The monthly grotto trip to Witten cave took place on April 5, 2008. Along for the trip was Chris, Ken, Steve, Shanni, Jimmy, Brendan, and me. We were supposed to take the owner's son caving, but there was nobody at the house when we arrived. Instead we befriended the owner's dog, Banjo, a Basset Hound. He decided to tag along with us to the cave. We started the trip walking through a muddy field, rolling under an electric fence, and walking a short way through the woods to the cave. The first glance into the cave was not very inviting. The trail of deep, sloppy foot prints leading into the darkness made it very clear that this was a muddy cave.

Upon entering the cave it became apparent that Banjo wanted to go with us. With Steve being the leader, he didn't want any part of that. We tried to lead the dog out of the cave many times, but he always came back. It seemed very strange how determined he was to follow us (it turned out later that Steve actually had his pockets filled with Bacon Bits:) Eventually the frustration turned to last resort, and Shanni nobly volunteered to wait outside with the dog - thanks Shanni. The six of us went on to explore the cave. The path follows a stream that emerges in and out of view from time to time, and the passage varied in size as we traversed further in; going from walking, to stoop walking, to crawling, and climbing. There were one or two crawls that were especially difficult, but luckily they came about just past the muddy part of the cave into the dry area. We finally made it to a large room that seemed to have many different ways to go, so we split up to check leads. I crawled through the narrow stream bed and emerged into a large passage way, feeling greatly accomplished for merely seconds until I realized that we had already passed through that area much earlier in the trip. I turned around and went back to the big room.

Jimmy and Chris had better luck than I did. They found a small hole leading into an upper passage out of the big room. The group continued on through the cave with me and Chris leading ahead. The others took time to rest, but with me and Chris schedualed to be trip leaders for this cave on Speliofest, we were determined to push on and find the passage that is reportedly difficult to find. We found the passage and went as far as we could without losing voice contact with the group. The crawl was brutal, but it was worth it. The first cave formations appeared in this area, and the passage opened up for walking. This was also a great place for the heel of my boot to fall half way off and flop around every time I took a step - don't ever trust Shoe Goo for caving boots. The rest of the group had trouble finding the right opening to reach us though, so they didn't get to see it. By the time I got back to show them how to get through, we decided that we should be heading out of the cave anyway, since Shanni was still waiting outside after all.

On the way back we took my shortcut through the stream passage to avoid the tight crawling passages. We took some pictures, washed our hands in the stream, and stopped to check out a waterfall. Shanni and Banjo seemed happy to see us when we finally got out. Over all the trip was not very long, being just a couple of hours or so. When we got back to our cars the owner was there and we chatted with him for a while; he is a friendly fellow. I'm looking forward to going back for Speliofest and making it all the way to the end.

The photos can be found here
http://s275.photobucket.com/albums/jj288/Caver_Tim/Witten%20Cave/

Everyone met up at the tank like clockwork, and we waited around for a few more minutes to see if anyone else was going to show up. After driving down a backcountry road for quite a ways we made a pit stop at a big spring which looked like a flooded cave entrance. The creek flew under a natural bridge, but the creek was so flooded you couldn’t really tell. I only knew it was a natural bridge because Steve told me that, and I would like to see it again some day when the creek is allot lower.

Not too much driving later and we were finally there, and we parked next to the road in the grass. After a short walk and dodging a few patties we were at McCamish Crystal Cave’s entrance, a small hole in the ground. After crawling in I found that the tunnel only got even smaller, but it was just a tiny crawl until it opened up in to a huge walk through cave.

The part I love about caving the most is how different each one looks to me, and this one was excellent. I loved walking through the sand staring at the walls, which were covered in gypsum. Even the ceiling constantly amazed me, it looked as though there was another tunnel above us with large holes in it, and I wondered if anyone had ever been up there.

After going up and down sandy hills, and passing though widening and narrowing cave walls, I finally got to crawl under a huge rock, which Tim informed me that he went over. We got to a pretty high climb up with no rope or ladder, but it had plenty of great footholds.

I sure was having blast sticking my head in every tiny tunnel and around every corner looking at all the sites to be seen, when we finally got to a tricky part. It's a ladder sitting against a log, with a PMI rope hanging down with knots in it, but even with all that it still looked intimidating. The ladder looked like it was way too short, it was small, rickety, and went to a tunnel that sloped against your favor. No wonder the rope is there I thought, because this ladder is too short and looks like its going to fall apart soon, possible today. Everyone made it through this part impressively fast and we were quickly on our way again.

Finally we get there, it feels like finding some hidden treasure, or beating the last level in a video game, the breakdown room. We go through this massive room filled with tipsy rocks because they were lying in deep loose sand. The whole room made a right turn and got even bigger. We climbed a hill to discover what Jim thought looked like an altar, and I thought it looked like a miniaturized piece off of the Roman Coliseum. The rock was flat on the top and bottom but the center was two pillars. There was also a huge rock next to it that was really interesting looking also. Tim takes a picture and says, "it sure is going to be a great one, turn around", and we exclaimed at all of the thousands of stalactites that covered the entire ceiling around us.

We walked up a big hill, and at the top I saw someone crawling in a tunnel. Tim and I joined in and it turned it to be a huge maze with tunnels and rock columns everywhere. We were crawling through tunnels this way and that, and soon we both agreed to take a brake. Everyone was eating on the big hill and so we joined them. After a replenishing snack and some water, Tim and I were ready for more crawling in the maze, and I think we just about searched every inch of it. I had never had so much fun crawling in my life, I guess it was the scenery; all that cool looking rock, the gypsum, and the dry sand. Finally I found a tall but narrow tunnel, by the look of it I wasn't sure I would fit, but after slowly trying I got right through it with ease. After that I found an even tighter tunnel that I knew I couldn't fit through, and again I went right through it fine, even staying on my feet while doing so, but it was one heck of a duck walk.

We go back to the breakdown room and everyone is still hanging out, and so I kind of wander around in it looking for tunnels. I found one along the side that was all by itself and a couple feet off the ground, but was half blocked by a column formation, and so I figured it wasn’t possible. Tim encouraged me to try though, he stood by spotting me and it was actually quite easy, but I finally wasn't a perfect fit this time. The passage took me up, I was so excited to go and see what was up there. I saw lots of tunnels and told Tim to come up and join me which he did. I pushed a couple of leads and found one tunnel that looked insane. It wasn’t like any of the other ones we were just in, I didn't even want to go in it since Tim was off searching some other ones, and it looked sort of scary. It was all dark Grey and damp looking with jagged rocks protruding from the ceiling and floor.

We found huge giant holes next to the main tunnel where you can overlook the breakdown room. It was such a cool sight and feeling being in that tunnel looking over the room, and that was definitely the coolest experience I have had with a breakdown room so far. We waited for the rest of the group there since I found another passage that bypassed the breakdown room and linked up with the main passage, and I really didn't want to have to exit the same way we came in.

I think everyone found leaving the ladder and rope tunnel much more difficult in some way or another. There was a lot of talk about whether people should go headfirst or feet first. Jim went through headfirst and had allot of trouble getting turned around in such a tight tunnel, so myself and someone else came to his aid, and after a few minutes he got down safely. Kim toughened it out by going feet first through the tunnel, and was rewarded with an easy climb down since she didn’t have to turn around, and so I guess going backwards was better. The whole scenario really reminded me of a crab trap; it was simple going through that thing the first time and quite tricky when it comes time to leave.

It seemed like we got from there to the exit in a flash. I don't even remember doing the next big climb down, but chimney climbing downwards is always the easiest climbing there is and so it must have just flown by. Getting to the exit of the cave while it's still daylight is always a cool sight to be seen, the way the light fades away against the walls and floor in to the deep dark cave.

Submitted by Shanni Fox