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