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J4
| 19 repliesOut of the blue I was thinking about the J4 cave today and found your photos after a quick Google search. Thanks a lot, they bring back some good memories. I must have been in that cave a dozen times while at Penn State in the early 90’s and didn’t take one stinkin’ photo!
What’s with the straps in the entry culvert?! Like you said, if you need handles, you probably don’t belong there.
I understand it’s closed these days; that’s too bad. I’m glad some of us had the opportunity. Thanks again for posting the photos.
-Frank
Comments:
Hi Frank, thanks for checking out my photos and for leaving a comment! It’s fun to hear from another J4er. I live in Pittsburgh now, and J4 is the #1 thing I miss about State College.
Yeah, from what I heard, it was closed after the land was bought by some company (a quarry company?), because they didn’t want the liability. I guess I can see that point of view, but it really stinks that it has to be that way... that such an amazing natural treasure is off-limits just because the legal situation in this country allows people to totally shirk personal responsibility and then sue for outrageous sums of money.
But I digress (obviously). I miss J4.
The subject of caving came up the other day for me and I did a search on J4. Thanks for the memories. I grew up in Clarion county and made 5 or 6 trips to j4 in the late 70’s and early 80’s. I have some 35mm pictures I will have to dig out. I now live in Jefferson Hills, near Century III mall, just south of Pittsburgh.
Although it’s been 25 years I can still say it was the best cave in PA.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting, Verone.
And if you have any interest in putting those photos online, I’d be happy to add them as a photo-set here (credited to you of course)...
Anthony,
I’m currently a Penn State student, and I’m originally from right outside State College. I visited J4 a few years ago w/ some friends, and would love to show some of my new friends this amazing natural formation. I remember how to get to the cave from where we parked, and I remember how to get into the cave up the quarry wall and through the pipe, but I forget actually where the place is in State College. Would you (or anybody else) possibly remember how to get to the place where you park to walk back to the quarry? Thanks a lot, and happy spelunking!
Take 26 north/east out of town, go about 5-10 miles.
Turn right onto 144, go less than a mile.
There is a small school on the right, then a road after it; turn right onto this road. It dead-ends shortly, into the field that you walk through to get to the cave.
i was just in j4 recently and looking for a brave group of people to come join me before winter comes
Hey there....I read about the closing of J4. And I think it wasn’t due to the the quarry land owners, I could be wrong though, I think I heard it was a group of cavers who were loud and disruptive to the family in the last house on the dead-end where everybody parks their cars at the gate. You cannot block their driveway and be noisy roudy at late hours of the night......I have had my share of midnight caving trips when in college, but always respected the house there at the gate.
Sounds like from the last entry from William Nash that its open again?
I have a few friends who wanted to take a trip through....by the way, I have a detailed map of J4 if anybody needs me to email them a copy I can. Last visit to J4 was 2000 I think for me...I’m ready to go again if its open. Can someone confirm that its open for sure?
If the owner of the house was bothered by people parking and/or being noisy in the dead-end in front of his house, he could complain to the police about that, but it’s extremely unlikely that he could get the cave closed as a result of that, since it’s entirely unrelated. There are plenty of other roads in the vicinity that you can park on, and there are other things behind that dead end other than the cave (like farmer’s fields and lots of forest); I don’t think you can shut down legal activity on an adjacent property just because a small group of those who use the property are disruptive.
Regarding the map: if your map is different than this one, please contact me and I’ll post it here.
As to whether the cave is open or closed, I believe it is still closed, and has been for quite a few years. But that has never seemed to affect whether spelunkers went into it or not. There is nothing physically preventing people from entering it.
i never said anything about it being open i just show respect when i go back in and i have a friend who lives right by there so i park at his place but i would like to see a better map not that the one on here is bad it just looks to me the somethings missing on it. but if u could David Please get in contact with me my email is biker116823@yahoo.com make the subject j4 so i dont mark it as spam i want to see if the map u have is a little better than the one i have
i was in J4 two days ago and took my camcorder to get some footage. ive went to j4 with nash. i really wanna get a group of people and go to j4 and tape some more.ive only been to j4 a couple times and have only stayed in for a couple hours. but for real i think we should gather a group and go. oh and david it would be awsome to get a detailed map, me and the crew are trying to get to the mudroom.
i just got back from J-4 my first time in there it was great next time in im going to take a camera and get pics of the marks on my map, i got all the way to the Hi Way i went about half way back when we all decided to turn around well next time i post anything i should have pics to add here
today me and the crew found the ufo buey, and beside the buey weve found the highway step across. so some time soon we are going to go back and continue on our way to the wedding cake room and the 1st mud room. we all signed the journal thats inside the ufo buey that every one else has wrote there names in. i still wish that we had a better map though, the map that we have isnt to great because every thing runs together. well ill be sure to post next trip.
later.
me and the crew were in j4 lastnight we made it to the wedding cake room and the mud room.next time we go i plan on building a couch outta clay. ive seen about 80%of the cave now but am hoping that we can find a more detailed map and find more tunnels to explore.well will post next trip.
later.
hey guys i was just at J4 Sat Nov. 18 and noticed there was a small cave in on the out side of the cave. the group and i didnt go in the cave after seeing that we wont know the damage it caused untill we go back in, as soon as most of the water is gone were going back in and then will posted anything we notice
I was in j4 a couiple of time when i was in boy scouts in the mid 90’s. is this cave open or not or if it is closed can you still get in it? and i never was in it in the winter. is it safe to go in in the winter. are their bats in the winter? someone please email me at firefighter4729@hotmail.com
i went to juniata college from 96-2000 and visited j4 about 5 times. i have pics i can send if you want to upload them, ill just have to dig thru them. does anyone have pics of the dome room? or pics at all?
im pretty sure its closed now. but now that its closed its like magical in a sense that you cant ever go back in. SO WE NEED PICS PEOPLE!
I just had a huge discussion lastnite with some friends of mine who are j4’ers from wayyy back and I had to do a search online today and found you guys. I live in the Philipsburg area, moving further out to the Grassflat area, actually moving right now. I’ve been to the entrance but it was a spur of the moment drive by to see if it was real and if we could find it, sure enough we did. We werent prepared to enter but I definetly plan to, new owners or not. I know lots of people who still enter the cave so the access is still there, you just have to walk down the quarry to get to the "manhole" entrance. I guess maybe we shouldnt go in anymore because we could be sued or who knows what but its just soooo awesome I cant stop myself. I’ll write back after we go in.
Shinola,
if u have myspace look up J4 Caving Society its our group look us up and leave us a message we would be glad to go in with you some time
Hello,
Just did J4 yesterday 11-24-07. Had a great time got some good picks, no problems with anybody, Met two other groups of splunkers inside.
