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BS (That's Blue Spring) REPORT
This is not a supported project of any organization but an ongoing
effort began by a group of "dry
cavers" in 1963. The mapping of Blue
Spring Cave (A.K.A. Bluespring
Caverns) in southern
Indiana (at least the underwater parts) has been taken over by Sam
Frushour with the apparent
cave diving retirement of Steve Maegerlein. The "dry" portions of the
cave now has been mapped
to approximately 20.4 miles in length (and there is a bit more dry
passage to survey). To produce
a more complete map and to beat the mapped total of Binkley's Cave (even
though those cavers
seem to be creating their footage), an effort is underway to survey the
submerged portion of the
main stream of the cave.
The latest effort began last summer when Patti Cummings and I dragged a
canoe and my dive
gear into the Colglazier Entrance down steep walkways and down the main
stream over 800 feet
of loose rocks. We paddled 3/4 mile down the stream and I swam an
additional 1100 feet on the
water's surface. The swim is through sinuous arched passage where the
ceiling is about fifteen
inches above the water but occasionally dips nearly to the water
surface. Sloping soft mudbanks
under water are everywhere and waiting to catch fins and gear. I had
chosen to use side mount
gear and this proved a sound decision as it was easier to carry
individual tanks into the cave rather
than carrying doubles over slippery mud and loose dinner plate sized
rock. On a previous occasion
with Robin Fitch I used back mounted doubles with great difficulty and
excessive risk of injury
while hauling them. On this attempt I found the sumped passage to be
ten feet high and 10 to 15
feet wide with a more solid bottom than in the air-filled sections
(which have very soft silt and
clay). At the beginning of the sump I pushed a 4 foot section of iron
pipe into a mudbank leaving
one foot and the T fitting on the end for my tie-off.. The visibility
was only about 4 feet even
though there had been no rain for about 2 weeks and I knew if one waits
for good visibility in
Indiana then there will be no diving done. At any rate, the current was
barely perceptible and the
visibility should have been about 8 feet but it was not.
Because the surface swim down the cave stream took longer than
anticipated I had time to only
lay 560 feet of line before turning around and heading back to Patti who
was waiting. I had
promised to be gone only one hour. At the place where I turned around
the passage showed no
sign of changing in size and was heading due west. The notched PVC
pipes carried for line
attachments definitely were needed as there were no natural tie-offs
observed and the fine-grain
clay sediments that sloped upward hiding the rock walls were scoured
with grooves that reflect
the high velocity of the stream during floods. The return swim upstream
was in less than one foot
visibility as it is impossible not to disturb the clay sediments. The
long swim back to the canoe
was made easier by not having to concern myself with avoiding
disturbance of silt and the paddle
back upstream was a pleasant one through scenic cave passage. We
carried the gear out and
uphill to the vehicle with a lot of muttering about how great it would
be to have access to the
spring outlet of the cave. Then very soon the rains came and I could
not get back to carry on the
survey.
The difficulty of carrying gear into and out of the cave really brought
home the need for a better
way of doing things and with resolve I again contacted the owner of the
spring where the cave
empties into the river. This time I had much better luck.. After our
initial communication he came
down to visit at our commercial operation (Bluespring Caverns) and after
being plied with free
passes to visit the cave, he at last agreed to allow me to dive on his
property at the spring. This
would create a whole new approach to mapping the submerged section of
the cave and I became
determined to keep moving on the mapping effort.
Date: 13 September 1998
I enlisted Sue Sharples to help check out the conditions in the spring
and so on a pleasant late
summer day we parked her van as close to the spring as we could amid a
gaggle of fishing shacks
built up amazingly high on concrete blocks. The spring has migrated
along the river over the
millenniums, and in doing so, has left a large alcove with a flood plain
only fifteen feet above
normal river stage; so the summer fishing shacks there are vulnerable to
inundation (and some of
them do get flooded annually). Beyond the last shack we rigged a rope
to aid clambering down
the steep bank of the spring run and observed that the nearby river had
deposited a lot of sand in
the spring run during unusually high spring flooding. This made it
nearly impossible to walk in the
run. The nearby mudbanks (slimy mud) were no better so the footing was
treacherous carrying
heavy gear.
Sue had opted for back mounted 95's and I had my own steel 95's but with
side mount rig and we
both were using TLS350 drysuits. Sue was given the honor of laying a
primary line into the
spring and she soon disappeared down the narrow canyon under a rock
overhang. After a short
search she located the line Steve Maegerlein laid in about 1980 on a
steel wagon wheel tire and
returned to announce the primary was installed and that Steve's line
appeared intact at it's initial
tie-off 42 feet down. She sent me up the line to check it out; so I
dropped down the canyon and
at about a depth of 16 feet it widened abruptly; then I encountered the
beginning of Steve's line.
It was at the bottom of a rocky slope tied to the wagon wheel tire just
as he had described. While
I swam along in 3 foot visibility Sue followed a few feet behind. The
low visibility was probably
due to river water being pushed into the cave. I passed a log 250 feet
in that is trapped crossways
in the passage by the wall and a rock pillar. Easily rotating it I
noticed a deep groove completely
girdling the log. This is surely due to rotation against a rock
projection in strong current. Farther
in there were small shreds of sheet plastic caught on the line (probably
washed down from our
tour cave operation upstream).
The line mostly followed the left wall and came up shallow to 5 foot
depth at one point about 400
feet in. We found the passage configuration to be a tall canyon about
45 feet high and 8 to 10
feet wide; but even wider at it's bottom near the spring. Every ledge
was covered by the lightest
silt that billowed from my passing even several feet away and when I
turned to retreat at about
700 feet in Sue and I collided as we could not see each other in the
disturbed silt until a second
before we met. The exit was uneventful and I could sometimes see the
dim glow of Sue's 50 watt
light ahead. We were happy to find the line intact and made plans to
replace it with new knotted
line and begin the survey.
Date: 4 October 1998
Patti Cummings and I showed up at the spring on a warm day to replace
the line left by Steve
Maegerlein many years ago and to survey the new line out to the spring.
Patti was going to keep
an eye on things outside since on the last visit some local juvenile
delinquents had stolen and
destroyed my prescription sunglasses (we have dumb rednecks in Indiana
too). I again rigged a
hand line to get down the steep bank of the spring run and fastened a
reel for my primary line to
rocks near the rock overhang. We carried gear down to the spring and I
got into my wet suit; as
my TLS350 dry suit needed the neck seal replaced. On this occasion I
opted to do the dive in
back mounted aluminum double tanks (thus reducing the magnetic affect
tanks would have on the
compass) and later found the doubles do just fine fitting into the
narrow canyon just inside the
spring. The wetsuit became a problem; as will be explained later.
Just under the water surface I found a suitable rock pinnacle for my
secondary line tie-off and
headed near vertically down the canyon to Steve's line. The visibility
was improved over my
previous visit here with rock walls six feet away visible. I fastened
the new line beside Steve's
and headed south passing the log and feeling some excitement that at
last I was going to get some
real survey going here. The floor began rising about 600 feet in and
the passage gradually turned
left. I was forced to follow the floor up steeply along the left wall
and found the final tie-off of
Steve's line at only 14 feet deep on a large rock projection. The
passage ahead was 12 feet high
and about as wide and with plenty of line remaining I was ready to
strike out into the unknown.
The ceiling was at about zero depth; so air would last well.. As I
progressed there were
numerous sticks and limbs laying about and two small pieces of plywood
that surely washed down
from the commercial operation upstream. About 400 feet along I was
getting colder than I should
have and decided to find a tie-off but was unsuccessful and did not have
any PVC pipes with me
(I surely will not forget them again).. The cold was getting to me
enough (damned chilled) that I
did not feel it appropriate to survey out; so I reeled up enough line
that a tie-off was found on the
wall among some small limbs only 50 feet south of the end of Steve's
line. So that the swim out
would gain some information, I watched the walls closely for side
passages but found none,
although there were several places where I could not see the wall..
Removal of Steve's line would
also have to wait for another day and concluded that he had placed it
very well when he was in
the cave many years ago. Once outside I found a seam behind my left
shoulder had separated
allowing cold water into my "semi-dry" wetsuit (bummer).
Date: 25 October 1998
It was drizzling rain when Patti and I arrived at the spring. The
weather forecast was for several
days of intermittent heavy rain; so I figured this would be the last
time the cave would be divable
until we got a lengthy freeze (unlikely) or the climate dried out next
summer. This time I was
going back to using a TLS350 dry suit with argon and expected to be
toasty warm. Grim
memories of the split seam in my wetsuit on the previous visit were
still sharp in my head. I was
also going to carry plenty of air with back mounted tanks and a stage
bottle for an extensive push
and mapping. I also had a supply of five notched PVC pipes since the
likelihood of finding natural
tie-off points was slim.
The water level was still low enough to expose the entire rock face and
a few feet of cave at the
spring. Patti and I carried my gear down the steep bank after rigging a
hand line and a
conversation with one of the residents of the fishing shacks in which we
were told that once a
tractor tire was flushed out of the spring during a severe flood. I
donned all gear but mask and
stage bottle and was hunkered down on my knees in the soft bed of the
spring run contemplating
the next step in the process of getting underwater when I stretched the
mask strap just a bit to test
it and it broke behind a buckle. A few unkind words from my lips
followed and Patti volunteered
to get a spare from her vehicle. The strap was replaced in good time.
While descending the
narrow canyon at the entrance I went ahead a bit too far and found that
I could not fit down the
canyon; so I backed up about 10 feet and easily dropped down to the
beginning of the line. As I
began my survey it immediately became obvious that the stream was
already affected by rain and
the rising river and visibility was down to three feet or less. I
mapped the line installed on the
previous visit with no problems and could sketch the walls in some
places in the bad visibility. At
793 feet in I was at the end of my line and decided to start a new reel.
After only about 60 feet of
swimming the visibility went even worse (couldn't see diddly squat); so
I reeled back in and
headed out. It looked as though the cave would have to wait for a dry
spell to make mapping
reasonable.
Remaining for future investigations are answers to the questions, how
far is it to a connection
with already mapped portions of the cave and are there any side passages
underwater that lead
into the sinkhole plain to the south where no cave is now known. With
the likelihood of no
visibility for awhile it looks like other places will be visited over
the winter: Hmmmm...Missouri
sounds pretty good and it is only a few hours away.
Sam Frushour
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