Bitterroot 2008 part 3

Saturday, September 20th 2008 - Jason Baxter

Trip Leader: Dale Green On Trip: Dale Green, Ben Simon, Jason Baxter, Jeremiah Baxter Standard meeting place at 72nd south Park and Ride on Saturday morning. We were a bit short on help, several interested people had conflicting trips already planned. Managed to call and get Jeremiah out of bed on the way past Orem, which added one additional body. For this trip, 4 people worked with the space available, simply limited the amount of breaks taken while digging. We arrived at the cave after a hike on a beautiful day, and set to work. One exciting moment early on where Jason was hauling a bucket up and it knocked a decent size rock loose off the entrance pit wall toward Jeremiah. Luckily it bounced away from him, and no harm done. Dale also had a rock simply fall from somewhere above him while we were taking a break in the cave. Made for an adrenaline rush he wasn't expecting. In a few hours we managed to remove all of the backfill from previous trips, and start some digging into new areas. There were also several large rocks removed, and one or two still waiting until next time when we have more people that can lift up the 6' entrance drop. (It turns out Jeremiah can drag buckets with the best of us, but at twelve years old he doesn't have the body mass to throw things around yet.) It appears we can rig a pulley system above the entrance pit, which should make the job of "surface bucket emptier" much simpler next time. Hoping for 5-6 people next time, and the fanciest pully system this cave has ever seen. Impressive pile of dirt near the cave now, and list of helpful items for the next trip compiled. Most importantly, fun was had by all. --Jasonbx