18 October 2014 Binkley Cave Trip Report Miller & Manhole Passage Improvement By Dave Everton Tim Pride had requested this weekend as mainly one to come hang out with the gang, and not so much to cave. However, we had a few ideas for short projects, and as the trip date drew near, it started to take shape. Earlier in the Fall, a retired Army veteran named Jose Aponte who is living in Marengo, had contacted me about taking some photos in a cave. He was nearing completion of a degree from Ivy Tech, and was working on a project to take photos in the commercial caves of Indiana. I had offered him a couple of dates and planned to take him in the Miller entrance to Binkley Cave. The first date went on by, but the second date was October 18, and he was planning to go. On October 9, I was contacted by Danielle Castonzo, an IU Bloomington student, who was preparing a caving article for a publication, and had already spoken with Gary Roberson, who gave her my name. She ended up interviewing me about a week prior to the trip, and also asked if she and her writing partner Camille could go on the October 18 cave trip. I informed her of the plans I had already made with Jose, and told her they were welcome to come along if they wished. On the very same day I was first contacted by Danielle, I was also contacted by Braden Catt from Indianapolis. He had spent some time with Ron Richards and others on the October 2‐4 paleontological trip in Indiana Caverns, and had met Gary and his sister Carol, who both directed him to me when he expressed an interest in the Binkley project. At that time, he asked to be put on the mailing list, and we later had communication about October 18 as well. I told him of my plans and asked if he’d be interested in doing some passage improvement, and much to my surprise, he agreed. I told him the kind of digging we’d be doing was with abandon, and not the meticulous type I expected he was used to. My wife Sherrie knew of my plans to stay in Corydon on Saturday night, so she made arrangements to get in a visit with her brother and sister‐in‐law in Evansville. Therefore, we drove there on Friday night, and I went from there to Corydon on Saturday morning, meeting up around 10:00 at Frederick’s Café with Shane Myles, Pat Burns, Rand Heazlitt, Jose, Danielle and Camille, Braden, Laura Demarest, and Tim Pride. Since it was somewhat close to Halloween, I wore my grey ladies wig given to me by my sister in law. The hair color is remarkably close to my facial hair, and as always, I enjoyed the reactions of others when they learned it was a wig, and just a joke. Unfortunately, Gary was sick on this day; I knew he had to be really sick in order to miss breakfast, especially since our trips have been much fewer now. We started out in a small booth, but some kind patrons offered to let us have one of the larger booths, so we relocated there, squeezing in and getting cozy. After the enjoyable breakfast, we headed over to the Mathes property containing the Miller entrance to Binkley Cave. It was decided that Rand (who was limited to a short trip), Shane, and Pat would work on Manhole Cave. (It was hoped earlier in the week that Jerry Lewis would be able to participate, but his son Geoffrey had to return to the hospital to continue battling with a terrible affliction which earlier had death knocking on his door.) As the Miller crew prepared themselves, it became quickly obvious to me that I’d made a HUGE mistake: I’d forgotten the helmets and lights I’d promised to provide Jose, Danielle, and Camille with. Oh my gosh, that’s the first time I can recall forgetting something so major, and was horrified!!!! However, it was decided that since we were not going in very far (basically to the end of the left fork was my hope), they would go anyway. I urged them to be extra careful without helmets in this all‐crawling section. I had brought a couple of different Pelican boxes for Jose to choose from to put his gear in, and he chose the 1400. I brought in the smaller tan box with my camera and a few flashes. I asked him to leave his large tripod outside the cave, convincing him it wasn’t worth his while in this mostly‐crawling section. We filed into the cave, without Tim and Laura, who were to come in later (I don’t recall what diversion caused their later entry). Unfortunately, Jose had equipment malfunctions almost immediately in the first sit‐up room; I think it was his slave units which were not working right. The girls and I made it first to the drop off to the lower level, and as he approached, I was disappointed to hear that he didn’t want to proceed any further. I expressed my disappointment, since there was a pretty flowstone deposit I was hoping would excite him and he could get a good photo of. He ended up deciding to do it after all, so we all enjoyed the short standing‐height section. The display on my point and shoot camera has been acting up, and I have not been able to count on it for quite some time. Without being able to see the display, the camera is worthless for cave photography since I don’t what the settings are set to. However, it allowed me one photo, and Jose allowed me to use his camera for one shot I requested. The only shots I’d taken of the flowstone had not come out very well due to not getting a good focus. I was very pleased therefore with how the shot on Jose’s camera turned out, and it even had two attractive models in the photo this time! (Not that Rand isn’t attractive in a different way!!! <grin>) Interestingly enough at one point on the way into the cave, I believe it was Jose who found a key fob, which had been dropped by Camille. Wow! It reminds me when I THINK I have given non‐cavers enough information for them to prepare for a cave trip, I have not! I had failed to mention in advance that taking that sort of thing into a cave should NEVER be done (in my humble opinion), but thanks to Jose, all was well. While we were in the standup area, we heard voices approaching, and it was Tim and Laura, who were just bopping around. They apparently hadn’t developed a solid plan for their activities that day, but after they found out that Braden and I were going to do passage improvement and that the two reporters were going to Indiana Caverns, they decided to go along with the girls. I encouraged them to go have fun! We parted ways at the junction, where I picked up a shovel in the area and we proceeded to the standup dome, which was the area I wanted to work. There is a section just before arriving at the dome which was still army crawl. Water has been known to drool from the dome down into that section, and on one trip, Pat Burns and I tried to dig a channel in the opposite direction from the standup dome, hoping that it would stop the water from flowing into the army crawl. That effort had mixed results; on this day, there was a shallow puddle between the place I wanted to work and the dome. Braden started from the dome side, while I went to the start of the area needing deepened from the other side. We worked nonstop for quite some time, including some time after my arms were telling me they weren’t happy. However, not once did Braden take a break!! I have met my digging match!!!! What a trooper! I reminded him from time to time that none of this was mandatory, and we didn’t have a minimum amount to complete. We just both continued working, and even each mentioned a couple of times that our sections were nearing to connect with each other. After finally connecting them, we took a short break, then enjoyed what I call the “200 feet of walking” section, then returned to pack up and exit. I was actually amazed at how long we’d been at it!! Wow, that Braden is quite the workhorse. I actually figured my hands and arms would be loudly complaining that night and the next day, but surprisingly, they didn’t. We exited the cave and it was still daylight; I’m thinking it was around 6:30 or something like that. Laura and Tim were enjoying cold beverages, but it wasn’t exactly warm outside! I loaned Tim a sweatshirt; he doesn’t get cold easily, but found it useful. Tim told us he got to play tour guide on the Indiana Caverns tour that Danielle and Camille took, which they had planned on including on their Corydon adventure in conjunction with their story. Apparently, a good time was had by all! While we were milling around, Shane and Pat drove up. We were both disappointed and excited to hear their report; there is still one major constriction which kept Shane from continuing on in the passage.