Jamaican Caving Notes

Too Far Stream Cave

May 13, 2005 - 12:00-13:30 EST

District: Rock Spring

Parish: Trelawny

WGS84 L/L: 18 19 06.9, 77 34 26.0

JAD69: 189221 E, 185067 N

JAD2001: 689332 E, 685356 N

Altitude: 490m WGS84

Accuracy: +/- 20m horizontal; +/- 15m vertical

Type: Stream passage

Accessibility: Crawl

Depth: 6

Length: 85m

Explorers: KHE - 1965

Survey: KHE - 1965

JU Ref: Text - pg 359; Map - pg 360

Entrance size: 5m W x 1m H (Sink)

Entrance aspect: 210 deg true

Vegetation in general locale: Bush

Vegetation at entrance: Flood meadow

Rock type: Yellow - White limestone junction

Bedding: Moderate

Jointing: Moderate

Speleothems: Undetermined

Palaeo resources: None

Archaeo resources: None

Hydrology: Wet

Siltation: Moderate

Sink: Active

Rising: N/A

Stream passage with surface activity: Minor flow

Stream passage without surface activity: N/A

Dark zone: >95%.

Climate: Cool, humid.

Bats: None

Bat guano: N/A

Guano mining: N/A

Guano condition: N/A

Eleutherodactylus cundalli: Some

Neoditomyia farri: Undetermined

Amblypygids: Undetermined

Periplaneta americana: Undetermined

Cave crickets: Undetermined

Sesarma: Undetermined

Other species: Undetermined

Visitation: None

Speleothem damage: None

Graffiti: None

Garbage: None

Ownership: Forestry Reserve

Protection: None

Vulnerability: Low. The cockpit that this cave is located in is seldom visited.

Too Far Stream Cave

May 13, 2005

Team: Stewart, Conolley, Slack

Notes: RS Stewart

This cave is located beyond Far Enough Cave, two cockpits further on. The fastest way to reach is it from the end of the Good Hope road, then along the track to the west, then swinging north of the first ridge on a sidetrack. Further access info will be found in the introductory notes to this chapter.

The cockpit where the cave is located is very deep, and steep-walled. It's quite spectacular to look at, and worth visiting even if you have no interest in the cave itself. You'll need a rope/vertigear or long etrier, over 10m, to get down from the saddle that leads to it.

We found the site after visiting Far Enough, and Good Hope Two Cave. It was quite close (only 30 metres away) to where the KHE area plan indicates it to be, but for some reason the coordinates given in JU are very wrong, and plot it 1100 metres from the actual location. We'd spotted the error before we began our search, so this wasn't a problem.

The layout of the cockpit, with the rising, stream, and sink that are found here is as such: On the west side, low on a steep hill, a spring rises and falls over a series of rock-steps a further 10+ metres to the floor of the glade. This is quite pretty. At the bottom, the stream meanders in a deep streambed until it sinks at the entrance to Too Far. Several other tributary streambeds join before it gets there, coming from other risings that we did not see, but that appeared to be southeast of the spring. On May 13, it was obvious that the entire glade had flooded in the not-distant past, perhaps during Hurricane Ivan. Mud was extensive, with flood meadow grasses growing through it. There are no trees in the cockpit, so the flooding must be a somewhat regular occurrence.

During our visit, early in the rainy-season, the water was too high to safely enter the cave itself, but it was found and referenced. Unfortunately, the KHE map in JU does not have the orientation included, but by using the entrance aspect, it would seem that water is also entering from further to the northwest in the glade. The cave was found to become too tight in the downstream section of the active streamway, and a higher dry passage was blocked by a stal. The cave could perhaps be pushed in the dry passage. Comparing the cave map to the topos suggests that a rising might be found in a cockpit near WGS84, 18 19 20.0 N, 77 34 30.5.

The source of the Too Far spring rising is not directly associated with the Mouth Maze to Far Enough system, evident by the location in the glade. The catchments must be to the west somewhere.

We are listing this site with a low vulnerability as the glade is seldom visited.