Lost River - Karst Information Portal

2007 NSS Convention Guidebook
Chapel Gulf Cave during this time, completing
the large loop in the cave and the survey to the
western sump.
Of those of us who would become the
top seven surveyors in the project, four have
already been mentioned and were involved
from the very beginning. They include Ted
Bice, Dave Schang, Trae Spires, and me. The
remaining three appeared during the first year.
In June, a new grotto member by the name of
Dave Tibbets made his first appearance and
would eventually go on nearly 100 survey trips
into the cave. In July, Dave and Karen Schang
brought a friend named Burnis Piper into the
project, and he would soon prove to be the
best sketcher of all. Finally, in October, Bill
Kulwicki arrived and always seemed to get stuck
surveying the nastiest parts of the cave, albeit
without complaint. Because of this, although
he would go on over 50 survey trips, he should
have twice as much footage as he does.
Pea Hole
What would turn out to be the third and
most widely used entrance to the system did
not exist for the first nine months after the
discovery. So, after the initial passages close to
the Lost River II entrance had been surveyed,
any trip headed to the western part of the cave
had to enter through there and travel for one to
two hours before reaching the start of a survey.
It wasn’t a big problem, however, since most of
the trip was walking, but other events on the
surface would nevertheless change this for the
better.
On the second weekend after the discovery,
January 17, while two survey teams were in the
cave enjoying the endless virgin booty, Billy
Pea and Tony Cunningham ridge-walked the
property above the cave. Several small and
deep sinkholes exist on the property. Billy
found a deep crack between several large
blocks of limestone and managed to squeeze
down between them. A constriction blocked
his way, but somehow he was able to make
an opening and dig his way through into a
small room. The following day, again while
two survey teams were in the cave, Billy was
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joined by Doug Fitzgerald and they returned
to the dig that he started the day before. On
the opposite side of the small room that Billy
had dug into there was a small depression in the
floor. For some reason Billy and Doug began to
clear rocks and dirt from the area, and by the
end of the day they had broken into a second
and larger room below the first. The dig that
Billy had started was now an official cave of
its own. The first room was really just a void
in between large blocks of limestone, but the
second room actually resembled a cave. At the
end of the second room a breeze flowed out of
a crack along the bottom right-hand wall. Billy
and Doug began to dig there.
With all of the excitement and initial
discoveries during the first two months, I did
not bother to visit the cave until March 15. As
a joke between all of us involved in the survey
of Lost River, the cave had come to be known
as Pea Hole. The entrance was a tight corkscrew
squeeze down through blocks of rock to reach
the first room, a series we would all come to
despise. Not sure what to expect after entering
the second room, I was impressed with what
Billy and Doug had found. I continued the
previously started dig at the end of the second
room trying to follow the air.
Three more attempts to dig in the cave
were made during the spring while we were
hampered from surveying in Lost River due
to spring floods. The crack was blocked by
pieces of breakdown, some too large to move,
but those that we could remove were hauled
out and tossed over along the left-hand wall of
the passage. The cave was surveyed for a length
of 113 feet and a surface survey was finally
conducted to locate the cave in relation to Lost
River to help locate any possible connection.
The surface survey showed that the two
caves were nearly on top of each other, but
after repeated attempts at a connection
without success, we had become somewhat
discouraged. Water levels in the cave returned
to normal and we did not bother with Pea
Hole again until September 13. On that day
one team made the trip into Lost River to
where we thought the connection should be