This dive report would not be complete without setting the stage with an introduction as to our very interesting base of operations and some insight into those who frequent it.
Squalid Manor is a small house in the hills of Kentucky a ways west of London Ky. The house has three rooms with multiple beds in each. There are such amenities as electricity, a refrigerator and heat. The rest room is a good solid out house. Some of my family was less than excited about staying someplace without running water and showers. I told them to look on the bright side and pointed out that At least the out house is close.
Squalid Manor has been used as a field house by cavers for many years (at least since the sixties). It is frequented by a group of under funded and in some cases maybe even under fed but very serious and determined cavers. Everywhere, there are stacks of cave related books, geological survey data, topographical maps and field study reports. The walls are also covered with cave maps and such. In one corner is a donation jar where temporary residents leave their donation for rent and utilities on the way out. I have a feeling that the history of the exploits and exploration of Squalid Manor residents would be at least as interesting as the study of any cave.
A continuous frustration of the caver is the fact that sections of cave sump (go under water) blocking off access to large sections of cave rendering the connection of windows impossible. This is the venue of the sump diver. We were invited down with two of our cave diving friends to poke our noses in and see if such activities might interest us. This is a type of diving completely foreign to most, including cave divers. Jason, our host, is a long time caver who learned to cave dive just for this purpose. Access to these sites gives a new meaning to the word difficult often involving treks up or down mountainsides and packing dive equipment thousands of feet through dry or semi-dry cave passage. Underwater, quarters are tight and silty with little to no visibility. Whats the attraction of diving in such an environment? The answer is simple. When you enter, lay and survey line in such a place you are likely the first person to have ever been there. When you emerge into air filled passage on the other side of the sump (if your lucky or good enough to find a way through), you are rewarded with the privileged of being the first to lay eyes on the cave before you. In so doing a contribution is made toward solving the mysteries of geology and hydrology.
Saturday.
We arrive early and are informed by Jason that the planned dive wont take place because of water conditions but not to worry there is a backup plan. Our first task of the day was to help Steve (an experience cave diver and cave diving instructor who has taken part in exploration projects around the world) haul his side-mount equipment across a field, down into a deep and steep collapse feature and about two thousand feet into a cave to where it sumps up valley from Lake Cumberland. We reach the sump wet, cold and tired. Steve suits up, checks equipment, makes a primary tie-off at the surface and disappears. Steve is on his own and such is the way of many a sump diver.
We head back to the vehicles and drive to the end of a narrow gravel road to where it dead-ends above Lake Cumberland. Sandy and I are diving doubles and are told our next task is to pack our gear down a long steep rocky slope to the lake. Here we will suit up and swim across a cove and down the shore. There we will meet Jason who will have ropes set up and help pack our gear up a really rocky (car size boulders) steep slope to the place where the water exits. Here, tucked under the base of a several hundred foot tall cliff and still way above the lake is a small pool. The plan is to enter and see where it leads. Another friend Sue and another diver have already installed several hundred feet of line but exited without surveying. They did, however, note some possible leads on the way out. Sandy and I plan to follow their line to the end, hopefully adding to it and surveying it all on the way out. We are the third and fourth people in the world to ever see this place! Visibility is 5 ft plus. We easily locate the start of the line and continue in with me in the lead. Should we reach the end of the line or a side passage I will run the reel and Sandy will do the surveying. There is air over us for a while and then just rock. We follow the line through a sharp left turn then a sharp right. Here we note the location of one of the leads we mean to check on the way out. There are cave crayfish everywhere. We come to a place where we see, in disbelief, that the line disappears into a horizontal crack about eight inches top to bottom. I scan left and right searching for a spot through which a diver might pass. The opening opens up some both to the right and to the left. I signal for Sandy to hold position while I go several feet off the line to the opening to the right. It is clear that while I might fit through doing so will reduce visibility to zero. I decide that I dont want to be even that far from the line or Sandy in Zero visibility and move to check the opening to the left. Noting that the line is very loose here and that moving back and forth in this area has already deteriorated visibility, I decide to not to go further and turn us. Slowly we move back the way we came. When we reach the location of the other lead I deploy a primary reel loaded with 400 feet of knotted #24 line. The existing line is way to loose to tie onto so I scan for a solid tie off. I see a likely looking knob on the wall and start to wrap the line. The moment I touch the knob a thick cloud of silt puts an abrupt end to all sight. I am aware of Sandys light over my shoulder and thinking that she has followed me off the line (only a few feet) instead of holding on the line I begin to worry about loosing the line and abort the tie-off. While these would be familiar conditions to an experienced sump diver I decide I have experienced enough new things for one day and gave the thumbs up. Sandy had never left the line and had it right beneath her. Even so, I had a hard time making contact with the line. We were in fifty-something degree water and wearing thick gloves, the line was loose and nearly invisible lying on the silt bottom. I had every intention of initiating and maintaining touch contact with the line until we were someplace where I could see it. We had a max depth of nine feet and knowing I was carrying enough gas to last many hours here was a comfort. Sandy held position while I worked slowly to find the line, which was invisible almost directly beneath me. Once I had the line, we exchanged OKs Sandy turned and we headed out without incident. We will not make any new discoveries today. We had a maximum depth of nine feet and a dive time of about 30 minutes. Now we must hump gear down the mountain, across the lake and back up that long steep rock strewn hill to the van. We took turns carrying our doubles down and spotting each other. Even with ropes, the climb itself was an education. It is easy to see why back mounted doubles is not the way to go here regardless of the size of the cave.
We returned to find out that Steve had laid and surveyed about six hundred feet of line and found more dry cave beyond the sump. To date he is the only human who has ever seen this place. Realizing that his course was meandering quite a bit, he decided not to go further until he had a chance to look over the maps again.
In the interest of brevity I will skip Sundays story except to mention that Steve conducted a brief exploration of the cave beyond his sump and reported the under water portion also appeared to still be going. Jason dived the water exit where Sandy and I dived on Saturday. He found air over water passage, which he followed for several hundred feet beyond the end of the line in the same general direction. Dye tracing has shown that a connection exists between these two entrances and one of these leads is hopefully a path that will eventually be traversed.
This weekend was a glimpse of an entirely different world, one we will no doubt visit again.
Squalid Manor is a small house in the hills of Kentucky a ways west of London Ky. The house has three rooms with multiple beds in each. There are such amenities as electricity, a refrigerator and heat. The rest room is a good solid out house. Some of my family was less than excited about staying someplace without running water and showers. I told them to look on the bright side and pointed out that At least the out house is close.
Squalid Manor has been used as a field house by cavers for many years (at least since the sixties). It is frequented by a group of under funded and in some cases maybe even under fed but very serious and determined cavers. Everywhere, there are stacks of cave related books, geological survey data, topographical maps and field study reports. The walls are also covered with cave maps and such. In one corner is a donation jar where temporary residents leave their donation for rent and utilities on the way out. I have a feeling that the history of the exploits and exploration of Squalid Manor residents would be at least as interesting as the study of any cave.
A continuous frustration of the caver is the fact that sections of cave sump (go under water) blocking off access to large sections of cave rendering the connection of windows impossible. This is the venue of the sump diver. We were invited down with two of our cave diving friends to poke our noses in and see if such activities might interest us. This is a type of diving completely foreign to most, including cave divers. Jason, our host, is a long time caver who learned to cave dive just for this purpose. Access to these sites gives a new meaning to the word difficult often involving treks up or down mountainsides and packing dive equipment thousands of feet through dry or semi-dry cave passage. Underwater, quarters are tight and silty with little to no visibility. Whats the attraction of diving in such an environment? The answer is simple. When you enter, lay and survey line in such a place you are likely the first person to have ever been there. When you emerge into air filled passage on the other side of the sump (if your lucky or good enough to find a way through), you are rewarded with the privileged of being the first to lay eyes on the cave before you. In so doing a contribution is made toward solving the mysteries of geology and hydrology.
Saturday.
We arrive early and are informed by Jason that the planned dive wont take place because of water conditions but not to worry there is a backup plan. Our first task of the day was to help Steve (an experience cave diver and cave diving instructor who has taken part in exploration projects around the world) haul his side-mount equipment across a field, down into a deep and steep collapse feature and about two thousand feet into a cave to where it sumps up valley from Lake Cumberland. We reach the sump wet, cold and tired. Steve suits up, checks equipment, makes a primary tie-off at the surface and disappears. Steve is on his own and such is the way of many a sump diver.
We head back to the vehicles and drive to the end of a narrow gravel road to where it dead-ends above Lake Cumberland. Sandy and I are diving doubles and are told our next task is to pack our gear down a long steep rocky slope to the lake. Here we will suit up and swim across a cove and down the shore. There we will meet Jason who will have ropes set up and help pack our gear up a really rocky (car size boulders) steep slope to the place where the water exits. Here, tucked under the base of a several hundred foot tall cliff and still way above the lake is a small pool. The plan is to enter and see where it leads. Another friend Sue and another diver have already installed several hundred feet of line but exited without surveying. They did, however, note some possible leads on the way out. Sandy and I plan to follow their line to the end, hopefully adding to it and surveying it all on the way out. We are the third and fourth people in the world to ever see this place! Visibility is 5 ft plus. We easily locate the start of the line and continue in with me in the lead. Should we reach the end of the line or a side passage I will run the reel and Sandy will do the surveying. There is air over us for a while and then just rock. We follow the line through a sharp left turn then a sharp right. Here we note the location of one of the leads we mean to check on the way out. There are cave crayfish everywhere. We come to a place where we see, in disbelief, that the line disappears into a horizontal crack about eight inches top to bottom. I scan left and right searching for a spot through which a diver might pass. The opening opens up some both to the right and to the left. I signal for Sandy to hold position while I go several feet off the line to the opening to the right. It is clear that while I might fit through doing so will reduce visibility to zero. I decide that I dont want to be even that far from the line or Sandy in Zero visibility and move to check the opening to the left. Noting that the line is very loose here and that moving back and forth in this area has already deteriorated visibility, I decide to not to go further and turn us. Slowly we move back the way we came. When we reach the location of the other lead I deploy a primary reel loaded with 400 feet of knotted #24 line. The existing line is way to loose to tie onto so I scan for a solid tie off. I see a likely looking knob on the wall and start to wrap the line. The moment I touch the knob a thick cloud of silt puts an abrupt end to all sight. I am aware of Sandys light over my shoulder and thinking that she has followed me off the line (only a few feet) instead of holding on the line I begin to worry about loosing the line and abort the tie-off. While these would be familiar conditions to an experienced sump diver I decide I have experienced enough new things for one day and gave the thumbs up. Sandy had never left the line and had it right beneath her. Even so, I had a hard time making contact with the line. We were in fifty-something degree water and wearing thick gloves, the line was loose and nearly invisible lying on the silt bottom. I had every intention of initiating and maintaining touch contact with the line until we were someplace where I could see it. We had a max depth of nine feet and knowing I was carrying enough gas to last many hours here was a comfort. Sandy held position while I worked slowly to find the line, which was invisible almost directly beneath me. Once I had the line, we exchanged OKs Sandy turned and we headed out without incident. We will not make any new discoveries today. We had a maximum depth of nine feet and a dive time of about 30 minutes. Now we must hump gear down the mountain, across the lake and back up that long steep rock strewn hill to the van. We took turns carrying our doubles down and spotting each other. Even with ropes, the climb itself was an education. It is easy to see why back mounted doubles is not the way to go here regardless of the size of the cave.
We returned to find out that Steve had laid and surveyed about six hundred feet of line and found more dry cave beyond the sump. To date he is the only human who has ever seen this place. Realizing that his course was meandering quite a bit, he decided not to go further until he had a chance to look over the maps again.
In the interest of brevity I will skip Sundays story except to mention that Steve conducted a brief exploration of the cave beyond his sump and reported the under water portion also appeared to still be going. Jason dived the water exit where Sandy and I dived on Saturday. He found air over water passage, which he followed for several hundred feet beyond the end of the line in the same general direction. Dye tracing has shown that a connection exists between these two entrances and one of these leads is hopefully a path that will eventually be traversed.
This weekend was a glimpse of an entirely different world, one we will no doubt visit again.
