the cascade caver - alpental · the mt. st. helens red zone permit to come along on a spirit lake...

The Cascade Caver• Published by the Cascade Grotto of the National Speleological Society

Volume 26, No. 7 August-September 1987

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CASCADE CAYER

The CASCADE CAVER is published 10 times a year by the Cascade Grotto, a member of the NationalSpeleological Society. All correspondence should be sent to: The Cascade Grotto, P.O. Box75663, Seattle, WA 98125-0663.

Meetings: 7:00 pm on the third Friday of each month at the University of Washington,Room 6, in the basement of Johnson Hall. •

Officers: Chairman:Vice Chairman:Sec/Treasurer:Regional Rep:Storekeeper:Librarian:Map Librarian:Trip CoordinatorEditors:

Jim HarpJeff ForbesLarry McTigueBen TompkinsBob MartinLarry McTigueRod CrawfordMark WilsonMark ShermanBen Tompkins

(206) 745-1010

(206) 226-5357(206) 546-8025(206) 878-7634(206) 226-5357(206) 543-9853(206) 285-5724(206) 524-8780(206) 546-8025

Dues: Membership in the Cascade Grotto including subscription to the Cascade Caveris $7.50 per year. Dues for additional family members is $1.50. Subscriptionto the Cascade Caver only is $7.50 per year.

Please note the date on your mailing label that indicates when your duesexpire.

Overdue:Brown, Bob 5/87Crawford, Ed 6/87Crawford, Mary 6/87Crawford, Rod 6/87Gunsalus, J. 6/87Dr. E. Kiver 7/87

Due:Stitt, Rob 8/87Garnick, Dick 9/87Garnick, Mark 9/87Hoyt, Howard 9/87

Coming up:Balsdon, Sheila 10/87Brenner, Sue 10/87Cebell, Wayne 10/87Dickey, Fred 10/87James, Richard 10/87

Cover:

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Untitled drawing by Linda Heslop. Doesn't look like he's expecting a drycave!

Cascade Caver Vol 26 No.7, August-September 1987

CON TEN T S

UPCOMING EVENTS

GROTTO MEETING

NORTHWEST CAVING ASSOCIATION MEETING

1987 GRAPHICS ARTS SALON ••••

CASCADE CAVER PRODUCTION COSTS

A FLYING TRIP TO CAVES IN 8ELGIUM

80Y SCOUTS AT ST. HELENS

YUCATAN CAVES, 1987 STYLE

DOCK BUTTE TRIP REPORT

HIDDEN CAVE PUZZLE

UPCOMING EVENTS

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Oct ? Mark Wilson wants to set up aVancouver Island caving tripsometime in October. Check withMark for details.

this weekend, according to BobBrown. Bob is planning to be therewith the NCRI Chuckwagon. Checkwith Bob at 579-2724 for details.

Oct 3,4 There will be a trip to Spirit Lakeon one of these days. You must bealready on the Mt. St. Helens RedZone Permit to come along. Oct.4th. Call Bill Halliday byTuesday, Oct 29 if interested.

Oct 3-4 Dick Garnick is thinking of aridgewalk and sink hop on Mt.McGuire. Check with Dick at 671-1066 if interested.

Nov ?

Nov 20

Nov 21

Mark Wilson is looking into anothertrip to Vancouver Island some timein November. Call Mark if you areinterested.

GROTTO MEETING

Pre-Holiday Potluck at Dr. Hal-liday's place. Oregon Grotto andVICEG are being invited. ContactJim Harp to coordinate potluckdishes.

Oct 10-11 Rob Lewis, Gerry Thompson, and DickGarnick are thinking of a deep tripin Newton Cave on Cave Ridge.Vertical experience required.

Oct 16 GROTTO MEETING

Nov 27-29 Pot of Gold, Idaho. A bit of adrive but definitely a tube to see.Arrangements must be made inadvance so call Mark Wilsonimmediately if interested.

Oct 17 Black Mountain. See Dick Garnick.

Oct 17-18 Some Oregon Grotto folks areplanning to visit Windy Creek Cave

Cascade Caver Vol 26 No.7, August-September 1987 63

GROTTO MEETINGSBen Tompkins

The August meeting was fairly short,wasn't there and didn't receive any notesabout it. Thirteen people attended theSeptember meeting. I arrived late and leftearly but noted the following items.

The garage sale brought in $165.Money was allocated for a rubber stamp

for the grotto library to mark its books.Bill Halliday invited anyone already on

the Mt. St. Helens Red Zone Permit to comealong on a Spirit Lake trip on Oct. 3rd orOct. 4th.

The winter banquet was chosen to be apotluck at Bill Halliday's on Sat., Nov. 21.

A motion was made to support the vote atthe last regional on changing the abbrevia-tion of the Northwest Caving Association fromN.W.C.A. to N.C.A. but it was defeated 11-1.

NORTHWEST CAVING ASSOCIATION MEETINGBen Tompkins

A board meeting of the Northwest CavingAssociation was held at the Regional last Mayand I just now realized that I never made anofficial report of it to the grotto.

The meeting was held May 22, 1987, atthe Peterson Prairie Campground near TroutLake, Washington. Board members present wereBob Brown, Chairman; Ben Tompkins, CascadeGrotto; Tom Currie, Gem State Grotto; DavidKlinger, Glacier Grotto; Laura Poulsen,Oregon Grotto; Dale Green, Salt Lake Grotto;and Graham Heslop, V.I.C.E.G. Wasatch Grottowas not represented.

Minutes of the August 31, 1986 meetingwere quickly approved and there was no oldbusiness mentioned.

To begin the new business, secretaryDave Klinger suggested an administrativechange to the bylaws to correct the abbrevia-tion of the Northwest Caving Association fromN.W.C.A to N.C.A.

The date and place of the next meetingwas discussed and set for Memorial Dayweekend (May 29-30, 1988) at Gordon River onVancouver Island, British Columbia. VICEGwill host the meeting.

Steve Sprague reported that the North-west Cave Research Institute (NCRI) isnegotiating with the National Park Service atJewel Cave, SO, to conduct an inventory andcave radio location project in 1988.

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Bob Brown outlined the progress of theNCRI Bighorn Project and encouraged everyoneto support it.

Mark Wilson expressed concerns aboutseveral issues of importance to all NSSmembers including the closure of Trout RockCaves in Virginia, excessive multiple termsfor NSS Board members, and NSS support forthe American Cave Conservation Association(ACCA) - some of whose members appear to beanti-NSS. All but the last of these issueshave been well covered in the NSS News.

Bob Brown also spoke at length aboutthese issues. He was especially concernedabout the strong resistance by the ACCA tothe Bighorn Project and the anti-NSS presen-tations given by the ACCA to government landowning agencies.

It was noted that the new Federal CaveLaw has been introduced in Congress. Moreinformation can be found in the NSS News.

Bob also reminded us that the way thatthe membership can influence the operation ofthe NSS is through the Congress of Grottos.All NSS members should make sure that issuesabout which they feel strongly are presentedand supported in the Congress of Grottos.

The final item of business was electionof officers for the 1987-1988 year. Electedwere Chairman Bob Brown; Vice Chairman BenTompkins; Secretary Dave Klinger; andTreasurer Phil Whitfield.

Thanks to Dave Klinger for minutes ofthe meeting.

1987 GRAPHICS ARTS SAlONTwo of our Cascade Caver covers with

drawings by Linda Heslop were submitted tothe non-photographic category of this year'sGraphics Arts Salon at the convention. Thesewere the first two on the Honorable Mentionlist. Congratulations, Linda!

Medal Winner:Desert Caver, Nov-86, Escabrosa Grotto

Merit Award:Nylon Highway, #23, Vertical SectionThe Explorer, Dec-86, S. California GrottoThe Birmingham Grotto Newsletter, Feb-86The Birmingham Grotto Newsletter, Apr-86

Honorable MentionCascade Caver, Vol 25 No.10, Cascade GrottoCascade Caver, Vol 25 No.II-12,Cascade Grotto

11 others


Table 1Cascade Caver Costs

A FLYING TRIP TO CAVES IN BELGIUMWilliam R. Halliday, M.D.

CASCADE CAVER PRODUCTION COSTSMark Sherman

Since there are suppose to be 10 issuesper year that works out to about $330 peryear.

Antiparos, reached from Athens via hydrofoilthen local boat. I had recently been toItaly and Spain while France, Britain, andSwitzerland require more time. Belgium was areal possibility and Jan Paul van der Pas,the world's leading spe1eophi1ate1ist, livesjust across the border in southern Holland.

.1 called Jan Paul and he said, "Sure,come on. I'll take you caving and we'll havea party." So I did. I left Nashville atnoon on a Friday in September, changed planesin New York and again unexpectedly in London(The pilot aborted the take-off twice so theyhad to find us another plane.) This made usa bit late getting to Brussels but Jan Paulwas at the airport and the caves of theArdennes were just 45 minutes away.

Because of the delay we didn't do muchwild caving and saw only two commercial cavesbefore the party that night at Jan Paul'shome in Holland. The Grottoes de Han is avery nice commercial cave with a long boattrip at the exit complete with a small-borecannon to bring forth the echoes. Lots ofpretties and some large, impressive rooms.Nearby is a speleological museum, mostlyexhibiting archeological material retrievedby cave diving in the exit stream - modern,old, Roman, prehistoric - it's all there.

A few miles away is the less developedGrotto de Rochefort, all developed along asingle steeply dipping passage that leadsdown to a room with some pretties. Under-ground balloon ascents have been held fordecades in this room for the amusement ofvisitors. The room is probably more than 50feet high. The guide mentioned that there isanother similar room nearby that only old-time local cavers ever get to see.

At the foot of the bluff below theGrotte de Rochefort, Jan Paul showed me oneof their training caves. It is a swa1letcave below the level of the nearby creek,which is known to disrupt caving plans whenit rains. It has a very classical entrancewhich quickly narrows into muddy crawlways.

We drove on, through miles of rollinglimestone reminiscent of the topography ofthe Ozarks but more densely populated andwith the rock moderately to steeply tilted.Cave stories were much like those of the USA- cavers are pretty much the same allover.In the gathering dusk we made brief stops atone cave or another and crossed into Hollandwithout stopping. There isn't even a customspost there any more. And then we arrived atJan Paul's home for the fine party just aspromised.

$ 4.00$ 1.54$ 0.60$ 0.50$ 0$26.42

$33.06

PaperEnvelopesMailing LabelsPrinter RibbonPrinting CostPostage

Total Cost

I've been editor now for a little over 5years and nobody (except for the treasurers)has ever asked me how much it costs to puttogether the Caver. Since this is by far thelargest expenditure the grotto has, it isprobably time everyone sees where their moneyis going.

The numbers in the table below are foran average issue of the Caver which is 10pages. I am also assuming an average of 65issues mailed out per month.

The Frequent Flyer awards of theairlines are wonderful things. I cashed in60,000 miles on my TWA Frequent Flyer accountto attend the August, 1986 InternationalCongress of Spe1eo10gy in Spain. This gaveme two free round-trip tickets to Europe orthe Near East. I used one of these for theBarcelona trip so now what to do with theother before it expired. There are all kindsof delightful possibilities, some of whichobviously requiring more time than I hadfree.

There are the intricately carved cavesnear Bombay - TWA goes there but it wouldhave taken nearly a week. The wonderful saltcave in Israel? TWA goes there but it wouldhave taken too long to make contact withIsraeli spe1eo10gists and would have requireda very long weekend. Same for the cave of

Cascade Caver Vol 26 No.7, August-September 1987 65

We got up at 6 a.m. for the quick I-hourtrip to the Brussels airport but dense foghad settled over all the lowlands. Insteadof zooming in as Jan Paul normally does wecrept to the airport to find it closed asexpected. By noon the plane arrived fromLondon and by 10 p.m. I was back in Nashvilleafter plane changes in Washington D.C. andAtlanta.

Obviously this is not the best way tosee the caves of the Ardennes but it was agreat way to go when only having a 2 dayweekend and faced with losing a free trip.

BOY SCOUTS AT ST. HELENSBen Tompkins

My son's Boy Scout Troop soundedinterested in seeing some caves so I took thetroop camping at Mt. St. Helens for theweekend of June 19-21. A lot of kids weregone for the summer so we ended up with 8kids and 5 adults, including myself and SteveSprague of the Cascade Grotto.

We set up camp Friday evening and droveto Ape Cave after breakfast the next morning.Most of the boys were young, having justentered the troop, and getting from one endof the easy walking cave to the other becamean exercise in herd control.

There was a constant flow of highsChool-age kids coming and going while wewere there, hiking up the trail to the upperentrance in the rain, dressed in t-shirts andjeans and carrying 3 or 4 flashlights perdozen. Some of the Scouts wanted to know whyI had them all dressed up in warm clothes,hard hats, and helmet lights when everybodyelse was so casually dressed. They figuredit out for themselves when we got to placesthat were smaller and wetter and they hittheir heads on the ceiling.

Saturday afternoon I took four of theolder boys and two of the adults to LittleRed River Cave. The mud flow is continuingto revegetate and as usual I missed the cavebut not by much. The blueberries and wildstrawberries made up for the minor incon-venience.

Red River Ralph, the Decomposing Bunny,was now a few darkened bones around whichsomeone had placed a ring of stones. At thebottom of the cave I pulled out a garbage bagand we started collecting trash, beginningwith the champagne bottle, cork, and twocandles sitting next to the lake. We ended

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up with about a cubic foot of garbage in alland I managed to get that stupid bottle outin one piece.

At the top of the upper lava fall wefound the ripe but otherwise intact remainsanother aspiring aviator. Red River Ralph IIhad survived his first flying lesson longenough to crawl considerably deeper in thecave than his predecessor.

Sunday morning I took the other fourboys and two adults to the same cave.Campfire stories of rotting rabbits, gory redwaters, and 50-ft vertical walls to climb hadthese kids well prepared for the adventure.We were hardly in the entrance before theywanted to know where the bunny was. Idistracted them temporarily by suggestingthat if they found any garbage that we missedon last night's trip they could have a goodha-ha on the older boys.

Again we failed to see the second bunnyon the way down even though everybody waslooking for it. But we did find two dozen orso spent .22 shells at the edge of the lake.Some searching around also turned up onemangled bullet.

Ralph II was easily spotted on thereturn trip and we stopped to make a circleof stones around him to match his predeces-sor.

When we got back to camp it was stilltoo early to head home. After breaking campand packing up, we drove back to the LavaCast Picnic Area where we polished off theweekend with a watermelon feed, raced aroundthe boardwalk, climbed down the ladders, andcrawled through the lava casts.

YUCATAN CAVES. }987 STYlEWilliam R. Halliday, M.D.

The current Continental Airlines couponssold by Safeway are providing a marvelousopportunity to fly at very low rates toMexico from the Pacific Northwest. So acouple of us took off for Yucatan on August17 and found it a wonderful introduction to awonderful region and its fascinating caves.The area is opening up fast, with new pavedroads where only goat tracks existed recent-ly. Commercial caves and cenotes are openingup especially rapidly as tourist attractions.One east of Holca has even opened and alreadyclosed, leaving only a sign on a bar to tellanyone of its existence.


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We stopped at every cave we could findalong the way but missed Cenote Dzitnup, afew km southwest of Valladolid. This cave isillustrated in the tourist map of Yucatan butthere were no road signs for it.

The trip went very well. On August 17,we flew from Seattle to Houston to Cancun.Cancun was bulging at the seams with touristsbut we got a room at a Best Western hotel.After a quick dip we took the rental car intotown, bought supplies, and tried Yucatan-style food: marvelous. We recommend theRestaurant Uxmal but do not drive in the townof Cancun after dark if you can avoid it.Also don't forget to confirm your returnticket.

We were up early on the 18th and droveon to Chichen Itza via the famous Gruta deBalancanche (misspelled on the road sign).My biggest reason for flying to Yucatan wasto photograph the Toltec offertory pot foundin the cave in 1959 and I had heard that theprevious ban on photography had been relaxed.But the cave was closed - new steps andtrails were being installed.

Continuing on to the new museum at theruins 3 km farther west, I learned that theonly person who could give special permissionwas in Merida, nearly 100 miles away. As wetoured part of the ruins I found that in oneof the buildings a central shaft was supposedto lead down into a natural pit. It had beenrecently cleaned out to a depth of 20 feet orso but is all masonry. We stayed overnightat the famous old Hotel Mayaland, veryinexpensive, no air conditioning but afabulous garden and fantastic sunset view ofthe ruins.

On the 19th we toured more of theChichen Itza area. I checked out a smallphreatic cave near water level in CenoteXtolok, the working cenote supplying water tothe old village, not the sacred cenote wherepeople were sometimes sacrificed to Chaak,the god of rain and caves. The phreatic tubewent less than 50 feet although by climbingup a tight chimney into a bat roost area Imight have gone farther.

Just west of Holca, a town between LibreUnion and Kantonil that was not shown on thetourist map, was a sign directing visitors toCenote Chiuan. So we checked it out. For300 pesos (about 25 cents) visitors proceeddown through a slippery little cave il-luminated with bare wires and bulbs to a bigroom almost entirely filled with cool,crystal clear water. Swimming was permitted,in fact, encouraged. The water passage


extends beyond the lighted section and wassaid to extend more than 100 meters.Stalagmites, other dripstone, and f10wstoneextend below the present water level.

After that delightful surprise wecontinued toward Merida but soon came to thehorrible realization that my passport, ourtourist cards, and the airline tickets werestill in the safe at the Hotel Maya1and.Back in Chichen Itza we spent the night atthe Villas Arquo10gistas which was airconditioned and more expensive than the HotelMaya1and. But the room itself was stillcheap by U.S. standards.

On the 20th we made it to Merida withoutincident. Downtown Merida is virtuallygrid10cked during business hours despite asystem of one-way streets. We got through tothe museum and found a nice, inexpensivehotel, called the Paseo de Montejo, acrossthe street. We inquired at the museum forthe authority we needed but the proper personwas not there. He was at another buildingseveral miles away and although the direc-tions we were given were more than a littleshaky, we found it without difficulty.

We were received courteously with only ashort delay while an interpreter was located,and the permission was generously given.When typed, it was a most impressive docu-ment. All of this took time and w~ never gotto see the Los Tulipanes Restaurant and Bar,said to be located in a cave in the in-dustrial section of the city.

It was a good road back to Gruta deBa1ancanche the next morning though signsinsist that it is not a high velocity road.Proper connections were made and I was soonphotographing the famous pots despite somebriefly embarrassing strobe problems. Thecustodian was pleasant and helpful. He gaveme the name of the local guide, Umberto GomezRodriguez, who had made the find. Rodriguezhad wondered about the ancient masonry wallthat halted the cave about 100 meters inside.On Sept. 9, 1959, he made an opening in thewall, crawled through, and made one of themost significant discoveries in all of Meso-American anthropology.

With everything now going well we droveback through Merida to Uxmal where we got anice hotel called The Mission Inn Uxmal.After checking in we drove to the Gruta deLoltun, now reached by paved roads and havingelectric lights - most of the time. Thelights were off when we arrived so I got outan extra carbide lamp for the guide, whobecame entranced by the old Justrite. It was

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an extremely impressive cave, not so much forthe beauty of the speleothems as advertizedfor the tourists, but for the hugeness ofmost of the cave and for the impressiveskylights and the abundant evidence of humanuse. One alcove several hundred feet intothe cave is heavily smoked and containsseveral metates. Paintings and carvings runthe gamut from stick figures in primitive redocher to highly sophisticated Mayan carvings.not far inside is a jaguar painted in blackdots, high above the cave floor. Stoneha1tunes, basins to catch water, are sodensely coated with calcite gours as to bealmost unrecognizable. What a time for morestrobe problems!

Perhaps the most fascinating of all to aNorthwestern spe1eo10gist, was the sign belowa prominently displayed carved head andshoulders. It stated that the carvings werefound far beyond the tourist area by JackGrant and Bill Dailey, former members of theOregon Grotto and the old Northwest Ex-plorers, when they were making the first mapof the cave many years ago.

Along the road back to the hotel arethree more excavated ruins and several moundsprojecting obvious bits of Mayan architec-ture. This is the Puuc Archeological Zone, areal wonderland to an archeologist but mostof the sites close at 5 pm. We arrived backat the hotel just in time to see the lightshow at the ruins of Uxma1 from our balcony.

Our start the next morning was lessearly than usual and we make a quick visit tothe ruins of Uxma1 before heading on to theGruta de Xtacumbi1xunan across the Campechestate line in Bo10nchen. This cave was thewater source for the village 3 km away. Aslate as the 1840's the village peopledescended nearly 50 meters on woven laddersto bring up water in pottery jars. There wasno remnant of the ladder but the huge mainchamber with two skylights made the side tripworthwhile. The cave is newly commercializedwith one guide and a good graded road fromthe main highway. The electricity in thiscave worked but the rental car did not. Twoyoung German visitors helped push it to getit started and we drove it all the way backto Merida to trade it in. In a different carwe returned to Uxma1 where the hotel was sopleasant and cheap that we had already bookeda second night.

The next morning we checked out theentrance chambers of the Grutas Ca1cehtok, 3km south of the town of the same name. Theentrance chamber was very impressive with two

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skylights supporting a small grove of bananasnearly 100 feet below the surface. Againthere was a ha1tun deeply coated withdripstone and rimstone. This cave has noguide and no electricity but the access roadis good. Nearby I talked to a licensed guidewho goes caving every year with a Pennsyl-vania caver and it sounds like they are doingvery well.

Time was beginning to run out. Roadscontinued to be good although being in therainy season there were some tremendousthunder showers. We travelled back into thestate of Quintana Roo and continued northalong the Caribbean to the ruins of Ta1umwhere I had noted that one of the oldbuildings was supposed to have been builtover a cenote. It was, but a very disap-pointing one, just a grotto with a shallowpool in near-daylight.

The Yucatan Peninsula is larger than alot of people think, no time to stop at Xe1-ha for cave diving or even snorkeling. Wearrived in Cancun at dark and the onlylodging we could find was at the Sheraton,costing about as much as all the non-Cancunhotels on the trip combined. Plus its beachcloses at dark. The water was beautiful thenext morning on our way to catch our plane.

Yucatan is really opening up. Even cavediving tours are being advertised locally.With the current low-cost coupons there willprobably never be a better time to go thannow. But a one-week trip as we did can onlyskim the surface. I want to go back for amuch longer time.and certainly with a newstrobe!

DOCK BUTTE TRIP REPORTLarry McTigue

On Friday, August 28, I picked up Roband Mike Lewis in Tacoma and we drove to theGrandy Lake Picnic Area to camp for thenight. On the way to the trail head earlythe next morning we passed some bear hunterswith their dogs and heard high-powered riflesgoing off all day long.

We loaded our packs with diggingutensils, caving paraphernalia, and food. Weplanned to go down into Resurgence Cave andTwin Pits Cave so we brought the only rope wehad, a 200 foot PMI, which I got to carrybecause I was the only one with a frame pack.The extra weight gave me a good workout onthe hike up the trail. Luckily, the morningwas cool and over-cast for the trip in but it


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cleared off and warmed up pretty good in theafternoon.

Our first objective was to dig at someleads on the left of the trail when you reachthe level plateau at the top. Rob dug in acrawlway that I had excavated last year,while I tried digging in a sink uphill and afew hundred feet to the south west. Rob dugand hammered at a constriction until he andMike were able to squeeze past it. Theydropped into a tight fissure which connectedto a small, mud-floored room. There was animpassable squeeze at right angles to theentrance crawl and that was it. A short,tight cave.

I wasn't having much luck either. Imoved several hundred pounds of dirt and rockonly to find a hole that was too small toenter. Maybe it .will wash out someday. Ha!

Next we headed down to Resurgence Caveand the sinks along the cliff to the northwest. We checked a few sinks to the west ofthere then entered what I believe is DockButte Cave #4. The cave itself is not inlimestone but in a very brittle and dangerousnon-carbonate rock. It is formed along asteep bedding plane above limestone that isdissolving out from under it causing it tocollapse but the ceiling and floor are only afew feet apart. One handhold came loose as Iwas descending and a 25 pound chunk of rocknearly fell on top of me. At that point Ihad had enough of the cave and headed over toResurgence Cave to dig in the entrance sinkfor a while. With little success there, weall headed over to the resurgence stream atthe base of the cliff.

Rob dug on the resurgence for a whilebut had little success so he and Mike climbedup the cliff to drop into the cave while Itook my turn digging. I moved a lot of rockand dirt and soon noticed that the cold airblowing out of the cave wasn't coming fromthe stream passage but from a nearly-blockedcrawlway to the left of the stream. I begandigging in this crawlway in ernest, believing


from the strong breeze that big passageawaited. The crawlway was tight and I gaveup to rest several times, thinking that mychances of getting through were not good.Eventually the crawl started upwards andthere was another plugged crawl branching tothe right, back toward the resurgence pool.

After a retreat to rest in the sunshineI returned to the dig and realized that thecold air was not coming from straight aheadbut from the passage to the right which wasplugged nearly to the ceiling. I begandigging to the right with renewed vigorknowing that there was still a lot of fill tomove before I could get through.

About this time Mike and Rob returnedfrom exploring the upper end of the cave andsaid they enjoyed it thoroughly. Rob helpedme dig until I could finally squeeze through.The lead took me around to the other side ofthe sump and I was able to crawl, nearlyswimming, upstream in the icy water. Afterclimbing an 8-foot waterfall I came to wherean upper crawl in nicely fluted limestonedivides from the lower stream crawl.Becoming hypothermic and having only onelight source I turned around at this point.Rob and Mike went in and confirmed that itconnected to the upper part of the cave thatthey had been in. Rob explored the dry uppercrawl which needs to be surveyed ard added tothe current map. We also found other leadsthat need checking so the cave hasn't endedyet.

We climbed back to the top of the cliffto dry our wet clothes and pack for the tripout. On the way down, just below the bigplateau, Rob and Mike took a look at somereally big sinkholes in the woods down-slopetowards Blue Lake to the south east. Theyappear to be good future digging prospectsand I would encourage anyone interested indigging to head up there. Someone is boundto find a good-sized cave on Dock Butteeventually.

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HIDDEN CAYE PUZZLE

Hidden in the array of letters below are the names of the following 25 Washington State caves:

Allbri ght Dynamited Jackman Creek Peterson Prairie

Ape Falls Creek Lake Prospector's

Cheese Folgers Little Red River Red

Danger Gardiner Lookout Sengers Talus

Deadhorse Hellhole Newton Three Sinks

Dry Creek Ice Ole's Windy Creek

These names may appear diagonally, horizontally, or vertically and may occur forwards or back-wards.

Caves of Washington

NCR E W K ICE S D S E L 0 QWOK E V I N D K L Q A M E E DU A Y R V E N N R R 0 J N I C JL SEN W I IDE YAH R G P IE D UTA S R NYC C I L R E HT Q 0 L E C I D K CAR 0 L S RR N D E A D N MER R SEA E KI E R Y R T A I P R PEL E E HT H SAN N S N LEE LEE K QTUG RCA 0 R C H B L R K F DZ FOR 0 S M T ERG C TOW EL X E K RHO I I G S U L T S ID E M E 0 R D G T LNG A E I RKAT N SOH ALE E EEL V LL E P C E T L A E R D H S J C CP T L E Z L F Q S D C R J L V M

70 Cascade Caver Vol 26 No.7, August-September 1987

the cascade caver - alpental · the mt. st. helens red zone permit to come along on a spirit lake...

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