More discoveries on Merrill Mountain

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MORE DISCOVERIES ON MERRILL MOUNTAIN
Marion O. Smith

On July 24, 1992, I went to Huntsville with the intention of the next day going

on the Huntsville Grotto survey trip to Bloody Elbow Cave. That trip was cancelled

and I had to improvise a plan. The idea which came to mind was to go to the south

side of Merrill Mountain in Marshall County to A) check a wet sink next to Sugar
Tree Still Cave, and B) tour ACS 709, Suttan Cave, to see if anything had been
missed by the original explorers.
My only crew member was Shawna McLennan and because of access and light problems

we had a late start. On the way to the wet sink we found a tiny thirty-five foot

deep, sixty-five foot long cave, with various climbs and squeezes, which Gerald

Moni, Jeff Dilcher, and I had missed on our January 12, 1991, ridgewalk. We named

it MOS-SOM Cave after our initials.

At length we reached the wet lead, which is no more than 140-150 feet above the

valley. It was still quite wet. Just inside there was a twenty foot high alcove.
At the stream level there was a debris jam atten dug out. Immediately there was
a sharp 160 degree left turn for one body length to a seven or eight foot climbdown.
After a further recon, down more climbs, we came to a shallow pit. We went back

outside for vertical gear and rope.

The pit was only thirteen feet but at the bottom there was a high alcove and then
a low stream crawl with good air movement. After only twenty feet we came to an
eight foot deep undercut waterfall which we managed to get down. At the bottom the
water went ten horizontal feet and down a too-tight-for-humans crack. But this could
be traversed over and six feet further we came to a nice pit with the water coming
out of the wall part way seen.

Shawna descended the pit first and we taped it at 678/10 feet. The bottom had
a side dome which we checked eet Then we crawled downstream about 250 feet and

found nothing particularily interesting. It looked uninviting but someone could go

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further, but since we were practically at base level and had light problems we wimp-
ed and exited the cave.

When we got out it was too late to go to Suttan- Cave so we returned to the truck.
Altogether, this little cave was about 400 feet long and 130 feet deep, and except
for the first twenty-five feet, all virgin. decided to call it Sugar Plunge.

The next day we finally sot to Suttan Cave. First eiored May 1/7, 1965, by
Dick Mitchell and Jack Loose (while Mike Suttan and Bill Cuddington waited at the
entrance) it sat var laaeuy estimated at 500 to 700 feet long. A twenty foot entrance
climb is followed by a twenty-four foot pit and then it is mostly nice walking pas-
sage to a low stream crawl where Dick and Jack stopped.

Shawna and I penetrated ‘the crawl about a hundred feet and came to an eight foot

climbdown. Below, there were wet and dry holes, both too small to negotiate in

their natural state. After much hammering we determined the dry route was really

the only way forward. We eee through and descended an offset fifty-four foot pit
followed by a seven foot climbdown. Water entered this pit part way down via a
four or, Dive tacn crack. We traversed a narrow clean-washed solution channel about
fifty feet until ite water dropped down a thirty-four pit. Although we had enough
rope to get down, it was 7/16 inch diameter, That, and the fact it was late and I
had a 200 mile drive caused me to postpone the descent.

We returned August 15 with Teresa Williams and Kris H. Green, descended the
thirty-four foot pit, and had a grand time exploring an estimated 1300 feet of
eee te Much of it was crawling, some low crawling too, but there were
sections of stoop and true walking, decorated with formations. The last couple
hundred feet were very wet, up to six feet deep, with occasional low air spaces,
until the predicted sump was reached. The cave has over 2000 feet of passage and

is probably somewhere around 190 feet deep, figuring there is an one degree gradient.