Rockwood

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IMG_3033, originally uploaded by Mic2006.

This last weekend Maggie’s sister and her family came to visit us in Guelph. We went up to the Rockwood Conservation Area on Sunday afternoon; it was warm and sunny and we all had a great time.

This picture is of my Brother-in-law Chris as he entered the inner chamber of the Rockwood Main Caves. At one time the cavern was well decorated but the constant unregulated flow of visitors has left the place pretty much trashed.

At the back of the big entry cavern there is a low tube and when crawled through you will find yourself in the inner chamber. In the winter the ice formations can be pretty interesting and there are other caves in the vicinity that have some potential for larger tunnels. Exploration is halted by some pretty tight restrictions.

In the old news letters of the Kitchener/Waterloo Speological and Geological Society one of its members reminisces on a cave dig that they had conducted in a tube that I now call #8 Cave. Apparently they found the bones of a creature about the size of a dog. There is an odd hollow sound that can be heard in this passage when its clay floor is thumped upon. Even stranger is the mysterious breeze that I felt on my face when I switched out my light in this cavity. I traced it’s source to a hole in the roof. Looking through I could just see the edges of a space beyond.

I have still to approach the park authorities about a dig one day. In adittion to this likely lead I know of one other spot that Marcel St. Gelais had managed to squeeze into. Though the tunnel was tiny it led on to a sediment chocked chamber with untouched soda straws and a tunnel above which there were ice crystals. This appearance of a frosty smear on the roof indicated there was an exchange of air from beyond. It might be some kind of going tunnel though nothing would be for certain until the dirt is excavated.