July 5, 2009 by rockwatching
Going deeper!
Jeff’s picture
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July 5, 2009 by rockwatching
Bed of Glass Cave – a newly discovered Ontario cave

Jeff C.’s picture
Posted in Adventures, Buy The Book, Canada, Caves, Caving in Ontario, Education, Eramosa Karst, Interesting, My Book, Nature/Outdoors, News, Ontario Underground, Ontario's geology, Personal, Photography, Toronto Cave Group, adventure in Ontario, cave digging, cave formation, caves in Ontario, caving, environment, exploration, extreme sports, geography, geology, history, my life, mystery, nature, ontario, photos, picture of, rocks and minerals, rocks in Ontario, rockwatching, searching for caves, sports, strange places, tunnels, underground, underground Ontario | Tagged caving, Caving in Ontario, Ontario caves, cave dig, cave conservation, cave hunting, cave dangers, Olmstead Cave, XS Wired Cave | Leave a Comment »
July 5, 2009 by rockwatching
A newly discovered Ontario cave
Initial exploration of “Bed of Glass Cave”
Having dropped down through the hole that had been broken through the coils of rusting wire we found ourself in a twilight world of subdued light, old car parts and broken bottles. Up above the messy canopy was capped by brambles and old sticks.
What we found ourselves up against was a fractured clifface – behind Jeff there is a roof from which leads a dry tunnel that appears at first glance to get quite small (I am yet to go down there and get a better look.
In the direction that Jeff is looking, there is a sort of convex drop-away that leads on to the lower tunnel. Water from the now dry stream would flow (in time of flood) in from the direction that Jeff is looking.
Posted in Buy The Book, Canada, Caves, Caving in Ontario, Education, Interesting, Life, My Book, Nature/Outdoors, News, Ontario Underground, Ontario's geology, Personal, Photography, Toronto Cave Group, adventure in Ontario, bizzare, cave digging, cave formation, caves in Ontario, caving, environment, exploration, extreme sports, geography, geology, hiking, history, industrial archeology, my life, mystery, nature, ontario, people, photos, picture of, rocks and minerals, rocks in Ontario, rockwatching, searching for caves, sports, strange places, tunnels, underground, underground Ontario | Tagged caving, Ontario geology, Caving in Ontario, exploration, spelunking, rock of Ontario, Onondaga Escarpment, Ontario caves, cave, Lake Erie, nature | Leave a Comment »
July 5, 2009 by rockwatching
Toronto Caving Group
Another new Cave near Lake Erie
Well, aside from the obvious (start caving on your own) Join a caving club.
I had been caving for many years as an independant before I joined the Toronto Caving Group. I had initially taken a caving course in the army while I had been stationed in Gibraltar but that only covered the basics of sport caving. To really cave as an independant required far more knowledge than that.
A caver needs to know how to find caves and short of that knowledge, you need to align yourself with people who already have that skill to learn. Your first caving trip with the TCG (Toronto Caving Group) will likely be to the Niagra Escarpment caves (e.g. Mount Nemo or Rattle Snake Point), but after that, and with the appropriate contact (That you will make in the club) your horizons begin to expand. Later caving trips might be down to Dewdney,s or Moira caves and then later with more experience – Friars Hole in West Virginia. Somewhere along there you begin picking up the skills to progress further in the field of caving.
This picture was taken yesterday and it is above a new cave that Jeff discovered last weekend. The cave (”Bed of Glass”) is buried beneath a pile of rusting wire fencing and old car parts. A dry stream weaves through a nearby woodlot and disappears beneath the big pile of crap. Jeff had made a hole and down this hole we went. My first task had been to ascertain the absence of snakes. I had seen several in the grass that day and I hate snakes. Nowhere more appealing to snakes than beneath a big pile of garbage just like this.
Posted in Adventures, Buy The Book, Canada, Caves, Caving in Ontario, Education, Interesting, My Book, Nature/Outdoors, News, Ontario Underground, Ontario's geology, Photography, Toronto Cave Group, adventure in Ontario, backpacking, bizzare, cave digging, caves in Ontario, caving, environment, exploration, extreme sports, geography, geology, my life, ontario, photos, picture of, rocks and minerals, rocks in Ontario, rockwatching, searching for caves, sports, strange places, tunnels, underground, underground Ontario, wierd | Tagged cave digging, caving, Caving in Canada, Caving in Ontario, Finding Caves, Toronto Caving Group | Leave a Comment »
July 4, 2009 by rockwatching
Pool in Dead Mouse Cave
Jeff M. is a techie, I am not. I’ve been trying to figure out how to record a fire alarm sound and then play it at work for the betterment of those who do not understand our two-tone system. It had seemed like an impossible task. Fortunately, my frustration was soon aleviated by Jeff who said that I had the wrong connections at the back of my boom box. You see the peole at Futureshop had sold me the wrong connection, or maybe I had bought the wrong connection – either way, I’ve been feeling pretty frustrated. Problem solved, SNFU knew the solution right away and now everything is good.
Now an explanation of the cave picture.
This is what lies at the furthest extent of where I was willing to crawl in “Dead Mouse”. It is a strange little dam that holds back a crystal-clear pool of water behind(not the muddy one you can see in front) and Jeff C. who I was with at the time said that he might have been able to push the passage further as it is wide and curves sharply off to the left beyond this picture. For me, this is as far as I will be going in dead mouse. There are better options in the area of which I was then aware and I will explain that morning’s big success in my next set of posts – I just wanted to finish off on the “Dead Mouse story before diverging off onto more exciting news.
Oh, one kind of interesting thing. You might have noticed that rock in the middle of the dam, its kind of like a cork in a dyke. It had forced its way into the hole from behind.
Posted in Adventures, Buy The Book, Canada, Caves, Caving in Ontario, Education, Interesting, Life, My Book, Nature/Outdoors, Ontario Underground, Ontario's geology, Personal, Photography, Toronto Cave Group, Travel, adventure in Ontario, backpacking, bizzare, books, cave formation, caves in Ontario, caving, environment, exploration, extreme sports, geography, geology, history, my life, nature, ontario, photos, picture of, rocks and minerals, rocks in Ontario, rockwatching, searching for caves, sports, strange places, tunnels, underground, wierd | Tagged caving, Caving in Ontario, Caves, geology of Ontario, geography, Caving in Canada, rock in ontario, Ontario geography | Leave a Comment »
July 4, 2009 by rockwatching
A disapponting conclusion – I’m to fat to go much further
I am again supposed to be studying for a health and safety exam. This is the last of the delay tactics that I can employ – a quick update that I will build upon in a following few posts later this evening.
As we have discovered over the weeks since our last visit, the Onondaga Escarpment is a rich caving ground if you know what to look for. The escarpment winds all wriggly and convoluted across the top of Lake Erie – interspersed with layers of chert and some fabulous fossils.
More to come soon.
Posted in Adventures, Buy The Book, Canada, Caves, Caving in Ontario, Education, Interesting, My Book, Nature/Outdoors, Ontario Underground, Ontario's geology, Photography, Toronto Cave Group, adventure in Ontario, articles, backpacking, bizzare, books, cave formation, caves in Ontario, caving, crazy things, environment, exploration, extreme sports, geography, geology, hiking, history, my life, mystery, nature, ontario, photos, rocks and minerals, rocks in Ontario, rockwatching, searching for caves, sports, strange places, tunnels, underground, underground Ontario, wierd | Tagged caving, Caving in Ontario, Caves, exploring, exploration, geology of Ontario, rocks in Ontario, spelunking, Caving in Canada, exploring in Ontario, Onondaga Escarpment | Leave a Comment »
June 20, 2009 by rockwatching
Check out the scalloping
An Ontario cave near Lake Erie
Up ahead there appears to be either deeper water or less rubble in a “T” junction. I wonder if the left leading junction meets up with the surface depression that we saw? Does it function as an overflow conduit like in Little Stream?
We are left considering the possibility of some kind of dendritic feeding system, or a single point at which the water sinks. The passage seems to be widening up ahead and so we resolve to return to “Dead Mouse” in about two weeks with the appropriate equipment and push on deeper in.
Posted in Buy The Book, Canada, Caves, Caving in Ontario, Education, Eramosa Karst, Interesting, Life, My Book, Nature/Outdoors, Ontario Underground, Ontario's geology, Personal, Photography, Toronto Cave Group, adventure in Ontario, books, cave digging, cave formation, caves in Ontario, caving, exploration, extreme sports, geography, geology, history, my life, mystery, nature, ontario, photos, picture of, rocks in Ontario, science, searching for caves, sports, strange places, tunnels, underground, underground Ontario, wierd | Tagged caving, Caving in Canada, Caving in Ontario, Discovery in Ontario, Exploration in Ontario, geography of Ontario, geology of Ontario | Leave a Comment »
June 20, 2009 by rockwatching
Penance in suffering
Exploring a newly found Ontario Cave
Posted in Adventures, Buy The Book, Canada, Caves, Caving in Ontario, Interesting, My Book, Nature/Outdoors, Ontario Underground, Ontario's geology, Photography, Toronto Cave Group, adventure in Ontario, bizzare, books, cave digging, cave formation, caves in Ontario, caving, crazy things, environment, exploration, extreme sports, geography, geology, hiking, history, my life, mystery, nature, ontario, photos, picture of, rocks in Ontario, rockwatching, science, searching for caves, sports, strange places, tunnels, underground, underground Ontario, wierd | Tagged cave exploration, caving, Caving in Canada, Caving in Ontario, discovery | Leave a Comment »
June 20, 2009 by rockwatching
A cave like Nexus, but way south of there
Caving in Ontario
I am left with the impression of a system somewhat similar in appearance to Nexus cave in the Eramosa Karst (Hamilton), but the tunnels are a little larger in this passage.
I believe that the cave at the entrance is only a short distance beneath the rock, but with around 15 feet of dirt above the rock – that’s unusual in ontario, most Ontario caves are just beneath the cedars – little in the way of dirt above them. I do not see much in the way of mud and sediment banks in the trenchway that I am crawling along. Like Nexus, the rock is thinly bedded and from what I could see, much of it juts out into the passage.
Soon the water is getting deeper. The big mystery to us is still where does the water come from, a sinking stream, percolating throught the farmer’s fields, just dripping out of the strata with the snowmelt?
Posted in Adventures, Buy The Book, Canada, Caves, Caving in Hamilton, Caving in Ontario, Education, Eramosa Karst, Interesting, Life, My Book, Nature/Outdoors, News, Ontario Underground, Ontario's geology, Personal, Photography, Toronto Cave Group, adventure in Ontario, bizzare, books, cave digging, cave diving in ontario, cave formation, caves in Ontario, caving, environment, exploration, extreme sports, geography, geology, hiking, history, my life, mystery, nature, niagara escarpment, ontario, people, photos, picture of, rocks in Ontario, science, searching for caves, sports, strange places, tunnels, underground, underground Ontario, wierd | Tagged caving, Caving in Canada, Caving in Ontario, exploring, geography of Ontario, geology of Ontario, rock of Ontario | Leave a Comment »
June 20, 2009 by rockwatching
We speculate as to the distance that the cave goes in
No sucking air
Both Jeff and I were extremely excited, I know of no other cave down along the shore of Lake Erie in Devonian age rock – though both Ongley and Martin Davis make reference to that possibility. I suspect one of them might even mark a Lake Erie cave on one of their manuscript maps (I’ll have to check it out tonight).
Has anyone else out there discovered caves or a cave along the northern shore of Lake Erie?
Posted in Adventures, Buy The Book, Canada, Caves, Caving in Ontario, Education, Interesting, My Book, Nature/Outdoors, Ontario Underground, Ontario's geology, Personal, Photography, Toronto Cave Group, adventure in Ontario, books, cave digging, cave diving in ontario, cave formation, caves in Ontario, caving, environment, exploration, extreme sports, geography, geology, hiking, my life, mystery, nature, ontario, people, photos, picture of, rocks in Ontario, rockwatching, science, searching for caves, sports, strange places, tunnels, underground, underground Ontario, wierd | Tagged caving, Caving in Canada, Caving in Ontario, Ontario Cave | Leave a Comment »
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