R. D. Milhollin NSS 29962
The weekend of August 8 marked the last of the summer vacation public school teachers enjoy in the district I work for, and in a last-ditch atte
mpt to cram some more adventure into the waning season I accepted the invitation to meet
at 0-9 Well for some caving. For those who have not been there, the well sits under a steel windmill, securely
gated, amidst the monotonic backdrop of northern Chihuahuan Desert / southern Edward's Plateau environment of widely
scattered mesquite trees and apparently thriving stands of a variety of cacti. The descent of approximately 130
feet (90m) is interrupted by a single rebelay, but most of the way one just follows the well casing down into a
tall, narrow room bisected by a running stream. From here the caver has the option of turning upstream into hours
of deep mud and tight squeezes, or going downstream into a series of pools lying in narrow-walled canyon passage,
and terminating in an alternating series of vertical drops into large (for Texas) dome rooms. The previous trip
I was involved in was highly structured, and supervised by the ubiquitous Terry Holsinger. On Saturday, Terry directed
the several survey teams upstream and through a leap-frog system obtained several hundred feet of good detailed
survey. Sunday was reserved for those who still had some stamina remaining from the previous day who wanted to
see the beautiful rooms that lay downstream. The upstream passage changed to wet, low stream passage after about
2 hours of muddy, obstructed canyon caving, and then the survey ended at a sump. Since the teams were already cold
from several hours of lying about in the water while the sketchers did their work, the teams were glad when they
began the exit to the entrance climb. The team I was on entered the cave about 11.00 a.m. and exited about 1:00
am the following day, about 12 hours underground. We were all starving and grumpy when we arrived back at the surface,
and consequently ate our Beeny-Weenies (or approximations thereof) and headed to the tents, which had cooled somewhat
by the early hours of the morning.The trip of August 8-9 began with a call from Brian Pate of Dallas, who had been advised by Walter of an open date for a trip. I agreed to attend and share a ride out to the remote site, expecting a light turnout due to the concurrent NSS Convention being held in Sewannee Tennessee. The turnout was a little lighter than I expected, with Brian and I being the only attendees other than Walter. We discussed the possibilities, and even though aware of the dangers
of a two-person
team quite a ways into an often difficult passage, we proposed keeping the plan I had developed the previous week.
Since his vertical gear had not made the trip with him, Walter would stay on the surface and deal with the heat
and the gnats, which proliferated, most likely due to the effects of rain which had muddied the roads a few days
prior to our arrival. We only had to rig the initial 20 or so feet, as the primary drop had been previously rigged,
and like the downstream section drops, has ropes fixed in the cave which are deployed when needed and pulled up
and secured out of the water upon exit. I descended first, secured the initial rope to the rebelay point, and allowed
the looped rope to drop down into the pit. As I finished my descent and de-rigged, Brian was lowering two bags
of gear we would have to carry back to the sump, this in addition to our own personal cave packs. We agreed to
be extra careful and to travel slowly to minimize the possibility of mishap, any of which would be difficult to
recover from in a reasonable time. Brian had only been downstream before this trip, and was probably not prepared for the very different conditions upstream. I had initially estimated the trip to last about 10 hours, but as we discussed the logistics together we lowered the expectations to 8 hours, although Walter later admitted he mentally allowed us an additional 2 or 3 hours to account for unknowns. Brian was dressed in a medium thickness wetsuit, and I opted for a full layer of polypropylene layered with cotton, and covered with a set of polyester / cotton coveralls. Entering the well at 11:00 am we were expected to return around 7:00 PM, or thereafter. The pace we set initially was not demanding in itself, but as the stream meanders in and out of the passage for the first hour, then transits through a lower level not accessible to cavers, Brian was happy to delay a few minutes to sit in a pool to cool off. When the water passage played out, and just the knee-deep mud was left to contend with, he was pretty miserable, especially in the hour of crawl space. This was easy-going for me, but about 3 hours into the trip the tables were reversed. When we entered the water passage continuation past the crawl spaces, the wetsuit Brian wore was perfect. He was able to float and just pull himself along, dragging his Pelican camera case behind with a lanyard. I was forced to knuckle-walk along the mud banks, avoiding immersion as much as possible, although this was necessitated occasionally in the 1 to 4 foot (.3 to 1.3 m) water depths. This procedure puts considerable pressure on the lower back, and performing it was the least pleasant part of the experience for me. My frustration and pain was made no less bearable seeing Brian happily floating along like an otter. After an hour of this, we were chest-deep in the water and facing the end of the survey, the upstream sump.
One of the objectives we had set was to photograph some of the cave for the benefit of those who are vertically challenged, or have accidentally overheard veterans of the upstream passage describing the rigors. We carefully positioned the Pelican case so it would not be prone to falling in the water, and I secured the "waterproof" dry-bag my dive gear was carried in so it would be easy to kit up. Brian set up the camera, a Canon OEM with 21 mm lens, and I positioned and set the strobes, a Vivitar 283 and Sunpak 383, both equipped with Firefly slave triggers. I carried the aluminum 13 cf tank and Poseidon Odin (Jetstream) brand regulator assembled to minimize the possibility of an air loss in the event the valve was bumped during transport. This system was attached to a waist belt, and the only other dive gear I used was a single Pelican Super Sabrelite, a small facemask, and a small DiveRite reel with braided nylon line. The helmet was replaced once the mask was in place and the dive was ready to commence. My plan was very limited: I was only interested in knowing if there was caver-usable air space a breath-hold distance on the other side so the survey could be extended without too much fuss and bother. If it was found to continue as air filled passage, I would tie off the line and return to Brian, and he would decide whether he wanted to breath-hold through, but he had already voiced some reluctance in doing this at this time, this trip. If no space was found, I would return and report this as well. We would then stow the camera and dive gear, and return to the entrance for the climb out.
The dive itself was relatively uneventful, and although the objective was achieved, I was disappointed that I failed to find the desired air-filled passage on the other side. In order to allow for contingencies while in the zero-visibility water, I computed the approximate amount of time that one-third of my on-board air supply would last, about 4 minutes with several conservative factors built in. Unfortunately, as I turned the air on, a free-flow from the regulator wasted much of the air. The safety factor had to be refigured, this ti
me allowing only about 2.5 minutes of bottom time.
I waited in the neck-deep water for a few minutes while Brian took a few photo exposures, During this wait I felt
the first physical symptoms of body heat loss, shivering. I had to get busy with the dive and then get out of the
water passage as soon as possible in order to avoid the effects of hypothermia, which e
ven in mild cases can cause poor judgment
which might result in an accident, something we felt we could not afford to risk. As I submerged, the light I held
became quickly useless, the beam could not be seen at all until held about 6 inches from the mask. The water stayed
about the same depth, and the ceiling stayed smooth. I felt the passage contours and determined that it held approximately
the same size and shape as before it sumped, except that I did not find the eccentric erosional remnants that decorated
the air-exposed walls behind me. I stayed along the ceiling, feeling with extended hand for tell-tale splashing
that would indicate air above. I found none in the time allotted for the dive. As I turned to begin the exit the
hip-mounted tank briefly became entangled in the thin guideline, but I had anticipated this and had kept the attachment
point clear of any other line-entanglement hazards, so the problem was only an inconvenience, although it did absorb
some of the time allotted for the exit. The visibility prohibited a reliance on the attached tank pressure gauge
to determine how much air was used, so I had to count to myself as I conducted the search for air passage. In doing
this I inadvertently overstayed the time my air supply allowed. Soon after surfacing in front of Brian, the tank
ran dry! I will need to get a slightly larger bottle for future explorations ofthis kind.
The trip back to the rope was
eventful only because the building fatigue slowed us down. We stopped more frequently for rest than on the way
in. Once I was moving again, the chilling effect of the water was not really felt, although I knew that this was
a temporary effect. Upon leaving the water passage and emerging into a chamber where we could stand up, we promptly
lay down and with lights off, rested for around 30 to 40 minutes. After this refreshing break, we continued the
exit, and emerged to Walter's relief only 2 hours later than originally planned. The next day Brian and I went
downstream and photographed the waterfall (second) drop. All in all the trip was exciting and ended up being counted
as time well spent. There is still going passage upstream that needs surveying, and we know now that for the time
being the upstream sump must remain impassable, at least, until, a more comprehensive exploration of the underwater
passage can be made.