Cave

How wonderful! My brothers and I used to do alot of caving in WV when I was younger. There is NO WAY I could it now tho....LOL I agree with the others here, you have a wonderful resource. Take care, Reb

__________________
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving well-preserved, but to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, wine in the other, and still screaming, “Whoo! What a ride!”

You should contact active spelunkers in your area. They will map your cave gratis.

__________________
:cool: :angel: TRUTH & MERCY
www.dixieflowersoap.com
www.mollyjogger.com
Big D Farm Blog

You can tell from the pictures that it has had water in it that has been flooded, because of the leaves and limbs laying higher up. I am wondering if it come out at another place in the creek bed.

__________________

The creekbed stops at the cave entrance, beyond that is just woods. There are some NSS cavers going to check it out and map it later this year. They may penetrate further into the cave than I did because they'll have proper gear, proper training, not to mention more nerve than me.

Is it possible to rearrange the dry creek bed so that the water diverts away from the cave? Leaving it high and dry and more useable?

I have a 10 yo boy that would be willing to do the digging and reconstructing...
He's a digging, earth moving, wall building, rock stacking fool.

__________________
http://www.thehennery.blogspot.com -
the farm blog
http://thehennerytraditionals.blogspot.com/ -
the herbal blog + shop

Not at all doubting that energetic young'n you got there, but he'd have a better shot at killing a grizzly with a bb gun. Also, the only potential diversion area would be into my neighbor's hay field...great neighbor to me, but he's already cranky enough and has lots of guns and even more ammo...not happenin, by me anyway.

Thanks for the update, the photos are great!

How fast was the water dripping off the formation?

It will be interesting to hear more about it when they map it. Make sure that the NSS cavers know that you want to keep it private and confidential, you want to make sure they aren't compelled to report (caves of a certain size or with rare fauna) to any databases that might make the location publicly available, or compromise your control rights.

__________________
Liz
_____________________________
Dogs have masters, cats have staff.

In Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois there is a cave that we found with some friends of ours. My husband, his friends & our daughter went back one day and went exploring further. You had to crabwalk to get in the entrance and once in they went quite a ways. But now, someone, and I don't remember who but it's an organization, has closed the cave to people going through it.
This cave had been well used as there were different colored lines tied to a nearby tree outside of it, and the lines ran into the cave. Here's my thought though. They said this cave ran underneath Indiana & I thought Kentucky. So it would have gone a loooonnnnnngggggg way. I wonder if it's in any way connected with your cave?

I'm pretty sure with all the carst formations around here in Ky the groundwater is interconnected with many caves for many miles. It's hard to say for how many miles. A lot of it is probably impassible. As far as allowing NSS cavers into my cave, they guard cave info very well, even among their own members and I have a high degree of confidence in their reputation and credibility. They appreciate the invitation of access to caves, and don't want to spoil that.

Love the pictures and your so lucky to have a cave. I was a caver, not a spelunker. I can't count how many caves I have been in and many were on your belly caves. Now, I have to say a cave is a living ecosystem and rearranging the dry creek will change the cave. Do we distory the cave or are we the keeper of something very special?

Great pictures.