[TR] Dynaaaamiiite Cave - A Baker's Eleven 11/11/2011

[caverpilot]

...what was your turnaround time? You wouldn't want to get benighted on a trip like this.

 

Hilarious! I can see it now - "okay guys, I know the end of the cave is within sight, but we need to turn around now so we're out of this cave by...... light!"

 

There was a landowner in Missouri who, when asked if we could descend into his cave, always said, "Just make sure you're out by dark!" (Grateful as we were, we never questioned his logic!)

 

[billcoe]

Nice!!!!!!!

[Crickette]

Nice trip report. Thanks. When we were kids, my dad used to take us to Howe Caverns in New York. Later, while living in Pittsburg, a boy took me spelunking somewhere near the WV border. Since then, I have only walked through Ape Caves.

 

I found a book "Caves of Washington" from 1963 by a Dr.Halliday in the library. Of course the librarian always gives me a very weird look whenever I borrow the book. I'm probably the only person to check it out (multiple times ) since the last pre-computerized stamp from 1998 on the check-out card. According to the book, Dynamite was discovered in 1958 and quickly vandalized. They blew up the entrance with Dynamite.

 

Did you see any bats? What does one have to do to ensure their safety. I recall seeing something on OPB about humans spreading diseases which kill bats. I don't think the emergengy kit will work in this case.

 

[ivan]

Did you see any bats?

the place seemed totally sterile - no reason bats couldn't get in there of course, and i guess the ceilings are high enough in places you could just not notice them, but mostly the impression is of being in space or on some dead planet, just minerals and moisture

[Mentat]

Fun police, sorry guys. But speaking as a caver listing the location of a cave so the general public can find it is kind a a duche move. Sorryy just saying but cave enviroments are super fragile and besides its kinda something the rest of the caving comunity prescibes to. Props for seeking out these enviroments, they are one of the few places where you can leave any notion of the expected behind, and of course help you develop sick steming and offwith skilzz.

 

It's kinda lame I know buuut it take one shit head to ruin it forevers... And you want to make more caving freinds riiiiiigggghhhhtttttt???????

[Mentat]

"Did you see any bats? What does one have to do to ensure their safety. I recall seeing something on OPB about humans spreading diseases which kill bats. I don't think the emergengy kit will work in this case."

 

AFAIK If you do anycaving back east where there have been reports of white nose syndrome you need to fully decon your gear before you take it anywhere else.

[ivan]

Fun police, sorry guys. But speaking as a caver listing the location of a cave so the general public can find it is kind a a duche move. Sorryy just saying but cave enviroments are super fragile and besides its kinda something the rest of the caving comunity prescibes to. Props for seeking out these enviroments, they are one of the few places where you can leave any notion of the expected behind, and of course help you develop sick steming and offwith skilzz.

 

It's kinda lame I know buuut it take one shit head to ruin it forevers... And you want to make more caving freinds riiiiiigggghhhhtttttt???????

seemed like the general public already had a pretty good idea where it was as there were two other parties there that day, and given the maps and other info available easily on the interwebz that's not likely to change - not too fragile a place either, unlike the deadhorse (who's top secret location i didn't divulge last year)

 

at any rate, i wouldn't fancy meself a caver so don't care too much about honoring the rules of another insular, clannish, secretive clutch of crackers - i get my fill of that with the beatards!

[ivan]

"Did you see any bats? What does one have to do to ensure their safety. I recall seeing something on OPB about humans spreading diseases which kill bats. I don't think the emergengy kit will work in this case."

 

AFAIK If you do anycaving back east where there have been reports of white nose syndrome you need to fully decon your gear before you take it anywhere else.

badass avatar though! you w/ or w/o heart-plug at the moment?

[stevetimetravlr]

What is a duche? Sounds like some sort of royalty....

Dynamite is now probably inacessible for the winter by auto, as the snow is coming down hard. We should go back into Deadhorse today since no climbing due to the weather...

[Cat Butt]

Verb

duche (infinitive duchar)

First-person singular present subjunctive form of duchar (Spanish, meaning 'to shower')

 

So if Deadhorse has 8+ miles of tubage counting the Masochist Maze, why is it listed on Caverbob's Site as being number 28 with 2.735 miles of tube? We should be claiming 7th place, I think.

 

Some of the other entries fire the imagination:

 

25. Waste Management System

136. Skin Mites (this one's in Skamania County! Proud and curious!)

137. Oozing Red Puka

156. Pauahau Civil Defence Cave

237. bat-infested lava tube

 

Checking out the Caves by State list for WA shows a big one in King County, must be from Cave Ridge?

Edited December 28, 2011 by Cat Butt

[ivan]

jesus-fuck, fall rains w/o fail, week-end or work-wracked days all wrecked by the falling damps - time to foresake the topside for the dyanamite again, before the snows sequestrate that subterranean pleasure passage and leave me nothing but aid-climbing in common trashbags

 

i suppose i coulda spent another saturday at home, but the recent invasion of a puppy into my previously at best moderately tranquil family-scene has me pissed no end, so off i went, pausing at the burger king in recently re-fashioned camas for oil-cans of fosters ("it's auuuuuuuustralian fore budweiiiser!") and to secure legal council, who piled into my ride w/ bins of bullshit

 

bent space towards bingen, cruising through the incessant cloud-murk, past beacon all shrouded in mist - the navicomputer rumbling around on the dashboard called for questionable turns, but i don't quarrel w/ technology, man, so we had a pleasant ramble through fuck-knows-where through the killing fields of fall before eventually being shat out on a recognizable road

 

no snow yet, but the last mile of the track muddy as all hell - couple cars already in the lot w/ our crack'o'afternoon arrival, so we were assured of company

 

into the first passage after 1, spent 4 hours underground, an easy pace, stumble-fucking through the sterile, darkened rubble-strewn wasteland

 

betrayed by my recent coleman-lantern purchase - never had one before, nor mucked around w/ one once and managed to forget matches or extra mantles so promptly fucked it all up - is it dangerous to burn a coleman w/ one mantle broken through at the bottom, venting a great propane jet towards the center? sure seemed so, so it got set at the cave mouth and we managed w/ double headlamps and an led-lantern

 

not much else worth mentioning, 'sides them boy-o's we eventually made the awkward acquaintance of had a really nifty set of speicialized caving ladders, 2 thin steel wires w/ plastic rungs, 30-some odd feet long but w/ eyes on the end for clamping on another set, should you have them - woulda made handling the jugging transition from free-hanging to surmounting the lip more pleasant, but as it turned out we didn't much need it as some enterprising parcel of fools managed to cart a couple long timbers all the way down to the crystal ballroom, along w/ handfuls of spikes to hammer in hand and foot-holds, such that you can circumvent the hard-part while still clapped on to the fixed line

 

fun n' games n' pouring rain on the way-back, the red devil's engine rattling like slow-death, starved of oil - looking forward to another return and actually getting to the bottom of the thing...

[stevetimetravlr]

I went to Beacon in the rain and retrieved a longlost biner that LostLockerKennyLeft, and so life is once again good. Except one of my poor little dogs has been given just a few weeks to live due to enlarged heart, very sad, she is such a sweetie. It was nice rapping in the dark and the light rain with a beautiful sunset down the Gorge and no one else there except a big old owl who I've made the acquaintence of on more then one occasion.

[ivan]

interesting that the two of us were at opposite ends of the dog-spectrum on the same day - condolences - i'm sure you'd have rather been able to make the what-have-you

 

was it that gold n' white owl w/ the huge face? saw that guy this summer and was quite impressed, the only time i'd seen one out there.

[stevetimetravlr]

yes, thats the guy. he had a spot out of the rain under a overhang and I rapped in and spoke with him. Impressive individual and pretty chill dude.

[Plaidman]

Speaking of chill dudes. Thanks for doing all that leading yesterday. I am having trouble feeling my arms. I will have to all the heavy lifting today at work as Ricks arms are blown out.

[ivan]

my 3rd visit in as many weekends - slurry sick snow high-centering on the final mile - pouring weak-sleety shit in the slickery parking lot - the ghosts of a great big bonfire - into the deep!

 

checked out the "sandcastles" - holy fucking great hollows afore the hall-guard bat-man - a big, big scary boom below the hard-boots we beat upon the bottom of the room - total zen in the corkscrew of the chamber's end.

 

great times - 4 white boys crammed into the cab of a new-model what-have-you - me n' bob n' the tappet-brothers all about at the broaching of the day...

[powderhound]

Sounds like a good day. Can't believe you drove the red devil all the way up there. Any pics of the sandcastles?

[ivan]

nah, definetly needed a truck this trip, so the devil stayed home - no pix of anything, but it's worth the trip back i'd say (bringn some hot chicks, bikinis and a volleyball - you might not want to be too attached to them as if you did enough jumping aroudn in there you could probably send the whole shebang falling down to a lower level! )- really looking forward to figuring out how to get into the firecracker cave next

 

not much of a competition w/ your weekend there, dude

[wolfs]

Verb

Checking out the Caves by State list for WA shows a big one in King County, must be from Cave Ridge?

Yeah Newton is on Cave Ridge. There's a little bit of tamer stuff at the entrance but then a LOT of rope work (which I've not done) including free drops of 70 feet plus and an awkward slimy 60 degree thing with running water. Over 500 vertical in a thousand feet of passage ... that tells you something.

CaverBobs list for WA is missing other entries near the bottom, notably Gardner Cave (with the extension it's at least 2000 feet) and Windy Creek up in the Baker area. Both limestone.

 

[sobo]

Both limestone.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm, karst... ...

I recall fondly my days of karst kruising the backwoods of VA, WV, KY and TN back in the early 80s at college.

Then I discovered climbing, and everything changed...

[Buckaroo]

Over 500 vertical in a thousand feet of passage ... that tells you something.

 

What if you were 500 ft down in there and all these rains we've been having caused an underground river to flood through there?

 

And you got soaking wet but not drowned but the water ruined all your headlamps and soaked your lighters so you had to crawl out wet and in the total darkness.

 

When I was a kid about 11 yo I read a book called "All The Dark Places". A story about a boy who soloed into a cave a long ways and then all his flashlights malfunctioned and he only had a few matches to light the way back at key points.

 

It would have been hard to make a movie out of the book because he was in pitch black for most of the story.

 

Actually I later found out that the book was based on a true story and I was eventually able to contact the boy. After some discussion with me expressing my profound interest he was happy to provide me with these pictures of his ordeal.

 

I've recently scanned them so that everyone here on the forum can benefit.

 

 

 

 

 

[ivan]

caves are pretyy kewl, 'cuz when you shut off all yer lights and shut the fuck up, you feel real cold and powerless...

[matt_warfield]

Old school was pick a cave with water and at least one tight squeeze to cure your claustraphobia, or increase it. Either way it tells you something about yourself.

 

Hold a flashlight in your mouth and hope you don't lose it or that the batteries run out.

 

Only cavers, Alaskans,blind people and philosophers are good at long term darkness.

Edited November 24, 2012 by matt_warfield

[mike1]

Word: 'tis the season for bats to begin hibernation. Take care friends and don't disturb the fuzzies. If you wake them and the bugs are gone for the season, it's difficult if not impossible to eat enough to reenter hibernation & make it thru Winter. This means they die by starvation. In Dynamited they are usually just inside the entrance within that first chamber area.

 

Some caves are closed through winter for this reason. More info on bats and which caves are closed here.

 

Peace

[beaconben]

next time you guys go caving please let me know