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Volcano Area
Sunday April
3rd was the day of the trip. It was a little breezy and overcast with rain on its
way and the temp was about 53 degrees. We all met in Martell at 10am, and I was surprised,
because we were all there ready to go before 10. Which is good for a grotto function.
From Martell we traveled to Tom's house, where we condensed into 2 vehicles. Although
there was lots of parking in town (less vehicles draws less attention) and traveled
to the first cave of the day.
Connies.
Once to the cave which was maybe a 10 min hike, Cave Junky started to go into action
and rig the rappel and the hand line. As he was rigging the inside hand line he noted
a few bats. As he looked around there were a lot of bats. 52 bats to be exact. In
over the last 20 years, C.J. has only seen 2 or so bats in this cave. So this many
bats was a great treat. Unfortunately while rigging the hand line the bats became
upset. Therefore the group decided to not venture into the cave, AND LEAVE THE BATS
ALONE. There were 30 bats counted at the vertical entrance and just inside the horizontal
entrance there were 22 bats counted. That shows to me that this cave is being less
visited over the last few years. At this time, I recommend that other groups caving
in Connies be put on hold for the summer or until the bats have left. I will monitor
the bats every 2 weeks and update information.
From Connies
we headed out and visited 4 other small vertical caves in the area checking the water
flow and levels. 2 caves which have flowing water all year long even in the driest
of years and are part of the same water that flows into Connies, had lots of water
flowing. There was a dye trace in the 80's to link these caves to the same water
system. The group ended the day at 1700 hrs and there were no injuries. There were
13 of use who participated in the days adventure. Rich, Melissa, and Bradie Steffensen;
Mike, Mike jr, and Courtney White, Toni Williams, Amy Ponsetti, Tom LaFrank, Joe
Jones and his Fiance, Dan Hewitt, and Scott Hemmingway (which was Scott's first time
wild caving other than moaning cave).
I RECOMMEND THAT ALL PERSONS NOT VISIT CONNIES CAVE UNTIL THE BAT COLONY STATUS HAS
CHANGED.
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Pages and their contents © Copyright 2002- 2005 by Bruce Brand, except where
otherwise noted.
Photos by Rich Steffensen & Mike White
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