flowstone – Wasteland Waterway

Flow stone in new Ontario Cave – Wasteland Waterway

We went further yesterday than in the past and ended up passing a spot that JC called the Aerofoil – a plate of rock that sticks way out into the passage. I wiggled underneath this aerofoil and got a glimpse of passages on beyond. It’s more of the same, the tunnels are still dropping down deeper and I anticipate that they must soon reach the level of the Rochester shale. This shale layer is often undercut so either the passages will flatten out and become pheratic at that point, or we will be up against a pit.

It was an exhausting crawl and the claustrophobia of inward pressing rock. Everything is really jagged so my cave suit is pretty well shredded. I doubt that the best of Maggie’s stitching will bring it back to health.

This is caving in Ontario

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looks like science fiction movie – discovery on new Ontario Cave (Wasteland Waterway)

 

IMG_8539, originally uploaded by Mic2006.

As my son said – looks like some kind of science fiction scene – well in a sense it feels that way as well. today I am on the hunt for a new wetsuit to accommodate the needed exploration. I guess I’ve been bitten by the caving bug again. Here’s my plan – video this first time exploration, I mean there’s something to be said for exploration in southern Ontario where you’d expect that everyone’s been before -but not here. the geography of southern Ontario remains unexplored in certain special places.

This photo was taken with some difficulty with my little hand-held canon (no flash). Next trip I’ll have video.

It is so odd that there is this karst geography in southern Ontario and people living close by and nobody knowing a thing about it – nobody knows about the underground tunnels beneath their farm or house, or nobody cares – WOW, get off your sofa and have a look!

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The Cave Goes On

We speculate as to the distance that the cave goes in

No sucking air 

Immediate impressions at the entrance -  the tunnel sloped down into water, a wide trench had been worn into the floor and though the water was not flowing at the time, it certainly flowed some times as the debris out front suggests a significant rush of water. Bigger slabs were deeper into the tunnel and with distance from the mouth, the debris got smaller.

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?

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