ADAM HAYDOCK

We got up early in Bedford and headed north to one of the most northern caves in Indiana, Porter Cave.  We talked to the landowners and they allowed us access to the cave which was really nice of them.  This cave use to be a small commercial cave where people could view the entrance and walk through from the back it has since collapsed and has not been taken care of much.

The entrance was impressive!! A waterfall lightly falling over a ledge and a large entrance into a water passage.  sooo cool!!! I was so impressed with this as I remember Zion having slot canyons similar to this and never thought anything like this would exist anywhere around here like this!!

We continued to walk in the passage and there were some formations on the wall and small potholes that were dug out from recent water action.

This cave was rather short as after like a half hour we came up to a sand beach area and saw the exit of the cave.

We continued on past this where there was a sand crawl but we turned back as we wanted to visit another cave in the area called Lost Boy Cave.

This is a great place to stop before the end of a caving trip and I highly recommend coming here at least once!!!!!

We went the other way and it was mainly a stoop walking and water hands and knees crawl that banged up my knees pretty good

We continued on and got to a small canyon room that was full of flowstone!!!

 

This was amazing and soo beautiful, I never seen anything like this or imagined anything like this would be in Indiana!!

We stopped at the end of this section but the water continued to travel down under a tight belly crawl passage.

We took a picture here and started to head out as we wanted to get back on the road and back to Chicago in good time.  I want to thank Richard Pagels for taking me on this first time cave trip in Indiana and the great memories that I will now have as I am full speed ahead with the lifestyle of caving now.



I woke up super early so I could make it to Richard Pagels house and meet up with him so we could carpool and drive out to south central Indiana to go on a caving trip.  There are hundreds of cave systems just in Indiana alone so I was so excited to finally be going on my first Indiana trip! 

We met up with a few other people including Tom Campbell and headed to the parking spot for Suicide Cave. We the cave itself got its name from a guy that committed suicide almost 100 years ago from a police chase.  We unlocked the cave and entered the which was a beautiful entrance.  We locked ourselves in so nobody else could get in and we headed into the cave.

The cave was about a half mile to the end of the system and consisted of a meandering dry passage with some interesting challenges and a lot of formations at the end of the cave.

We took a few side canyon routes to continue to check out the cave which was also an interesting view.  I was fascinated to see slot canyons and beautiful formations everywhere!!!

We finally made it to the end of the cave and had lunch.  Afterwards we started to head back out of the cave and saw some more interesting artifacts as we left.

We headed out of the cave and were out in around 6 hours from when we started. WOW !!! I can get into this for sure!! I am so happy that this is only four hours from Chicago!!

We headed to a hotel and prepared ourselves for another cave called porter and lost boy cave on Sunday's trip.

 

I have heard about the cenotes of the Yukatan but I never had a chance to dive any of them since I have been diving the shipwrecks in the great lakes and some ocean dives here and there.   I was staying at a nice hotel called the xcaret and I got a chance to go on two dives in the cenotes of Chac Mool.  I was so freaking excited about it I couldn't believe it!!  we made it to the center and we walked our dive gear down to the entrance.  Whaaa!! the waters are so freaking blue and it was so peaceful around the entrance. This is so amazing.  I jumped in and we did a dive check before descending on into my first cenote ever. I was so impressed with how this place looked with the sun beams penetrating through the entrance and the crystal clear 74 degree blue water.  We ended up going to Little Brother which is another cenote in the area of Chuc Mool as well. I had a freaking blast and I cant wait to do this again

 



 We set out to visit a couple wrecks near middle island in Thunder bay, the DM Wilson and the Nordmeer.

 

She was going to Milwaukee with a cargo of coal when she starting sinking due to a torn fissue in the haul.  She was towed toward shore but foundered in 40 ft. of water. 

 

 A lot of the wreck was salvaged and she was damaged more 10 years later from ice but her 1894 foundering has left her windlass and more of her remains pretty well in tact.

 when I got into the water, the temperature was around 55 degree and dropped to the mid 40s after passing the thermocline.  What was fascinating about this thermocline is that I dropped my camera diffuser and as it sank to the bottom I saw it suspended at around 30 ft which was right at the thermocline line.

 The water actually became dense enough to hold this diffuser suspended in water and was incredible to see that happen!

 I highly recommend these two dives for people that want to visit some recreational shipwrecks that are unique to the Great Lakes.

Around 7 miles off shore, the shipwreck of the Nordmeer lies scattered about on a shoal platform at a depth of around 40ft. She was a Salty transporting Rolled Steel and simply ran aground November 19th, 1966. 

 

 Some of her crew stayed on the wreck but eventually left when a storm came a tore teh haul apart scattering the wreck. 

 

Ice and water enhanced this wreck to twist the steel into a diver paradise of artifacts to view, shallow warmish waters to enjoy and lots of artifacts to observe at you swim through the torn wreckage.

Today some of the vessal can be seen from the surface and until recently, people could camp inside some of the wreckage and have until ice and water had their ultimate resolve aganist the salty.

 

The large steel engine remains along with a controversial barge that attempted to haul steel from the wreckage but ended up sinking next to the Nordmeer.