Tucker County Survey/Trip Reports

12/20/03

Limestone Mountain

This was not an auspicious day. There was 6 to 12 inches of snow predicted for the Parsons area--and more for the mountains. It had snowed lightly through much of Friday night. This morning (Saturday), I headed out at about 6:30am and made my way over an unplowed Rt. 50 and then took an even more unplowed (or so it seemed) Rt. 72 to the Tucker Country Inn. Arriving at 8:30am, I sat there alone, eating breakfast and drinking coffee, watching the snow pile up on my car. A local man at the table across from mine said, "I'd like to go hunting today, but you'd have to be crazy to want to go out in this." Hmmm. At 9:20, I was beginning to think I was going to be the only one to show up, when Jeff Lydic, Nate Waybright and Alan Looney of the Cleveland Grotto almost literally blew in. (Jeff also belongs to the Monongahela Grotto). They had done Sites the previous day and had spent the night in Elkins. I was very glad to see them.

We sat there and drank coffee for a while, discussing the situation. All that snow, we decided, might make it easier to spot outcrops, sinks and springs. Maybe. Battening down our hatches, we set out in the thick of the snowstorm for Limestone Mountain. Not surprisingly, the snow got deeper as we gained altitude. The snowtorm seemed to get worse too. Plowing our way along, we finally reached the little jeep road at the north end of the mountain, parked, and then got suited up for winter hiking. 

Jeff, Nate and Alan

The snow was deep, and got deeper--and it was still coming down, although not as heavily as it had been. We followed the jeep trail until we hit an old logging road that seemed lead uphill toward a waypoint I had previously entered in my GPS--so I could make sure we would stay in the limestone. It didn't work too well in that we eventually climbed out of the limestone into sandstone. Going uphill was tiring because the snow was generally about knee deep, and none of us had snowshoes with us.

Doug


Alan

It was actually too deep to get anything significant done. One of the problems was that you couldn't tell fallen logs from outcrops at a distance. Worse was the fact that to check anything out you had to wade uphill or downhill over steep and treacherous terrain covered with two feet of snow. Normal ridgewalking was out of the question. In the end we decided we had had an enjoyable walk in the deep snow in a nice locale, and we had gotten a feel for the lay of the land--and that was significant. We now have a good feel for where the limestone is and can return for more productive work on a less snowy day.


Jeff

We walked back to our cars and started back toward Parsons. The good news was that the road had been plowed. The bad news was that the plow was hopelessly mired in a ditch, blocking the only way out on this rather narrow gravel road. 

  

With the help of the snowplow operator, we eventually dug a path so we could get our cars around him--then headed down the mountain in the now-drifting snow. Back in Parsons, we got coffee and hamburgers and such things and then headed out to Cleveland, Washington PA and to the large metropolis of Colfax, WV. When I got home to Marion County there was one and a half inches of snow on the ground.

11/15/03

Backbone Mountain and Limestone Mountain

After striking out in the western end of the county last month, we decided to look more in the Backbone Mountain area, large swaths of which remain unchecked. Much of that land has been posted by a hunting club--areas that might conceivably be accessible if we contact the clubs in question and ask them for permission to go on the land after all the hunting seasons are over.

After breakfast at the Tucker County Inn, Don Humphrey, Ben Mirable, Doug Moore and I went up to Close Mountain Road on Backbone Mountain to try to relocate some caves that were originally found by Ray Garton, John Sowers and Alan Carpenter in December of 1978--25 years ago. The caves in question were Close Mountain Cave and Hailedonus Cave. Close Mountain was reportedly a wet sewer crawl that went but was never pushed. Hailedonus Cave reportedly only went 30 feet or so, but Ray noted that it could be pushed with a little passage alteration. We followed the directions to both caves as best we could but simply could not locate them. We walked up, down and across the windward side of Backbone Mountain for quite a while, but found no caves. In the end, we pooped out and decided to talk with Ray, John and Alan to see if they could recall any details that aren't in the record.

From there we went down toward the Maxwell Run Caves in order to get landowner permission to work our way up the limestone from there, and hopefully find the two caves that way. Curiously, however, when we approached the house that looked most likely to be the landowner, the fellow knew nothing about any Backbone Mountain caves or ownership, but told us of a spring and potential cave up on Limestone Mountain. Since we had no landowner permission, we decided to abort the Backbone Mountain search for the day and scout Limestone Mountain--the western side of which has never been checked out.

Once we got to Limestone Mountain we went to a couple of houses and asked people about land ownership and caves. They were all quite friendly. We found out that there is one owner of a great deal of limestone area on the eastern side of the mountain--an area that includes both Waybright Cave and Dumires Pit. We didn't go to either of those caves yesterday, however, because the owner lives down in Parsons and the afternoon was getting late. We found that the local residents are aware of Waybright Cave and incorrectly believe it has been mapped.

Ben and Doug followed a jeep trail around to the western side of the mountain and found a few promising springs. Meanwhile, Don and I went up to a nearby house and the lady told us that her husband had talked of at least two caves on the western side of the Mountain.

Waybright Cave is listed in Davies and was last looked at (so far as we can tell) in 1961. At that time Bob Mahood called it a "wearisome hole" and reported that in moving through the cave they "seemed to be eternally ascending, descending, squeezing or traversing with more than a few "exhausting upward squeezes". They estimated the cave to be 750 yards long, but said that it felt "more like 75 miles". Sounds like fun. 2200 feet is a significant cave for Tucker County, so it obviously needs to be surveyed.

Don and I also checked out Stump Run Quarry cave which is described as "a dome complex that was quarried into. There is actually no cave there. There is half of what once was a small dome. You can see the solutional features in it, but it is not a cave. Don walked up around the old quarry and I walked up the road looking for Stump Run Cave which is described as "two possible caves, both require digging. I could see nothing that even resembled a cave. Maybe they have been covered by leaves.

Meanwhile, in another part of the county, Jason Thomas and Bob Kilbert were floating down the Dry Fork in a kayak and a raft checking out the south side of the river. They had earlier spotted something that looked like a cave entrance and they were checking it out. There is no known limestone in that particular area, but the maps aren't always accurate. They found nothing significant.

So, it seems to me that our tasks for the near future are:

1. To find and contact the hunting club that controls the Backbone Mountain limestone.

2. To see if Ray, John or Alan can remember anything that might not have been included in their directions to Close Mountain and Hailedonus.

3. To find the Limestone Mountain landowner in Parsons get permission to check out both Waybrights and Dumires Pit.

4. To get a Waybright's survey started.

5. To start seriously ridgewalking the western side of Limestone Mountain.

6. Take rafts or kayaks over to the mouth of Cave Run and ridgewalk downstream on the Dry Fork. 



10/18/03

Ridgewalking in Western Tucker County. 

There is a relatively thin band of limestone that extends up from Rich Mountain in Randolph County and follows the eastern side of Laurel Mountain through Barbour County, Tucker County and on up into Preston County. According to the Tucker County Survey records, nobody has ridgewalked any farther north than Nearly Forgotten Cave in southwestern Tucker County. In an effort to keep the Tucker County Survey chugging along, several of us decided to scout and, if possible, ridgewalk as much of that as we could. At first glance it was a rather daunting task. Route 38 is the only paved road through western Tucker County and it intersects with the limestone at the Tucker County/Barbour County border. There is an old quarry there on both sides of the road, and the whole area is peppered with No Trespassing signs. 

Undeterred, Don Humphrey and I rendezvoused at the Tucker County Inn on the morning of October 18. We both came early so we could fuel up on pancakes, eggs and lots of coffee. Harry Marinakis showed up at 9:30, and the three of us headed west on Rt. 38 to Pifer Mountain. A cursory examination of our topo indicated that we could access the limestone from a leaf covered side road called Jonathan Run Road. After traveling about three miles, we reached the place where the limestone meets the road. To our surprise, when we reached our destination we found a curiously large crushed gravel parking area carved into the forest. It looked almost manicured, with little wooden bridges over the streams. There were no buildings, however, and nothing to indicate what it was used for. Luckily, the area that led directly up to the limestone area wasn't posted. On the topo, this area looked fairly promising, but it was rather disappointing when we got into it. We couldn't go very far north because the land in that direction was posted. We headed out in a northwesterly direction to the top of the limestone and then headed south. The karst features were few and far between. There were virtually no outcrops. Don found two fairly large sinks, with a diameter of about 15-20 feet and a depth of about 6-8 feet. There was water running at the bottom of the larger of the two, but no cave. The limestone on the surface tended to be very sandy and impure, but Don reported that the limestone at the bottom of the sink was much more pure. We continued due south until we hit "posted" signs again, then headed back to the cars. We covered about a mile of limestone.

As long as we were in the area, we decided to check out the limestone to the south of Rt. 38. We could access it by following the little dirt road south from the Brushy Fork Church. On the way, we stopped and asked several ATVers and locals if they knew of any caves in the area. Nobody did. One old fellow sitting on his front steps shook his head and said, "not in this country". We were a little shocked when we found out why there were no caves. Most of the limestone is gone. There is a huge old quarry back in there that has effectively stripped about 1.3 miles worth of limestone out of that mountain. It isn't shown as a quarry on the topo, but as a large clearing. The contours shown are totally inaccurate--there are no contours. The whole eastern half of the ridge is stripped away. The area is plastered with four or five varieties of "No Trespassing" signs. The old quarry stopped near a cemetery, which, since it wasn't posted, we visited. South of the cemetery, the dirt road runs right through the limestone, but again there were no karst features that we could see.

This does not mean that there is nothing to be found in that area. We only looked at a small section of the total area, but the profusion of "posted" signs put up by a patchwork of landowners, the relative thinness and poor quality of the limestone, the thoroughness of the quarrying and the lack of noticeable karst features makes a more thorough examination of that area a somewhat unappealing prospect. That is, it would require a lot of effort to get permission from the various landowners with relatively slim chances for positive results.

Doug McCarty

The blue lines on the map are the roads we followed. The yellow is the area we checked out. We didn't check much of the lower section directly, but pretty much everything yellow north of the cemetery has been stripped away. 

6, 2005

Several months ago, Daniel Burge told us that a fellow had showed him a cave the locals call "Devil's Den". He said he had it had walking passage. Daniel had also dug open a cave on that trip. He called his new cave, "Just a Pretty Little Cave"--(Yeah, ha ha, I know that caver joke too) He said both caves were "up Bull Run". That interested me because there is no limestone on Bull Run in Tucker County.

          On the morning of  the 16th, Kevin Keplinger, Josh Keplinger, Justin Keplinger, David Riggs, Jeff Lydic, Scott Taylor (from Oregon) and I showed up at the Tucker Country Inn. Because only a few of us had ever surveyed, I suggested we find Daniel's caves and survey them. It would give us an opportunity to introduce the new surveyors to instruments, and it would satisfy my curiosity about where "up Bull Run" these caves were. Daniel was working, but Kevin called him and he led a caravan up Bull Run Road. It was kind of funny--Daniel in uniform, driving a state police cruiser, followed up the rocky road by a string of caver cars. As we rose higher, the light began to dawn in my rather slow mind. He meant PAST Bull Run, up on Laurel Mountain--where Don Humphrey, Harry Marinakis and I had ridgewalked in October of 2003.

         We all parked in the same parking area where Don, Harry and I had parked. Daniel showed us the dug open entrance to Just a Pretty Little Cave. I had been there before! Harry and I had found that entrance, but because of the topography, the fact that it is at the bottom of the limestone and it wasn't moving air, we had incorrectly assumed it was just an animal hole under the rock. We suited up and I slid down in. It's a pretty little cave. The t-shaped entrance semi-squeeze was filled with spiders--big ones that looked like a Stephan King nightmare. I quickly slid past them into a room where I could sit up and turn around. As Daniel said, there were formations in there--but it was a pretty little cave. It pinched out about 15 feet from the entrance. Daniel said the "lower level" stream passage went further--to where you couldn't see the entrance, and that there were more formations down there. Unfortunately, Daniel is a lot skinnier than I am. I couldn't squeeze through the slot to get to the stream crawl. I went out and told everyone that I couldn't get into the stream unless we dug it out. I also told them about the spiders. Nobody else wanted to go in. Do we really need to survey this little cave? Actually, we do, but not until that slot is opened up--just a little--so Kevin and I can get in there. Okay, we decided, we'll go find Devil's Den.

        Daniel had drawn us a map. he said that we go up the logging road that heads north. After a couple of miles we would find a large rock with three rocks stacked on it just past a field, and that would tell us where to cut over the hill. "Two miles?" I said, "Won't that take us mighty near the Preston County border?" Maybe not. It all depended on how twisty the logging road was. We set out in the heat, rain and humidity--walking up the slope of Laurel Mountain--which is rather steep. Some of us tried ridgewalking at first, but the day was too hot, the mountain too steep, the undergrowth too thick and the nettles too irritating. That needs to be done in winter or spring when it is less jungle-like. The mountain played tricks on us. The thunder rolled almost continuously, but it rained very little. At one point, David , Justin and I were sitting on a limestone cliff when suddenly we were in thick fog. A rain cloud was all around us. Then it moved on, and the fog cleared up. Whew. We kept going. I kept thinking we had probably crossed into Preston County, but I wasn't going to walk all that way and not survey a cave. We finally found the little field with the marker. Cutting over the mountainside--there it was. It was an impressive entrance that led into walking passage. After walking 20 feet, there is a lower lead that that goes down about 30 feet and gets too tight. The main level turns into hands and knees crawl, then belly crawl, then low stream crawl that gets too tight. Altogether we got maybe 120' of surveyed passage. There was graffiti in there from 1938 and I think 1918. One wonders what folks were doing in a cave this remote. Maybe they were loggers. Having gone through our stores of water and drinkables, we were all thirsty, hot and tired--so, with our task complete, we headed back down the mountain. I had made cairns at places I wanted to check out, but I was too tired to do so--and I wanted to get home and see if we had surveyed a cave in Preston County. At the parking lot, Scott had a cooler full of non-alcoholic liquid refreshment. It was great.

        Although it was a hard day and we did a lot more hiking than caving, we GPSed and surveyed a cave previously unknown to the caving community. Unfortunately, it turned out to have been 315 feet over the Preston County line. Aghh. Oh well, a cave is a cave--and now we have an idea what's up there--the local folks say there are other caves up in that vicinity.