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Memorial Day Weekend,
2005
On Thursday
May 26th Tony W., Dale H., and Mike W. did some cave register work in Calaveras County
and explored one vertical cave in the area which contains some beautiful formations
and a 145` rappel and ascent. Lots of pictures were taken and lots of hiking was
done. Thank goodness for some really refreshing stream pools in the area that we
used for a mid-day soaking.
Fri.
May 27th; Mike W., Tony Williams, Michael White II, Michael's friend Steven Davis,
along with Tony and Mikeís caving friend, Jean-Paul from Arizona spent the day
at Natural Bridges swimming and exploring the area. Tony and Jean-Paul took a trip
up to Lost Piton also.
Sat.
May 28th; Mike W., Michael W., Tony W., Jean-Paul and Tom L. went to three undisclosed
caves in Calaveras County. The first cave is approx. 240` deep all vertical pit with
a 150` free descent. The second cave is a nice 90` pit with a beautiful, but unreachable
side passage room. The third is a beautiful cave with lots of decorations, a 45`
ascent and descent and is in pristine condition, which is why the names and locations
are being withheld in this report.
Sun.
May 29th; Mike W., Michael W., Rich S. w / Bradie his two year old daughter (the
grotto's youngest member!) Tom L., Tony W. and Jean-Paul all went to "Sherrows"
cave which is a good sized cave for the area and is fairly well decorated in spots.
It has a short 32` ascent pit entrance (which is actually an easy climb out) after
about 45 minutes in Sherrows we headed for "Dianne's Cave". After reaching
Dianne's everyone stopped for a bite to eat and some water and then Tom, Mike, Michael,
Jean-Paul, and Tony headed in the cave. You start with a mild approx. 12` down
climb which takes you to a floor that has another vertical down climb approx. 15`
which gets you to a floor where you can go down through the floor or up
through a tight pancake squeeze for about 20` and after exiting the pancake you have
another 20` down climb that takes you to another tough 15` climb down.
At the bottom
is an old stream section that takes you to the "French connection" which
ended up filtering Mike and Jean-Paul out, so Tony ,Tom and Michael continued on
through the circuit which would take them to the area that had the hole in the floor
where we went up to the pancake originally. So Mike and Jean-Paul headed back there
to meet them so he could help Michael up the climb to the junction room. Mike and
Jean-Paul got there first and there was no sign of the others yet so Mike climbed down
the pit towards the corkscrew which is really hard to find from the side the others
were on. There he could hear the others searching for the way through so after some
voice following the others got through and the group headed for the surface. After
getting to the outside they found Bradie sound asleep with dad. We had already been
out for about 8 hours so everyone was content with the day and weekend activities
so we headed for the truck and back to Mikes house to clean up. Once back at Mikes,
Rich and Bradie headed home to see mom and the rest of us headed to Mikes Pizza in
Angels Camp (A different Mike) and that was how day three ended.
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