2006
Finally got back to the dig in May, Too much water. Eventually in June the hole was dry enough to dig. I made a mistake last year. When I tore out some shoring at the 30-foot level to probe sideways, I didn’t replace it properly, leaving holes in the walls. This resulted in a lot of material from behind the walls of the shaft washing back into the shaft at the 30’ level, and, of course, being deposited back in the bottom of the hole.
I had very little help this summer so digging was slow. Near the end of the summer I finally got a crew for a day to help lift buckets out. After a day of digging found a pair of reading glasses at the bottom of the shaft. Since they were mine, I had a good idea of how much material washed back into the shaft during the winter. I plugged the holes in the shaft at the 30’ level where the material came in. I split more timbers and shored down another 3’-4’. I explored the corner where the whirlpool had formed last fall digging and probing and finding nothing that seemed to go anywhere. Examining the material coming out of the hole, it was obvious that there were still rocks and cobbles from the surface that had moved down the sinkhole. Each side of the hole seemed to be a different rock. The south side cracked intrusive dike that appeared to have water channels behind it. The north wall was a kind of rotten talc, quite digable, but it could be just packed sediments. The west wall seemed to be some hydrothermically altered material, looking like a rotten serpentine, the most common rock in the material coming out of the hole. I continued digging down, got another foot deeper, maybe two, without shoring. Winter rains came and digging stopped.
2007
Deep snow in the winter, I presumed, kept water in the hole. When I checked the Mistress Dig in May though, I was surprised to find only a mud puddle at the bottom. The shaft maybe 42’, I haven’t actually measured the depth in awhile. Last year I mostly dug out material that had washed in through holes in the walls that I had neglected to plug up.
Now the fact that the hole was empty while snow was melting all around is exciting and would seem to indicate that for some reason the hole is draining faster than ever before. It seems that is draining through the bottom, not at some level through the wall. This is the most encouraging development in two y years. I hope it leads somewhere. This year I’ve got more help. There is Charlie Fouch, Dan Sampsel, and Adam_____. They all helped last year and are ready to help this year. Also some fellows working at ORCA are helping. That would be Luke, Xavier, Emery, maybe more.
May 2007
First Dig
Removed dirt. About a foot of mud and gravel that washed into the hole during the winter was removed, down to the level of the bottom shoring. This is not quite as deep as the deepest I went last year, since installing shoring puts dirt into the hole from the sides where the shoring goes, and there was no one to remove dirt buckets.
Second Dig—
How to take out a couple buckets of water to get to dirt and keep digging. Maybe got another foot deeper but the water doesn’t seem to be draining any faster.
Third Dig
Had to remove a couple dozen buckets of water, representing how much dirt I have removed in the first two digs this year. Then continued digging down hoping the water would drain. It didn’t. I tried probing in various directions to see if I could punch through into something and drain the water. I couldn’t. Should I be digging sideways instead of down? Which direction? There is still surface alluvium in the bottom of the hole, so water and rocks are moving down. Shouldn’t I also keep going down? At the end of the mapped part of the cave, that seemed to be heading in this direction, the CND stream water was in a separate passage (sumped out) than the airflow was that Don, Jenny and I found when we were in the CND on that snowy January day in the year 2000. It is quite possible, as they found in parts of the Oregon Caves, that this sinkhole is attached to the water passage of the cave and not to the air passage. I am assuming, of course, that I am digging into the cave, something I can’t prove. So we put all the water we could get out of Panther Creek into the hole to see if we could flush something out. We started with the garden hose and ran it over the weekend. The hole only filled up about 6” above the bottom of the shoring. Turning the water off, I could see the level drop slowly—in spite of the ground water coming in. Then I distinctly heard water trickling, not just dripping, at the bottom of the hole! When I put floaters, (fir needles, duff, etc) into the water, I could detect no directional floating, but the trickling was a new
sound. Very exciting. Where was the water running out? So we, Dan S and I, rigged up some 1 ½” pipe and put all of the creek we could get into the hole and left it a couple of days. When we looked again, the water level at the bottom was even lower than before!! The more water we put in the faster it was draining! We turned all the water off and let the shaft dry out for the next dig.
June 7 Fourth Dig
Adam, Xavier, Emery, Luke, Martha were at the next dig. I went down the shaft to see if I could find where the water was going—and I could. There was a hole in the mud and gravels below the bottom shoring in the SE corner. It went down at an angle and you could look back into it maybe 2’. It kind of reminded me of the small passageway Don and I found when we first started digging out the Boulder Room almost 8 years ago. I was actually able to drain most of the water- one foot deep- into the hole by removing the clay and rock berm separating it from the shaft. We didn’t have to take the water out of the shaft. After a couple hours of digging, we got another 6” deeper in the shaft and were able to enlarge the drain hole. We could even see that it seemed to actually get bigger back in a little ways. There were also a lot more round alluvium rocks and even some bucket size boulders. Am I getting to a plug, a boulder jam? Am I digging into a filled stream passage? I could detect no airflow, but it was obvious that the water was draining slower than the size of the hole. There must be some constriction further back than I can see, and that could stop any airflow. This is the first major change, and a most encouraging one, that I’ve seen in three or four years. A most exciting day!
June 14, 2007
Dan S., Adam Yates, Charlie, and Myself
Charlie in the hole digging, me staging, Dan pulling buckets, and Adam emptying. More dirt out, shoring holding. We had another first! A piece of chert ledge! This rock looks exactly like a piece of chert from the Oregon Caves. This is the first cave rock that has come from the hole. It came from the end of the drain that had opened at the bottom last week.
June 21, 2007
The sixth dig of the year—a most exciting dig. We had dug down about 3’ below the bottom round of shoring and the drain hole had been enlarged under the SE corner, possibly compromising that shoring. So I dug some holes midway along and underneath the south and east walls of the shaft and put in vertical supports. Then I could be sure to keep my shoring intact and in position while I enlarged the drain hole to see if I could determine where the water was going. I wanted to see if it opened up into any larger air passage. A slight accident occurred up top when the counter-weights on the jin-pole fell off, smashing Adam’s toe. Dan S took his boot off and had him put his foot in the cold creek water. No skin broken with minimal bruising. Wow! That was close! I sent out many buckets of clay. Charlie used a hoe to reach back into the drain hole and pulled out more rock that seemed to be chert. Flat and crinkled. Then at the back of the hole, I could see what appeared to be white rock with black stripes. Could it be marble? Adam had left to nurse his toe and it was almost 6:30, so Dan stopped sending buckets down. I did a little more cleaning of the drain hole and could see what appeared to be a small (2”) passage on the right and above the white rock (marble?) at the back of the drain hole. About 3’-4’ back. I went up top to clean up, and Charlie and Dan went down to verify my impressions. As I hosed the rocks off that I had dug from the drain hole, one of them was indeed marble! The first marble rock to come out of the
hole!! Wow! After five or six years—how long have I been digging this hole?- this was indeed the most encouraging dig yet. The chert rocks that come out were quite unique. Thin and flat with ridged and ropy surfaces, looking like tree bark. I still don’t know how far to cave passage. I don’t know if the white rock that can be seen in the drain hole is bedrock. Is the bottom of my shaft actually at the ceiling level of a collapsed cave passage? How much deeper should I dig? Should I start digging to the South or East or Southeast horizontally? It is obvious that it is time to do some more shoring but do I leave a hole in the wall to go horizontally? Is it time to contact the radio station and start trying to generate some public enthusiasm or private funding? What about the Forest Service and some kind of more official use permit? Hmmm. Now here’s a thought that my son pointed out to me. What with progress being slow in terms of new depths reached, (I’ve been around 40’ for a couple of years now.), and since last year’s digging was removing a lot of clay and mud that washed into the hole during the winter, I am really not much deeper than I was when the whirlpool was seen. That was two falls ago, or whenever that was, and this drain hole I’m dealing with could be where the water was going that produced the whirlpool. I have often felt, ever since I heard those rocks fall when I was around the 20’ level, that I am fairly close to a major cave room, but I just can’t tell which direction to go or how far it is. So close, but so far away.
June 28, 2007
Emery, Luke, Charlie helping. This was a day of shoring. With help on top, cutting timbers and taking out some dirt, I was able to shore up the north wall and east wall to the vertical post I installed last week. I shored across the top of the vertical posts, east and south walls, making an adit and then drove spilings above that creating a temporary roof in the drain hole. The west wall is mostly rock but I installed one shoring timber to brace against the north wall.
July 5
Only Dan S and myself. I installed a sill at the base of the portal, piled up loose dirt in the corner of hole
July 7 Saturday
Dan S and Charlie helping. I pulled buckets. Dan and Charlie took turns digging and switching buckets. No kids from the caves. Just us old geezers. Got a lot of dirt out, started digging the tunnel towards where the marble and chert come from. When we ended we were almost ready to install the first set in the tunnel.
July 12—Dan S, Adam, Luke, Xavier, myself
A very intense dig. I was in the hole digging and installing the first set. Keeping the buckets full and Luke and Xavier busy while Dan and Adam cut the notches in the set. Very muddy, pulling the boots off my feet. Getting the jack centered on the sill to hold up the upper top plate while the sides are dug out enough to fit side boards in while the clay walls keep peeling off and covering everything up, and getting the measurements to send up to Dan and Adam to cut and send the boards back down and to get them installed before more of the wall peels away, and running out of gas for the saw and the generator (Thank goodness for secondary light sources), and then getting everything backfilled and stabilized all in one mad rush!!! Got twenty inches of tunnel built!!
July 18- JD and Gene
In preparation for the regular Thursday dig, JD and I, with minimal help from Gene split out some more cedar and cut another 4 posts for shoring. We checked the hole and exposed the marble that was found on June21st. The whole face of the small tunnel I’[m building is marble! It is about four feet in advance of the set I installed last week. Hopefully more digging tomorrow will give me some clue as to which direction to go. The west wall is rock (an intrusive it seems), and has always been unprobable. The north wall for sometime has been a soft talc-ky altered argillite, which has outcropped on the south wall as well since the 30’ level. The east wall is still the same soft-hard clay and rocks it has been. More dig tomorrow.
July 19 JD, Xavier, Luke, Emery, Dan S., Martha with pastries
We just dug to expose as much of the marble face as possible, hopefully without too much caving in from the sides or the ceiling. It is obvious that the spilings are not holding up the ceiling. It is held up mostly by the flying arch shape. The whole front wall is marble; jointed, cracked, and falls off in pieces. Water channels through the cracks. Probing shows that the face recedes away as it gets deeper, that the sediments are softer near the wall, that the sediments are softer to the west easily probing five feet down. This is also true out in the main shaft, especially in the SW corner that has always (the last en feet) been soft and easy probing. Is this the way the sink goes? Is the marble face the broken exposed side of a ceiling collapse? The chert is intermixed with the sediments up to about three feet from the marble face, and has never shown up out in the main shaft. What does this say, or indicate about he geology? But most important! How do I shore up so there is no chance of a collapse? Do I dig a shaft down alongside the marble? Do I dig a tunnel to the left in an easterly direction? Am I at the top of a breakdown pile inside a cave already? Then why are the sediments still so soft below me? Why is the marble only on the south side? It is so hard to get the big picture when you are on the inside looking out! Seeing only little pieces of the puzzle.
July 24, 2007
I cut and dragged down logs for shoring and backfilled.
July 26
No one showed up for the dig today so I did some electrical wiring, adding another light to the system. I messed around and filled some buckets. It was so tedious with so much climbing up and down the shaft, trying to hold the jin pole downward with one arm while dangling the rope and fishing for the bucket with the other, that I finally realized my time was better spent at home. I needed to be much more thankful for all the help I’m getting. Three hours with the boy s pulling buckets is worth weeks of me trying to do it myself. Thank you everybody!!
August 24, 2007
I was hoping the Forest Service would show up today. They had expressed interest in seeing what I was doing but it didn’t work out. It did get JD down from Eugene though. Luke, Adam, Charlie, and Dan also were there as well as my wife, Martha, with our grandchildren and an applesauce cake. What a dig! The electrical cord was plugged into the 110 volt outlet, burning out the light bulb. We had one spare plus, of course, head lamps, so the dig went on. The line broke on the jin pole counterweight, creating a bit of excitement and narrowly missing one of the grandkids. A gasoline spill at the top of the shaft made the shaft a bit fumey, but no one was hurt. A lot of dirt came out and I was able to finish building and shoring up the tunnel to the marble wall. More marble blocks spalled off the wall, were broken up and lifted out. The ceiling was shored up and backfilled as was the East wall. I found loose dirt and air pockets along the wall to the west. At the end of the dig, my grandson, Isaac, 13 years old, climbed down to the bottom to check it out! Not many have done that.
August 9,2007
What a treat! Lindsey was kind enough to organize a work party from the dorm. She promised a meal for the workers. I didn’t have any shoring to do, so it was just filling and emptying buckets. Martha, Dan, Xavier, Luke, Lindsey, Deborah, and Alice showed up and we had a good time. The girls switched buckets while Luke, Dan, or I dug. Digging was cramped and stooped. Hard on the knees and back. Xavier or Luke pulled buckets with Lindsey on the back rope. I got to help pull buckets some even. The digging was done on the west side of the tunnel. About 3 feet to the west of the tunnel we found a hard, smooth wall of intrusive, sloping downwards towards the tunnel. Outside of the tunnel, (west side), the marble face made a right angle and headed west, meeting the intrusive wall about four feet beyond the end of the tunnel. Lots of loose dirt and rocks. Another slab of marble peeled off the face, was broken up and bucketed out. Some beautiful white marble. After the dig we all went up to the dorm for dinner. Martha made lemon bars and a caesar salad, and Lindsey had two delicious pots of soup. A cream of zucchini and a Spanish spice. What a treat! Thank you, Lindsey!
August 14
More digging. Dan and I started alone with Luke and Emory showing up later. Then later, Xavier, George, and Alice stopped by. Luke and Emory came up while Dan and I were working on the jin pole. We lost our rock bucket for the fourth time. Tried something different. Emory was digging with Dan handling buckets for him at the bottom of the shaft. Luke was switching buckets, and I was pulling. Had some trouble with the jin pole. Nothing rope and nails couldn’t fix—temporarily. That pole takes a lot of abuse. I hope it lasts. It’s perfect for the job. Emory was filling buckets, following the intrusive wall down as it angled down underneath the marble. To do this you had to kneel outside the tunnel below the marble and pull dirt up. Dan told him if anything seemed wrong to just holler and he was ready to move or yank him out, but the space is quite cramped. Eventually Dan thought I ought to come down and take a look, so I took over the digging, trying to enlarge the space from inside the tunnel. I wanted to take more dirt out from where the intrusive wall slanted under the marble wall. That area could be the bottleneck of the sink, the material was very soft. Since Dan had gone home, and we only had 4 men working, I was alone at the bottom, filling the buckets, taking them out of the tunnel and hooking them on to be lifted up to the 30’ level. Sometimes I was outside the tunnel digging down in the soft dirt at the base of the marble wall. I had just filled another bucket, stepped back into the tunnel when I heard a “whump” behind me. I thought a chunk of clay might
have peeled off the ceiling. Boy, was I surprised when I turned around and saw an 800 pound boulder that had spalled off the corner of the marble. It was lying right where Dan, Emory, and myself had been kneeling in order to dig at the base of the marble. I thank my God, the creator of heaven and earth, that no one was hurt. I feel foolish and irresponsible that I didn’t foresee that possibility and thus, endangered my friends. If Emory had kept digging any more, he might very well have been right where that boulder ended up, or Dan, or myself. We ended the dig and went home. What next? Will the boulder breakup? Can it be jacked out of the way?
August 19, 2007
My son, Nathan, stopped by on his way down to graduate school at Berkeley, and he helped dig today. We moved a lot of dirt. It was a rainy day, a wonderful, wet August rain, soft and misty. It made the ripe a bit slippery. We were helped by Charlie switching buckets, (actually, you switch the bucket hooks as the buckets are lifted in two stages), and a new helper from Grants Pass, Kelly Marchane. Very conservation minded and looks to be a great addition to the project. The boulder that nearly crushed me was easily broken up, and taken out in buckets. A lot of dirt was moved on the west side of the tunnel connecting to the shaft, exposing more intrusive on the west wall.
August 21
Dan Sampsel and I worked alone. He added steps to the shaft, and I started shoring up the west side of the tunnel.
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