The Kentucky Caver Quarterly Proceedings of the
Bluegrass Grotto: the North Central Kentucky Area Chapter of the National Speleological Society
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  vol. 41. iss. 1, March 2006
Trip Reports
Eclipse Cave
Part 1
Ben Currens (BGG)

We heard about Eclipse from a co-worker (Troy) of mine. He had just recently moved and one day in conversation out comes “My neighbor has a cave in her backyard.” Ears perk up: “It goes underneath my house and branches off.” So after a few weeks of “Hey man we’ll give you a call this weekend,” we finally managed to be in the same place at the same time. Troy couldn’t join us but he introduced us to the owner and we headed across the backyard and down a bluff that rapidly became steeper. After directions further down the bluff and descriptions of past means of transit they both left and we headed to the car to change. Thinking this would be a 100-foot, one room, 5 minute turn-around, we dressed lightly.

    So we head off, nonchalant, sure of our directions and spend a good 30 minutes going up, down, back and forth across roughly 100ft of vertical relief. We find the entrance to be slightly hidden, a 4 ft x 4 ft hole sandwiched between a couple boulders and the hillside. Heading into it the usual trash of an easily
accessible cave greets us, along with some brown bats sleeping peacefully tucked into cracks. The entrance slopes down into the hill, quickly turning into a rather square passage with 4 inches or so of stream from wall to wall. This continues for 50 feet, ending at a fallen stalactite possibly two feet in diameter; sparkling flowstone lines the left side of the passage. The passage opens up into a decent-sized room complete with candles and 

spray paint. Scanning the walls we felt justified in our estimation of the cave’s dimensions. Then we noticed the passage continued. The passage quickly became two canyons and a wide stream passage, connecting back into each other. Not quite one passage, but far too inviting to ignore (mainly for footage). We reached a trio of white stalagmites, amazingly whole, untouched, and completely in the middle of the passage. Once past these a slight squeeze led us to a flowstone plug with a low uninviting stream crawl almost directly underneath it. I point out a salamander – red, spotted, and completely in charge of the stream. “Is it calcified to the rock?” Peg exclaims in horror. We peer for a closer look until it gets sick of the stand-off and slowly moseys away. We find a way through the plug and across a pool. The ceiling begins to dip and we drop to hands and knees to continue. Rimstone dams brimming with water are bridged by what looks like the tops of wooden ammo crates disappearing around the corner we are met by an

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