ADAM HAYDOCK

The night before I went to visit Danyele, Chris, and Tymme, to bounce Cadillac Pit and get some caving in but today was the project day.  Chris Parks, Adam Haydock, and Sam Frushour went over to the Raccoon Creek resurgence to dive and start to map a cave system that is beyond this sump.

The entrance had to be dug out a bit but 450 ft. of line was layed down at a depth of between 3ft. and 8 ft with around 3-4ft of viz going in and Zero viz coming out of the dive. Sam when down and layed the primary line down on the previous line that was still down there. I followed Sam and Chris followed me as we descended down into this restricted passage of breakdown and bad viz which quickly turned into a line drill going in.  We were bumping into boulders and we worked our way through this passage until we finally popped out in air passage!! Nice!!  the ceiling must have been 6-7 ft by 6-7 ft wide and the air passage meandered around a bend and went back underwater at a distance of are 500-600 ft. we had to slog and crawl through the mud and found that just crawling through the mud soup was better than attempting to walk through it.  We continued to descend for another 600-700 ft of similar underwater passage as we encountered before until we camp up to another air passage that was a bit bigger than the last one. There were not many formations on the walls but it was interesting to have to continue to traverse and pop back up in air passage.  We decided to turn around and take some measurements as we exited the cave but from what I understand, this cave continues back under for another 1000ft and keep going!  No doubt we will be returning to this to pursue the sump.

It was quite the experience coming out of this sump as viz was zero and it was a complete line drill while bumping tanks into the passages as we worked our way out.  I cant wait to go back here!

After my Chicago Police examination I made it over to Indiana to meet up with Chris Parks, Danyele, Tymme, and we headed over to Cadillac Pit. 

We had a chance to bounce this pit before nightfall and got a chance to see the stars come out which was fantastic.

Dave Everton invited me over to his place and allowed me to stay at his house for the night which was super awesome of him.  He was very welcoming and just one of those world class guys that are hard to find.  Super awesome!!! 

 

 

Guy Strover Pit Dave Everton

We leave for corydon and meet up with a bunch of other cavers including Gary, Tim McClain, Tim Pride, Tray, Shane, and Rand for a trip down through guy strover and into the Binkley system where a new discovery has uncovered some of the most amazing Ice Age Bones ever discovered. 

 

Guy Strover Pit Binkley Cave

 We get to the Landowners property and descend Guy Strover Pit which is a small 20ft pit that use to be filled with garbage. All of this garbage was removed and the entrance was re opened. Each of us descend into the cave and continue our crawl through back breaking breakdown crawls filled halfway with water and nasty mud crawls that took a few hours for us to get through until we finally made it into the borehold passage of Binkley cave.

 

Connection to Binkley Pit Photo by Dave Everton

 We continued to proceed down the passage as this actually cut out miles of cave.  This passage that we went through is a short cut and now we are just a few hours away from big bone mountain discovery.  we meandered around the stream passage in the river and continued to follow the cave up to a series of small waterfalls and a few breakdown rooms.  

 

 We snapped a few photos along the way and into this room. 

Soon after we came to another junction that took us to a crossroad where another connection was made from another part of the cave.   The Binkley System is over 37 miles and continues to grow by the mile!!  It is one of the most amazing systems in america.

 

Shane in Binkey Cave

 

We continue on and pass by some passages and eventually we get to a side passage that a couple of the cavers are working on to connect Blowing Hole Cave to the Binkley System. The rest of us go into the mountain room by climbing up into this large room.

 

Gary in Binkley Cave

  We are about 6 hours into our trip.  Tray takes me to the bottom corner of the room and there is where the bones are located.  

WOW!!! there are so many artifacts that must have been either washed into the cave or have found themselves in for reasons that are still not known.  

 

Ice Age Black Bear in Big Bone Mountain Room Binkley Cave

The bones were found to be the Peccary Pig and Bison bones when these mammals use to roam the region 15,000 years ago. some of these bone are some of the best specimins that have ever been found!  It was a huge discovery so it am glad I am here to take photos of this discovery.   

Bear, Snake, and Owl Bones Big Bone Mountain room Binkley Cave

 MORE INFO ON THE DISCOVERY HERE: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/30/ice-age-bones-indiana-cave/2125323/

 

 After spending a couple hours taking photos and measurements of some of these bones we started to head out of the cave.

 

 We left at swift pace but before leaving I went to see how rand and Tim McLain were doing in the side passage by giving them a helping hand with influencing the rock to connect the passage to Blowing Hole Cave.

 

Ice Age Bones Big Bone Mountain Binkley Cave

 We all left the cave and swiftly made our way back to the connection and crawled through the water and back to the entrance of Guy Strover cave.

Ice Age Bones Big Bone Mountain Room Binkley Cave

 We all got out of the cave t around 12 hours after entering the cave system which was decent time for what we had done. I am so grateful we had the opportunity to go back to the big bone mountain room to view these bones and create new friends in the caving community thanks to Dave Everton.  You guys seriously Rock!!!!1

 Chicago is famous with its shipwrecks as this was a city that exported a significant amount of grain from the great plaines back to other states out on the eastern coast and overseas for produce.  Chicago was considered a hub for importing and exporting steel grains and other goods for the nations people and economy.

 We went to visit a few wrecks out on the lake which was a nice day to get out and swim around a bit in the cool waters and enjoy some of Chicago's great historic shipwrecks.  Most of the shipwrecks are what some might consider be "Piles of Wood" as I have heard that term used by other divers, which a lot of them are severly broken up debris fields BUT the historic significance of these shipwreck still take me back to the late 1880s when these handcrafted vessels carried supplies people relied on and the families of the crew supported hands as they played a crutial but risky role that unfortunately costed some of their lives.  If your not much of a history buff, than its always a bit interesting to get a group of divers to perform a successful dive in the cold dark waters of the great lakes which can be a lot of fun in itself.

 The Wells Burt is a rather intact shipwreck that sank in the 1880s and lies a few miles off shore off the north side beach in 30ft of water.  Its not that deep as it appears that it is a sand bar of sorts but the deck, railing, windlass, and other artifacts are in tact. The Mack was another shipwreck that we visited in 65ft. of water but this wreck is an artificial shipwreck which is a steel steamer and is pretty much in tact.  It is more of a play ground for divers and a good place to practice dive skills.  The Last Wreck we went to see is a shore snorkel out to the wreck of the silver spray.  This one sank in 1908 while carrying university of Chicago students as it hit the shoal on 43rd street beach.  From what I understand the Chef attempted to cook a meal for everyone so they would stay calm while the captain attempted to convice everyone that the ship was ok.  After an hour the crew caught on and took boats to the shore and the remaining crew abandoned the wreck while ice and waves destroyed the wreck over the next few years and the locals used the wood to build fires on the beaches.

 

I had the day off of work and it was a nice warm June day in Chicago so I wanted to get out on the water and dive the famous george Morley.

 

  We went to the harbor in Evenston and asked the lifeguards if we could visit the Shipwreck. 

 

We presented our C cards and produced a dive flag so we were granted access to visit the shipwreck. It was fun swimming out and searching for the freighter as there were no bouys placed to make the wreck site. 

 

 

The George Morley is about 150 yards off shore in about 20ft of water. Back in 1892 a year before the Chicago Exhibition, the wooden freighter caught fire on her way to Chicago.  The crew docked the boat at the old Greenwood Pier and the decision was made back out into the bay where it was pushed out and burned to the waterline.

 

We see a faint outline of a haul and upon swimming closer, we come up to the wreck of the Morley.  For a shroe dive in Chicago, i thought this one was rather intersting to visit as the haul boarding, fasteners, and skeletal reamins are still present but the keelson is under the sand. 

 

 The bowsprit and boom are visiable and the bowsprit almost pushed the surface waterline. We found some artifacts including a interesting bottle, but I decided to hide it back where I found it so others can enjoy discovering this artifact.

 

We were in the water for around 20 minutes or so and enjoyed our dive on the morley.  I recommend this wreck as one of the best shore dives on lake michigan and a great piece of history for all levels of divers to visit at least once.

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is a United States National Lakeshore located along the northwest coast of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan in Leelanau County and Benzie County.

The park covers a 35-mile (60-km) stretch of Lake Michigan's eastern coastline, as well as North and South Manitou Islands.

This northern Michigan park was established primarily because of its outstanding natural features, including forests, beaches, dune formations, and ancient glacial phenomena.

The Lakeshore also contains many cultural features including the 1871 South Manitou Island Lighthouse, three former Life-Saving Service/Coast Guard Stations and an extensive rural historic farm district.

The dunes are massive in size yet we were only able to see just a small portion of this natural wonder formed by the glacial deposits which created Lake Michigan. Going down Pyramid point was farther than I thought it would be and the shipwreck

I spotted was a bit farther than I anticipated but after getting to the wreck I didn’t want to leave anyone behind waiting at the top and have the biting flies get to her so I climbing back up to the dunes and it is no joke getting back up a 44 degree slope of sliding sand. 

 Eventually I made it back up and was able to truly see the vast landscape this natural wonder had to offer. I will be returning soon.