CATACOMBS, MARION COUNTY

On September 28, Ken and Kevin Peakman, Bill Walker, The Becks, Chrissy Jett, and Jason Richards went to the Catacombs in Marion County. For those of you who don't know, Catacombs is the largest cave in Marion County at over 6500 feet. The cave is mostly wading with some short stretches of swimming. The entrance is a small hole near ground level, and it slopes down about 60' to the water level.

On this trip the water looked horrible. Usually, the water is crystal clear and very blue (until it gets trampled through.) On this trip, the water looked turbid and had that brown, bubbly gunk that we always see in Briar. The air was fine, though. Also, because of the bats, there were large hunks of guano floating in the water. The cave looked like a sewer.

One other note; the bat colony is now located in the middle of the cave near the beginning of the Barge Canal. The last time I was in the cave a year ago, the colony was near the entrance.