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Show Mahogany Mountain hides a mystery. Where did all the pitholes come from? How deep i are they? Why is it higher than Little Mountain and Baldy? ) 1 Mahogany, Mtn. of challenges By TERRY JACOBS A v?en asked to write an article on I toga?y Mountain from my 8 Zilu PersPective my first E easy ., Was- "Why not, it should be B sonLAfter givin the subject I Hi n US thought I realized that challenge01 0Uld WeH prVe l bG & fo'thff ,'met" Mahogany Mountain this aV f 1969 when 1 moved int0 ' Servic t0 WOrk for the U'S- Forest j 1 e; 0ver the subsequent years i t:n ou"d that Mahogany has a . itoffo! attractin for me, and that j a Altitude of activities. :i small its slPes t0 hunt S th i me and deer- At that time : as bo ? 1969 the rabbit hunting i As I , ,eniyable and productive, i omdn ered the lower foothills I ""aybe TaT know when one deer-or th KZen' would s"ddenly bolt 1 farther 6 h and run for cover Quail away- A" occasional covey ,10rPartiridge would explode from the grass when least expected just to keep my circulation m oving freely. If "bigger" game was scarce, I would always look for small game that might be of interest in-terest like the local population of lizards, snakes and tarantulas. Or as a last resort, I could still keep fully occupied by actively examining the area for interesting bees beetles or other insects. You can just guess how much my wife appreciates this interest -especially when I bring some of the curiosities home. Even today, my interests in all the wildlife in he area is still alive and well. Now the rabbit population has sadly dwindled dwin-dled but an active population of motorcycles has moved into the foothills to take their place. Ihe deer population has moved, but There seems to be more deer than ever on the higher slopes of the mountain. . Coming into the last few years, I have concentrated my activities on Mahogany in two major areas, deer hunting and caving. Both of these activities have given me the opportunity op-portunity to start really getting to know the mountain in a very detailed way. I've hunted most of the country from Cattle Creek Canyon on the north face of Mahogany to Grove Creek Canyon on the south. Whether along the cliffs and ledges of the rougher areas of the mountain or through the mahogany thickets and brush of the east and west slopes, this mountain offers many qualities -both good and bad - that make hunting a continual challenge for me. Of all the mountains that I hunt on a regular basis, only Mahogany has a persistant way of tripping me or leaving nie feeling like I might die of thirst before I can get my canteen refilled. Whenever I forgot See Mahogany Page 2 Mahogany Mountain I am now making1 preparations ' for a photographic maping of the location of every cave or "hole" on Mahogany that I can locate. Once the locations are recorded, I plan to carefully photographically explore any new caves to their full extent. This project may very well prove to be very long lived, but caving at its best has to be a slow, careful methodical pasttime, and I really don't plan to be going anywhere. In the meantime, whenever I go caving on Mahogany, I can also look for deer and when I deer hunt, I can look for caves. One special note on the caves of Mahogany is that it is absolutely necessary to be careful. The geological structure of many areas of the mountain is very rotten, crumbly, and extremely dangerous. Most of the cave floors are littered with debris that has fallen from the walls and ceilings. Some of the cracks and faults showing on the surface of the mountain move visibly from one year to the next. Entering, or even walking close to these cracks is definitely not advisable. ad-visable. No one should attempt to explore any of these cracks or caves unless they have carefully planned their trip and they are properly equipped. When I last entered the Bottomless pit, I found the remains of a four-point mule deer buck about 40 feet down on a ledge. A person entering one of these caves could very well end up the same way. All in all, Mahogany offers a great deal to those people ambitious enough (I almost said, crazy enough) to take advantage of it. The brush will still be there, and the mountain willk definitely still be steep and mostly dry, but who knows, with luck, you might even stumble onto one of the small seeps hidden on the hill. If nothing else, everyone can enjoy the beautiful, ever-changing view that Mahogany mountain provides to all of us. Whoever you are, and whatever your age, appreciate the mountain in your own back yard. P.S. If you just happen to have stumbled on a cave or crack in the mountain, tell me about it. If you're crazy enough to go along, and physically able to handle the trip, I'll supply the equipment and take you along to locate the hole and start the exploration . Continued from front page rny intentions of avoiding the brush of Mahogany, I am always quickly reminded that nowhere is there any worse or more impenetrable brush. , Despite these unpleasant qualities, , Mahogany offers just about everything that I could want - a good population of deer, a large quantity of good looking country, and possibly most important of all, convenience to our home. During one of my first deer hunts on Mahogany, I wandered through the ledged area on the west face ' north of the "Rabbit Ears" outcropping. out-cropping. I have always remembered remem-bered the creepy feeling I got as I I walked through a large area of sink hcles and a maze of cracks in the ground. I remember one particularly par-ticularly large sink-hole about 30 ft. across and 10 feet deep. At the bottom of this funnel-shaped opening open-ing was a black, ominous looking crack in the ground about 18 inches wide and 5 feet long. While carefully looking around this opening, I found the remains of what looked like a ladder made of fence wire and oak branches. Despite a definite ' curiosity about this hole, I finally ' left this "spooky" piece of mountain . to continue my hunt. Over the following years I frequently heard different people from the old Manila Ward (thro was only one ward then), and 'her people in the area ; talk about various mines, caves, or miscellaneous holes in the ground that were apparently scattered all over Mahogany. A few years ago I finally gave in to a long persistant temptation, and actively took up Caving (Spelunking) as a hobby. After j several trips through Timpanogos ' . Cave and just over a year of working underground in the old Lark Mine west of Salt Lake, I was already comfortable in dark, damp, dirty, and sometimes constricted spaces. Over about a two year time span, I participated in several caving expeditions to various "holes" around northern Utah while assembling my own caving and climbing equipment. In" between the organized caving expeditions, I began to take a renewed interest in the holes I had found and heard about on Monday. Since then, I've exploded m y "spooky" sink-hole to a depth of 200 feet and found that it is officially known by local cavers as the Bottomless Bot-tomless Pit. I haven't yet reached the bottom. Farther north on the west side of the mountain I have also thoroughly explored the cave known as Onyx Cave - perhaps the most beautiful and highly decorated cave known on Mahogany. Over the years I have located and investigated in-vestigated many lesser cracks and openings on the mountain, but periodically I still hear descriptions and rumors of other caves that I don't recognize and have not yet located. |