Exploring Virgin Cave in Ricks Springs Utah

[FW]

My first coment is Brrr!

Why is low flow a problem? I generally like low flow, the vis is better, and it is easier to get in the cave.

[Randy Thornton]

Thomas & I were back up diving the spring this Saturday. The snow and slick roads up the canyon made the trip to the dive site almost as exciting as the dive itself. Also this was one of the few times that we put our tanks in the 42 degree water and actually watched our tank pressures go up, they had registered 3300 psi at the truck and once warmed up in the water were back up to almost 3600 psi. We were amazed by how much the flow from the spring had dropped just since last week making us think that it won't be long and it will stop all together. We were able to survey another 200 ft of passageway before one of my hoses developed a leak and we had to turn the dive. The last time up my neck seal had leaked quite a bit, enough to make me wonder if I had leaks elsewhere in my suit, however, on this dive we took a little extra time to adjust the seal and that stopped the leak, however we were about 80 minutes in 40 degree water so even with drysuits working correctly we were still quite cold when we got out. This cave gets more fascinating as we go. Up to this dive the passages have been running on a very much northerly course, however the last 130 ft the passages are quite shallow and running just a little west of south making us think both passages are associated with the same N - S fault line with the deeper passages running north and the shallower running south. At Jim Wyatt's elbow the passage takes almost a 90 degree turn and is heading almost due west and there enters the Florida passage, that's as far as we made it before the hose started leaking. We now have enough information to start a good map of the system.

We exited the cave to find it snowing, big wet flakes about the size of quarters, that made breaking down and stowing our gear and getting out of our drysuits and into warm, dry clothes a whole new challenge.

We are hoping to be back up next weekend and place some line protectors in the high friction areas before the flow completely stops making it almost impossible to get back past Tibby's Table; hopefully the line will survive the high flow season next spring.

Richard,

Thanks for the update and keeping us in the loop! You're doing great work!

Regards,
Randy

[Rustykfd]

Nice update, I'm very glad I made it up when I did, I wish is were less than a 12 hour drive. It will be exciting to see a map come together.

My first coment is Brrr!

Why is low flow a problem? I generally like low flow, the vis is better, and it is easier to get in the cave.

Forrest, as I understand it some of the shallow areas become crawl instead of swim through when the water level is down. That wouldn't be much fun, and the holes in knees, gloves, elbows that would ensue would be even less fun.......

[Cold Water Richard]

Like you, I prefer low flow, however, as Rusty said, when the flow stops the water level in the cave drops and the passage between 400 ft and 500 ft of penetration becomes air filled, the passage at that point is easy to swim through but too small to walk through so it would be a miserable crawl.

[FW]

Yea, not much fun dragging tanks through something like that...

[wendellnope]

I'm not so opposed to dragging tanks through the passageway, but the damage this would cause to the cave holds me back.

[CCR Josh]

Any of you that have been following our exploration at Ricks Spring in Utah, know that we have had several trips where all we did was clear rocks from the entrance. Usually this consisted of one or two divers in the water and a few others pulling up buckets and buckets of rocks and dumping them down river. There has been one particular rock we have had our eyes on for a year or two now- this one was of particular concern because of it’s size and if it moved while we were in the cave, there would be no way for us to move it out of the way.

Last week Wendell drove by Ricks and saw that the water level was the lowest it ever gets and the rock had indeed slid right into the entrance. I imagine this happened from the freeze-thaw cycle throughout the winter. We decided now was the time to clear out the entrance.

Richard, Wendell, Amy, Jack, Jeanie and I drove up there yesterday to get some work done. My lovely wife accompanied for moral support and as photographer. We were able to split the large rock into 2 pieces and remove them with pry bars, chain, 2 come-a-longs, 2 tow straps and a whole lot of elbow grease. We also hauled about 25 - 5 gallon bucket loads of smaller rocks. As you will see from the pictures we still have plenty of bucket loads to haul out, but it is a relieve having the hardest part done.
I’m sure some of you are wondering “Why not just take a backhoe and clear it out in 5 min?” This is a federally protected cave and site. We prefer to stay on the Forest Services good side and stay out of prison.

Anyway- thought I would give you all an update to our 2010 exploration of Ricks. Once it becomes diveable later this year you should see much more exciting updates!

[sskasser]

Awesome stuff! Great pics! Thanks for keeping us updated! And BRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

[Randy Thornton]

Great job guys! Sorry I wasn't able to make it up yesterday! This will go a long way in making everyone a lot safer! Can't imagine what would have happened if that bolder would have fallen down while someone was diving the cave!

[FW]

Can you back a 4X4 to the top of the gravel pile? We used a 5 gallon bucket, on a rope tied to the hitch on a 4X4 truck to remove rocks and gravel from a very similar entrance in AL. We did pull the bails off of a couple buckets, though