Lost River - Karst Information Portal

efore splitting and ending in breakdown in
both directions. The lower level was surveyed
upstream following the water for another 800
feet before stopping in a gravel crawlway.
There were six survey trips in 2001 from
May through October. An additional three
trips took place in July of 2002. Presently, the
cave has a surveyed length of 4,682 feet, with
a depth of 44 feet. The source of the water is
still unknown, as the upstream gravel crawlway
still needs to be explored further. Nevertheless,
Critchfield Spring is an easy, enjoyable cave,
and the bathtub is especially refreshing on a
hot summer day.
Toliver Hollow Cave
sinkhole filled with trash would lead
A to the discovery of another cave over
4,000 feet long. South of Lost River Cave we
discovered a sinkhole that we were told had
an entrance to a cave in it. The landowner told
of a few cavers going into it sometime in the
1950s. Unfortunately, the sinkhole had since
Toliver Hollow Borehole.
Exploration in the Lost River Basin
been filled with trash. There was no record of
any cave at this location, so once again we did
not know what to expect.
With permission from the landowner,
we dug through the trash in the sinkhole and
eventually found an entrance to a cave. We
named it Toliver Hollow Cave after the valley
that it was in, and on February 2, 2002, the
survey began.
The cave starts as a crawlway, but shortly
opens into a nice walking passage. Water is
diverted underground at the entrance, so for
the entire length of the cave you are following
the water downstream. The walking passage
leads for about 1,000 feet to the top of a
narrow canyon about 30 feet deep. The bottom
of the canyon can be followed to a passage that
alternates between crawling and walking for
another 3,000 feet to where the survey ends.
Five survey trips were taken during February
and March of 2002, after which a spring rain
sealed the entrance shut once again and the
landowner decided not to let us return. The cave
does not stop at the end of the survey, however,
43