My humble caving origins are from when I was very young. My fascination with caves began with family trips to Mammoth Cave. As a young boy (6 to 7 years old, 1978 to1979) I was very amused by the guide’s torch throwing. When I was 12 years old (8th grade, 1984) my first wild cave trip was to the very popular Buckner’s Cave in Indiana with a volunteer Cincinnati Zoo’s SEEDS (Student Environmental Education Discovery) group. However, I really didn’t start caving until I started going with my high school buddy, Mike Mays. His high school Geology teacher took him caving regularly. When I started driving, (16 Yrs Old, 1988) we started caving.
I went caving with whoever I could and spend almost all of my free time researching to find more caves to go to. I attended many Greater Cincinnati Grotto meetings, searched through libraries, and asked all of the cavers for interesting caves to go to. For the first 3 years, I was caving 3 out for 4 weekends a month. Being only 16 to 19 years old, I was not taken too seriously by other grotto cavers, but I still was able to visit hundreds of caves in central Kentucky.
I first started college at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio where I stumbled upon friends trying to create a nongrotto – a caving organization set up to avoid the nasty caving politics. This group led me to my first experiences with project caving. Teamed with Hilary Hopper, Derek Bristol, and Kirk Bristol, we mapped and explored caves to help stop the expansion of the landfill near Sloan’s Valley Cave.
After I graduated with a BS from University of Cincinnati (1994), I started a master degree program at Western Kentucky University. I emphasized my studies in applied cave sciences. I used dye tracing techniques, microgravity, ground penetrating radar, groundwater mapping, GPS, and land surveying techniques in class projects and while working for Dr Nicholas Crawford at his business, Crawford and Associates, Inc.
In graduate school, I had many teaching-related tasks. One of particular interesting was teaching the course with Steve Capps called, “The Secret World of Caves” to gifted 4th through 6th graders (1995 to 1996). In this course, we would give the students an overview of caves and basic cave formation. Then for the end of the course, we would go 3 field trips: one to Mammoth Cave National Park, a wild cave trip, and then a trip to Lost River Cave to look at surface karst features. I also was a teaching assistant where I taught "Introduction to Geology" Lab.
Teamed with several other cave-emphasis graduate students allowed me see to lots of caves. From Bowling Green, Kentucky we hit caves from all over Kentucky and Tennessee and eventually I found myself hooked in by Mammoth Cave. Alan Glennon and I set out to discover I significant cave. We first searched many areas near Fisher Ridge Cave, and we ended up discovering a new cave near the isolated Whigpistle Cave. In the first summer (1996) after discovering Martin Ridge Cave, we had mapped over 4 miles and connected to both Whigpistle Cave and Jackpot Cave. The length of new system was 32.5 miles long – at the time, the 9th longest cave in the United States!
To be close to the exploration of Martin Ridge Cave, I took up seasonal employment as a cave guide at Mammoth Cave National Park (Summers of 1996 and 1997). I started writing my graduate paper, Geomorphic History of Martin Ridge Cave, (1997 to 2000) which involved several dye traces and hours of geologic mapping. I changed my path from hydrology focus of chasing after toxic ooze to conservation and preservation working for National Park Service. I was soon working as the Cave Specialist under Rodney Horrocks at Great Basin National Park, home of Lehman Caves.
I was originally hired in October and November 1998 as a seasonal Physical Science Tech at Great Basin National Park to GPS and inventory all of the park’s caves. For 2 months, Kelly Mathis and I walked about inventorying the park’s caves. I later returned taking a year-around position to help rehab the tourist trail through Lehman Caves (1999). We installed nonslip trail surfaces, stainless-steel handrails, and fiberglass stairs throughout the cave’s trail. I also helped design and install cave gates, lead restoration projects (such as Lint Camps and removing old trail debris - wood, asphalt, cement, old light cable), and established the beginning of the park’s GIS program through receiving ESRI software grants. After 2 years (July 1999 to August 2000) at Great Basin National Park, I then crossed over the border into Utah to work at Timpanogos Cave National Monument.
Even though the change to Timpanogos Cave National Monument was a lateral move, I went from being the Cave Management Specialist to be an acting Chief of Science and Resource Management. I didn’t receive an increase pay, but I did greatly increase my responsibility. I had to expand my focus to include surface resources, as well as, cave resources.
At Timpanogos Cave National Monument, I started doing similar projects to Great Basin National Park, however with much less manpower and funding. I worked with an incredibly talented crew - Cami Pulham, Brandon Kowallis, Jason Mateljak, Tim Barnhart, and Becky Peterson. I was able to get funding to start replacing the caves’ gates and handrails. In 2001, I established GIS program incorporating detailed cave map layers. I funded and started many monitoring projects [temperature/rH, water quality, airflow, drip rates, photomonitoring (Werkers installation 2000 to 2002), invertebrates survey (Dr. Riley Nelson 2003-2004), microbe inventory (Megan Porter 2003 to 2004), and monitoring the effects of visitation].
At Timpanogos Cave National Monument, I have also become very active in their local Utah caving scene. I branched out from the monument to help BLM gate Crystal Cave (November 2004) and as Chairman of a Committee to help the Utah School State Trust Lands gate and manage the highest visitation wild cave in the state, Nutty Putty Cave (2004 to 2005). I helped University of Utah Museum create a Utah caving exhibit, The Dark Zone (2004 to 2005) and helping Utah Division of Wildlife create Utah Bat Research Cooperative (2005). I helped Chuck Acklin in creating a Cave Safely, Cave Softly program for youth groups (2004). Kyle Voyles and I led one of the largest cave restoration projects in the state by removing graffiti from Bloomington Cave using Ray Keeler’s sandblasting equipment (January to April 2005). Our restoration efforts earned the Timpangos Grotto the National Speleological Society (NSS) Cave Conservation Award in 2005. And I was the project coordinator for the Tony Grove Cave Survey Project (2003 to 2006) in which a breakthrough discovery in Main Drain Cave lead it becoming the state’s new deepest cave and, at the time, the 9th deepest in the United States.
In November 2006, pursuing career advancement, I moved to the caving mecca of Carlsbad, New Mexico to work aside of the renown BLM National Cave Lead, Jim Goodbar, as a Cave Specialist for the BLM Carlsbad Field Office. The job was impressively loaded with high concerns over intensity of oil and gas development. My position worked to regulate and monitor the effects of drilling on cave resources. The Carlsbad area had many world class caves including Carlsbad Caverns and Lechuguilla Cave. The city also pumped its water from the same geologic formation containing these caves. So the position had an interesting fight against the powerful, well-backed oil and gas development companies and the puny BLM specialists pushing to manage the land and its resources in the “public’s best interests.”
I organized and collected data to present arguments to encourage "responsible" oil and gas drilling. I created GIS layers containing cave surveys, large sinkholes, cave occurrence density, and Capitan Massif Aquifer occurrence areas. I created maps showing the areas of special cave and karst interests. I supported regional dye traces, injecting fluorescent dyes into the drilling mud to see if they would surface at nearby springs and water wells. I worked to education the public on the growing concerns and needs to properly manage oil and gas development.
In Carlsbad, I aided in several restoration projects for the caves on BLM, Forest Service, National Park Service lands. I was an active participant in the High Guads Cave Project (HGCP) led by Jennifer Foote and Aaron Stockton to restore the heavily traveled caves on the Forest Service lands. Most of the work was cleaning cave formations and marking trails. We also performed area-wide bat counts, gate repairs, and formation repair. I also led large groups (12 to 16) of National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) students on restoration trips into the McKittrick Hill Caves to clean cave formations, remove debris, and mark trails. I also collected bat monitoring data from bat counters and temperature/rH loggers.
After being greatly disturbed, making no ground, and losing respect, in March 2008, I resigned from my Carlsbad BLM position. In May 2008, I moved to St. George, Utah after accepting a position as an Outdoor Recreation Planner for the BLM Arizona Strip Field Office. I quickly tried to get back into the swing of my greatly abandoned Utah cave projects. My greatest failing project was the closure of Nutty Putty Cave due to a threatening lawsuit on the previous cave manager. I pushed to not abandon the renegotiations with the School State Trust and again volunteered to take over the management of the cave. I ended by encouraging Michael Leavitt to manage the access to Nutty Putty Cave. Michael set up a great online permitting system. The management was finally working, until over Thanksgiving week 2009, John Jones died while being stuck head down for over 30 hours! The cave was quickly cemented shut with John Jones body still inside.
Kyle Voyles and I pushed to get a contract out for the gating project of Bloomington Cave and Antelope Cave. I started getting Bloomington Cave back to the state of when the restoration project ended. The cave kiosk was restored and we scheduled for the return for the sandblasting gear to continue removing graffiti.
Kyle Voyles and I gated 4 cave gates in Southern Utah from 2008 to 2009. KyPet Caverns was gated to protect its amazingly pristine formations. Under contract, both entrances to Bloomington Cave and Antelope Cave were gated. Bloomington Cave was gated due to its growing popularity and Antelope Cave was gated for its Archeological significance. Kyle and I also gated Jerky Cave, because it contained human remains.
In October 2008, I began following Jason Ballenski and Doug Powell on their amazing explorations into the Grand Canyon. Three trips occurred in 2008 to yield 5 miles of new mapped cave passages. The new surveys took our find to become the state's longest cave at 5.0 miles. In 2009, survey continued in the Grand Canyon with just under 10 miles of cave surveyed. The survey added 3 miles to the state's longest cave making it just barely over 8 miles in length. However, survey went gang busters in another new cave bring its total length to 7.5 miles with overwhelming leads still present. Truly in 2010 the survey efforts will bring about new longest cave for the state. The project now totals 17 miles of new survey in a 4 year effort.
Several new projects are on the horizon. The main project is to improve surveying efficiency to tackle those special unsurveyable caves (due to extreme cold, wet, bad air, etc.) I acquired DistoX which allows survey shots (length, azimuth, distance) to be taken with a simple press of a button. The idea is to survey in as quick as possible and then quickly sketch on the way out of the cave or the next trip. Kyle Voyles and I are also waiting for the sandblasting gear to return for another go at removing graffiti through Bloomington Cave. And Jason Ballenski and I are looking into ways of expanding the Grand Canyon caving efforts to include other areas of the canyon as well as other types of cave research. Stay tuned!