ADAM HAYDOCK

Pictures featured on travel Wisconsin http://www.travelwisconsin.com/rafting-tubing/kickapoo-river-200506



Bluffs on the Kickapoo River



The Kickapoo River got its name from the Algonquin Indians which means "One who goes here, than there".  The crooked meandering river starts near Mill Bluff State Park and 126 miles later becomes a tributary of the Wisconsin river.  There are some springs and other creeks that feed into the Kickapoo River but back in the last ice age, glacial meltwater ran down cutting valleys and gorges which has cut a valley/ravine through the southwest Wisconsin Driftless area known today as the Kickapoo River. The scenery was as expected, beautiful!!!

As we cut the banks around the twisty bends of the Kickapoo river, we come across decent sized bluffs with hanging gardens of rare ferns and moss.  The marshlands and the valley of the Kickapoo hold some unique flora and fauna to enjoy while you meander down the lazy river.  We encountered a few small places where the water picked up but I wouldn't really class it as a class one.

We continued down past wildcat mountain and found ourselves losing the crowds at the take out points along the way.  It was really nice to have the river just us which also made it easy to find a good camping location.

We woke up early from camping and got back onto the water so we can make good time back to the car and onto our final location for the trip at Buckhorn State Park.  We continued on our trip down the river enjoying the heat of the sun and the coolness the canyon bluffs offered us.

We came across a spot on a bluff where we could all jump into the water and enjoy a nice break from the canoes.  Properly named "Adventure Cove" for the cavern like indentation in the bluff, we continued on the Kickapoo River into the Kickapoo Valley preserve area.

We continued to see bluffs with hanging gardens all the way down to Lafarge which was nice as well as having time to tie our canoes together to enjoy good company and stimulating conversation.

The trip was nearing its end as we made our final bends around to the take out point at Lafarge.  22 miles of memories, nature, adventure, and good times with friends made this trip a wonderful experience.

We woke up early Friday morning so we could get a jump on the labor day traffic and get our relaxing weekend started in Wisconsin’s southwest region.  We made it through before the herds of labor day weekenders and got to our first location on the trip, Parfay’s Glen. 

  Parfay’s Glen has some unique features that belong to this particular gorge in the Baraboo hills. This is the first state Natural Area of Wisconsin which has Cambrian strata conglomerate stone layers made of quartzite and sandstone that have been embedded into the gorge walls. 

 We hiked up and through the canyon past the waterfall about a quarter mile and completed our traverse back.  The groups of people started showing up there ( which was expected) but it wasn't the madhouse carnival ride line it could have been which was nice.   The canyon provides an opportunity for rare species of flora to grow on the walls as seepage and cooler conditions can be found within the gorge.  We were in the gorge for a couple hours and decided to head out knowing that the checkout lines will be flowing with humanity.  We wanted to make sure we got to Wildcat Mountain State Park before nightfall.



    After a few wrong mis orientations with Iphone GPS and a camping stop, we made it to Wildcat Mountain State Park.  We had 8 more people showing up so we got a group site which turned out to be a really nice large camping site with lots of room.  After we set up camp, we got to the Observation Point where we were able to see quite a distance into the hills of Ontario Wisconsin.

We could see the Kickapoo River from the top meandering its way through the valley below.  We decided to drive down to see the river and check out the "Ice Cave".  The Ice Cave was a depression in a small bluff with a dripping waterfall that seems to flow after a rain storm.  I wasn't rally impressed with the Ice Cave and I don't even consider this feature to be an Ice Cave.  It is worth checking out if nothing else is going on as it is 5 minutes from the state park and a 5 minute walk to this feature.  We stayed up until everyone showed up while we watched the stars, gazed at the  lighting clouds from the huge storms passing to the south of us, as well as the faint site of the Milky Way Galaxy.  We all got to bed around 2 AM and woke up super early for the main event of the weekend, The Kickapoo River. 

FLICKR PARFAY'S GLEN: http://www.flickr.com/photos/exploration-worldwide/sets/72157635363981077/

FLICKR WILDCAT MOUNTAIN STATE PARK: http://www.flickr.com/photos/organize/?start_tab=one_set72157635365171283
 

 Warren Dunes is located near Sawyer Michigan right near the border of Indiana but still on the Michigan Side. This is a beautiful location to visit some Holocene glacial action, enjoy some sun on a excellent beach front, pretend you are in the desert as you are actually in a desert environment, and climb the famous hill at the entrance which appears to be between 200-300ft up.

 The dunes are sand deposits from the receding glaciers that left miles of sand on the Southern Lake Michigan Shoreline which extends for 60-80 miles when the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is included.

 The sand deposits at the warren dunes are more impressive IMO, than some of the other deposit locations on the great lakes with the exception of the Grand Sable Dunes on Lake Superior.

 The environment reminded me of a Barron desert in some location with deep sand hills that reach in excess of 200ft in some location.

 There were plenty of places to find solitude in the extensive trail system in the Warren Dunes as well as an interesting flora culture set back from the hinterland to the beach front.

 I went to visit the Warren Dunes on a yearly basis for the last 5 years and It was always fun to run up and down the large hit at the entrance where dead trees stand out like large toothpicks as you slide down with every step you take.

 The Dunes here have a lot more desert environment than the other dunes in the area so I highly recommend this place for anyone who wants to get away from the city.

 When the sun would set you could see the sand ripples sculpting the sand and the sun casting a orange liek fiery reflection over the dunes.

 I truly enjoyed visiting the dunes and camping at the campground which is attached to the dunes from the back.

 Enjoy this place with confidence knowing you will find a whole lot of good stuff to do here and enjoy a nature preserve with beautiful scenery and interesting flora.

 Last day in TAG before we headed home on a drive that turned out to be the longest 12 hours we have ever experienced, we decided to go to South Pittsburg Pit and bounce this one as it was on the way home.  We got to the parking spot and followed the dirt trail up to a connector trail that took us to the entrance of this 160 ft drop.  I finally go to use my rope and all the other pits required rope longer the 250 ft.  We rigged the drop and set up a redirect on a pulley to avoid rope abrasion.  Noboru and I descended this pit and saw this from the bottom.

 All of the walls from the bottom were lit up from the sun which made this pit a very unique open air experience for us.  It was a nice last pit on our trip to see the reflecting light coming off the damp cave walls and looking at the canyon passage behind us

 We went back to a small water fall and free climbed into a crawl that leads to more dome rooms and passage but decided to turn around so we could save some more time and I didn't want to drag my gear through the mud anymore than I had already.  There was a rope to assist the waterfall climb so I used it to descend and Noboru climbed down.  Noboru got on rope and ascended up the pit and I followed quickly afterwards. 

 We got back to the car and started out on our estimated long 9 hr drive back home to Chicago when we ran into some of the worst traffic jams I have ever seen.  We were at a dead stop and the side streets were pouring over with people trying to get around the traffic so which ever way you went, it was a complete shit show. We stopped of for some excellent bar b que ended up making it home around midnight thinking about that we were just on one hell of a trip for summer TAG.  I want to thank Colin for making this trip happen, Laura and Noboru for driving and all working as a team as well as the "TA TA's" for just being the TA TA's! keep your teeth clean and we will see everyone soon.!!!

We got a chance to sleep in a bit more and catch up on some rest for the trip out to Green's Well.  This cave was about an hour and a half drive from Chattanooga but once we got to the landowners property, we geared up and had a swift but mildly challenging ascent up the mountain to the cave location.  It was not as hot out as it was the day before which made it nice but the humidity was up there so again, I was sweating like crazy.  We rigged the drop with a redirect and pigs tail for tandem climbing which helped save a bit of time in the 227 ft drop. Once I descended down the pit,  the water from the waterfall at the top started to expand out so once at the bottom it was like you were in a rain storm, a cold but a beautiful rain storm as you looked up to see the sun entering from the hole in the ground and reflecting off the wet cave walls.

 This was one of the more impressive slot canyons I have ever seen with the layers of Chert embedded into the scalloped rock showing signs of major flooding through this cave when the water levels are high.

 I was very impressed with this cave but it was getting rather cold even with a rain jacket on so we had everyone ascend out without a problem. While we were waiting for everyone to ascend the cave Laura, Noboru, and I went to Maxwell Cave just up the mountain.

 This cave had an impressive entrance with water flowing out and down into another insurgence which is said to feed Green's Well.  The water from Greens well flows down inside the mountain to Doug Green Cave which has a waterfall inside but we were not able to get the time to check out this cave.

Inside Maxwell Cave reminded me a bit of the caves in Puerto Rico as it was a bit warm and a lot of old looking formations with a stream running through it.  I went to the back of the cave where their appeared to be a sump that seems to keep going.  Maybe sometime in the future I can come back to this and check it out.

 Afterwards, We went to the landowners house to share pictures and stories about our trip into greens well as well as celebrate good times with friends both old and new.  Has anyone seen the movie teeth?

FLICKR: http://www.flickr.com/photos/exploration-worldwide/sets/72157634955930121/

FLICKR: http://www.flickr.com/photos/exploration-worldwide/sets/72157634955360437/

 

We drove an hour and a half from Conley Hole to Chattanooga TN so we could check in, grab the key and proceed to one of the biggest waterfall pit caves in the world, Mystery Falls!!!  Mystery Falls use to be a commercial cave back in the day and they had a system that would lower people, one at a time, down this pit cave to the bottom where they would be able to view the falls from above.  Someone fell and died on this mechanical system so they closed the cave and placed concrete at the 295 ft drop from the surface.  There was another entrance made which has a small water walking passage to the drop at 270 ft.

 There was a large rock and bolts in the wall which we rigged to everything which gave us redundancy for tandem climbing this pit but took some more time to build.

Another interesting feature about this place is that you can plug the water fall so the water stops flowing and allow a reservoir of water to build up.  Why would you want to do this?  because when you are at the bottom and the water is released you get this MASSIVE surge of water that comes crashing down which was absolutely amazing to see!!!! AMMAAZING!!!!!!!!!!

Waterfall at Mystery Falls from the bottom

The pictures I got were not the best because my Canon G12 only works for smaller rooms and this room has just massive! I used all my lights and I still could not get the right shot for this cave. At the bottom was the old carriage system they used which they seemed to have left at the bottom along with some small passage that choked out on either side.

One by one people descended this waterfall pit and the only thing you could see at times was their headlamps lighting up the walls as they dropped deeper to the center of the mountain.

 It was one hell of an experience for me climbing out of Mystery Falls.  I was using a frog system and I was able to stop to view the massive flowstone formations along the way as I ascended on rope. It is still fascinating to see the stratified rock slabs that the water has carved away in this mountain creating this massive hole. As I ascended to the surface level, I was thinking to myself that this is just incredible to see how water can form some of the most amazing places and also made me wonder how many more swiss cheese mountains are in the TAG region yet to be discovered..

We woke up super early to make sure we fit two massive caves into our schedule for the day, Conley Hole and Mystery Falls.  Conley Hole is a 161 ft drop into a large dome room with some interesting features at the bottom and mystery falls is a 270 ft drop into a HUGE waterfall room.
We met up with Colin Gatland, Tama Cassidy, Tammy Otten, and Traci Miklos Hacker for this challenging day of hiking and vertical caving into some of the worlds best caves. We were eating breakfast and Chris the "Wet Turtle" gave us the terrible news that his car is leaking gasoline and he is going to have to get his car back to Bloomington so he can get it fixed, sucks bro!! I wish you made it to these holes in the mountains. 

Adam Haydock Hiking up to Conley Hole Tennessee

Down to seven people, We all geared up and made it over to the parking lot of Conley Hole.  It was a hot and humid day as we walked up hill in a field of grass with the sun beating down on us until we got to the the forest.  We made our ascent to the mountain so we could get to Conley Hole which was a sweat box.  It was a bit of a Gut check carrying all the gear plus the 375 ft of rope needed for the drop but we made it to the entrance of Conley Hole. My clothes were drenched from sweating my ass off on the way up the mountain, I almost felt like my body is allergic to water.  It was ridiculous.

 We rigged two ropes so we could get in and out to save time for Mystery Falls which worked out pretty well. Everyone descended down to the large dome room and we all walked around in shock at the site of how large this dome room was. It reminded me of the rooms in Puerto Rico.



The Dome was massive and had some interesting flowstone features and hoodoo carved mud with rocks resting on top which is something I have never seen in a cave before.

 There was also a huge flowstone feature that appeared to be a place to climb but we didn't have any time to try that out. Next time!

We all ascended out of Conley Hole so we could get to Mystery Falls at a good hour as this was going to be one hell of a cave to rig and drop.