Sunday, January 10, 2016

Tory’s Cave

As a kid, I always liked caving as well as hiking.  “Jack’s Cave” in Wolcott, although of historical significance due to its use by the local Native Americans, is not much of a cave – it’s only a few dozen feet deep cut into the side of a hill.  I’ve also been in Howe Caverns (NY), Crystal Cave (PA), Luray Caverns and Endless Caverns (VA), Mammoth Cave (KY), and Carlsbad Caverns (NM).  But these are all tourist attractions and easily negotiated.  But one that’s not developed is Tory’s Cave in CT.  It’s located along Route 7 near New Milford.  I’ve been in it four times.  Now you can find all about it on the Internet and there are even YouTube videos about it, but back in the 1960’s you had to know where to find it and few did.

The entrance is up the hill and in the corner of what looks like a small sinkhole.  The hole that you go in is almost vertical, i.e. straight down, so you sit down and start sliding down this twisty hole in the ground (if you’re too large or afraid of small places, don’t go there!)  About a dozen or so feet down the hole you’ll suddenly find your feet dangling in the air.  You have to know what’s below you, but you roll over on your stomach and lever your lower half down, get a bit of a foothold on the wall and it’s only a 3’ drop to the floor below.  The main room is 20-30’ across with perhaps an 8-10’ ceiling in the middle, but it’s pretty irregular.  There are a few other rooms, accessible by going down into holes in the floor and under big rocks.  It’s a true limestone/marble cave.  Usual precautions apply – don’t go alone, tell others where you’re going, bring appropriate equipment (we used flashlights back then, but headlamps would be better).  And be prepared to get a bit dirty going down and back up the entrance hole.

There are a few other caves in western CT that I should also mention. One is Leatherman’s Cave in Watertown. That was formed by the collapse of a ledge formation in the Black Rock area but it not the type of marble/limestone cave that you climb down into. The other is Twin Lakes Cave in Salisbury. This one is probably the largest cave in CT, but it has been closed to the public for nearly 100 years.

Links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy-B_psK0qU (listen to all the water dripping in this video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti74o3_sKh4 (probably the best video of the two)




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