It was my only scheduled day off from the relentless workweek and unspeakable stresses and I had made plans to take my daughter , Tressa, and Her friend, Hillary, caving on this beautiful, but rather breezy spring day.
The cave in my sights, was the infamous J4 located in Centre County, Pa. , a stones throw from Penn State Universitry, and so named after the four " Johns" who had initially found and explored her.
J4 has a rather scetchy access policy that has changed a lot over the last four decades as it is located in an active quarry.The policy is as follows: '' ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK and DONT GET CAUGHT"or you will be fined, or worse yet, arrested!
Being of the caving community and priding myself on not being one of those "ill equipped, flashlight caving, vandelizing spelunkers ( bad word) , I normally adhere to land owner requests. HOWEVER, The cave is owned by coperate America and will probably see the cave destroyed sooner or later.Besides, The draw is just to big for me. Enormous, in fact. J4 was the seed, if you will, that started my caving career and prompted me to seek out other cavers ,learn safe caving practices , and involve myself in Karst conservation. I love this cave with all my Heart, and although its been decimated by droves of Penn State Spelunkers.To me, her beauty is unmatched in this place I call home.
Tressa had been in a handful of less challenging caves with little or no exposure and I was excited to share with her, the J4 experience.Hillary, had never been caving before and J4 is the kind of cave that will either hook you or scare you away from caving altogether. I reasoned that the rule of 3 was pertinent and I would carefully read her abilities as the trip progressed. Best case scenario, A caver is Born! Worse case, we turn back and live to cave another day without burdening the cave rescue community. ( -Many of whom Cristal and I had just had the pleasure of completing a basic cave rescue class with just 1 month earlier).
ENTER THE DARKNESS
Roughly 10 am Friday morning Tressa and Hill arrived to pick me up. We took a few minutes to outfit Hillary and lighten our packs of unecassary weight and hit the road for the 30 minute drive to Pleasant Gap.I took this opportunity to explain to everyone the illicit nature of our trip, and explained the 'Park and hustle" manuever once we got to the parking area. It went off without a hitch.
After a 15 minute hike to the quarry we found it to be full of water and blocking the heavily traveled path up to the cave. The entrance is about 35 feet up the quarry wall and is usually an easy block scramble. Today we had to take an almost verticle approach utilizing small sapplings and non existent ledges to reach the entrance.
Arriving at the 24" entrance pipe was a happy moment for me as I knew nothing short of an act of God would keep me out now.A short explantion and a boost for the girls found us all inside and gathering at the first obstacle, the birth canal. An easy squeeze brought us to the top of a nickel smooth pile of breakdown boulders that had been polished by a thousand blue jeans before us.We were In!
The next thirty minutes was spent explaining opposing muscles, wedging and chimneying techniques and performing a lights out for Hillary who was scared of the dark. They took it in stride and had little trouble making it to the Sliding Formation where we stopped for a drink and a snack .After our snack , we dropped through the floor, negotiated a few small contorted passages and skirted Goliaths Pit. After a small 15 foot free climb we came to the top of the Flowstone OverHang, a flowstone shelf that hangs like a frozen waterfall over a 50 foot chasm. One must scoot down the slick flowstone utilizing the walls few crevices to slow your descent until you reach the edge.From here, you skirt the edge of the pit on a small ledge to the safety of the other side. I tied a handline here and assisted Tressa, then Hillary across without incident.
I thought to myself "If they can handle that the way they did, theyll be up for the biggest challenge , which still lay ahead - the Highway"
The Highway Step Across derives its name from the manuever one must do to enter this deep canyonous fissure, - --- step across a void to a small ledge and immediatly turn 90 degrees to chock yourself in, or risk a fall of 60 feet or more. Its a commitment thing and I never push people here. You either do it or leave it for another day when your feeling your oats. Once in the highway , ( think deep crack that you can wedge yourself in , back on the wall , feet on opposing wall , darkness below) , You scoot along like that for about 60 feet until you gain the floor again. There are chockstones here and there that have fallen from above are wedged between the walls, but who wants to shift all their weight on those?
After traversing the flowstone overhang I soon discovered The Highway was not in our immediate future when the girls became increasingly uncomfortable with the amount of exposure they were facing, for it was here that the bedrock floor began to tilt at a near 45 degree angle leaving nothing between you and a very long fall over treacherous rocks if one was to lose thier footing.We all made made it through using the buddy sytstem and to came upon the highway where to my suprise , Tressa braved the Step Across and entered The Highway for a glimpse. Hillary decided to hang back and commented that she had had enough near death experiences for one day which sent us all into laughter and helped ease the tension.We decided to call it and vowed to come back and tackle Judies Frustration, a tight crawl that would bypass the Highway and give access to the back of the cave.We monkied around for a few more minutes chimneying here, climbing there, I chased a low crawling lead to a dead end We then exited the cave in much the same fashion as we had came in exept that Hillary was nearly skinned of her pants on the way out of the entrance Crawl.
All in all everyone did a great job, we had lots of fun and it was another great J4 trip without a hitch.Wether or not a caver was born that day, is yet to be seen , but I am hopefull.
Cave softly, take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints, Kill nothing but Time.
Sounds exciting and challenging.
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