ADAM HAYDOCK

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.

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.

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.

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

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.



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.

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

 Around 20,000 years ago the glaciers receded back into the Lake Michigan Basin and deposited these sand hills which rendered this massive amount of sand we can find today at the National Lakeshore.

 As the receded, there were points where the dunes created kettle ponds which can be found today in the form of small swamps located within the National Lakeshore.

 There are around 45 miles of trails that extend through the Lakeshore and the lakeshore itself is around 25 miles from tip to tip.

 It was a nice hike to go through the sand trails and view how the trees grew out from the dunes.  The sand hills in the woods are a bit hilly but they are not to difficult.

 We hiked through some of the trails and enjoyed the unique Flora that we found in the hinterland and the beach front.

The lake water can be quite cold even in the summer and rip currents do exist out in Lake Michigan so if you venture into the water, be careful of the wave action.

 If you have a boat, you can set of the coast to find the shipwrecks preserved in the sand lake bottom at around 30ft. which included the shipwreck of the J.D. Marshal.

  This is a wonderful place to visit as it is only a couple of hours from Chicago and absolutely worth at least one visit.

 This is also a great destination for people to hangout at the beach and enjoy the long stretch of sand with sections where people hangout and other sections where people can find solitude.

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. 

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. 

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!!

Right after Easy Pit we made it over to the location where Wilson's Pit has eroded its way to the surface.  This is a 100 ft pit where 30ft is on a ledge and another 80 ft is a free fall down a large borehole pit.  Rappelling this pit was a nice because you pass stratified rock layers which was like taking an elevator tour back in time to see where the rock layers laid down their sediments.  This was a nice pit!! Best Pit I have been to in Indiana for sure. 

The bottom was carved out from a waterfall trickle and there was a slot canyon that one could follow. Everyone in the group scaled to the top of  a ledge where you could watch other people come down and ascend up.

Beyond this section it ends in a breakdown full of flowstone and fallen formations