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Fall 2005 Crystal Sequoia
Restoration
On Friday October 21st, Tom LaFrank, and Tony Williams arrived
at Mike White's house to head for the "Fall 2005 Crystal cave restoration"
They were there by 6:45am to get all there gear loaded in the truck so they could
get on the road by 7:00am. So after all the gear was loaded the three plus Mike's
kids, (Courtney and Michael) jumped in the truck and headed for Sequoia National
Park. The trip was uneventful except for Mike missing a turn off (Talking too much).
So the group arrived at Crystal Cave at about 12:45pm after some stops for food and
fuel.
When they arrived there were already a couple of So. cal. grotto
members there setting up camp. So after the five got their tents set up and gear
put away they helped to finish setting up camp with the others. Bill Roberts
and his wife Mary provided the food services for the ten day restoration. Mary does
all of the cooking and Bill supplies the resources. (House propane oven, a wash sink
for dishes, a small freezer, a cook trailer, plus a food storage trailer and many
other extras to make camp like home). So there is alot to set up. So after camp was
set up and a great meal was cooked by Mary we all sat around and waited for the others
to arrive through out the night and the next morning with about thirty people in
all showing up for the first day to help.
The weeks projects were to include final removal of all the concrete
floors and rubble from the old bathrooms plus the old plumbing. The other area of
work was for the Junction room concrete pathway to be narrowed and removed in places
to regain some of the original floors of the cave. The work around the Junction room
went rather quickly with six people working on it including four Columbia grotto
members (Mike and kids with Tom). After taking out the pathway section next to the
"Femeral pools" it was discovered that over two feet by six feet of the
pools had been covered over by the trail when it was put in for the commercialization
of the cave.
The bathroom floors would prove to be a little tougher to get out,
but were all removed by Tuesday; due to the great efforts of the now almost famous
"Cave trolls" which included six who are also Columbia grotto members.
(Tom, Tony, Mike, Courtney, Michael and Rich Steffensen). There were only nine of
us left by then to work for the week. And all except one were trolls. As a reward
for our efforts we were treated to some great hiking and caving in the area by Joel
Despain and Shane Fryer, the parks cave specialists, we also got to do some great
caving in Crystal Cave itself. The next weekend about twenty five more people arrived
to do some more work at the cave and of course to be there for the always popular
last Saturday night party. After the party some just sat around the fire to socialize
while others went down to the cave for some last chance caving. Sunday morning Tony,
Tom and Mike took down camp and loaded up the truck to get ready for the trip home.
(Courtney and Michael had gone home Tuesday with Rich`s wife Melissa). After all
the good-byes were said the three were on the road by 10:00am and arrived back at
Mikes house at 2:45pm. It was a great week of caving and working and spending time
with good friends. The restorations are to help put a great cave back into its original
condition as close as we can for a commercial cave. I would encourage anyone interested
in caves and cave conservation to volunteer their time to any of these types of projects.
Mike White |
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