Toothbrush Dig

Saturday, October 13th 2007 - Jason Baxter

Location: Toothbrush Cave Trip Leader: Jason Baxter On Trip: Jason Baxter, Leon Kilgrow, Pete Gleim, Shane Eliason, Ron Eliason, Andrew and Marcia Shupe, Dave Herron This trip had the initial goal of placing a register in Toothbrush Cave. Which was accomplished---there is now a register tied to a large rock in the Waiting Room. We will see if it survives the potential flooding next spring--we may need to relocate it to a higher room if it is a problem. We also attempted digging through the plug at the current bottom of the cave. Success!!! We broke through to additional passage way after approximately 5-10 feet of digging, mostly through soft and easy to move sand.(Easy to dig, still lots of muscle power to remove it.) This opening is currently about 2 feet high, and could be easily made crawling height with a little more time and a sled to move material on. We came through in a passage with two possible directions. To the right is a solution tube which we were able to crawl down. Appears to be approximately 4 feet in diameter, with loose material in bottom third. After about 15 feet there was a restriction due to sticks creating a plug and stopping rocks behind them. This was cleared with about 5 minutes effort, and another 10-20 feet of tube was accessed. The next plug appeared similar but was also at a bend in tube, so a bit more difficult to dig at. This was obviously not the main passage, so we left this lead for next time. The left hand passage appeared to be the main path of water flow. After approximately 30 feet of walking height passage we encountered large pieces of wood and piled rock. The backup again created a jam which stopped our forward progress. At this point in the trip we had to end our exploration. It was late, we were tired, and there was further potential for next time. Future dig attempts would be best done by a crew of 5-10 people with 1-2 sleds, both full size shovels as well as trenching tools, buckets, and preferably empty sandbags which can be filled to help keep material from washing in again during spring flooding. Smaller groups could make an attempt to dig and continue on, but if there is much material that needs to be removed from dig before breaking through, it will be difficult to easily move it back a room or two out of the way. Dave Herron can also provide several potential digs in the cave which would be best attempted by 2-3 people.