2001: A Kentucky Odyssey
March 18, 2001, Climbing at Global VillageMarch 20, 2001, Caving at Pine Hill Cave
Sunday: We'd planned to cave today since the weather was forecast to be nasty. But mild temperatures and a cloudless sky greeted us as we dragged out of bed at the crack of..., well, mid-morning. A call to the ever-eager Mr. Kaufmann started the ball rolling and before we knew it, we had a climbing trip assembled. Steve, Mike, Jill, Amy and Eric met JB out at the Global Village area and we set out over the long access trail to the rock.  Mike works on Casual Viewing (5.7*). Click on image for full-sized vertical panorama! |
I was anxious to climb. I had a fancy new Mammut rope to break in and this was my first time on real rock since sometime last fall. Rusty muscles and dulled senses hadn't been helped much by occasional trips to the gym. Pulling plastic just ain't what it used to be.
JB lead the beautiful Casual Viewing (5.7) and we each soon got to try it on top rope (thanks to Mikes super-long 70 meter rope). Indeed, I was very rusty. It's a long crack climb in a corner with lots of hands and feet--really not that hard. But half way up I was perspiring fiercely and asking myself why it is that I do these things to myself. Only when I had attained the top cleanly and was lowered down did I remember why it is I love climbing. Let the season begin!
Relocating a few bluffs over, I lead Eureka (5.6) on my spanky new rope. Seven bolts lead up a 20+ meter vertical face to a pair of bolts and I made short work of it, enjoying the climb immensely. The rock at the Red is amazingly grippy and the holds are abundant and bomber. While the lower half of the climb was marked by the kinds of good holds you may find elsewhere--chickenheads, flakes, etc--the upper half was almost smooth with wide cracks splitting it from place to place. What looked difficult from below turned out to be quite easy when I realized that each of these cracks was a narrow openning to a voluminous space inside with good inch-wide lips to grab onto.
 YT leading the spectacularly lovely Eureka (5.6). |
But that wasn't the end. After a few easier 5.7ish moves, I moved onto a vertical chuck of rock with lots of small horizontal strata very reminiscent of Chickies Rock in PA. A couple dicey moves brought me over the bulge and into the setting sunlight at the rap anchors.
Next door to Kentucky Pinstripe was a fine crack climb called Vision (5.8?). After a couple people climbed it, I decided it would be a good cool-down climb after my ordeal with the bolt. But again, I was just too tired to do it as a real crack climb and ended up using a small stump wedged in the crack as aid. No I'm not proud, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. The sun was setting so everyone packed it in and headed to Miguel's for some excellant South American-style pizza with corn. Mmmmmm! Corn!
It's gonna be a good season, methinks!
Tuesday: After a nice day of rest in Lexington, we headed out early in the threatening morning for Rockcastle County and Pine Hill cave. Pine Hill is one of the larger caves in the county with over five miles of passage. I've been in it before on two separate occasions. The first time, under the guidance of several people from the Blue Grass Grotto, we found Skylight Dome and explored all the way to the Hurricane Pit entrance. But the only map I have is from the 60's and is missing a lot of detail (like most of those five miles of passage!).
Mike, Amy and I suited up in the car and trudged through a cold downpour to the huge entrance of the cave. Once inside, things were much drier; but not for long! After a bit of low, wide passage, we emerged into the main stream passage. Pine Hill is primarily constructed around about 2000' of major stream passage flowing from west to east. After leaving the register room (which, I am pleased to report, featured a register with both blank pages to be written on AND pens which worked) we slogged through ankle-deep water in a wide, five-foot tall passage. Before long, the ceiling raised up and walking became more comfortable. At the first major bend, in the stream, the water passage became less pleasent and we took to the dry network of large passages which bypasses it. The map is somewhat incomplete at this point and we spent some time wandering dead-end walking passage until finally recovering the stream.
This is the part I remember from before as being the least pleasent part of the cave. Just as you get your feet wet again, the ceiling drops from 20-some feet to about 30 inches and you have to crawl for a bit through cold cold water. The ceiling raises enough (perhaps to four feet in places?) that eventually you can duck-walk but it makes for a quite unpleasent hundred feet or so. Amy was clearly not happy at this point, but trooped on gallantly and eventually, we could walk again comfortably.
We then traversed quite a distance in water which was occasionally up to our knees and sometimes quite strong. The passage was usually at least ten feet wide and disappeared out of sight above. What might be upper level passages along the top of the canyon could be seen here and there. Occasionally, a small waterfall or narrow side canyon would enter from one side or the other. After major branch shown on the old map, we started looking for a way up to where I dimly remember the upper level tunnels to be located. The best candidate seemed to be a narrow dry slot between the canyon wall and a chunk of truely massive breakdown on the right. Glad to be out of the water, we climbed up and were soon having lunch high above the stream passage.
From here, my memory was a bit cloudy. We found a ledge above the canyon which soon opened into a drier tunnel with a slick mud floor suggesting quite a lot of foot traffic had come this way. This is where I really wish I had a map! There followed a lot of branching walking passage. Amy lead the way into a narrow slot perhaps 18" wide and 8' tall which eventually developed an openning on top. There, the ceiling and walls were made of clean, light colored stone with thin striations. Amy pointed out some very dramatic cross-bedding and we spent some time pondering the formation mechanisms of what Mike refferred to as Star Trek Passage.
After checking out a number of promissing leads, including one filled with 6" of water and 10" of the nastiest mud I have yet encountered, we found ourselves in what I remember as the Art Room. There was the same huge flowstone pile sitting on a hollow floor above walking passage. I was startled to see the same weird black mud which looked a lot like a burried section of corrugate pipe. But we had approached from a different direction entirely! Everything was very confusing.
Sensing that it was time to go, I turned the trip and we started to make our way out. We weren't too pleased to jump back in the cold water again, and began to notice the the water level was definitely higher this time. Perhaps we were just being less cautious about taking the shallowest way through the pools, but what was knee-deep on the way in, was up to even my knees now and Amy's lower thighs. Perhaps this would be a good drought cave?
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| Mike and I looking cheerful... | ...and at the entrance looking evil. |
(photos by ACR)
But the trip out was relatively straight-forward. The advancing water levels made the crawl a little wetter, but we were certainly in no danger at any point. At long last we left the stream and hobbled to the entrance and the startling daylight. The rain had stopped and it looked like the clouds might clear at any moment.It was nice to get back to a real Rockcastle county cave with cave crickets, bats, fossils and all the trimmings. But I am still frustrated that I couldn't locate the Skylight Dome crawl! Next time, perhaps I'll have a better map, but until then curiosity is driving me nuts.
Postmortem: After talking with Jon Hagee of the Bluegrass Grotto, I think I know where we went "wrong". The turnoff for Skylight Dome was earlier than I had previously thought and I feel confident I can find it now. But it will have to wait until next time. Hopefully I'll have a better map then.
 The Wilderness Journal |  Neithernor |