Cascade Grotto Meeting (virtual and in-person)
February 18, 2022

Presentation by Mark Garnick, Poet’s Crest

Overview:

• history:
  • presentation has a number of links
  • cave area was missed by loggers
  • study in 1983 has some information but nothing on caves
  • in 1981 regional meet it was missed
• lots of limestone & marble
• really obvious cinder cones
• south of Mt Baker
  • close to Shriebers medow parking area
• lots of potential
  • highest elevation of 4500′
  • lowest elevation is 3100′
  • over a mile of limestone
  • many surface features, cliff bands, sinks
• line shows strike & dip:
  • dip is elevation of bedding plane of limestone (cave wants to follow bedding plane)
• for reference cave ridge is at 70/80 degrees (very deep)
• this sits at 40 degree dip
• there’s a creek flowing into a cave there (a few leads there)
• very hilly and rugged: E is a good base camp (water sources and flat-ish)
• multiple promising leads with the caves we’ve explored
• areas have been staying cold all year: snow/ice never melts in some places
• area “F” is a significant water source: can be quite promising as it’s being fed water from a valley likely far away

Approach to Poet’s Crest:

• Shriebers meadow parking lot
• best way appears to be coming from the north
• follow creek and head up over the ridge
• no trail, lots of bushwacking
  • takes ~3-3.5 hours
  • didn’t rope up at all
• start @ 3100, camp @ 4100
• NW forest pass is required
• about two hours drive to parking lot
• impossible to get pack animals:
  • national park/national forest
  • slopes too steep for animals
• river crossing (depends on recent heat — flow from snow pack)
• in NRA land: we don’t want to make a trail and pick a random approach
• river to bottom of ridge and top of ridge has decent trails
• THICK with blueberries/trails cut (elk trail everywhere)
• logging road was a thought to get up there but was just terrible

Campsite for Poet’s Crest:

• 3 sets of gear up there
• 150′ of rope & hand lines
• level camping is really limited 4-6 tents (hammocks pls)
• water sources right by camp
• lots of bugs, devils club, and bears
  • came upon a bear den
  • super unlikely there are grizzlies (but be aware)

Possible exploration:

• lots of old growth forest — never been logged
• on some of google earth you can see the stream/rocky structure
• big fluted outcrop that is about 300 ft high: very promising
  • noticeable fossils up there (tritinoid) underwater plant w/ fronds
• pit we thought we could see on google earth
  • unfortunately it’s only like 6 or 7 ft deep
  • a good dig lead thought
• couch “cave” – not much of a cave
  • lots of devils club!
• Riven Gar crack:
  • rubble floor but solid ceiling
  • doesn’t seem to be blowing
  • good promising lead
• earliest you can get up there is late july because of snow (15-20 ft of snow earlier in season)
• mt baker has TONS of snow – convergence snow (had like 95′ in 2003)
• sink/pit w/ skylight
  • also has a 2nd pit
  • has multiple leads
  • water flowing into cave
  • some walking passage in there
  • lots of debris being washed in (very wet) going down but seems could be cleared out
• stash “cave” – really dry store we can pop things into
• larry mctaig stayed with us for a few days (so no too brutal to get up there)
• short season unfortunately
• can also get REALLY hot up there (like 95+ when 80 is Seattle)
• big goals:
  • push leads in caves we know
  • haven’t even looked at the other stuff yet (explore more)

Caves:

• A: unnamed @ 75′ (some leads)
• D: unnamed not much to push
• C: Riven Gar crack @ 50′ (good leads)
• B: promising dig lead
• lower area has limestone pavement:
  • looks like pavement up there (but is far from camp)
• TONS of sinks in NE section on ridge-line
• avoid the NRA (we are in national forest land): fyi, you can’t camp in the NRA

Winter:

• east of ridge-line is mt baker NRA (national recreational area)
• could be possible to go up there and snowshoe up see if anything blows open
• keep in mind though that snow level is like 25-40′
• avalanche might not be a concern (not much avalanche terrain, small slopes etc)

Planning:

• large area: like Doc Butte, Windy Creek, Cave ridge all combined
• day trips are not worth it
• basically need to do overnight or 3 day to really be productive

Shrievers meadow is a pillow block:

• lots of depressions that go a little ways
• assorted lava features

How did Mark find it?

• back to mid 80s was in grotto
• in 2018 was poking at GIS systems
  • lidar in county’s map
  • looked into windy creek
  • then poked at this
  • danner’s book
• how to find lidar/geology info online?
• learned lots of nuance
• snow can sometimes masquerade as a sinkhole (where a tree is popping up)
• “secret spot” -> anagram of “poets crest”

Caves in our region:

• WA caves generally formed above ground (solution cave)
• other caves were often formed underground and brought above ground (e.g. in TAG)

Description of caves, north to south:

• Vancouver island:
  • parsons bay formation ~ 60 million years (lots of fossils)
  • quatsino formation
  • buttle lake formation (highest up on island)
    Gulf islands:
  • quatiso limestone
    Mainland:
  • extension of buttle lake
    Through BC:
  • limestone keeps getting even older
  • prince george/lilloet gets even older (into rockies)
  • banff/jasper is 760 million years old
• Windy creek/cave ridge:
  • seems similar to buttle lake formation (300-400 million year range)
  • end of glaciation is when you have MASSIVE amount of runoff creating caves
• Lime ridge right by lime lake (near glacier peak)
  • 10 to 12 hour trek but as it’s all karst there might be something interesting
• Concrete:
  • lots of sinkholes/glory holes
• Sisyphus cave system:
  • Mark Fritzkes goal is to unplug the system
  • 200 ft thick deposit
  • could have folds w/ schist in between
  • dye traced
  • LOTS of digging done already
• The Marbles:
  • bigfoot could be expanded alot
  • could even break 20 miles