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Annual pilgrimage to Crystal Palace
Cave
On Thursday March 23rd Mike White
and some friends were talking and decided that Sunday the 26th would be a good day
for the annual leg burning trip to Crystal Palace Cave. So the time was set for whoever
was going to be at Mike's house by 8:30am sunday morning.
At 8:30am Scott McBride, Art Holley,
Glenn Maliet and Tom LaFrank pulled up at Mike's house, Tony Williams had come over
Saturday and spent the night. So with everyone there the group headed off to the
cave about 9:00am. The drive over took about forty minutes and the road to the cave
was actually better than the group had expected it to be after all of the rain that
had fallen Saturday (There had been an 1 1/2" of rain in Vallecito Saturday
morning.) After parking the trucks and shedding the jackets for the hike ahead the
group was on their way down the hill with Mike following behind doing some tree pruning
on the way down. The day was beautiful and warm, the hike down was of course easy
and quick so the group was in the cave by 10:20am.
The first thing the group noticed was the roar of the stream as they
entered the cave. They all looked forward to seeing how much water would be in all
the normally dried up pools and rim stone dams. The group was pleasantly surprised
with how wet the cave was with almost every pool and dam having water... and the
stream was running so strong that the passage to the "Coat Hanger" room
was completely sumped in by about three feet. The group explored as much of the cave
as the water level would allow and were all out of the cave by 2:30pm. After a quick
drink and some food, and some of the group changing into warm dry clothes, we all
started up the long hill back to the trucks.
On the way up I did notice that
a very major geological occurrence has happened on the mountain. It seems that since
the last trip I made to the cave the mountain has grown and gotten taller which made
the hike take just under an hour! It usually only takes 40-45minutes for me to hike
out. So those of you who are planning a trip to the cave this year, be prepared
for a longer hike.
After making it back to the road, the group took a moment to rest
and talk about future trips and past trips. We all realized, standing there talking,
that there just is not enough time in our lives to do all of the caves we want to
see and explore. I guess all we can do is try! The group was all back at Mike's by
4:30pm where the goodbyes were said and everyone went their own way until the next
trip.
Mike
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