Rochester Scuba & Snorkel Club

Third Charm

Discovering a new cave passage in southern Minnesota

story by John Preston
photos by John Preston, John Ackerman, Dave Owen, and Roger Southwick

Read a description of getting into the cave in the February 2005 newsletter. John begins his story at the sump, far back in the cave....

We met John A at Spring Valley Caverns, where he was operating Cave Finder to install a new entrance.

I was determined to make a discovery on this sump dive, whether it be that the sump was impassable or went into a small space that was not worth going any further. Two previous attempts were thwarted: one by bad visibility and one by getting stuck, plus the overall exhaustion of just going into and out of the cave. This time it would be different. We learned through trial and error what not to do and not to bring. It came down to making a custom soft pack rig to give that extra inch of space to get into the vertical fracture where I got stuck the last time, not knowing until Alex Carlson had downloaded my dive computer that it read -0 feet.

I searched for people that were up to this trek and the list filled up quickly this time, with Dave Owen stepping up first, Alex for his second time, and Roger Southwick in tow. We made use of the internet to exchange ideas and information on what to bring and what not to do, and just all around to prepare for the dive. We met a week prior to discuss details and bring to light any last-minute ideas and suggestions.

Alex and Dave gear up.

Ready to go!

As for myself, I couldn’t have been better prepared. I had my new arsenal of gear together well in advance, and I actually slept and was well-rested before dive day. As I geared up to enter the sump I had Dave attach a finger spool onto the main line for communication. I needed the best person on hand to relay what was going on and to know if I was just moving around in the cave or actually giving a signal. I felt Dave was best for this task as with the county dive team he works with line communication all the time. We had 3 signals: two pulls if I made it into something that was not worth going any further and I was coming back. Three pulls if I found a decent air space; start the clock for one hour for me to look around. Four pulls if I found a huge area; clock me for 1 hour.

Roger begins the descent, 80 feet straight down.

As I stuck my head under the water it was clear as could be. I could see at least 20 feet in. This was unbelievable, as the last two times I couldn’t see my hand in front of me. But as I got submerged my primary reel jammed... backlash! I damned myself underwater because it was the only thing I did not recheck prior to the dive; my last use of the reel was in Florida and I wound it up with most of the line toward one side of the spool. My error; I should have rewound it evenly. I backed up out of the cave and came up to work out the mess, which didn’t help. Dave suggested to take the finger spool instead, so we switched around the reels. I wasn’t totally thrilled about using the spool because it only had about 50-60 feet and knew it could come up short, but time was of the essence as the sump was starting to silt up just from my partial entry.

I went back in again and the flow was enough to keep the silt from falling in further, so I still had great visibility. Looking forward I could see the small boulders that I could only feel previously, and the cave looked smaller than I remembered. At the bottom I could see the vertical passage where I got stuck before. As I finally approached the fracture I took a quick glance to the right and saw a round passage going in as far as my scout light would shine. It looked pretty spooky and I could feel my heart racing a little bit, hoping I didn’t have to go any further up the vertical fracture I had explored before.

Dave shuffles through one of the more spacious passages.

Clay, Roger, John A, and John P regroup in the big tunnel after descending the ladder. They're laughing because Clay just pointed out the twigs that got stuck in the ceiling during the high waters of the last heavy rainfall.

As I turned enough to look up into the fracture all I saw was a ceiling; damn! I then turned my attention to the tunnel of fear. Though I had excellent visibility, once inside it turned muddy as before from my air bubbles and movement, so I had to get moving to stay ahead of the blinding soup of mud and silt. So I made my way into the 3 foot diameter tunnel and went about 10 feet and started to hear noise -- splashing noise! I immediately looked up and at a 45 degree angle I could see splashing on the surface; it was another vertical fracture and the whole surface was reflecting like a mirror! My God, I found an air passage, but how high was it? I made my way up and put my right hand above me with the light and slowly broke the surface. My hand never touched anything, and I saw the small waterfall and a 20 feet ceiling and another 20 feet in front of me was a cave! I was so excited and relieved that I finally found an air space that I spat out my reg and started yelling for joy, and then it echoed. An echo? Just how big is this? I then gave then signal back to Dave, 1 pull, 2 pulls, 3 pulls, & 4 pulls; maybe I should have had a signal for 10 pulls because that is what I wanted to send to him!

John gears up as Dave tends the guideline.

So now I was looking for a tie-off point for the reel and just couldn’t find a perfect spot. I thought about throwing the reel up onto the cave floor, but the water coming down may cause it to wash back and fall into the sump and cause an entanglement hazard -- so that was not the best choice. I looked frantically along both vertical walls and after what seemed to be 5 minutes I finally found a really small rock jutting out of the wall, about an inch high and two inches wide. This would do for now. So I tied off and knotted the line to lock it in, and then I remembered -- I forgot my cutting tool! Damn. I tried to cut it with my teeth but after a minute of doing that and not getting anywhere, I wasn’t going to try harder and make another visit to the dentist. So I just left the reel which only had about 15 feet of line left on it anyway, and who cares -- I just found another cave.

Now the real trick: getting ungeared and out of the 12-foot deep sump. I took off my right side tank and put my mask with the reg hose through the strap and clipped the reg to the bottle, that way the only way my mask could fall is with the tank. I laid it on top of the half-round part of the waterfall which kept the reg and the top of the tank out of the water, then shut off the tank just to make sure while I was exploring that if the tank moved and the reg purged I would not lose the air in the tank. I then removed the second tank and did the same, shutting it down. I wanted to remove my weight belt but it was under my harness and the thought of dropping it 12 feet down scrubbed that idea real quick.

John P is ready to dive.

So now I had to get out. I already spent 10 minutes getting a tie-off and taking my tanks off and now I had to somehow climb vertical walls to get onto dry land, with my weight belt and harness on and trying to hold a scout light. So I clipped off the scout light on my shoulder D-ring to free up my hands. I didn’t need direct light; just having the light pointing somewhere in the cave lit it up greatly. I then put a foot on each side of the wall and started to climb vertically up. I was already exhausted from the trek into the cave and I could feel my body not liking this idea at all, but I managed to climb the wall with my weight belt on. I put my left foot out on top of the waterfall and then my right. It was then it all hit me: I was shaking badly from the excitement of actually being in what may have been undiscovered cave. I may be the first human ever to step foot in something that may have taken 100,000 years to create. I started yelling again just to hear my own echo and probably to relieve myself of all the emotion that was welling up inside me; it helped a little but I was still shaking.

We spent an hour waiting for John P to return. John A passed the time by telling us true horror stories about caving.

I found a nice dry ledge to finally take off my weight belt and loosen up my harness. I rechecked my tanks to make sure they were secure and then I looked at my reel and the sump area. The sump or vertical fracture wasn’t more than 16-18" wide at the surface, it was about 15 feet long and the dry part of the walls came to a point, just like the passage where the rest of the guys were waiting. I was sitting down and resting and taking this all in. I then looked behind me and the area widened up and the cave walls showed two ways in: to the right was a fracture and some breakdown that I would have to climb up about 10 feet. To the left was the source of the water on a nice flat pebble-laden path, but I would have to low-crawl through it. I looked under the wall and had a good foot of clearance and the stream was about 2.5 feet wide with dry area to the left of about 10 feet. I chose to crawl up stream.

I went about 6 feet and noticed a tin can lid perfectly vertical in the rock. I pulled on it a little and it was fused into the stream bed, gave thought about what man does to the environment that such an item could be in the water that we drink and make its way thousands of feet into a cave. I then shined my light forward and could see that it was a higher ceiling. I crawled another 4-5 feet and stood up in a passage. To the left I could see another 50 feet; to the right was a domed passage that was about 4.5 feet high and had a sandy floor and smooth walls. I had to crouch down a bit so it was around 5.5 feet high. I went to the right toward the dome-shaped area, then was able to stand upright as the ceiling went to 20 feet. The fracture went to the right and led back to the sump over the breakdown, and to the left which went uphill with a V-shaped passage with a bunch of small breakdown rocks in the path. I shined my light near the top of the passage and could see a small opening that led to another place in the cave.

Quietly thinking about those horror stories...

I looked back at the domed passage and could see that the sandy floor had water-flow marks in it; it was long and gently curving to the left out of sight but with no visible restriction for at least 100 feet. I turned around and looked back to where the water was coming from and started walking that way; I figure since it appeared to be the only water source in the area I could use it as a way of marking a trail. So I crouched down again and walked about 50-75 feet and it came to a wall with a another V-shaped trail to the left and right. The left only went about 50 feet uphill again and I could see a small opening at the top where it met the ceiling. The right trail went slightly uphill with a 10-foot ceiling and was the source of the water; I would stick with the water trail. As I walked carefully in the water trail I made sure to check what I was stepping in, since part if it was flat but part of it had a 6 inch gouge in the cave floor -- not a time to twist or break an ankle with no immediate help around!

After what seemed to be 75-100 feet I came across numerous formations on each side: some curtain formations with a huge wall of white/gray flowstone all around me. Each step further unleashed more formations with all their beauty; this was one happy camper!

Success!

I should back up and tell you that I was also taking pictures at the same time, trying my best to keep the lens from fogging up. I wiped the lens and a few times I even licked the lens. (Who would have known the best pictures would come from licking the lens?) I was using a disposable camera that I wrapped in two Ziploc sandwich bags and it was nice and dry from the dive, but because I was still shaking so badly from all the excitement I dropped the camera in the water 3 or 4 times. I will tell you later what it took to develop the film.

So I continued upstream for about another 50 feet or so where the cave branched off again. Straight ahead it was dry and went up another V-shaped breakdown, and I could see another opening about 100 feet ahead that was larger than the rest I had seen. To the left the stream went into a another dome-shaped passage with at least a 6-foot high ceiling and the path was very flat, and I could see back at least 100 feet as it gently curved to the right. I checked my time and I had 30 minutes to get back to everyone per our schedule. It was time to head back.

Curtain formations in the new cave.

I was thinking of how long it took me to un-gear and climb out, and now I had no help to get geared up. I figured I may need 15 minutes to do so and to perform safety checks prior to returning. So I turned around and enjoyed the formations and took more photos with my water-logged camera, and after about 10 minutes returned to the sump.

I re-tightened my harness that I wore into the cave, put my camera back into the Ziploc bags, opened up my tanks, checked the regs, and slowly climbed back into the sump. I then dragged in each tank, carefully clipped them on, put my regs on, and did a final check in the water on both regs. I checked the line to make sure it was still secure and did one more look around in the sump area before I descended.

The visibility was -- as expected -- zero.

The water flow is not strong enough to clear out the silt from the dive in and from walking into the stream bed. I slowly made my way out, feeling the cave line in my left hand and the light in my right. I could feel the tunnel and then the sharp turn to the left that led up to where Roger, Dave, Alex, John A, and Clay were waiting. I could feel my ears telling me I was getting shallower with every foot.

Within a foot or so of the surface I was greeted by Dave, and all of it suddenly kicked in. I can only imagine the look on my face as I told them what I found. I know I was grinning from ear to ear. Dave was trying to get me ungeared and I was just rambling on about what I had found with no immediate concern that these guys may be getting cold from just sitting and waiting for me to return in the pitch black of the cave. Sorry guys, just too much damn excitement from it all!

Of course we still had to exit the same way out and I’m sure these guys can fill this in for you all. For me it was the easiest exit out of the cave ever.

It was thought by John A & David Gerboth that I might have found a cave known as "Downwater Cave". After looking at my preliminary drawing, John A thought it was. I was a little disappointed after thinking it was "virgin" cave and waited until Monday evening when Dave Gerboth called me and asked about the details of the cave. He then said he didn’t think it was "Downwater Cave" at all and that I had found a whole new cave; my spirits were lifted again. He said the reason was that "Downwater" was a very restrictive cave, only about 650 feet long. From what I walked through and saw, this cave was not just 650 feet long, by far. I guess I should have been just as happy to make a connection to another cave, because for many caves to make such a connection adds up to total length; but I wanted a new cave and now David thinks I have it.

I will ask John A if I can at least name the sump area I came up in; if so I’m going to call it "Third Charm Sump" for the 3 attempts it took to reach it.

For me this was a dream come true. I’ve always wanted to explore and find something no one has been in or found. I now can rest with the thought of doing this at least once in my lifetime.

But this would have never happened if it weren’t for the other people involved.

To John Ackerman for letting me into his cave. To his crew of David Gerboth & Clay Kraus that had to endure our group of slowly-moving and inexperienced dry cavers.

John P wades through nip-deep cold water. Above him is a broken plastic ice-cream bucket, wedged into the rock.
Q: "How'd that get there?"	A: "I'll tell you after we get out."

To the friends and dive buddies who had to struggle and help carry gear and did most of the hard work and sitting around and waiting in the cold cave: David Owen, John Martin, Roger Southwick, Alex Carlson & Joe Velie. Joe & John -- sorry you both had to miss the big one! Joe & Alex -- thanks for sticking around and doing 2 of these painful excursions. Dave & Roger -- thanks for taking on the challenge, even knowing from all the horror stories what to expect; and yes Dave, when you peered into that itty-bitty crack you had to enter, Roger saw the look on your face and it was priceless!

Hopefully soon we will return and determine the best way to break into the new cave. Once this is done I would hope all of you involved will return back to see what all the hard work was about. You all deserve it.

For making my dreams come true I hope I can someday return the favor. I could never thank you all enough.

Thanks.
John Preston

Check out more information about Goliath Cave and other caves in southern Minnesota at John Ackerman's website, karstpreserve.com.