       |
|
SCOTT HOLLOW CAVE, MONROE COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA By Bill Walker On Friday, April 16, I made a trip to Scott Hollow cave in Monroe County, West Virginia. Joining me were cavers from Missouri and West Virginia. We arrived at the cave around 5:30 pm and parked in front of a nice looking house at the bottom of a ravine surrounded by rolling farmland. We got out of the car to get our gear together and I asked, "Where's the cave?" The reply was, "It's in the house!" The cave had no natural entrance until it was dug open and discovered in 1984. A 30' culvert was installed for access. Since then, they've surveyed over 30 miles of passage and are still going. The cave is now an unimproved "show cave" where the owner guides people through the cave for a fee (NSS members have free, unrestricted access.) The owner built an unimproved house over the entrance and is in the process of adding a climbing wall that reaches from the basement, through the center of the house and on up and out of the roof. The cave entrance is located under a plywood circle in the floor. Cave House: http://cavingintro.net/images/SHHOUSE.jpg Cave Entrance: http://cavingintro.net/images/SHENTRANCE.jpg The entrance passage, Mastodon Avenue, drops over 400' of elevation in something like 4000'. This passage eventually feeds into the Mystic River, a very large river passage which is the main drain for the entire valley above. The Mystic River passage is the primary trunk of the cave and all of the side passages feed into it. Reaching heights of 100' in some places, the river passage really pushes some water, but it's easy to keep relatively dry by following the edges and crossing at sand bars. The passage sumps out several times and divers have pushed past these sumps to find miles of new cave. At the first sump they were able to make their way back up and over the sump to a 30' high ledge overlooking the main Mystic River passage. A 20' ladder is now permanently rigged so that explorers can bypass the first sump. The ladder is probably the scariest part of the entire cave. It's perched on a 5' high rock cairn and reaches the bottom of the ledge, but misses the top lip of the ledge by about three feet. A rope with loops hangs down over the lip so that you can pull yourself up and over. When you pull yourself up and over your first thought is' "that's really going to suck coming back down." And it does suck. To get down, you have to grab onto the rope loops, swing your feet out over this ledge, and blindly feel for the ladder with your feet – hanging 30' above the floor. We toured down to the second sump and then back up and did a huge loop touring the formation area. There are some cool formations here and lots of gypsum. This cave has some tricky climbs in areas and it's definitely not a beginners cave. On the way out, Mastodon Avenue is called "Drag Ass Hill" because you have to climb back up that 400' of elevation change. It's a continuous climb up for nearly a mile. While scrambling back up Drag Ass Hill, I stepped from one boulder to the next and my foot slipped out from under me. I fell between the boulders and I landed with all of my weight on my right shin, about three inches below my knee. My shin struck a hatchet rock. I felt intense pain and I could feel a dent in my leg, though I couldn't look at it because I had pants and polypros on. We made our way out of the cave about a half hour later, and finally exited around 2 in the morning. When I began to change out of my cave clothes, I realized how bad I had really hurt myself. I had actually cut myself right down to the bone and I had an open wound that would definitely need a couple of stitches. The next day, I decided to go to the hospital in Lewisburg. They took x-rays, scrubbed out my wound and gave me two stitches. No broken bones, but I have a huge lump on my shin that will probably become calcified. I also might have bursitis because my bursa below my knee may have been damaged. |