Enon Church Cave

[Nemophilist]

I was sorting pictures and came across some of this cave from a while back. I somehow lost all the pictures of my favorite part of the cave, but the ones I do have aren't too bad. I'd really like to go back sometime soon though, so maybe I'll have some more before long.

The entrance from the outside:


From the inside looking out:


The drop into the first chamber. The rope isn't mine, but it worked pretty well for getting in and it wasn't too difficult to climb out without it. On the way out I mostly just kept it close in case I fell. I will also admit that it felt pretty badass to break a glowstick then watch it fall all while hanging on the rope all movie style (Before anyone asks, yes I brought it out with me.)


http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C04827.jpg

Looking up:


http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C04775.jpg



Passages:


http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C04785.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/ ... C04779.jpg

One of the water passages, which are probably my favorite feature of this cave. The big one near the end is a lot cooler but I have no idea what happened to my pictures of it. These things look pretty deep too. I don't have any real estimates, but I doubt I could touch bottom if I fell into one if that counts for anything. Next trip out there I'll have to try the highly scientific "rock on a string" method to try for some more exact measurements.



All said, this is a very nice cave. It is also full of frogs. There must have been hundreds of them down there, which made for a few slightly creepy moments, especially since I was down there alone. (Yeah, never go alone. I know. Curor was waiting at the entrance, which is close enough for me)

It's getting late, so in case I'm completely incoherent here's the only other post the search feature turned up:

viewtopic.php?t=3160

[ARLT1YJ]

Awesome cave trip, thanks for sharing.

[darko80]

Yeah, thanks for posting. Maybe one of these days I'll actually get to go check it out (it's close to Bolivar, right?). Nice pics, by the way.

[Freak]

What's with the pipes/gothic bedframe in the water passage?

It kind of looks like Pits cave in Dubuque IA, that one was a natural crevice cave that was worked and expanded as a lead mine. You walk in an upper passage but have to traverse deep pits that lead to a lower level, you can look down and see pipes and ore car rails underwater.

[Nemophilist]

Yeah, it's pretty close to Bolivar. Since it runs under the cemetery of the church, it's pretty easy to find the approximate location, but pinpointing the entrance took me about 15 minutes of searching. I actually found an old farmhouse and what looks like an old milk barn while looking for this cave so it was a really nice trip overall. Sertile has a blog entry about the milk barn and a house that I missed a little farther back into the woods, which is interesting because I could have sworn I saw something back there. I'll have to check it out next time I go out to the cave. Also, those pipes seem to be lead and my best guess is they were once part of the cemetery fence. This is out in Sertile's area so he may know more than I do.

If anyone cares, I have a few pictures of the farmhouse posted over on UER
http://www.uer.ca/forum_showthread.asp? ... adid=51175

[darko80]

Can you tell me how to find the cemetary from Bolivar?

[Nemophilist]

Ok, I found a few more that I thought I had lost.

Lots of frogs:


And the second (my favorite) water passage:

Getting past that passage involves walking a tiny mud covered ledge that ends about 3 feet from what looks like a dead end. I didn't really want to risk falling in since I had all kinds of electronic stuff on me and that water looks pretty deep.