Trip Leader: Ginger
On Trip: Brian and Cassie Connors Bill Matlin Kevin Phillips Alex ?Fieldling Ginger Bankston Ralph Powers
I think I'm beginning to get the hang of TAG caving... in the sense that you can go in the middle of the week and right around sunset. Totally different experience because in Utah it's usually on a Saturday and early morning... sometimes WAY early. Then the other thing is a killer hike is usually associated with a Utah cave, not all of them but a good majority require a mile or three of steep hiking. Here it's like drive 10-20 minutes walk up hill a little bit (or not at all) and you're there.
Well anyway MARTY was supposed to show up and Jonny too but they didn't. So with Ginger leading and Kevin backing her up we had 7 out of 9. I brought my 110'er and we used that to rig up.
I found this to be a very nice pit and look forward to doing it even if just to yo-yo it for fun. But we were also here to see the cave so onward down inside.
The ceilings were most unusual for me, never seen that type of scalloping and sculpturing before. Like it a lot. Kevin led us to the main (?) room and we kinda split off. I poked around until I spied a nice size hole amongst the break down. Saw a going passage and hollered up to the others where I'd be going... Followed the (walking) stream passage to a crawl til it opened back up to walking passage again and went down that way for a bit before deciding to turn back. I don't travel down unknown passages all by my lonesome.
Caught up with the others and we re-gathered back to the main big-room. Apparently Kevin was looking for something and sent Cassie up to another passage and Brian asked Alex and I to follow. Cassie led us to a really nice room of decorations but it wasn't where Kevin wanted to take us. Still it was a pretty detour. What was neat was watching this lithe young lady make her way through some twisty narrow stuff and I was able to follow... Glad I ain't gotten fat... yet!
Eventually Kevin rounded us up and managed to find the passage he'd been searching. The one that led to the Signature room. Brian had told me about a room that had civil war era signatures on the wall that also had calcified over so they're permanent. What surprised me was how DEEP in the cave the signatures were. Especially since the only entrance was a 75 foot drop makes you wonder how those fellas from New-York got down in the cave and back out. Still it was really something to see that bit of history. The oldest signature I've seen in a Utah cave was dated by Emily Hansen in 1893 (I think?) ... So it's still neat to see that bit of history... now-a-days if someone did it we'd call them a vandal and stone them to death like the old testament.
When we were done with the signature room we filed out and headed on back to the entrance pit and each of us took our turn in getting out. Brian had only one set of ascending gear between himself and his daughter. I offered at the parking lot to provide what spare gear I had brought with me so that everyone can get out on their own without having to pass but he gracefully declined. So Brian and I were the last ones out and the idea was for me to go up and get his gear from Cassie and change-over and rap back down and give it to him. We rigged on the "low-side" so lowering the gear might prove problematic with that large ledge. I didn't know that one could rig on the high side until after I finished rigging. Not that it mattered.
I ascended up and when I reached the top to ask Cassie to hand me her dad's gear, Bill offered to take it down to him because he wanted to bounce the pit again. Well, okay. Fine with me. Bill made it down alright and soon enough both were back on the surface again and the derigging process began.
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 Ginger going over the edge All photos by Brian Conners |  3 of 7 Ralph, Bill and Alex |  Some of the old names in the Signature Room | ||
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