Natural Bridges Area, 3/20/2005
The grotto trip started at the Natural
Bridges parking at 9:00am Sun. morning March 20th, with the skies seeming to clear
up a little. Everyone was ready to go at 9:30am, eight cavers braved the possible
bad weather and set out with three goals in mind...
1) To do some fun caving.
2) To place a register in Lost Piton cave.
3) To place a register in Scat cave a.k.a. Cathedral cave.
The eight who showed were: Mike White and his son Michael a.k.a. "Moose"
and daughter Courtney, Dale Hartwig and son Greg, Tom LeFrank, Daniel Hewitt and
Paul Lukshin.
Mike led the group to a cave he had been to a year or so before, but did not know
the name. It was in a very good looking sink hole, Greg Hartwig went down first to
explore for size and a possible register, followed by "Moose", and then
his sister Courtney. The old folks stayed outside and offered up encouragement to
the younger ones. The cave had some small formations and was about 30 feet deep with
approx. 40 feet of passage. The kids also practiced some conservation, picking up
old cans.
Next it was off to Lost Piton. After a failed attempt to cross the creek at the old
nudist rocks we headed up over the top of Upper Natural Bridge where we got caught
in a pretty heavy down pour, but the buckeye trees provided ample cover to stay dry
during the five minute down pour. So off again we go up to the cave. Once at the
cave everyone geared up while Dale rigged the rope. Mike climbed down with lighter
in hand with Greg rappelling behind him. The air was good all the way so Courtney
followed and was followed by Moose. The four explored while the others waited outside.
Greg was the first to ascend out followed by Moose and Courtney, while Mike climbed
right behind. It was great to watch all the kids do so well, we have some serious
cavers coming up for the future.
Once out of the cave, the group that had been waiting got ready to go down and Mike
and the kids headed to Scat cave. After a short exploration of Scat the four headed
back to find that only Tom had made it down to the bottom of Lost Piton. There were
some comments about certain people's bodies being to old and too large in places
for them to make it in.
So Mike was volunteered to go back in and drop the register down to Tom who was napping
at the bottom. Meanwhile Dale, Paul, Daniel and Greg headed for Scat to place the
register. Mike and his kids headed for the warm truck while Tom joined the others
in Scat.
The group were all back at the parking area about 4:45pm. Good-byes were said and
Mike and the kids went home, while the others headed to Mike's Pizza in Angels.
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