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NEST TRIP REPORT
Buchanan Cave 26 Aug 2000
The Northeast Sump Exploration Team, NEST, conducted exploration efforts
In Buchanan Cave Resurgence in Virginia on 26 Aug 2000. NEST is a formally
recognized Project of the NSS and consists of a team of sump divers and
dedicated support personnel who are pursuing original exploration efforts at
several caves in the PA, Virginia and West Virginia areas. The team
surveys and further documents these sites through the use of still and video
techniques as well as engaging in biological surveys and water sampling at
these locations. NEST is also available to support the NCRC in situations
involving flooded passage and beyond sump rescues. Below is an account of
the Teams most recent explorations.
It had been a rainy summer with poor diving conditions at most of our
sites for the last several weeks. To say this had been frustrating was an
understatement. I had been monitoring the river gauges around our project
sites in Southern Virginia for the last week, and they had been steadily
dropping. Although this was encouraging I had seen this happen before only
to have a rain event move through the area before the day of the dive and
wipe out the vis with a storm surge. As we got toward the end of the week
once again it looked like there was rain in the forecast. Jeff and I
discussed our options Thursday night and we decided that we needed to get
away from the rat race even if we could not dive so we would take our
chances and hope for the best. Sure enough it did rain in the area and when
we checked the levels after reaching Paul�s home late Friday found that the
gauges showed a small spike.
We set out of the site next mourning hoping for the best but
expectations the worst. As we arrived I was prepared to find the run its
regular milky color. To our great relief it was as clear as we had ever
seen it. We wasted no time setting up the gear and moving it into the
cave entrance. For my first dive I entered carrying an alum 30 buoyancy
compensated stage. I also had a light weight custom reel that I had built
loaded with 500 feet of # 72 line. In order to make this load manageable
the reel was tied off to the handle on the stage with two pieces of cave
line thus producing a single integrated load. The vis was truly amazing
with even the first 100 feet sporting a good three feet. Past this point it
opened up to almost 10 feet, I was in sump diving nirvana. As I gently
finned forward I noticed that in many places low drifts of sediment had
buried my line, in order to preserve the visibility instead of pulling it up
I used the small mound that mirrored its position to follow it. A large
number of small fish, pure white Cray fish and several isopods were also in
evident, signs of reasonably good water quality.
After passing through the 30 foot deep section I moved up and under the
air pockets that marked the end of the first sump. Hovering against the
ceiling I carefully cut my reel free and then placed it on the bottom next
to the line while I switched over to my primary gas supply and placed the
stage on the line.
I continued on into the second sump following the line through a wide
downward sloping passage to where I had left my reel a few weeks ago during
the last push. On this dive, with less than a foot of visibility I had
been laying line by instinct. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I
had achieved a correct placement and found the reel sitting on the bottom
next to the right wall. Although I still had about 40 feet remaining on
this reel I opted to splice the new one in before the passage got any
deeper. After gently placing my new reel on the bottom I cut the existing
one free, tied a figure eight in this line and connected my new reel to it
by treading the loop from the new section through that of the eight. I
managed to stir up a fair amount of sediment during this process so I moved
a bit to the side, found clearer water, and examined and tested the
connection. Only once I was positive that it was bomb proof did I pick up
the reel and continue on.
The cave stayed snug and got progressively deeper, ever 15 feet I pulled
a small Disler Spike from the bands around my sidemounts and placed it in
the sediment covered bottom. I found myself going up and down some small
dunes and in some cases was unable to get good penetration on the spikes.
Not completely comfortable with some of these line placements and at a depth
of 43 feet I turned the dive, recovering my old reel and stage on the exit.
After a one hour surface interval I headed back in. For this effort I
used a newly developed hand held large buoyancy compensated stage. The
modifications I had made to an OMS Steel 45 worked just as planned and the
unit reminded me of a Gavin Scooter, almost perfectly balanced and
effortless to use. I dropped the stage at the end of the first sump and
recovered a drop weight I had placed at this location on an earlier push and
that I no longer needed at this spot. I used this to tidy up a line
placement on top of a small dune that had not accepted a Disler Spike well
on the previous dive. Once I had this squared away I continued on and
picked up the reel and moved forward. The passage meandered from side to
side, stayed snug and continued to get deeper. Some of the sediment I had
stirred up on the last dive had migrated down this slope so vis was only
about 4 feet. After laying a fair amount of line I turned the dive, this
time my computer indicated a depth of 47 feet.
The swim out proved quite pleasant and I took advantage of the visibility
to add additional Disler Spikes to raise the line above the silt beds in
several locations. All in all not a bad day, with a large reel spliced
into the line and the cave pushed further toward the down stream sumps of
Buchanan Cave, two miles away. We had also validated the new large buoyancy
compensated stage system. With the depth of the site increasing and now at
least 600 feet back this would greatly extend our range for future efforts.
I was also glad I was using one of Arnold Jackson�s excellent HID lights
since dive times were now exceeding the burn times of our older halogen
lights. We wrapped up the weekend by riding up to Scott Hollow and dropping
of tanks and other gear with Mike Dore for long term placement at the
upstream sump in preparation for a future push. With the potential for a 100
miles of dry cave on the other side this project is one of our current
priorities.
We would like to recognize our sponsors and all of the supporting cavers
who helped make our efforts possible. A special thanks to Arnold Jackson Of
American Underwater Lighting who supplied our exceptional primary lights,
Meteor 4�s and HIDs , as well as other critical gear and Tom and Jon of the
Fifth Dimension Dive Center who has provided us with other vital support.
We would also like to thank Terry Brady, of the Brass Anchor who has
provided us with generous audio visual support. Additional sponsors include
Lamar Hires of Dive Rite, , Alex Sproul of Inner Mountain Outfitters, Adrew
Kipe of Maryland Reproductions, and Robert Carmichael of Brownies Third Lung
and HALCYON, The Doing It Right Equipment Company, and our most recent
sponsor, DUI for our outstanding CF 200 series Dry Suits, Tim Walker,
Hank and Jane Anderson, and the Sovik and Mothes families without whose
support none of our efforts would have been possible.
Diver Explorer
Joseph Kaffl
Support Team Members
Paul Montgomery Virginia Area Coordinator
Jeff Mott On site Stand By Diver and Support
Stand By on call Divers
Eric Tesnau
Dave Nicholas
..
JOSEPH
KAFFL
SUMPDIVER@MS*.CO*
NEST
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