1999 Speleologist - The Florida Speleological Society

Transcription

The Florida Speleologist Vol. 35 No. 1 Winter 1999
The Florida Speleologist
Vol. 35 No. 1 Winter 1999
Page 1
The Florida Speleologist
Contents
Vol. 35 No. 1 Winter 1999
Editor.....................................Ken Peakman
The Florida Speleological Society, Inc.
P.O. Box 12581
Gainesville, FL 32604-2581
Incident Report
3
by Brian Williams
Emergency Caving Supplies
4
By Bill Oldacre
The Florida Speleologist is an educational publication of the Florida Speleological Society,Inc. Material included does not necessarily reflect the views Find it, Buy it, Protect it and Enjoy it!
of the Society or the editors. Articles, photographs, by Ken Peakman
and advertising are welcomed at all times and
should be addressed to the Editor at the address
given above. Consult the editor regarding advertis- I Learned About Safety From That
ing rates and layout, Original materials will be re(The discovery of Murphy's Law Cave)
turned if accompanied by a self addressed stamped by Brian Williams and Quinton Howe
envelope. Unless noted, material herein may be
freely reproduced provided the author and source
are credited. Unsigned material may be attributed to The Caving Experience
the editor.
7
11
14
by Marbie Caruso
The Florida Speleological Society is a not-forprofit organization dedicated to the safe exploration, Tennessee Alabama Georgia Caving 99’
scientific study, and conservation of Florida caves. Brian Houha
Anyone interested in caves or caving is invited to
join. Regular membership is $15 per year; family
memberships are $5 (family members receive no Election time Again
publications). An additional postal charge may apply by Sullivan Beck
to international subscribers. Individual copies of The
Florida Speleologist, as available, are $2.50 each. Air and water quality problems in Caves
The society meets at 7:30 PM on the 2nd and 4th by Sullivan N. Beck
Thursday of each month in room CG-73 Of the J.
Hillis Miller Health Center on the University of Florida campus in Gainesville, Florida. Contact the Society at the address given for membership applications, subscriptions, orders, or information.
1999 Board of Directors
President.........Sullivan Beck
Vice-President...Brian Williams
Secretary......Caren Beck
Treasurer...Jerry Johnson
Bill Oldacre, Quinton Howe and Ken Peakman
Equipment Chairman...Kevin Green
The Speed-
Cover: Quinton Howe in Rusty’s Cave Fox way quarry
Mountain Georgia (photo by Brian Wilwall near
liams) Along with Assorted photos from as- Ocala
sorted places by assorted people to numerous to mention :-)
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Incident Report
Date:
Place:
Time:
Event:
People:
February 14, 1999
Jennings Cave Preserve, Southeastern Cave Conservancy,
Marion County,FL
12:30pm
Cave Trip with 5 Girl Scouts, 4 adult leaders, 3 FSS
members, 1 EMT
Brian Williams, Jennifer Langford, Dave Moore,
Bill and Phil Walker, Don, Mary Alice, and
Rachel Petty. Nancy and Jennifer Guiech,
Virginia Francis, Rebbeca DiBella, Kristen Lunsford.
(see attached waivers for addresses)
Description of incident:
On Sunday, February 14th 1999 at approximately 11:30 am a trip to
Jennings Cave with 5 girl scouts, 4 scout leaders and 3 FSS cavers
began. Brian Williams briefed the group regarding safety procedures to follow around the pit and in the cave. While Brian Williams and Dave Moore began rigging the entry pit, the scout group,
and leaders were further briefed by Jennifer Langford on safety
and the cave environment. Helmets were issued and adjusted for
fit, lights were checked.
Each member of the group was to rappel down the 30 ft entrance
drop via figure 8 device and bottom belay and ascend via cable
ladder and top belay. A single rope was rigged for the descent
and a cable ladder was rigged for the ascent. The cable ladder
was removed and placed to the side so as not to cause entanglement
upon rappel. Dave Moore and Jennifer Langford were sent down
first to assist with bottom belay and moving each person to the
first room of the cave to wait for the entire group to descend.
Don Petty was the first scout leader to make the descent followed
by the 5 girl scouts and one more adult leader. Each member of
the group was rigged at the top by Brian Williams and instructed
on the best method for making the descent. Each member was bottom
belayed by Dave Moore. Each group member made the descent without
incident with the exception of the last to negotiate the entrance
pit.
Mary Alice Petty, age 42, Girl Scout leader, was the last member
of the group to descend.
She was rigged at the top by Brian Williams and bottom belayed by
Dave Moore. While backing up to the edge of the entrance pit she
slipped at the top and her feet slid forward while her body fell
down and back. Her position on the rope remained static, but as
she slid down, the right side of her face stuck the limestone ou
tcropping on the side of the fissure entrance. The entrance at
this point is ~3 ft wide. The impact of the fall caused her jaw
to fracture in the rear and split apart in the front resulting in
2 severe breaks but no visible tissue damage on the face.
Brian called for Dave to maintain control on belay while Brian e
x-
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amined the victim for head or neck injuries. The victim was conscience and responsive, able to move her head and but still hanging in an awkward position. Brian was safetied to a separate line
and managed to carefully extract the victim from the lip of the
pit. After removing the victim’s gear and having her sit down,
she was examined and determined to have a fractured jaw with some
minor bleeding. The victim’s airway was patent and she was calm
and responsive. An ice pack was applied to the jaw area.
Brian called for an immediate withdrawal from the cave and asked
Dave Moore to be the first one out as he was a trained EMT. The
group was removed from the cave via cable ladder with rope and
harness belay. Dave examined the victim and determined her to be
stable. The remaining members of the group were removed in approximately 30 minutes.
The victim’s husband then transported her to the Monroe Regional
Hospital approximately 15 miles away with Dave Moore in the vehicle monitoring the victim enroute and Brian Williams and Jennifer
leading the way in a separate vehicle. After examination at Monroe
Regional the victim and her husband chose to drive to Jacksonville, approximately 40 miles north, for further evaluation and
treatment. On February 16th the victim, Mary Alice Petty, underwent surgery to repair the fractured jaw. Her full recovery is e
xpected in approximately 6 to 8 weeks.
The main cause of the incident appears to be foot slippage at the
lip of the pit. Although none of the other 11 members of the
group experienced any difficulty at the top, there is loose dirt
and leaves surrounding the pit entrance that evidently contributed
to the fall. Possible preventive measures include a heightened
awareness of footing at all times while attempting to enter a cave
or pit.
Submitted by:
Brian M. Williams,
Vice-President Florida Speleological Society
NSS # 43870
Emergency
Caving Supplies
By Bill Oldacre
Tonight I'm sitting here doing a little research project.
Sherlee, my wife, became
very ill with colitis, possibly
caused by some food she ate.
She lost 26 pounds so fast it
scared the hell out of me. In
an effort to get something
into her I began buying a lot
of those new energy supplements you see on store
shelves. Stuff in cans, stuff in
candy wrappers, and more
stuff in squirt tubes. Most
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she couldn't eat. So this evening I thought I'd take a few
moments to try some of the
things I was attempting to
feed her. I was thinking all
these "power" foods might
have some applications to
caving. I began with a food
bar from the Balance Bar
Company (www.balance.
com). It was called the
Chocolate Balance Bar, "The
Complete Nutritional Food
Bar." It tasted like powdery,
dry, chocolate fudge made
with sawdust. I'd have to be
half dead to try another one.
No one could eat the thing
without a quart of water
handy. So rule that out for
Sherlee or anyone else.
Next, I tried a Chocolate
"Performance Energy Bar"
from Power Bar (www.
powerbar.com). It was soft
and pliable and felt kind of
good, like toffee, in it's wrapper. This tasted more like
something familiar to the
shoes of every dog owner.
The consistency was about
the same too. I had to brush
my teeth to get rid of the awful flavor.
Then there was that squirt
tube, Clif Shot, "The Natural
Energy Burst" from Kali's
SportNaturals, Inc. No fat,
protein, fiber, or vitamins, but
a raft of carbo. The Real
Berry flavor tasted like stale
fruit mixed with honey and
molasses. At 194 calories, a
caver would have to pack ten
of these things to cope with
24 hours of heavy caving under cold conditions (2000+
calories). The caps pop open
with just a little pressure on
the tube. In desperation, how
would the bottom of your
cave pack taste?
Years ago someone developed one of these high density
food items for aerospace applications. I guess some idiot
probably did put them into the
astronauts emergency gear.
They made their way to the
store shelves as "Space Food
Sticks." Vaguely chocolate in
flavor, they were shaped just
like a rock hard Tootsie Roll.
An FSS member carried some
to an old abandoned house
we'd camp at when we visited
Marianna. Noooobody could
eat them. So they were left for
the mice and flying squirrels
that inhabited the place when
we didn't. We returned again
and again, only to find that no
self respecting rodent would
eat them either (not even
roach's).
Finally, I decided to brave a
can of Boost. This is a nutritional drink that is supposed
to have most of what one
needs to live. Actually, it wasn't completely awful, but it
was too big to be considered
practical cave food. I also
bought Ensure, another power
drink. Sherlee tried a little, but
refused it. Baby food was out
because most of it has too
much fiber, the last thing one
needs with an inflamed GI
tract or deep inside a cave.
Besides, how would it look to
whip out the old bottle of
Gerbers?
What finally worked for Sherlee was a milkshake made
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with ice cream and two
chocolate Instant Breakfasts.
Gatorade took care of the
electrolytes and a vitamin pill
provided all the extra nutrition
she could manage. Antibiotics
and anti-inflammatories did
the rest. Gatorade might be a
good idea in a cave, but the
milkshake and vitamin pill offer little value for cavers.
A recent cave accident, where
a party of three got trapped
by rising water for a few days,
was interesting. The only food
they had was one energy bar
of some sort (I wonder if they
ate it). Hypothermia was a serious problem and they had to
pack tightly against each
other, soaking wet, to survive.
It seems that we really are
taking less food into caves
with us than we need. It's a
mistake to think that your
clothing is what keeps you
warm. Wrap your best goose
down jacket around a gallon
jug of water and put it in the
freezer to see what I mean.
What keeps you warm is your
body's ability to generate heat.
And that is strictly dependent
on calories. Running out of
energy snacks during an extended period underground
could actually put one's life at
risk. If you no longer have the
energy to shiver, you're finished.
Most healthy people have
enough reserve in their bodies
to permit a few days or even
weeks of bad nutrition as long
as the calories and basic electrolytes are there. So probably
we shouldn't worry too much
about good nutrition in the
short term. Body fat helps
too. With 2% body fat,a person's system is going to have
to resorb muscle in short order when the food stops.
They'll become hypothermic
sooner too. This isn't an argument for being out of shape,
but a few extra pounds might
be in a caver's favor.
So maybe ordinary candy bars
offer the best solution. They
have lots of calories, don't
need much liquid for consumption, they're low residue,
and edible even if totally
smashed. Hard candy may be
a solution, too, if it's individually wrapped. A steady trickle
of energy may be preferable to
digesting some sticky mass all
at once. But for the high cost,
bad flavor, and packaging, the
Clif Shot tubes came closest
to what we really need to sustain us during extended caving
trips. Years ago, cavers used
to make Goosh by boiling
cans of Sweetened Condensed
Milk for about twenty minutes. The extremely sweet,
caramelized result was very
high in energy. Very durable
too. However, it was awful to
eat, and once the can was
opened everyone had to eat as
much as they could. Plenty of
water was essential.
For a starting point, as you
explore this subject yourself,
consider this. While bulky
foods with fiber make us feel
satisfied when we eat them,
they don't do us any favors in
a cave. Better, would be
something very high in energy, low in residue, and
which can be eaten slowly
with as little water as possible
(largely for convenience).
Simple sugars like honey
(monosaccharides) are absorbed immediately. Complex
sugars like sucrose
(polysaccharides) must be digested first which means they
will not be immediately useful
in combating serious hypothermia. They also may not
give you that energy burst
you're looking for halfway out
of a 600 foot pit.
As for liquids, iodine tablets
are important in case you have
to obtain drinking water in the
cave. You cannot survive
more than a few days without
liquid and diarrhea won't increase your chances any.
Packets of some powdered
electrolyte replacer like Gatorade are useful and will help
kill the flavor of the iodized
water. Garbage bags, or those
silvered mylar emergency
bags, are good for retaining
body heat. Candles are inherently waterproof, provide heat
as well as light, and have long
burn times. And a well packaged hand warmer could be
life saving in an emergency.
Cut a hole for your head,
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draw your knees up, and put
the garbage bag over you with
the heat source underneath.
Whatever you select in the
way of emergency survival
supplies has to be imminently
practical. For years we treated
children with chronic diarrhea
in third world countries using
drugs and nutritional drinks.
They died, literally, by the
millions. Then someone got
realistic and gave them the absolute minimum of what they
had to have to survive, to hell
with anything else. They cut
the death rate in half with the
simple ingredients, available
anywhere, listed below:
Table Salt - 3/4 teaspoon
Baking Powder - 1 teaspoon
Sugar - 4 tablespoons
Orange Juice - 1 cup
Water - 1 quart/liter
(source: World Health Organization)
There's a lesson in this for
cavers too:
Keep it simple, keep it effective, and keep it with you.
P.S. Sherlee's doing a lot better.
Find it, Buy it, Protect it and Enjoy it!
by Ken Peakman
Jennings Cave in Marion
County Florida to the best
of my knowledge was discovered by The Florida
Speleological Society (F.S.
S.) in early 1965 and
mapped in March of the
same year by Dave Corson
& Al Krause of the F.S.S.
Florida Cave Survey #263.
The cave had many visitors
prior to F.S.S. proven by
the graffiti in the cave.
Some of this graffiti was
even dated as far back as
1947. The cave was and
still is, well known by locals as a party spot and
dumpsite. There was a
large colony of bats in the
cave but the trashed cave
and vandals drove them
away during the 70’s.
In November of 1993 the
F.S.S. organized a major
cleanup of this cave. There
were 25 cavers from all
over Florida and several
companies that donated
services. Waste Management Systems donated a 20
yard dumpster and hauling
services, the Marion
County Commission
waived our landfill charges,
Cox Cable Company pro-
vided and installed a steel
cable/high-wire for our
hauling system and they
donated food, drinks and
ice for the cleanup crew,
Chuckies restaurant
(owned by Jon Singley
who also coordinated the
whole cleanup event) donated catered lunches, a
dining tent and latrine facilities. It took 2 days of
work in and out of the cave
to get the job done.
It was an elaborate scheme
to load and haul this trash
and debris out of the cave.
The entrance of the cave
was some 23’ deep pit and
the trash was all through
the cave but concentrated
mostly in the pit area (later
after the trash was removed the pit measured
31’). We rigged pulleys,
ropes and a bridal attached
to a 55-gallon drum to haul
most of the garbage out.
This was a sight to see.
First the persons in the pit
would load trash items into
the barrel. Then the command was given “PULL”
and with that 6 or more
persons would grab onto a
rope and pull while walking
down the street. The barrel
would then lift up and out
of the pit and then traverse
the high-wire over to the
street just above the 20
yard dumpster where slack
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was ordered and the 55 gal
drum was emptied. Do this
400 times, yikes!
Al Krause Dumping one of
many Barrels of trash excavated from Jennings Cave
(picture by Bill Birdsall)
We removed mattresses,
bicycles, lawn mowers, a
motor cycle, batteries, oil
filters, bottles of all configurations, love notes
some of which were still
legible and funny, sex toys,
carpet, a washing machine
and nine No Trespassing
Signs!
Since the cleanup, the cave
still gets trashed which
tasks each trip with a
cleanup while exiting the
cave. We the F.S.S. grew
tired of cleaning the cave
over and over again. So
talk was started about buying the cave and gating it
to preserve the cave and to
keep trash out of it. We
found that a developer owned
the property and he had not
paid taxes on the land for the
last six years. Ken Peakman
took the time to investigate
this situation. It seemed that
unless someone purchased all
the tax certificates on the land
before the next years taxes
rolled around the land was
going to escheat (default) to
the county. Ken did all the
legwork by determining the
actual lot (land) concerned
with, getting all the deed information, restrictions, legal
descriptions search for liens
against the property, filing application for tax deed and finally purchasing the parcel of
land containing the entrance
of Jennings Cave from Marion
County FL via a Tax Deed
Sale #278649-2 on April 4th
1998. At that time the Deed
was recorded in the Southern
Cave Conservancy’s Name as
a donation from the Florida
Speleological Society (FSS)
in the amount of $1112.49.
Since the date of acquisition,
I, Ken Peakman have been
acting as the Cave Manager
for Jennings Cave. I have
been scheduling trips and
cleanups and organizing plans
for gating the cave. There are
still many Non-Cavers visiting
the cave on a frequent basis.
These people continue to litter
the cave and the surrounding
property. This problem may
subside greatly, I hope, after
the gating of the cave.
The weekend of January 22nd
1999, several members from
the FSS including myself, did
a major cleanup trip on
Jennings cave. We effectively
removed every piece of trash
including foreign debris (logs
and other non-natural entering
debris) from within the cave.
“Lots of trash from the cave”
(photo by Ken Peakman)
After completing the cleanup
of the cave, we discussed possibilities for gating the cave
(Bat friendly of course). The
best solution we could come
up with is to gate the cave below the bottom of the pit approximately 15 feet from the
rock zone on the south side of
the entrance pit. By doing
this, we accomplish several
things as well as compromise
others.
First and foremost we preserve the beauty of the entrance pit.
Secondly, we relieve ourselves of the legal implications
that may be imposed upon us
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if we admit to (by gating at
the surface) the danger of this
cave entrance.
If the gate
was ever breached (which
would happen eventually) and
someone got hurt, they could
come after us with legal action and have a fair chance of
winning the case due to the
improvements we made to the
cave opening. By installing
the gate below the surface we
relieve ourselves of this responsibility. Furthermore, by
gating below the surface and
into the cave passage, the
breach of the gate would be
much more difficult and thus
preserve the beauty of the entrance seeing’s how the gate
would not be ripped off the
surface by a “Redneck and
His Truck”.
A third benefit is; if the gate
were installed in this cave passage, the confines of the passage would make it extremely
difficult to “hack-saw”
through the gate or lock.
The compromise is, the position of the gate will not block
all passage of the cave. The
passage North of the entrance
pit will be left accessible for
anyone to explore. This will
become the new “Party
Grounds” for the local’s. This
part of the cave consists of
only one room, which is not
very big, but will still be littered from time to time. The
better side of this means we
will not have to contend with
an entire cave cleanup.
We will only have to clean
this one room on occasion. Also if the locals are
not totally locked out of
the cave they may not try
to breach the gate.
Well we are all set for the
gating project at Jennings
Cave. We will meet at
Ken Peakman's house at
9:30AM 02/27/99. That
part went fine. Next we all
went to the Steel Scrap
yard where we spent the
next 2.3 hours running
around like children looking for construction materials to build a tree fort.
We finally decided on assorted pieces of steel that
amounted to 470 pounds.
That translated into
$117.50 of metal.
Then we ventured to the
Rental Zoo. There we
were supposed to pick up
the Welder, Cutting
Torches, some welding
rods and some soapstone.
Well we got a little sidetracked with all the Climbing gear hanging on the
wall of the showroom. Of
course nothing had a price
on it, so a few queries
were made and the general
consensus was; eh we'll
buy it from Paul Smith!
Anyway we got all the
equipment loaded up and
left the premises just after
noon (they close at noon).
When we arrived at
Jennings Cave we immediately came up with a game
plan and started the execution. Then we realized
the rental place never gave
us the welding rods we
paid for. Oh well, we will
have to make do with
these crappy 7018 rods
that drip like butter melting while welding overhead.
We all dropped the pit and
examined the gating location. Determined what we
needed to cut first and
how we were going to
hang it. Then we climbed
out of the pit. We brought
with us a 55-gallon drum
full of water for the purpose of wetting down the
ground thoroughly before
cutting or welding. But,
when we started the siphon, we found that if a
fire did start, this hose
would never be able to extinguish it. It had the pressure of a 90-year-old man
with kidney stones trying
to urinate!
So we regrouped, and decided to do all the Cutting
and Welding down inside
the entrance pit. Now we
had to lower all the steel
that we purchased. We
also had to position the
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welder as close as possible
to the pit so the leads
would reach the gate.
Luckily, the torch hoses
were long enough to reach
the gate from the surface.
Well we are really making
progress now time approximately 3:30PM.
Crank it up was the call!
The Welder came alive.
We have electric! The
lights came on inside the
cave and I made a test
weld to check the heat
settings. Its not hot
enough I hollered! Turn
the welder up Quinton
screamed to Robert who
was on the surface. Robert hollered back, WHAT?
Quinton made the same
request. Robert said, I
can't hear you, WHAT?
Quinton from deep inside
his lungs finally communicated our request. This
went on for what seemed
like 10 iterations. Finally
we were ready for business.
Brian said ok, lets dig
here, chip here, cut a piece
81" long, drill here.....And
hey, we were making progress. This was great.
Hammering, drilling, cutting, welding, I felt like
saying (or maybe I did)
"Oh grunt, grunt, grunt,
more power" kind of
sounded like "Tim The Tool
man Taylor" We got the top
piece in place and we could
barely see due to the smoke
within the tight quarters we
were working in, this of
course was compounded by
the leaves on fire in the bottom of the pit and the constant forgetfulness of having
welding glasses on your face.
Bang, bang, bang, pop, spit,
sizzle, cough, gag, ouch,
cramps in our legs and hands,
well alright we got the frame
in place. What time is it?
8:35PM, Quinton said.
WHAT, WHAT, yep that’s
right we been working for 5
hours already. Good grief,
will we ever get done! Lets
take five and get some clean
air in our lungs.
but in the process the Welder
was wreaking havoc on our
patients. Every time we struck
a bead, the welder would
cough, spit and sputter and
some times die. When it did
die, we only had a mini-mag
light to see with inside the
cave. This really bites!
CRANK IT BACK UP! We
hollered. Time and time again
this would happen. Then I
asked what time it was. Quinton said it's 11:30PM. So we
decided we had enough and
would just have to come back
the gate the vandals would
surely sabotage what we did
accomplish. So we milked another 30 minutes out of the
welder to secure what we
have done.
next week and finish the job.
But heck, if we do not secure
up. Finally at 12:05AM we
were on the road.
Picture below shows “Brian
getting ready to secure the
swinging gate so vandals
could not destroy what we did
get accomplished.” (photo by
Bill Birdsall)
Ok, kill it, booooggggg the
welder died. Ok let’s haul up
this stuff. Cleanup and pack it
The Picture below shows
“Sullivan Beck at the Frame
of the Gate” (photo by Bill
Birdsall)
Back to work. Ok, now we
are building the actual swinging gate. We got that framed,
Interesting though was the
amount of visitors we had
during the day/night. People
with beers wanting to go into
the cave, Kids 5-10 years old
wanting to go, a concerned
neighbor wondering what all
the noise was and even late
night teenagers, yes 11:00PM
wanting to see the cave.
These teens left then returned
back on foot asking for our
Page 10
help. They were stuck in
sugar sand. But we were not
in any position to help them. I
guess they got out. When we
left I followed the foot tracks
to the turn with all the sugar
sand and saw testosterone
surrounding deep rutts that
lead out to the road where the
footprints disappeared.
On March 27th 1999 we got
together again and finished
the gate. Later in the month of
August we discovered that the
gate had been breached (dug
under). So on August 26th we
added 40’ of steel rebar (to
make a underground gate)
and 18 bags of concrete to
seal the underground gate.
From here on out it is known
as the Alcatraz gate. It is one
solid sucker!
The total Gate Cost was:
$656.13
Tampa Bay Area Grotto donated $200, Central Florida
Cavers Grotto also Donated
$200, Larry and Nancy Rueff
donated an additional $50 toward the repair of the gate
and ultimately to the SCCI.
Since the gate was installed
the cave has had a few bats in
it from time to time and we
are expecting a colony to reestablish itself in the cave
soon.
There were more people included in the entire project
then were referenced in this
ful and sensitive caving partners would comment how
they just thought I was kidding because my cry for help
sounded kind of “sissy”.
When you look at the incident reports compiled by the
Bill Birdsall, Lisa Sandlin, NSS it is very easy to take
Jerry M. Johnson, Jon and each one and say,"That would
Deb Singley, Bill Oldacre, never happen to me", or
Ken Peakman, Bill Walker, "Man, they made a really stuCaren and Sullivan Beck, Al- pid mistake". After this little
bert and Mardi Krause, Brian adventure I can honestly say,
Williams, Quinton Howe, that it can happen to you and
John and Bev Harris, Robin yes, you can make a stupid
Phillips, Randy and Coleen mistake.
Guthrie, Robert Munyer,
Let's start at the beginning.
Warren and Jennifer Otto, The old "cave dog" Quinton
Eric Amsbury, and Irv Ster- Howe had obtained permisling
sion from Mr. Van Murphy
for us to explore several
known sinkholes on his propKen Peakman
erty and look for new ones.
NSS# 44202
As most people know it is
sometimes difficult to obtain
I Learned About Safety permission to explore someone's property. Most people
From That
are hesitant due to the liability
(The discovery of Murphy's
involved. Mr. Murphy was
Law Cave)
generous enough to allow us
Brian Williams and Quinton
access after we signed a liabilHowe
ity release form. We always
“Help, help, help!!!!! Get a start by telling Mr. Murphy in
rope… .I’m not kidding!!!!!” advance we are planning on
My throat began to tighten coming out to look around
and my voice rose from a and about what time we will
moderately alarmed request to be through.
The first day we arrived at
a high-pitched cry of desperation. What had started out as the farm he wanted us to
an uneventful day of ridge- check out a solution pipe that
walking had just become a had formed in one of his fields
rather tenuous “situation” about 4 years ago. There
with a possible unpleasant were ferns beginning to grow
outcome. Upon reflection of around the hole and we could
the incident later, my wonder- not see the bottom, something
article. I would like to list
their names here and now. I
apologize if I have left anyone
out as I am certain I have I
just cannot remember their
names:
Page 11
to get excited about already.
As we all know most solution
pipes don't do much more
than go straight down and
bottom out. This one turned
out to be a nice surprise. It
was a 40 ft. drop to the bottom with a small opening you
could slide through and pop
into a good sized room. (30ft
long, 12ft. wide and 6 ft. high
in some places?). We discovered a few fossilized crabs in
the ceiling and at least 3 bats
were already calling it home.
There was some standing water off to the side in the bottom fissures that looked deep
as it undercut the walls. We
decided to name this one
"Cindy Sink" because Mr.
Murphy's daughter-in-law
(Cindy) was living in a trailer
about 100 yards from the
hole. The walls of the pipe
were a little unstable as well
as the inside of the cave at the
bottom. Although there is a
possibility of more passage
here it seemed wise to avoid
alot of digging in this hole.
We moved on.
The next few sinks we explored were of not much consequence other than a beautiful old sink about 30 ft across
and 20 ft. deep. Mr. Murphy
told us he had seen a big rattlesnake down in this sink before so Quinton graciously allowed me to drop down and
check it out. No rattlesnakes
this time but on a subsequent
trip I dropped into the sink to
find a small diamondback
curled up on some branches at
the bottom. The sides are
very steep and it was obvious
that he had fallen in and could
not get back out. Of course
we intervened in natures plan
and rescued the little guy as it
was a cold day and getting
colder that evening. Quinton
did not seemed real thrilled
about riding around the rest of
the day with a rattlesnake for
company, go figure.
The next trip to the farm
was not until a month later
and that story is really what
this article is all about. After
informing Mr. Murphy of our
plans we headed to the woods
to look for anything new.
Most of the land is planted
pines with field roads crisscrossing the property.
It
makes for some relatively easy
cave hunting as we could road
cruise most of the land while
looking out through the forest
for tell-tale signs of sinkholes.
The ground underneath the
pines was unobstructed by underbrush and it was a simple
matter to see a depression or
a lone patch of ferns, hop out,
check it out and move on. So
it wasn't your typical "ridgewalking" but hey, were lazy
ok? Many of the sinks we encountered that day were the
typical Florida sinkhole, i.e.,
filled with trash and debris.
What's the most prominent
piece of trash encountered
you might ask? There is the
usual scrap wood, tin, appliances,etc, but it seems that
Page 12
somewhere underneath all this
there is always a bundle of old
fence wire that has been rolled
up and discarded down at the
bottom. Keep this in mind as
it plays a key role in the next
sequence of events.
We spent the better part of
the day walking down into
these sinks and checking if
there still might be any openings underneath the debris
that would be worth clearing
the hole out to explore. Our
method consisted of taking a
flashlight and probing under
the debris while walking on
top of it. Many sinkholes
later we had developed somewhat of a complacent attitude
towards holes full of trash.
This is another key piece of
information that contributed
to the following fiasco.
First, here are a few rules
for safe caving while exploring trash filled sinkholes:
1) Never assume that the
trash you see is at the
actual "bottom" of t
he hole.
2) Never stand in the bot
tom of a shallow solu
tion pipe and yell
"Help, help, get a
rope",unless you really
mean it.
3) Never ever assume
someone is just kid
ding when they are in
a solution pipe
yelling,"Help, help,get
a rope", even if you
can still see the top of
their helmet.
One more poignant observation. Yelling (or screeching)
"help" three times in a row
doesn't necessarily convince
your caving partners that you
really are in need of assistance.
And now for Quintons version of events that day: My
recollection of events may differ somewhat from Brian's.
For example, he may not be as
apt to state, as he so freely did
that afternoon, that "We all
know solution pipes don't
ever open up into anything
good." In fact, this is the last
statement I remember Brian
saying in his natural voice before "it" happened.
Let me try to describe the
scene. It was approximately
4:30 in the afternoon. We
had walked for miles, dropped
and climbed several pits,
plowed through mountains of
discarded wire and assorted
trash, wrangled a rattlesnake
from one pit for God's sake,
and to top it off we hadn't
even stopped for lunch. So
we arrive at the last two pits
of the day. Two solution
pipes approximately 10 ft.
apart. Trash filled, briar laden
(the kind with big thorns),
vine overgrown (also big
thorns), and surrounded with
rusted barbed wire (big rusted
thorns). After some pulling,
poking and prodding to remove some trash from the
area, and Brian from the
truck, Sean and I decided it
was time for a break. As we
sat comfortably atop the trash
in one of the pits, (comfort is
relative when your sweaty,
dirty, hungry and breathing
knats ), Sean kicks back to
relax while I enjoy a good 'ole
"Baker county redneck"
chew. Brian is preparing to
slide down into the other pipe
muttering something about
solution pipes never going
anywhere, when his voice
suddenly changed inflection to
sound like a screeching bat
colony from hell.
Help, Help, Help!!!!.....Get
a rope........QUICK!!!!!!
Yea, right. Who does he
think he's fooling? I can still
see the top of his helmet.
Then the disturbance grew increasingly annoying and I realized that the rumbling noise
was not my stomach but actually the resonating sound of
rocks plummeting to the bottom of a very deep hole.
I'M
NOT
KIDDING!!!!!.......GET A
*#
$@#!&*! ROPE!!!!!!
"Hey Sean, I don't think he's
kidding." As I scurried over
to where the commotion was
coming from, I saw my good
buddy Brian perched very precariously about five ft. down
the pipe with one elbow
crammed into a nook in the
wall and holding on to a rotten, barbed wire-wrapped
crosstie. Surprisingly he was
very still and we noticed there
was nothing below his dangling feet other than a bundle
of old fence wire and the dis-
Page 13
tant sound of the birth of a
breakdown pile. Well I'll be
damn, guess we better get a
rope.
In less time than it would
take to split Brian's gear, we
had a hand line rigged Brian
pulled back up to safety. In
retrospect, we probably
could've pulled up a pick-up
truck with all the adrenaline
pumping through our veins.
Hey this is just like one of
those accident reports you
read about in the NSS bulletin. Not good.
When the dust had cleared
and Brian was able to breathe
again and I remembered to
spit, it was then we had a
chance to make fun of Brian's
somewhat feminine cry for
help as well as review the incident in depth.
1) Good: We had a rope
already rigged for quick hookup to a nearby tree.
2) Bad: No one was wearing
a harness or tied into a rope.
3) Good: It re-affirmed the
importance of having caving
partners (even if they're not as
sensitive and understanding as
Quinton and Sean).
4) Bad: Reaction times
greatly diminish when cholesterol levels become dangerously low toward then end of
a long caving day.
5) Good: No one was injured.
6) Bad: No gear to split up
between the survivors.
The next order of business
was to assess the hole and
make a plan. We determined
that the roll of fence wire
(that had lured Brian into
thinking it was at the bottom), either had to come up
or go down before we could
investigate further.
Since
there was probably already
plenty of trash in the pit, we
decided it should come out.
This didn't look too difficult
but no one said so for fear of
jinxing the pit. Sean rigged a
rope for me to safety to and
Brian backed the truck close
enough to the hole to
"mechanically" assist
the
wire removal. Within minutes we were successful and
had the wire out of the hole
as Brian rigged for the reconnaissance drop. As Sean
and I peered over the edge
we could see the helmet light
slowly get dimmer and realized that it would have been
a nasty little drop if things
had have gone poorly. As
the rope went slack we
scanned the darkness with
anticipation and awaited the
verdict. Would this be another sand, trash and rocked
choked pipe as we had encountered so many times
previously that day? As the
helmet light disappeared
briefly then swung upward, I
knew from past experiences
we were about to get the answer. "Boys, we got a cave
here.
You guys coming
down or what?"
On a subsequent trip to
survey the cave with the help
of Sullivan and Caren Beck
we found the solution pipe
shaft to be a mere 31 ft. But
as we all know it can be a
long 31 ft. if you are "air rappelling". It was exciting to
go down a solution pipe and
actually find a fairly large
cave chamber. No bats yet
but lets hope they find a new
home now that the debris has
been removed to allow for
access. Two fossilized teeth
were also found in the substrate of the floor but have
not been identified yet. On
our first exploration of the
cave we spent about 3 hours
on a dig which connected to
a room under the boulder
choked second solution pipe.
There are a few more possibilities in this cave due to the
amount of water that is creating a hole in the floor near
the back of the big room.
Above this hole is also a fissure crack that appears to go
but is quite tight.
We also went back on
one trip to clean underbrush
and install a barbed wire
fence around the solution
pipes. The last trip involved
a tape and compass survey of
the cave. (See map). There
are other possibilities on the
Murphy farm and we have
heard stories of one cave that
had many rooms and running
water but unfortunately the
entrance has been filled with
Page 14
debris and it will take quite a
bit of sweat to clear it away.
Sounds like a project for
cooler weather to me. See
The Maps of Murphy’s Cave
on page 21.
The Caving Experience
by Marbie Caruso
After a long hiatus called
“mothering” I decided to get
a life again and started caving. When I was in high
school I fell in with a band of
cavers and we did many interesting caves in West Virginia. You can tell how long
ago that was because back
then we were called spelunkers.
Basically my daughter
Rachel and I love all the
thrills, chills, mud and
bruises. The only part of caving I don’t like is the laundry.
Doesn’t any body make disposable caving clothes?
There are many aspects of
caving that I enjoy. One being I always go home with
the mementos of an active
weekend. Whether it is the
bruise I get to watch change
colors all week or the great
stories I can relate to my
eighth grade students.
I also enjoy the total concentration that is required for
caving. My mind is completely focused on what I am
doing, talk about a great escape! I can honestly say I
have never found myself bal-
ancing a checkbook or replaying a mother/daughter
scenario while negotiating
some tight crawlway.
I have met wonderful
people who have offered
their time, equipment, and
patience to introduce Rachel
and me to Florida caving.
These new friends are dynamic and outgoing and contribute qualities that enrich
my life.
Another fun aspect of
caving is the indulgence of
acquiring new and shiny
gear. Holiday’s gift giving
and receiving has changed
with each new piece of
equipment.
I can now
“clank” almost as well as my
long time caving buds.
As each weekend rolls by
I look forward to getting out
and getting under! One of
my favorite excursions has
got to be Roosevelt Cave.
Water, mud and more mud,
almost fulfilled my dream of
being reincarnated as a
hippo. Another favorite was
Dead Man’s Cave. It’s quite
exhilarating as you free hang
from a hole in the ceiling of a
huge (for Florida) room.
Briars was the most beautiful
and bonus, more mud and
lots of water only this I have
the rust colored memories to
remain on my clothes forever.
“Don’t worry, I will bring the
maps!”
-from the cave journal of
Caren Beck
Famous last words!! I’m
sorry, I know that next time I
will not get elected to bring the
maps!!! Besides, I didn’t
forget totally, they were all in
neat stacks, protected in individual
zip-lock bags, stashed
away in a cozy folder, zipped
up in a backpack, and unfortunately,
alone in a far- away chalet. Now the chalet was a great
idea! It was cozy, kind of like
camp!! And so
the stories flowed, and I
think Brian and Quinton became a little closer friends from
the experience of the
loft. If not closer friends
then definitely shorter, because
the head clearance for the loft
was about like
that of the shower... which
isn’t saying much (read very
low).
On November 7, 1998,
eight members of the FSS converged upon Cemetery Pit, Rising Fawn, Georgia. This is a
very well known and popular
cave and we were forced to wait
and watch as a entertaining
group of cavers(?) consisting of
two novice cavers, two seminovice cavers, and a ring leader,
began the descent ahead of us.
The novices, who had both repelled one time previously and
Page 15
had never been in a cave before,
however, they each had brand
new Petzl duo lights, sans hard
hats, as they ventured down the
pit. (Please keep clear of the
rock zone:)) What a splendid
place to try a second drop!!
The aforementioned ring-leader
taught an interesting short
course entitled ‘how not to live
to see tomorrow’ in which he
performed a tap dancing trick
on the edge of the 154 foot
drop. We actually saw him slip
(un-safetyed) on the edge as he
attempted to attach his rappel
device!! This feat was not
amusing to those of us who
watched and we silently envisioned our recreational trip
turning into one of body recovery. The short course on ‘the
safe and appropriate usage of
descending devices’ just prior to
entry into the cave was invaluable!
After the daredevil cavers
entered, we rigged our own rope
and completed the drop without
event, although we did think of
a safer rigging (using a second
bolt to backup) after half of the
group was down (better late
then never). Once down, Sullivan proceeded to do his famous
ferret trick and tunnel into a
weasel hole that had been dug
out. He successfully maneuvered into the hole, and was embraced by the feeling of mild
panic (briefly) as the walls began to close and he felt that his
hips were stuck in the descending hole at the end of an ever
dwindling s-shaped tunnel. Fortunately, coveralls are expendable and do add bulk, so at their
expense, Sullivan was able to
free himself from the cave’s hungry jaws. Coveralls were retrieved . We headed at a steady
pace towards the register room.
We all challenged and conquered
Earl’s ledge, a narrow 1.5 foot
wide and 8 feet long traverse that
overlooks a 40 foot drop. Warning: It gives the illusion of
shrinking to 5 inches wide when
you scramble over it. We rigged
a simple traverse line with webbing and each of us creatively
navigated the pass by way of
butt -slithering or stomachsliding. Once we had descended
into the register room, we took
pictures and convinced ourselves
(after looking up at the 40 foot
ledge we just passed) that we
might actually be as nuts as the
first cave group that entered.
(Not quite we hope!) The trip
proceeded in a round-about manner (see paragraph one for explanation) and we groped our way
through mud and stream passage
to the waterfall area and back.
The real fun started when it
was time to climb out of the
cave. Of course, by fate, the
other caving party had the same
idea at the same time, so it was a
little crowded at the bottom.
This would have been OK, but
the other group was constantly
shouting up the pit. (You have to
do this when you have only three
harnesses and 5 people! I don’t
know about you, but I don’t go
into anything that I can’t get
back out of alone.) Then the
rope (the one they were using to
shuttle down the precious community harness) got tangled up.
Not to mention the novice
(second time on rope) that as-
cended too close to the rig point
and jammed up his Petzl ascender. His buddy (ring leader)
had to repeat the tap dance jig in
order to free enough weight from
the loaded device to remove it
from the rope... again our stomachs lurched. Both parties successfully managed to climb from
Cemetery’s pit with the motivating thought a of nice, greasy
(insert your favorite post-cave
delicacy here) and a tall cold
(insert your favorite post-cave
beverage here).
Fond lasting memories:
Caren: Being ostracized for forgetting the maps.
Brian: Photograph time. Lets
try to paint it from here.
Lets strobe it a little to
your right Kevin. A little more. OK, now just
a little more...Great!
Now stay right there.
OK Kevin, Kevin?
Jennifer Langford: (while nursing
a cold... nothing can stop the determined…
If I could just breath. I’m not
asking for much really one nostril clear would be sufficient. I
sure hope they know how to
make hot tea at the Huddle
House.
The back bedroom: quiet, warm,
soft bed, soft pillow, stiff pillow
case, all Jennifer’s Position:
Bent over a steaming bowl of
water with a towel over the head
Goal: One nostril
Head: Might explode if we
change altitudes too quickly
Solution: Drugs and Dr. Jim
Beam
Sullivan: Definitely worth losing
your coveralls over!!
Brian and Quinton: Telling stories of the past, getting very mellow and a little bit sloppy.
Admiring how Dr. JB can cure
one of any and all cave pains.
Kevin: It’s dark in here.
Brian: Ugh, Kevin?? You OK?
Kevin: After my broken bones
healed, I was informed that 3
good slides were developed out
of the entire two rolls of film.
Quinton: I thought I was actually
going to have a map!!
Quinton and Jennifer: We LOVE
new gear!!
Jennifer Greene: OFF (pause and
insert favorite explicative)
ROPE!!!!!!!
Page 16
Bright and early the next morning, (well it was morning anyway) away we went for another
exciting cave trip. Destination: “
Rusty’s”. “Say, did anybody
bring a map?”
Tennessee Alabama
Georgia Caving 1999
Brian Houha
"Maybe I should have taken up
dancing like Tom Willey has. He
meets a lot of girls and doesn’t get
into jams like this," I thought after
I had attached my safety jumar to
the rope above my rappel rack
where the rope was falling apart
before my eyes. The sheath had
pulled apart and bunched up between my brake bars and wouldn’t
feed through. The upper bars had
only strands from the core feeding
through. Without the sheath, the
core looked awfully thin – like
strands of kite string. I knew ninety
percent of the strength of the rope
lies in the core but I had never seen
a sheath of a rope separate. Was
the core damaged too?
Tom Mook, Rod, Pat, and Becky
Yost and I were bouncing Rahlston
Pit near South Pittsburgh, Tennessee. We had followed a flagged
trail up a hillside until we found
three strips of flagging tape above a
rock ledge. Rod had picked this
one but forgot to bring the map of
the cave and no one remembered
which drop was 79 feet and which
was 60 feet. We would have to descend the first drop and figure out
how to rig the second.
We rigged both ropes to a tree
above the pit and lowered each
down. Tom decided to try to get by
with the shorter rope. Looking
down into the depths, the entrance
resembled a cross. The pit was in
the middle of the intersection of
two ancient upper level passageways. The pit had fluted walls cut
by water seeping through a fault
line in the sandstone cap. The
walls were six to eight feet apart. It
was quite lovely and I couldn’t wait
to descend into it. There was a
ledge around 35 feet down and the
rope disappeared in the darkness
beyond that. I would descend to the
ledge, see if the rope was at the bottom, and continue my descent.
When I arrived at the ledge, I
found the rope bag about twenty
feet from the floor. I told Rod and
Tom to send down the longer rope.
Down it came and I attached to it
and had them haul up the short
one.
I continued my descent until the
problem occurred. I sat about forty
feet from the floor doing a change
over (the time spent practicing in a
prusik stand paid off). I climbed
out and we pulled up the damaged
rope. The sheath had separated
not only where my rack had pulled
it apart but also at the tail where I
had tied a bowline. The stress of
the knot was enough to destroy the
sheath. We figured Tom’s rope had
somehow been exposed to acid. We
could pull the sheath fibers apart
like cotton. Perhaps it came from
his Wheatlamp battery. I have no
idea.
I told Tom he is so meticulous with
things that I could only conclude he
had done this on purpose so he
wouldn’t have to hear any more of
my jokes. I have a shirt that has
printed, "Cave Safely. If you die
we split your gear." I told everyone
I knew how much they wanted my
folding lounge chair I had bought
at Wall Mart.
Rod had gone down the mountain
for another rope but forgot to bring
the map. We all descended both
drops and ended our descent in a
tall canyon room. Tom said the
cave had 300 feet of horizontal passage that looped so there would be
no back tracking. It sounded so
easy I didn’t take off my vertical
gear. After 50 feet the canyons
turned into a crawlway.
We
pushed a lot of tight crawls but
never found a loop so we had to
retrace our way in. Next time I will
remember to bring the map myself
and also bring kneepads.
The girls found cave crayfish in a
stream and we found a waterfall at
Page 17
the end of a canyon. All of us were
quite impressed with this beautiful
pit.
The day before Bill Birdsall and I
joined a group to descend Moses
Tomb. Seven years ago John Harris lost control rappelling into this
220 ft pit, broke his back and ended
up on "Rescue 911".
The entrance was a small hole on a
rocky mountainside. After the rope
touched a tilted slab about 30 feet
down, the drop was free into a wide
cylindrical shaft. We found frogs
and salamanders at the bottom of
the pit. As the others climbed up,
Bill and I watched large water
droplets release from a stalactite at
10 second intervals. Each would
sail down from the darkness high
above quivering like jello. It was
great entertainment. I was last to
exit. There is a flowstone wall
from ceiling to floor which is decorated with shields, stalactites, and
stalagmites. Climbing out of this
pit is climbing the equivalent of a
22 story building so there are some
rest stops on the way up the rope
when one can just hang in the seat
harness and admire the sights –
beautiful decorations of stone and a
light beam from that little entrance
hole high overhead.
Rains caused me to pack up a day
early and start heading for home. I
spent time visiting with a lot of old
friends and making some new ones
so it turned out to be a nice vacation.
Patty and
Jen at the
Speedway
quarry
w a l l .
(photo by
Brian Williams)
Election time Again
by Sullivan Beck
This year we met several times to discuss problems with the current
voting procedure (or lack of procedure in some instances). We have
tried several different voting procedures over the last few years,
none of which have been totally satisfactory. An ideal election (for
this club) has to meet several criteria:
o
o
o
It has to be fair
Everyone should be able to vote for board members, and
AT LEAST the President. Voting for other officers (V.P.,
Secretary, Treasurer) are optional.
The election needs to be able to be conducted by mail
with only two mailings.
The election method we have come up with meets these criteria, and
we plan to use it in this and future elections.
The plan is fairly simple. At the first meeting in December (Dec. 9),
nominations are opened. The purpose of this mailing is to solicit
nominations for board member. Any number of nominations can be submitted.
Nominations will be closed on the first meeting in January (Jan. 1
3).
Ballots will then be prepared with all of the nominees and will be mailed
to all club members. Along with this mailing, we will send a reminder
to those club members who have not paid their dues. Dues should be sent
in with the ballot (or before) in order to be able to vote.
Members will mail in their ballots, or may cast their vote at the
annual meeting held on the 2nd Thursday in February (Feb 10). Ballots
MUST be received before this meeting. Based on the voting, the 7 board
members will be chosen, and one will be chosen as President.
To vote, each member will select 7 of the nominees to vote for. Then,
the member will assign the numbers 1 through 7 to these, 1 being their
first choice for President, 2 being their second choice, etc.
The board will be chosen based on the 7 nominees who receive the most
votes for board member (regardless of their ranking). Then, the 7
board members will have their ranking on all of the ballots added up,
and the one with the highest rank (i.e. the lowest total number) will
be offered the position of President.
A more complete description of the election procedure (including many
of the details that have been omitted here) are on the web. They
can be seen at the URL:
http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~sbeck/fss/
This will be made part of the standard FSS web page.
Two other changes have been made this year which affect the club
elections.
First, the bylaws have been modified slightly to reflect the new
election procedure. The deadlines have been changed, and the e
lection
Page 18
procedure clarified somewhat to spell out what is required during a
club election. The club bylaws (with these changes) and constitution
are also available at the above URL.
Second, the membership has voted to make club dues (still $15 per year,
$5 per year for additional family members) due on Jan 1 of each year.
This will greatly simplify keeping track of membership dues. New members
will be prorated the year they join (and current members who's dues are
paid up until sometime in 2000 will also be prorated). In the second
election mailing, we will tell each member their status. Only members
who have paid their dues (which can be sent in with the ballot) will be
able to vote.
One additional change will be made this year. The NSS is now requesting
the annual report by the end of January, NOT the end of February. In
order to allow us to have the most recent board listed in the NSS members
guide, we will move the elections forward one month so nominations will
begin in November, ballots will be send in December, and the election
will be held in January.
Sullivan N. Beck
NSS# 43957
President F.S.S.
Page 19
Air and water quality problems in Caves
by Sullivan N. Beck
Recently, a disturbing change has
occurred in the Ocala area caves. In
the middle of September, a group of
us went to visit Briar cave. We made
it back to the melody room fine, but
a number of people in the party noticed that they were breathing very
hard.
Two of the people in the
group had cigarette lighters, so we
checked the air, and neither of the
lighters would light.
Carbon dioxide levels appear to have
returned to normal at this point,
though we continue to monitor the
situation. We are also looking into
the possibility of having water samples routinely monitored in several
of the Ocala caves in order to determine the cause of this.
Gainesville caves (Warrens and Bat)
were not affected. We also did not
check on caves in the Belleview area
(Tucks).
We exited the cave quickly and without incident, checking the air quality at several points along the way.
It was only when we got to the room
at the very entrance of the cave
that either lighter would light, and
even then, the flame was well above
the lighter.
A week later, a group entered Blue
Canyon and immediately noticed problems breathing.
Again, this was
confirmed using a cigarette lighter.
At this point, we decided we needed
to visit each of several caves to
check the quality of air, and to
take water samples for testing.
On Oct 2, we visited 5 caves: Blue
Canyon, White Cliff, Briar, Catacombs, and Roosevelt.
At White
Cliff, a lighter would light in the
lower level, but the flame was well
above the lighter. We did manage to
get a water sample from the area
near The Loop.
In all four of the remaining caves,
the lighters would not light even
just inside the entrance of the
caves.
Breathing was very labored
in all cases, and clouds of mosquitoes hovered at the entrance of the
cave.
This is Bill Birdsall with a butane
lighter in Briar Cave. As you can
see this is an indication that Oxygen levels at at approximately 10%
This is a dangerous level and one
should exit the cave immediately
upon discovery.
The water samples were tested for
coliform levels, and all were well
below dangerous levels.
No other
tests were performed at that time.
Page 20
Page 21
Group Photo Taken in Waterfall Cave By our very own photo fanatic Caren
Beck. From left to right– Bill Walker, Brian Williams, Eric Amsbury, Sullivan
Beck, Jo-Jo Amsbury and the Good Looking guy in the center is your editor
Ken Peakman
The Florida Speleological Society, Inc.
P.O. Box 12581 University Station
Gainesville, Florida
32604-2581
Page 22

1999 Speleologist - The Florida Speleological Society

Transcription

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