Three Hour Underground Adventure

By: Hubert Crowell

Three hours does not seem like a long time, unless you are climbing, crawling and squeezing through tight places. It was Pete's third cave trip and he wanted to see more of Pettyjohn Cave in which he had visited on two previous trips. We originally had planned for about five for the trip, but ended up with just Pete and I going.

Traveling through the cave with just two people is more than likely the best number for a cave trip when there are a lot of tough places to get through. You can double the amount of time for a trip for each additional person as you have to wait for each member of the group to squeeze through or climb through a tough place.

We entered the cave on a beautiful November day at 10:00 A.M., careful to avoid all the deer hunters in the area. Deer season had just opened and this is a popular check in location. The parking lot was already full with several large groups entering the cave. We knew that once we entered the cave and left the main room that we would not see anyone until we returned to the main room again.

The Goal

We planned to visit the Crowell Domes found above a stream passage that flows in from the east.

Buddy Davis and I mapped this section about 15 years ago and have tried to relocate them several times, but failed. I am certain where the passage is but I was much thinner then and braver.

I know that the connection to the domes was small and in my survey I showed it as a 4-foot wide passage. If we don't find it this time, I will be forced to do a reverse survey to find the passage.

We both wanted to get back early so we planned to check out the stream passage then head back out.

The Trip

We moved through the entrance room quickly, passed the first junction room that leads down to the Signature room. The hand and foot holds are burned into my mind from years of visiting this wonderful cave.

The left side of the main room is a steep slick climb with few hand holds, easy to come down but hard to climb up. Just to the right there is a crack just right for a step, then about half way up a steep slope there is a small formation about four inches that makes a perfect step to the top of the first climb.

A young girl was struggling with the harder climb and I showed her the two steps so she could catch up with her group. They were heading down at the second junction room and headed to the waterfall.

We worked our way down slowly to allow the large group to move on down and out of our way, then climbed up from the second junction room. The third junction room is another climb down just before reaching the back of the main entrance room. At the bottom our passage turned to the right. Straight ahead and under a low flat bolder is the passage to the Volcano Room.

After turning right we climbed down another level and looked for the bypass. The bypass is a crawl that takes you around a difficult and exposed climb down along the east side of the main entrance room. The first passage we found I remember as a dead end. Very close was another climb down that lead to a crevasse two foot wide at the start and narrowed too less than a foot if you tried to stand up in it.

A friend of mine got stuck here by trying to stand up to fast on the way out. You have to drop feet first all the way to the bottom then hug the back wall until you are laying flat. You can then slide down to where the passage opens up. At the top of this climb on the way out, I slipped and fell about four feet landing on my back and left elbow. No broken bones but a few bruises. Being over confident can get you into trouble sometime.

Crawling through the bypass we came out on the side of a 20 by 20 room and made the easy climb to the bottom. We continued down through the large boulders to the stream level.

Search for the hidden passage

The stream passage contained very little water and was a very easy duck walk up the stream. We found the hidden crawl up the left side of the stream passage and crossed over the stream below, but here is where the search begins.

Each time we search this small area we cannot find a way out. There appears to be only one upper crawl in the direction we want to go, but it looks untraveled and small. I managed to get my whole body length up and into the crawl and pushed as far as I though possible. I could not see a way on and gave up again. I will have to bring my survey notes back and do a reverse survey to see where I am going wrong.

We had a short lunch and started back out.

Unexpected Surprise

The climb up from the stream passage can be made in two ways, you can climb straight up or take the easy route to the side and switch back. At the point where you switch back, you have to watch carefully for the climb up that is directly over your head and if you miss it you will wander around in a breakdown room. I had noted this on one of my maps with a question mark.

It was here that Pete wanted to explore so we started checking out some of the crawl-ways. One just to the right of the point where we climb up and out, the passage went up slightly and then made a sharp turn to the left. I had not been that far and encouraged Pete to go ahead and check it out.

The passage started back down at a slight angle and as I followed Pete I placed my hand on a large boulder and it moved. I stepped back and let it fall into the passage. I estimate that if was about 90 pounds and about the size of a bag of concrete. You can always tell when a cave is well traveled as there will not be many loose rocks. There was evidence of that others had been there but not a lot of traffic. About 50 feet further the passage split turning to the right and left.

Conclusion

The right passage really got my interest. It was heavily decorated with formations and two large rim stone dams that were dry but at one time held a large amount of water. There had been people crawling over them and many of the formations were broken.

I knew that this was not on any known map of the cave and decided to return at a later date to survey the whole area. It was heading toward the top of a small dome that you encounter just as you start up the stream and possibly the upper levels of the stream passage.

This could also lead to the top of the Crowell domes.

One of the problems encountered when exploring a well known and heavy traveled cave is that you can never tell what has been explored and documented, so many people just poke into places and without a map being drawn, it remains unknown to the rest of the caving community. So any time I find a new section of cave I try to stop and come back with survey gear to map the new or relocated areas.

We will name this formation passage "Pete's Grotto" for Peter Zefo.

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hubertcrowell@comcast.net