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.

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!

i was just in j4 recently and looking for a brave group of people to come join me before winter comes

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 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.

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.

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 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!

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

cave open anymore- who owns it?

so, can anyone say if the cave is still accessable?

Just getting into caving.. Going looking for J4 entrance very soon , was wondering if theres a good copy of that map still floating arouund or if the one posted is the best copy?Thanks

Id love a copy of that may but you didnt leave me your email.Thanks...

I was just relating a few bedtime stories of caving expeditions to my son tonight, and we both wondered if the cave was still open.  We spent many long and late trips on Friday nights and early Saturday mornings back in the mid 90’s. 

Crawling through that culvert was always a great scare for first timers, and we loved taking a lights-out break at the wedding cake... the highway step across was also a good part. 

Thanks for the memories, I’ll be sure to check out photos this week!

Greg

I’m heading to the cave on wendsday Jan 26, anybody want to join me? I will be going in the morning as to explore as much as I can before driving to Michigan for a few days. You can email me at dklifman@windowslive.com, its unfortunate about all the graffiti, I don’t understand why people can’t respect things like this that we share with others... But ill be taking my camera and tripod with me to get some good photos I hope. Joey, can you give me the current condition of the cave? Ie.. Real muddy and slippery, or pretty solid? Thanks!

This is adressed to Mr John Marsden,
Hello John! Love the cave, as does everyone in our grotto,I was wondering if you would be interested in sharing some of your stories with me via email or phone.Everyone in our grotto adores J4 and im local to the area.We would all love to hear whatever you can tell us about your discoveries there.We can even turn you on to some Secretive Virgin cave passage in the area if your still caving...Were currently digging in several recently discovered caves fairly close to J4, 2 of which are maze caves with already over 4000 feet of sureveys passage and no end in sight.Waterfalls, crawls, exposed climbing, Pure white speleothoms, and very few foot prints.. Just ours..! Anyways,  You can email me directly at rickyschat2002@yahoo.com
Hope to hear from you soon!

I was reading thru the posts where people were saying they were in there in the early ’8os and began to wonder if I was the oldest guy to post (I last visited in 1967).  That is until I saw the post by John Marsden.  Didn’t know you then but must have just missed you.  I remember Rick Riggen, etc. but stopped when I graduated from PSU in Jan ’70.  Many great memories - sneaking in at the dead of night so as not to get caught by the quarry owners, getting the car stuck and terrified I would be caught when I left at 6AM, escorted a couple of newbies one time, one of which turned out to be claustrophobic deep in the cave.  I got him out successfully but I’ve never seen a person so terrified - even through a tour in Vietnam.  It was pretty much pristine in those days.  Heartened the hear that it is still accessible.  Disheartened the hear that it has been desecrated with paint.  Miss the smell of carbide.  And who installed the pipe?  If I can find a few pictures, I’ll send them.  It was a great cave, on par with another nearby cave, Hosterman’s pit.  But isn’t J4 in Pleasant Gap, not State College?  I’m no longer a spelunker, but I am a diver which in many ways is much like spelunking.  Hang in there John Marsden.  That’s a great cave you discovered and everyone who ever explored J4 owes you a debt of gratitude.

i have tons of pictures of the interior of this cave, and a few of the entrance i believe.  i attended juniata college from 96-2000 and went a few times during those years.  i did go back sometime in 2004-05 for a quick trip through the front of  the cave.  ill try to get the pics posted soon.

Great video!  Man, that brings back memories.  J4 is definitely one of the coolest things in PA.

here is a link with a bunch of J4 pics

http://cavingexpeditions.com/album.asp?categoryID=169

Hello, i was wondering if you could shoot me a copy of the J4 map. I went in there yesterday for a little fun and got lost. It would be a huge help if next time i had a map. thank you,

Shane McMinn

Just went in on 6/3/12.  Still open.  All 4 of us were first timers.  Took the map but it was so disorienting in there, that we couldn’t follow it.  We were in there for over 4 hours and still couldn’t find the "highway".  We found the "chandelier".  is the highway close to that.  Does anyone know how to get to the highway??  We’re planning on going back really soon.

Hi!

It looks like I didn’t do my research before creating a J4 blog site - this one is very good.  I recently put a new capsule in the cave and in it wrote the website of my blog.  The capsule is pretty deep, down the second rope and close to where we thought was the deepest/furthest area of the cave.  Check it out at http://www.j4cave.blogspot.com/ and I hope you adventure to find our capsule. 

John C

Can anyone give detailed directions to J4? Maybe the name of the school you turn at or even it’s address. I was there years ago but can not remember. Thank you !

Hey everyone, just curious about the real reason the cave is closed. I heard a rumor throughout my group of friends that the cave sits on or is a sink hole and is unstable, which is why it is now closed. Is this true? I’d like to know the truth so that I feel comfortable venturing in again. I’ve been at least 10 times, got to the second geocache, and I hope to do it again but I don’t want to return if there’s a risk that the cave is unstable, especially since most of PA sits atop a massive gas shale. Also, I would love to know any insight about how the cave formed if there’s any geologists in this forum. My theory is glacial ice that was lodged in the ground from the movement of glaciers across this region, and when the ice melted, the limestone remained in tact forming the cave. Let me know if you have any answers to these questions or other insight, theres plenty more of that cave id love to further explore. Thanks

That sucks. I haven’t been in years and didn’t know it was closed off. I was going to go back. I read some comments on here I wanted to address. I repelled down the crack at the highway step. It ends not far beneath in another cavern that you will eventually get to if you stay the usual course. It actually shaves time off the trip if your goal is to get farther into the cave. Most of the caverns seemed water formed and pretty old, but there was one huge cavern that was circular and looked like an underground roman stadium turned upside down, and there was a small house sized chunk of rock in the middle of the cavern that you could see had at some point, dislodged from the layered rock ceiling about 100 foot above (that’s an approx, per my failing memory). I had eventually made it to the bottom where you run into the water table and there is a huge underground lake that is so dark and placid, it really gave me the creeps. I had intended on taking a dry suit and a blow up rubber raft down there at some point and seeing if there was anything to explore on the opposite shores of this lake??, but then had an accident in an unrelated endeavor and started doing other things when I got back on my feet, and never took my raft down there.

Went into the cave on 10-9-2015. We had a group of 6 in the cave and had been in once the year before. While in we got to the highway steps and heard loud boulder crashing sounds. I could not tell where they were coming from, but my group members claimed from below us somewhere in the cave. We heard the noises 4 times in 5 minutes and the last time something fell it shook the whole cave. Needless to say we got the hell out of there quickly but carefully. We are all lucky to make it out alive. Has anyone else ever had an experience like that?! Please do share.

thanks
chris