Lost River - Karst Information Portal

2007 NSS Convention Guidebook
To the right side
of the entrance room
is Cindys Grotto.
This passage starts
out has a handsand-knees
crawlway
through a formation
area. In this area there
are also several tree
roots. After about
100 feet the passage
opens into a low,
wide room. From
this room the passage
continues as a handsand-knees
crawlway
for another 100 feet
to a second room. At
the end of this room is an
old signature (1890, J. Cummings) and some
broken mason jars. The passage continues as
a 1-foot-high crawlway. After moving some
breakdown this passage led to the second
entrance (Patsys Pass-Through). The Cindys
Grotto section is a pretty part of the cave with
flowstone masses, rimstone pools, stalagmites,
stalactites, and soda straws.
On the left side of the entrance room is
a 12-foot-deep canyon. By going into the
beginning of this canyon and taking a short
belly crawlway at the bottom, the main passage
can be reached. The short crawlway opens
onto a ledge of a small dome-pit. The ledge
is just 6 feet above the floor and is an easy
crawling traverse. During wet weather a small
stream enters from the dome and flows down
the step breakdown slope to exit the cave by a
too-tight-to-follow canyon. From the domepit
the passage continues, varying in size from
a hands-and-knees crawlway to a stoopway,
with an occasional belly crawl and walking
passage. The floor is mostly bone dry with
occasional tacky mud in the formation areas.
The first part of the passage has gypsum flecks
in the mud floor and on the walls. The middle
portion of the passage has several formation
areas, with flowstone, stalactites, stalagmites,
346
Holly Cook in virgin passage in Bryants Cave. Photo by Dave Black.
and helictites. This portion also has several old
signatures including “J.J.B. 1871 Chicago” and
“J.F.D. Ramsey 1885.” Beyond the formation
section the passage continues has a belly crawl
in tacky mad. This belly crawl is 300 feet long
ending at the Dible-Haun Dig.
The Dible-Haun Dig is dig done by Danny
Dible and Dave Haun in the spring of 1986.
The dig is through sediment fill. It is a very
tight crawl about 12 feet long ending in a tight
left-hand bend into a small canyon passage.
The passage continues as a small, but slowly
enlarging, canyon passage. In several hundred
feet the passage enlarges to walking size. At
this point there is a crawlway on the left. This
southward trending crawlway is about 300
feet long. It finally ends in sediment fill. From
this side passage the main passage continues
predominately walking size with some
crawlways. In another 100 feet there is a 12-foothigh
dome. At the top of this dome is the upper
level. In another 50 feet is a breakdown area.
On the left wall, nearly hidden by breakdown,
is the down-cutting stream passage. Past the
breakdown the main passage continues for
several hundred more feet as mostly a handsand-knee
crawlway.
The down cutting stream passage is located