Video - Debunking Legend of the Superstition Mountains Series

[RG1976]

Hey Everyone -

Received a great phone call from "Super Moderator" @TNMountains this afternoon. Great guy and fun to talk to (huge accent too!). Seems there was a misunderstanding between myself and another moderator.

Anyhow - glad to be back - and here is the video once again.

Expect a new video from me sometime early next week as well, lots of new locations and not "show" related.

-Ryan

 

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[Rick4570]

Don't ban me bro............ your back......... hallelujah.......bro.....and welcome back........you were truly missed........
Rick

 

[gollum]

Glad you're back buddy.

..................now, what vicious rumors were we about to spread? HAHAHA

Welcome Back - Mike

 

[Tnmountains]

Welcome back Ryan. It is easy to get wires crossed on here. All the Mods try to be fair. Look forward to your videos.What accent?
Maybe I need sub -titles !

 

[RG1976]

..................now, what vicious rumors were we about to spread? HAHAHA

They will be somewhere along this trail.....

 

[RG1976]

Any opinions on these 2 glyphs? Clearly there seems to be some vandals that have tried to carve around them - but the "sunburst" and "alien" looking glyphs looks to be more.....authentic.

Took this shot in the Superstition Wilderness area a few days ago.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Just so there are no misunderstandings, Ryan was not banned because of any major rule infractions, and is welcome back here as a member by all mods including myself as expressed in PMs between he and I....

 

[gollum]

Mods,

Thanks. Ryan was only showing where the show was adding "poetic license". He wasn't defaming Frank or any of the other cast members. I am friends with Frank and Wayne, and I know the rest of the cast, and if he would have insulted or defamed either of them..........weeeeellll, y'all know me and how I react to that sort of thing. HAHAHA

Tnmountains,

Them damn Yankees comin' around not bein' able to speak proper English (Southern English) has always been kind of a pain. Being from New Orleans and having spent the better part of my young life in the US Navy and the US Army, I have learned to speak many languages; English, East Coast English, California English, Southern, Carolina Southern, Virginia Southern, Western Kentucky Southern, North Florida (Redneck Riviera) Southern, Cajun French English, Coonass English, Spanish, and some Russian.

Mike

 

[deducer]

Looking forward to more videos. I still don't think you can get a drone up there, but... who knows.

BTW those glyphs are phony. Kollenborn has discussed them. They are recent (give or take 30-40 years).

 

[RG1976]

Looking forward to more videos. I still don't think you can get a drone up there, but... who knows.

BTW those glyphs are phony. Kollenborn has discussed them. They are recent (give or take 30-40 years).

The honest answer is its just as much of a feat to get yourself up to the cave - as it would be to pilot a drone up into it.

There are 3 ways to get there.

1- boat - park and hope someone doesn't steal it - or leave a buddy behind to stand guard for 2-3 hours.

2 - 4x4 vehicle then hike down the side of a pretty massive canyon 8/10 difficulty

3 - hike about 2.5 miles thru boulders that are the size of city busses 10/10 difficulty


I've done all 3 now - and option 2 is the easiest and most safe for you and your belongings.


Once you get to the cave, its nearly straight up the side of a canyon wall with a lot of loose gravel, sharp rocks and a lot of bat droppings.

In the end - its a lot of work to see a bunch of bats fly around in circles together.



Thanks for the info on the glyphs - wasn't sure. They are close to the start of the trailhead at 1st water.


Here is the view from option 2 looking the opposite direction from the bat cave. It's beautiful.

 

[oldsurfer]

Dude! Welcome back!!!

 

[DiggerGal]

Any opinions on these 2 glyphs? Clearly there seems to be some vandals that have tried to carve around them - but the "sunburst" and "alien" looking glyphs looks to be more.....authentic.

Took this shot in the Superstition Wilderness area a few days ago.

Looks like someone tried to put a black handprint and slipped...lol, just kidding. I really want to learn more about the symbols. I am here to learn.

 

[deducer]

In the end - its a lot of work to see a bunch of bats fly around in circles together.

As some of us have been trying to say, it's a pretty rough trip just to see a cave inhabited by bats.

 

[Old]

As some of us have been trying to say, it's a pretty rough trip just to see a cave inhabited by bats.

I believe you and Ryan's recent trips have further confirmed. But; inquiring minds want to know............

If its that difficult to reach how does the rest of the explanation work? If the ladder is a remnant from a 1930 to 1940 or so guano operation how did they transport the guano back to where it could be processed? Sure don't think they would want to carry it in their pockets.

 

[RG1976]

I believe you and Ryan's recent trips have further confirmed. But; inquiring minds want to know............

If its that difficult to reach how does the rest of the explanation work? If the ladder is a remnant from a 1930 to 1940 or so guano operation how did they transport the guano back to where it could be processed? Sure don't think they would want to carry it in their pockets.

You'll be getting a visual tour of that in my next video. In the mean time, here is a quick b-roll of the terrain. Make sure to view the video full screen, you will see me pan from Canyon Lake / Salt River to the bat cave in the canyon wall.

Ultimately, you can decide for yourself =)

I can tell you that I consider myself to be in above average shape - gym 5x a week - and the hikes to the bat cave were very rough.

 

[Old]

I believe its rough country. What I'm questioning is the accepted reason for the ladder.

If the terrain is that difficult to reach( which I believe) how did "they" transport the guano? Brings into question whether or not the guano operation is the reason for the ladder. If its not, and its been there for a extended length of time, who put it there and why?

 

[RG1976]

I believe its rough country. What I'm questioning is the accepted reason for the ladder.

If the terrain is that difficult to reach( which I believe) how did "they" transport the guano? Brings into question whether or not the guano operation is the reason for the ladder. If its not, and its been there for a extended length of time, who put it there and why?

My understanding is the ladder was built by the forest service in the 50's to "monitor" the bats in the cave. Its def. the largest out there and houses 10's of thousands (so I hear, I didn't personally count lol ). Unsure why the forest service went to the substantial effort to build a ladder there to monitor bats, I'm sure we can all conjecture. The ladder isn't ancient by any means, and certainly not there from the time of Mr. Waltz or previous. Since its hidden in a cave, it stays out of the sunlight - so isn't aged too harshly.....but I can readily admit that I wouldn't feel comfortable climbing it without a lot of precautionary measures to make sure I didn't end up on the ground covered in bat stuff. (or worse)

If you watched the series - you see the guys pulling on a old wire cable, that was blamed on being a booby trap. That cable goes along the top of the ridge line down to the water. I could be wrong, but I imagine it was propped up (the cable) and then buckets of bat droppings could scuttle down the cable to the water. (since its all down hill).

Now that is a complete guess and I haven't traversed the entire cable line.....but it seems to make the most sense given the history, location of the cable, the bats and access to water.

 

[deducer]

I believe you and Ryan's recent trips have further confirmed. But; inquiring minds want to know............

If its that difficult to reach how does the rest of the explanation work? If the ladder is a remnant from a 1930 to 1940 or so guano operation how did they transport the guano back to where it could be processed? Sure don't think they would want to carry it in their pockets.

From the mouth of the inlet to the bat cave is roughly half a mile as the crow flies, albeit a steep climb.

It would not have been too difficult to rig a gravity-induced delivery system that brought the guano down to the Salt river.

 

[Old]

Deducer, et al

There was such an operation located at the Grand Canyon, just as you indicate with a cable lift type operation. Sounds like an expense set up. Interesting enough the Gr. Canyon site lost a ton of money and includes an AF plane running into the cable for lift.

Old post from a different site speaks of a ranger from the Forest Service leaving a note at this (Superstition site) Bat Cave asking whoever constructed the ladder to contact him. If that's true, don't think the ladder was constructed by FS. If so, he should have known that.

Assuming the guano operation is the true source of the ladder.......... The ladder is rather low tech for an operation that had no problem constructing a long transport lift system once the product had been retrieved. Ain't saying it didn't happen, just seems odd.

 

[deducer]

Old post from a different site speaks of a ranger from the Forest Service leaving a note at this (Superstition site) Bat Cave asking whoever constructed the ladder to contact him. If that's true, don't think the ladder was constructed by FS. If so, he should have known that.

FS did not construct the ladder. I think there is some confusion as to why Bill left that note (my opinion is that it wasn't addressed to the original builder of the ladder, but to a recent user who had left climbing rope on it) and I think it was because he was interested in the population number of the bat colony as he had been taking counts, and mentioned that in the space of a decade it had gone down from 40,000 to 4,000.