Trip Leader: Rob Cranney, Tamie Jensen (organizer)
On Trip: Rob Cranney, Tamie Jensen, Thorpe Cox, Ralph Powers
Well the trip to Indian Burial was really cool. Now after a short lunch we drove out to the park. Having some time, Thorpe and Tamie wanted to visit Lehman's and go on the 90 minute tour. Rob and I having seen the cave a month ago opted out and decided to hang out. Rob wanted to try and finish his book and I was ripe for a nap.
90 minutes later they were out from the tour and five minutes after that we were moving to the residential portion of the park to find the cave. After a bit of searching around we found the entrance and had it opened in minutes. Rob, decided not to go in as he felt he would be too big for the crawls inside. I, being the "smallest" of the group was elected to go first. To be honest I was kind of iffy about doing the cave at all. But once I got in, I was having a lot of fun and just really enjoying the cave and what it had to offer.
Oh sure it's lots of crawling, in fact I'd say about 95% of it is crawling; from belly to hands and knees. Tamie and Thorpe were having a lot of fun as well as from their exclaimations along the way.
I found some of the particularly tight areas most challenging, and the most prettiest. The walls in these areas are just a lovely (yes, I said lovely) blend of marbling and razor-edged scallops. What really made the cave however was it's endless branches off one passage and another.
You choose one passage and after about 20-50 feet it breaks off to two to four passages and those break off into yet more passages. Thorpe and I only found one or two that actually looped together.
This cave would indeed be a very challenging cave to survey. I'd love to be a part of it one of these days. (hint hint hint)
Tamie had a heart-breaking experience in one of the tighter areas and broke the LCD screen of her camera and thus decided to leave. She complained of a slight headache as well. The cave is reputed to have a high CO2 content in it. With some people this can be a problem.
Thorpe and I went on to one area and rested for a few minutes chatting in the dark. We chose between going on and heading out and obviously chose to go on. Glad we did. We found that after one really tight squeeze yielded a nice walking passage that likewise broke out into several passages. Poking around here and there we knew that we'd just need a lot more time to see everything if it were possible. After a bit we decided that we'd just save the rest of the cave for another trip.
After a wrong turn here and there we found the right way to head out and began the work of crawling back towards the entrance.
When we made it out it was dark and snowy. We locked the gate back up and treked back to the cars where Rob and Tamie waited.
Cold, cold, cold. Drive back to the tents and get a hot meal in us and try to get enough sleep for the next day of caving. Sheep Creek Cave
(see part four)
| Photography | ||||
 Me at the entrance preparing to go down. Rob Cranney |  Some of the wonderful marbling effect of the cave walls Ralph Powers |  Me coming out of a tight spot ... loving it. Tamie Jensen | ||
 One lead that I'd like to check out someday Ralph Powers |  Thorpe checking out one of three leads Ralph Powers |  Some pretties Ralph Powers | ||
 A neat razor sharp edge passage divider Ralph Powers |  One of the wider passages of the cave Ralph Powers |  Thorpe working his way out of the entrance Ralph Powers | ||
 Two muddy, tired but happy cavers at the end of the trip, yes, we're bonding here. Rob Cranney | ||||