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Penn Aqua Cave - The Danger...

My second trip back to Penn Aqua Cave was a lengthy one as well.  There were four of us: John Seward, Kevin Dunleavy, Alan Horn and me.  We arrived at the owner's property around 10:30 AM and chatted with him about the potential of enlarging the entrance so that larger folks would be able to see the cave.  The conversation also included the potential of a gate being fashioned to protect the cave if the entrance were made larger.

Alan had bought a new cordless hammer drill and devised a device to load powershots into a hole drilled into the limestone near the entrance to break away chucks of rock.  We did a few tests outside the cave and then went inside to drill the holes.  After some discussion and several holes, a powershot was placed and fired but it was too far into the rock to break away the desired piece.  The firing device ended up bending which made triggering the powershots difficult.  Eventually the drill's battery pack ran out of power and it was 12:30 PM too!  We hadn't gotten into the cave yet.

We took the tools back to the truck and got our caving gear out.  John didn't have a wetsuit but prepared a substitute of roll foam and plastic wrap.  Alan helped him to apply the plastic insulation.  John had already taped sections of foam together to form legs, sleeves and a pullover for his chest and back.  The plastic wrap was to keep the pieces of foam together and limit the areas where water could flow in and out of the "suit."

He reported that it worked fairly well, although the durability of the system was almost non-existent.  See below for the after photo.

We finally got into the cave at 1:00 PM.  All of us slipped through the entrance and got into the water.  Everyone was fine and surprisingly, John wasn't cold.  We were moving fairly quickly through the deep water section on this trip, quite unlike my first trip.

This time, there were so many more photo opportunities in the cave.  We had a smaller group but the main reasons that this trip yielded much better pictures than my first trip were the fact that there was essentially no fog in the cave this time (even when exhaling) and we saw some really pretty parts of the cave which we didn't find on the first trip.

While Alan and I continued to explore for the "Mezzanine," Kevin and John went ahead, in search of the 'back' of the cave.  They didn't get too far ahead of us before stopping to wait but they sure did miss some really excellent formations.  Here are some of them.

Penn Aqua2- Mezzanine - Beautiful ribbons with grain.jpg (183253 bytes) < Click on this thumbnail for an enlarged view

 

We went to the very back of the cave where the water kept us from going any further. 

Alan tried extending his feet beyond the room by feeling through the water but couldn't determine if it opened up or not.  We turned around and went back through the "Fun Passage" again and then explored a bit in the large tunnel where it opens up.  The ceiling height is quite impressive there and there is an upper section to the cave.  I found some really excellent formations there too.

Penn Aqua2- upper section above left of fun passage - triangular area of formations outlined in white.jpg (171832 bytes) < Click on this thumbnail for an enlarged view

Finally we exited 7 hours later, at 8:00 PM.  It was dark outside and cooling off.  The dew point had been reached outside and most of the camera's memory card was full.  I did take one more picture though...

So why was this my final trip into Penn Aqua?  This cave has a lot of loose rock, sediment, fragile limestone and rigid, but unstable, passage.  Alan mentioned several times during the exploration we did during this trip how loose and unstable many different areas were that he was either walking on, crawling through or touching. 

I learned first hand how dangerous and deceptive the rock in this cave is... I was crawling across a rock the size of a small couch when a 15 lb corner of the rock broke off underneath me.  I fell only about 3 or 4 feet but it sure was painful to land all of my weight on my thigh.  It could have been much worse.  The whole rock could have slid and pinned or crushed me.  I could have been higher up, as we were many times in this cave.  I simply didn't fall far in the case but learned how unprepared I was for such a solid looking rock to snap.

If you go into this cave, please learn from me and stay clear of corners, breakdown and what might otherwise look like solid rock.

E-mail me if you like these photos or have questions.