Show SPELUNKER D. J. Lynch climbs out of in Capture Water causes AT ENTRANCE to Capture located near Vernal Alpine Club member Karl Dunn prepares to charted the BIG BRUSH CREEK presented hazards to Karl Dunn as he examines the Explore Vernal Cave By J. D. LYNCH Ute Alpine Club Member One weekend last Karl Dee Allgood and all members of the Ute Alpine made a trip into the mountains north of Vernal to explore some of the caves in the limestone The one cave in particular that we were interested in was the unexplored cave that Big Brush Creek runs Capture Cave is a fitting name for this since it has captured the waters of Big Brush Creek and prevents it from running into Big Brush Creek the largest in one-half mile THIS IS AN interesting cave since it is a series of pits of varying depth and The problems we encountered in entering these pits were further compounded by the presence of the water that runs into the The limestone itself presents its own set of problems since it is impure and contains a large amount of silica in the form of The limestone has leaving these very sharp projections of chert on the walls which ripped our Since we had no cable we entered these pits by a means of easily descending a We found the bottom of the first pit covered by large rounded a product of the eroding High on the walls and ceiling of and many other cave in the area we found pine needles stuck to the a silent warning of how high the water can rise during a A short crawl out of the bottom of this pit led us to the top of the second pit by far the largest and most Out of one wall of this Big Brush Creek shoots in a long cascade that thunders onto the rock below and runs into a DESCENDING INTO this we found that it divided half-way down into two separate After exploring and surveying the smaller and drier we followed the stream down into the fissure in the thunder it flows over a few smaller cascades and disappears in a a water-filled passage which is somewhat akin to a bathtub This siphon blocked our way into the cave that we are certain lies UPON completion of our surveying in this we rigged our slings on the main rope and climbed out using a method known as Feeling the fatigue that follows eight hours in the total darkness we removed our ging and thankfully climbed out into the fresh Despite our fatigue and shredded clothes our only though was to return and force our way beyond the siphon to the caves on the other |