IMG_4408, originally uploaded by Mic2006.
As promised, I am revealing a little of what I saw this past weekend. I have asked my companions to check out the blog before they decide whether they mind having their image go “world wide”. Maybe by tomorrow you can see the full extent of our adventure – or maybe you cannot.
What you see in this picture looks, as my son remarked upon seeing the image, “Like an alien’s spinal cord”. These fantastic notched ridges corrugate the walls and are known as draperies. They are a type of speleothem. Given time they might evolve into any number of strange forms. Looking down the main tunnel it suggests to me the gullet of a dragon. A freezing stream trickles along between bars of sculpted sand. They are features that are reworked annually during the spring flood. We followed up the flow until the tunnel roof met the water and there in a murky pool realized that it was as far as we would be going that day.
This system into which we had entered is undoubtably one of the most decorated caverns in Ontario. Most local tunnels are scoured clean of speleothems. Here the walls are a cheesy white, in places yellowing like “poutine”, elsewhere a browning bank of terraced fudge. A bowl in the wall appeared to hold the bacterial slime known as “moonmilk”. I shone my beam into it and observed its eerie translucence.
Sweet pics! With a blog like this, I presume you might be sympathetic with Bat Conservation International?
Yes, very much so, there is a caver in the TCG who is very much involved in bat conservation. He runs the organization “Zoo Check” and has written a number of excellent bat articles for the “Toronto Caver”. Mick
Cool hobby and the pic in this post is really cool.
I have thought about trying spelunking but then I remember I’m not a out doors kind of person.
Being in Canada I envy bats :-) they do not care about an owner permit to explore caves :-) Maybe I will be one in my next life :-)
Nice picture Mick. I like the idea of publishing cave-in images without even names of caves :-) in this way I can put a couple of mine (taken far away from Canada :-)) ) and puzzle local cavers :-)) with unknown formations.
Marina, I am already hearing down the grape vine that you have a cave site (As in 5 minutes ago). Great and I am in full agreement, total discretion as to cave locations unless it is a tourist cave. As for the finer points about specific posts that may be of interest, that can be discussed over the phone or in person or at meetings. Let me know more about your site and we can link, send your URL.
I cant say that the bat idea is a good one, they are pretty messy and covered in lice! You should hope to be reincarnated as my dog Shaka, he gets treated far better than me. Marrow bones several times a week, special grooming, walks, sleeps where and when he wants, nice sunny back garden and never a bitter word said against him.
Our cave site is not in English (at least for now) what I told to Doug
that it would be a good idea to link it with TCG web page.
I agree completely with the conservation of the wildlife and geology found in caves and for that reason I understand why the locations are not posted on the web. With that being said I would like to arrange a meeting with somebody from your group to possibly discuss future cave sites that are not well known, and please understand that I truly would like to learn of more caves in my area but I am finding it hard because of interests of protecting such sites, I am very excited to find some new sites to explore so far I’ve only found the nexus cavern and explored it (but that was just by chance)