IMG_6849, originally uploaded by Mic2006.
Reaching the shore of this nameless – somewhat desolate looking patch of water we skirted around its edges until we found the caves. To any caver the rock – a shattered dolostone should suggest some promise – though the fractured nature of the material might also suggest a material that is to crumbly for the formation of cave tunnels.
The ideal cave rock would be a nice thick strata of limestone. Dolostone is porus – like a sponge – and the water seeps through vugs and is not concentrated in any particular place. Limestone has a tight interlocking crystal structure and water only penetrates along joints and bedding planes. Thus tunnel formation will be concentrated along those arteries.
If you know your local geology you will know the orientation of the local joint sets – the thickness of the bedding planes and the location of impermeable shale layers above which the water is concentrated. In short cave passages are somewhat predictable and this is the specialty of cave hunters.
If this is where I think it is, after reading about Lymburner’s finds in 1903 in that area, and a visit last year with my girlfriend, there’s more towards the east of those that could be dug open. Theres a number of fairly large sinks in the forest where streams are disapearing into. I was unable to find any resurgence in the area and assumed they more than likely flowed underground into the lake. A few “cracks” in the ground that blow cool air can be found at the bottom of a couple dry sinks. This is IF it’s the lake that I am familiar with on the Bruce Peninsula. They are however in some extremely thick bush and the unprepared explorer risk having copious amounts of blood sucked out of them by the unbelievably ferocious blackfly.
It is where you think it is. Fascinating stuff. You have obviously been around. Do you cave with any particular club or organization?
No clubs or anything as of yet Mick, my girlfriends dad however is a regional director of, well, “a large goverment organization”, and is the reason we were able to gain access to that area after I brought up the subject of caves at dinner one night. I also AGAIN brought up the subject of getting us into Root Cave last night, as I would like to do a 3 dimensional LIDAR scan of the cave for a future “virtual tour” I would like to model in 3D-MAX. We too were given strict access rules that we had to follow, however I always go the extra step further on a summer day as to strip down to my boxer shorts and enter the formation with nothing but my headlamp, boxers and Nike soft rubber surfing shoes. I am planning on getting introduced to a few of the members of the TCG in the near future and hopefully they might be able to put my “nerd” skills to good use, lol.