Peppersauce Cave

07/17/2019

Rescue in Peppersauce. Sunday, May 26th, 2019-07-17
Ray Keeler – NSS 23245
[email protected]

Mary C______ (55) and daughter Catya (26) decided to do a mother/daughter recreational trip to Peppersauce. It was the first time caving for each of them besides some tourist caves. Both had bicycle helmets with chin straps and two lights strapped on. Both were wearing tennis shoes.

Mary and Catya were in the Main Lake Room 700 feet from the Entrance when Mary slipped on the mud at the bottom of the ladder. It was 3:40 pm. Mary went down hard and discovered that she could put very little weight on her right leg, especially if there was any movement involved. Her right knee was very painful. Realizing she was in trouble, she was able to do a very slow, one step at a time up the ladder, and then slid on her hip to the Big Room, dragging her leg behind her. She got under a space blanket and Catya went for help.

Blase LaSala (U of A grad student in Geology) and I were doing LiDAR scanning in the Main Corridor (with Taylor Handschuh and Gatlin ?) and were asked if we could help. After passing us, Catya went out to call 911. Cell reception is poor at the Peppersauce parking lot so she drove to better reception and made the call.

After an initial assessment (conscious, alert, primary complaint, patient past history and any meds being used (2 for a heart murmur)) we determined that with a splint we could start a self rescue while Mary could still help.

I used both my Cave Skinz extended knee pads with neoprene as the splint. One kneepad was put on top, one at 90 degrees on the outside so they worked for both lateral stabilization and padding.

Mary had an excellent frame of mind and attitude during the entire evacuation.
Blase and I took sides and acted as moving crutches and moved to whereever support was needed for each of obstacles. Mary did butt slides and hobbling where possible.

Oracle Fire arrived when we were in the Third Room from the entrance. Pinal Sheriff arrived when we were in the Second Room. They rigged a stokes litter for the climb down outside the entrance.
We had Mary to the cars by 6:15pm so about 2.5 hours after the fall.

Catya was able to drive her mother to the ER and emails the following Tuesday provided the follow up. Mary had a tibial plateau fracture (top of the tibia, lower right leg). She was headed for an orthopedist for an MRI Weds. They still need to check for soft tissue damage.

The rescue went smoothly. Everyone communicated well, and each set of moves were talked about and agreed upon before starting each set.

The photos are mine and Catya's.

03/20/2019

The Peppersauce Book Room Register
September 22, 2018 to February 10, 2019
Ray Keeler – NSS 23245 [email protected]

At the end of the 2017-2018 Peppersauce restoration project two registers were placed in the cave; one in the Book Room in the Rabbit Hole maze and one in the Big Room. Both registers were replaced in February by CAG and AOC members with more permanent holding containers with chains that have been bolted to the rocks. Since the notebooks were just lined pages, the registers became a “write what you want, where you want in the books” but all in all people were good with their names and comments.
In the four and a half months there were 460 entries including the 29 cavers helping on the last weekend. With some names, dates and better entries, most of the more obscure entries could be determined with where they were located. The rest were just “best guesses”.
Trips People Avg/Trip
Sept 22, 2018 Sept 8 65 8.1
Oct 23 119 5.2
Nov 28 92 3.3
Dec 21 98 4.7
Jan 17 64 3.8
Feb 10, 2019 Feb 7 22 3.1

Totals 104 460 4.7
Some of the takeaways from looking at the pages …
• There were about 100 explorers a month that were signed in the register on some 20+ trips per month.
• Most explorers were there on the weekends as expected
• Five of the trips included NSS cavers.
• There were several sincere “Thank You” messages to the volunteers for removing the graffiti which I appreciated very much.
• … and a couple of light hearted notes of disappointment that the “stars” in the Book Room were gone.
• … and a bunch of entries by people truly excited about the exploring.
• Boy Scout Troops 868, 385, 500, 202, 203, 900, 728 signed in.
• There were school group entries.
• There were several trips during the holidays in November and December, and a few solo trips.
• People came from several places out of Arizona (holidays) including one from Europe, one from Lebanon.
• There were several entries of those on more than one trip.
During the four and a half months there were three graffiti events in the cave with mostly green and blue. The largest had 17 tags, then something like 7 tags, and a group of scratches. All have been removed to this point with hand brushes and battery powered drills with brushes by the grotto/NSS/AOC cavers.
These average out to one to three percent of the trips vandalizing the cave and could be repeat offenders
Some of the better quotes:
• … Remains of a spelunker were found. We suspect the albino cave unicorn was responsible …
• 14:29 (Mother earth) Thanks for the challenge & a good time. Another thanks to the volunteers for cleaning up, Cheers, Ethan
• I love being dirty
• Dear Cave, Casey tried to get me pregnant somewhere near the lake. Had to beat him over the head with the water botttle and run for it. He found me and now we have 2 lovely cave babies. If you find them leave them some water or something. (heart) Jo
• Dear Jo, We found your cave babies and gave them our snacks and drinks, they're safe and sound. Damn they grow up so fast. Hope to see them soon again. (heart) Angel
• Live the life you love and love the life you live (with the folks you love! (heart)) –Nicole
• (heart) Keep the cave clean, if you have pride in your self & nature. :) THANK YOU TO WHO REMOVED ALL OF THE PAINT. - minus kelsey's glow in the dark pics :(

Follow up note: The recent rains in February and March have made water levels in the cave go up some 20+ feet from September. Photos from last weekend showed the water level about five vertical feet above the top of the Rabbit Hole. The water levels have closed the back of the cave.

09/14/2018

Hello Peppersauce Vistors
In August the Tucson affiliate PBS station had a crew out to film the Peppersauce restoration project. They put the program online yesterday at at https://tv.azpm.org/p/azill-recent/2018/9/10/136747-restoring-peppersauce-cave/
They did a good job considering they were only allotted seven minutes.

there are individual photos from the September 8th post.
Enjoy,
Ray Keeler
Peppersauce Cave Restoration Project Coordinator
[email protected]

Arizona Illustrated continues its legacy of engaging southern Arizona's viewers with thought-provoking, diverse stories that reflect our community. Through stunning photography and powerful storytelling, meet the people that make Arizona unique and vibrant.

09/09/2018

HI, to those who wrote the three Instant Messages that came in yesterday (9/8/2018) including the business in Oracle, thank you very much for the kind words. My apologies for not responding. I hit the wrong button and lost the messages. Thanks again to everyone for the support. Ray Keeler

09/08/2018

Hey there Peppersauce Visitors,
Over the last year there has been a very large, multi-month cave restoration going on removing the graffiti and spray painted arrows and trash, and restoring the cave to its natural state. We have installed highway grade reflective arrows to help people learn the cave and the way out. This is all being done by volunteers. Most of the graffiti has been removed from the cave.

Please help us keep the cave in the best condition as possible for everyone to enjoy.

The Tucson PBS affiliate was at the August Peppersauce graffiti removal weekend filming the effort for two days.
For those in the Tucson PBS area will be on Sunday, September 9th 6:30 pm and 7:30 pm: channel 6.3 (rabbit ears), Cox channel 82, and Comcast 396
The presentation in the Phoenix PBS area will be on Monday, September 10th at 6:30 pm on Cox channel 88. For those not on cable (rabbit ears) it is channel 8.3. This is part of their Arizona Illustrated series and is in a half hour slot.
When the article goes online I will post the link.
Enjoy,
Ray Keeler
Project Coordinator
[email protected]

06/24/2016

There will be an admin, who has experience in the cave, going to the caves tomorrow morning (most likely leaving Tucson no later then 7am). Please comment below or message the page if you are interested in showing up to explore the caves with the security of not getting lost. You are also welcome to just show up as well.

Everyone have a great weekend!!!

-Cortney

02/02/2014

05/03/2013

We're looking for some good Maps (& bad ones) of Peppersauce. If you have one you made please add it to the collection. If you have one that you've added labels to, like the Signing Room, where the log book is, the Death Slide, The Lake, Interesting Rock Formations, The Bridge, we'd love to see them.

04/08/2013

05/12/2012

This page has seen a lot of growth in recent days. Well, relatively at least. And we would like to encourage all of our new fans, & the older ones as well, to post your Pics, Vids, "Planning a trip to Peppersauce Cave" statuses & Links to share the adventure with others.
We would also like to encourage you to Check-In when you get to the caves (or from Oracle if you don't get cell signal at the cave itself).
We are looking for a new Cover & profile picture, so submit your best shots & you could win. . . A caption with your very own name on it & the recognition of nearly tens of people!