forum8fox
08-18-2009, 06:42 PM
This area is awesome! We took off Friday evening as usual for our weekly caving fix. We had planned to go to Premonition, and we meet MC a little bit up the road from Dotsero. We drive like bats out of hell untill we reach the turn off for FR618. We start driving down the road to premonition and it turns out it's pretty damn slick from the rain earlier. So slick infact I decide we shouldn't go any further. Mainly because when I hit my brakes I would slide like I was on ice and that was on nearly flat ground!Getting turned around was a little tricky, I failed on my first attempts then I backed up a ways till I could make it happen. We decided to head for the Fixin' block with our tail between our legs.
We woke up and started pondering what we were going to do instead. Nate, Steve, and I hadn't seen Thursday Morning and MC had only seen a little bit of it so we decided that would be a good option.
Off we went hiking along the base of the cliff untill we came to the hole that was camo-flauged by a bunch of tall weeds/bushes. I was amped and crawled through first. I realized it was not going to be easy so I went head first on my back. As I slid in I watched the ceiling get closer and closer to my face. I came to the tightest constriction and paused for a moment to take it in, the ceiling was a mere inch or 2 from my face!
I pushed on through to a slightly larger passage with a register and caught a shot of Steve having a good time with the entrance squeeze!
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves111.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves112.jpg
We slid down a little chute and came out to a nice wide hallway with tall ceilings:
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves114.jpg
We stopped for a short break and someone noticed some interesting fungus growing on a rat turd :roflol: Excuse me I find it kinda funny.
Anyway it made for some fun picture taking, I think I need a new camera and a mini tripod!
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves116.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves117.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves118.jpg
We continued along what mostly seemed like a single passage that was some what canyon like most of the time. We saw some cool things along the way but I can't really place exactly where most of these pictures were shot. I'm pretty sure these first few came from before the up climb over the first dead end of the canyon.
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves121.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves122.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves124.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves125.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves128.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves129.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves131.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves133.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves136.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves137.jpg
I think these were shot after climbing over the dead end section:
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves138.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves139.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves140.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves141.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves142.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves143.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves144.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves145.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves146.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves148.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves153.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves158.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves159.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves161.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves163.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves165.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves166.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves167.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves168.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves169.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves170.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves171.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves172.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves175.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves176.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves179.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves180.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves181.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves182.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves184.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves185.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves188.jpg
Moving through all of the passage to this point had been no walk in the park, it was physically exerting and down right painful at times. Alot of crawling and and sideways slithering, often over mites or other sharp rocks. Sometimes squeezing between features, and contorting to get through certain spots. I remember having to do alot of awkaward movment to get to the squeeze pictured in the following sequence. Specifically shimmeying up then poping through an opening in a squeeze slot canyon head first and dropping to the floor head first in a controlled slide then lowering myself with my arms and doing a forward roll out of it!
Only to be rewarded by this at the end of the fun!
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves189.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves190.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves194.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves195.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves196.jpg
Shortly after this fun squeeze MC had to take off so Steve escorted him out as Nate and I pushed deeper!
I'm pretty sure we went into another tight crawl shortly after and when we popped out there were multiple splits (BTW we had mostly been on the A survey taking a quick look at an AB survey and a B survey prior to this junction). The cave was starting to take on the form of Fixin' at this point in time it seemed as the passages changed in nature to less features and more mineral rich tunnels. We worked down a bore hole for a little ways (>40').
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves197.jpg
Untill we came to a pit that was about 30' with a couple passages running the off to either side before the pit. We had no rope so we figured this would be it but we poked our head in a passage trending to our right. Nate found a way that lead down through a hollow sounding breakdown tube, which bypassed the overhanging pit!
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves198.jpg
So we kept going, out the other side through another breakdown climb/ tube crawl. We came to another split and ended up at a dead end room, It was a messed up crawl into it. Nate somehow talked me into comming in so I did to snap a few shots:
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves199.jpg
Nate shot these and I crawled my way back out with no way to turn around so I just went out backwards!
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves200.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves201.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves202.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves205.jpg
There were still multiple leads to chase still but we both had to pee and we had left our packs a ways back so we were back on our way out.
On the way back out we shot some photos of things we had missed or wanted to shoot again:
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves206.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves207.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves208.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves209.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves210.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves213.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves214.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves217.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves223.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves224.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves225.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves226.jpg
Nate and I arrived back at camp an hour after the other 2 and only 15 min. after MC had left. We ate and ate and ate some more as we didn't expect to spend so long in there and didn't bring lunch! After a few meals we relaxed around the fire and then went to bed early at about 9ish. More to come, Intermission!
We woke up and started pondering what we were going to do instead. Nate, Steve, and I hadn't seen Thursday Morning and MC had only seen a little bit of it so we decided that would be a good option.
Off we went hiking along the base of the cliff untill we came to the hole that was camo-flauged by a bunch of tall weeds/bushes. I was amped and crawled through first. I realized it was not going to be easy so I went head first on my back. As I slid in I watched the ceiling get closer and closer to my face. I came to the tightest constriction and paused for a moment to take it in, the ceiling was a mere inch or 2 from my face!
I pushed on through to a slightly larger passage with a register and caught a shot of Steve having a good time with the entrance squeeze!
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves111.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves112.jpg
We slid down a little chute and came out to a nice wide hallway with tall ceilings:
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves114.jpg
We stopped for a short break and someone noticed some interesting fungus growing on a rat turd :roflol: Excuse me I find it kinda funny.
Anyway it made for some fun picture taking, I think I need a new camera and a mini tripod!
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves116.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves117.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves118.jpg
We continued along what mostly seemed like a single passage that was some what canyon like most of the time. We saw some cool things along the way but I can't really place exactly where most of these pictures were shot. I'm pretty sure these first few came from before the up climb over the first dead end of the canyon.
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves121.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves122.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves124.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves125.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves128.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves129.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves131.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves133.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves136.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves137.jpg
I think these were shot after climbing over the dead end section:
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves138.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves139.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves140.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves141.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves142.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves143.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves144.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves145.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves146.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves148.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves153.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves158.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves159.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves161.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves163.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves165.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves166.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves167.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves168.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves169.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves170.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves171.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves172.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves175.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves176.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves179.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves180.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves181.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves182.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves184.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves185.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves188.jpg
Moving through all of the passage to this point had been no walk in the park, it was physically exerting and down right painful at times. Alot of crawling and and sideways slithering, often over mites or other sharp rocks. Sometimes squeezing between features, and contorting to get through certain spots. I remember having to do alot of awkaward movment to get to the squeeze pictured in the following sequence. Specifically shimmeying up then poping through an opening in a squeeze slot canyon head first and dropping to the floor head first in a controlled slide then lowering myself with my arms and doing a forward roll out of it!
Only to be rewarded by this at the end of the fun!
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves189.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves190.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves194.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves195.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves196.jpg
Shortly after this fun squeeze MC had to take off so Steve escorted him out as Nate and I pushed deeper!
I'm pretty sure we went into another tight crawl shortly after and when we popped out there were multiple splits (BTW we had mostly been on the A survey taking a quick look at an AB survey and a B survey prior to this junction). The cave was starting to take on the form of Fixin' at this point in time it seemed as the passages changed in nature to less features and more mineral rich tunnels. We worked down a bore hole for a little ways (>40').
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves197.jpg
Untill we came to a pit that was about 30' with a couple passages running the off to either side before the pit. We had no rope so we figured this would be it but we poked our head in a passage trending to our right. Nate found a way that lead down through a hollow sounding breakdown tube, which bypassed the overhanging pit!
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves198.jpg
So we kept going, out the other side through another breakdown climb/ tube crawl. We came to another split and ended up at a dead end room, It was a messed up crawl into it. Nate somehow talked me into comming in so I did to snap a few shots:
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves199.jpg
Nate shot these and I crawled my way back out with no way to turn around so I just went out backwards!
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves200.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves201.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves202.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves205.jpg
There were still multiple leads to chase still but we both had to pee and we had left our packs a ways back so we were back on our way out.
On the way back out we shot some photos of things we had missed or wanted to shoot again:
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves206.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves207.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves208.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves209.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves210.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves213.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves214.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves217.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves223.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves224.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves225.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/forum8fox/caving/caves226.jpg
Nate and I arrived back at camp an hour after the other 2 and only 15 min. after MC had left. We ate and ate and ate some more as we didn't expect to spend so long in there and didn't bring lunch! After a few meals we relaxed around the fire and then went to bed early at about 9ish. More to come, Intermission!