room and proceeded into the passage.

Wolf River Cave Treasure Chamber passage

We took a brief side passage that took us to the Treasure Chamber which had crystals laying around all over the place and a section where people have placed these crystals for display.

Wolf River Cave Treasure Chamber

Shortly after the Treasure Chamber we made our way over to our final destination, The Enchanted Forest of Wolf River Cave!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wolf River Cave Enchanted Forest

This section of the cave is beautiful!!!. There are all kinds of formations in a walking/stooping passage that leads to a dig as well as the end of this cave system section. It is beautiful to be walking past all the drapery, flowstone, and formations made of white gypsum as it felt like we were in a forest of sorts with crystals sparkling around us.

Wolf River Cave Enchanted Forest

We stayed in the enchanted forest for about an hour and decided to turn around knowing we had a long drive to Manchester TN. We wanted to make sure we got there at a decent hour and get a good night sleep so we could wake up early for Conley Hole and Mystery Falls.

Wolf River Cave Enchanted Forest passage.

FLICKR: http://www.flickr.com/photos/exploration-worldwide/sets/72157634962222232/

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INDIANA DUNES NATIONAL LAKESHORE

July 13, 2013

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EMBA & ST.ALBAINS SHIPWRECKS

July 09, 2013

Shipwreck of the St. Albans

After finding out that the St. Albains and the EMBA were at around 150-160 to the dirt I wanted to make sure I got out to these two shipwrecks this summer and after some equipments updates, I was able to get these last two dives in before the viz in the lake started going down. My Dive Buddy Mike Apke chartered Shipwreck Explorers with Jitka Hanakova on the Molly V to take us out to the St.Albans and the EMBA. These were two technical dives which were both scheduled to have a bottom time of 20 minutes with a schedule set for 165 ft. My max depth on the St. Albans was 150 ft so running extra deco is fine by me.

From the Stern looking down the St. Albans towards the bow

The St. Albans was a wooden steamer the struck ice and foundered January 30th 1881. The Stern is pretty intact but her midship section has collapsed on top of itself. The bow is holding but appears to be falling apart. There was a large debris field around the St Albans which was interesting to see al the scattered deck boards and railings from when she went down.

Debris Field on the St. Albans

I went inside the stern section of the St. Albans and was only able to get this shot coming out of the shipwreck due to not having the right kind of strobes for the camera. This was a nice shipwreck to visit and with the temp of 41 degrees on the bottom and 60 ft of viz, this is a great dive for living near Chicago.

St. Albans looking out from the stern.

We got back on the boat and made our way over to the EMBA. The EMBA was not far from the St. Albans so we got a chance to hang out on the boat and relax a bit before we made out second dive.

EMBA looking toward the stern

The EMBA was a self loading 3 masted schooner ship which was turned into a cargo ship that was scuttled in 1932 with a load of boulders still inside the ship. We made our descent down to the ship and the viz was amazing!!! it must have been at least 80ft or more down there. I looked to my left and right, all I could see was a baron desert with this ship upright and intact in the middle of nowhere. It was an amazing site to see.

Stern Of the EMBA

We made a clockwise trip at around 160 ft of water around the massive ship and got back to the guideline in perfect time where we ascended back up the line following our decompression schedule.

bow section of the EMBA

This was a great day of diving and I am glad everything worked out with the weather, gear, and planning. I am looking forward to coming back soon to dive the Grace Shannon and the Car Ferry

EMBA

FLICKR:http://www.flickr.com/photos/exploration-worldwide/sets/72157634570465296/

FLICKR:http://www.flickr.com/photos/exploration-worldwide/sets/72157634570583314/

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WELLS CAVE

July 02, 2013

Entrance to Wells Cave

Jorge and Rich Pagels were waiting around all day to do something since they are not vertical cavers so i wanted to make sure we were able to get something horizontal in before it got too late. I got back and Laura, Rich, Jorge, and myself got to Wells cave in good time. We rigged a hand line and descended the 12-15 ft pit to the bottom walking passage.

Typical walking passage in Wells Cave

We followed the 2000 ft cave going over break down sections and cross the stream passage at times. We made it the the helicitite rooms where there are small clusters of helictites growing on the ceilings. It was a beautiful place.

helictite clusters on the ceiling in Wells Cave.

This was nice to see as they were small in size but clustered up in a group which made them look like a series of circuits. We continued down to the stream passage where we followed that up and down breakdown sections to the section where we had to crawl on our bellies. We got through the crawling and found ourselves in a room full of formations.

Laura crawling to the formation room in Wells Cave

The formation room had a small trail that took you through the center of the formations which was a nice way to tour and continue on to the back of the cave.

Formation room in Wells Cave

We got the end of the cave and turned around to find ourselves taking a wrong turn which took us to an upper level of Wells Cave. We realized it fast and back tracked to where we were before and made it out of the cave with no problem.

The following day we got up to eat breakfast which took longer than expected. We made the decision to go to Devils Graveyard but since I have already been there, I decided to look for Devils Dungeon. We followed the road to the landowner property where the cave is located and found the landowners to not be home. We decided not to go on their property as there were no trespassing signs everywhere and shotguns shells laying around, didn't quite feel like getting shot at today. We ended up going home and thinking about the good times we had at Capers this year. We made some new friends and got to cave with old friends which made for a wonderful weekend!!