Troy Tyler on a novice trip in daughette Cave. Photo by kelly A. Keener
Caving With Micro Recorders
I have decided that having a micro recorder can be a very useful tool for caving adventures. Not only are they used for school classes, meetings, music, etc., I find them useful for caving trips, and camp outs. It is funny listening to the recordings afterward and especially when we get together and listen to things we say and do during these events. I wanted to experiment to see how good it worked during camping/cave exploration AKA surveying etc., It worked really well. This weekend we camped out, surveyed Devil’s Well/Blow Hole. The recording turned out pretty good having it in my lower pocket of my agent orange camo pants. The recording was somewhat scratchy in the cave, and did pretty well at the camp . We were sitting around the fire pit, and I recorded Jim and I beating our bongos to the music That didn’t work too well because the drums over- rode the music, but at least I managed to get a good story for my log book and for this article I am writing , for the “Grotto Newsletter!!!” I have decided that this is a GREAT way the come up with news articles. They’re good to record minutes at grotto meetings, visiting our caver friends, coming up with questions to get a caving article started. We have made several survey trips to the Devil’s Well/Blow Hole Cave and still there more passages yet to be surveyed.
This is my first cave recording for this trip, so here’s how the next article goes >>>
Back Once Again To The Devil’s Well / Blow Hole !!!
On August 12, 2004, we camped out in Steele Al. at the limestone quarry by Devil’s Well. Jim Loftin, David & Susan Teal, joined us. Jim, Mark, & I camped there for the weekend. David and Susan had business to take care of so they had to go home. We are doing another Survey trip through the cave except we are going in through the dry part which is the Blow Hole entrance. We planned to camp from Friday - Sunday to try and get as much surveying done as we can. We pulled into Mr. Steepleton’s driveway and saw that no one was home. He is a very kind man. He told us that when ever he wasn’t there, to put a rock on the rail of his porch and he will know that we are either camping or exploring the cave. Jim hopped out of his red Toyota truck, and place a rock by his door. Jim then opens the gate to the narrow little road that leads us to the camp. The road was all grown up, so we had to drive through the tall tundra. It was hard to see the road but we finally made it to our final destination. This camp spot to us is like our home away from home. (our main camp spot) Jim, Mark & I got the fire going, and sat around the ring the rest of the evening. It was a cool, beautiful starry night, the tree frogs were croaking, and every now and then a bat would flicker by catching bugs. The no see-em's were awful, but it still didn’t stop us from having fun. The following morning when we all woke up, we ate a good breakfast and was planning to be in the cave early, but ended up having a late start getting there. Mark and Jim Chopped through the grape smelling kudzu trying to find the trail from the previous trips. It was like hacking down a rain forest. We used survey tape to make the trail all over again. We finally took a water break, but the suicidal eye bombing knats kept diving into our eyes. We hiked on across the ridge to the cave. It felt so good at the entrance because the air was blowing hard and cool. It was hot hiking in the hot sun. It was nearly lunch, so we went on and ate before we entered the cool climb down. It was 1:30pm before we entered the cave. We climbed down the tight vertical entrance about 14’ft. into a room, then crawled through a short passage into borehole passage. There was a passage that went to the left of the main borehole, and there was where we begun to survey. Jim mentioned that a lot of photos could be taken inside that certain area because of how pristine the formations were. We surveyed down the dry passage first then down into the wading passage, where at some places was shin deep. A lot of long shots were taken inside the pristine passage. Jim didn’t realize that I was recording the whole exploration and survey. It was neat way to make a news article. We were making jokes about us being recorded inside the cave . Like when we slipped or bumped our knees etc. The sounds of the water trickling in the stream passage sounded tranquil. We waded on down further about 1200 more feet and then we decided to turn around and go back out. We found our way through the kudzu and back to the jeep and to the camp before it got dark. A good steak and Jim’s fresh garden salad sure did satisfy our appetites, with his fresh tomato and cucumber. I became tired afterward and tucked in my comfy sleeping bag and slept like a stone. We got up , packed up, made sure all the trash was picked up before we left. So far we surveyed 2800’ft., and yet still going. Not, “The End”
Kelly A. Keener
