Trip Leader: Jon Jasper
On Trip: Kyle Voyles, Justin Epps, Jon Jasper
Friday: Justin and I headed down towards St. George. His cousin had recently moved down the street and put his old house up for sale. We roughed it by sleeping in his empty house.
Saturday: While Kyle was attending his kid's birthday party. Justin and I grabbed Kyle's new battery operated angle grinder purchased by the BLM to remove remote graffiti in Bloomington Cave. We tried them out in the North Entrance. They worked great, but only about 15 minutes per battery. We then headed into the cave to scope out a new route to flag. By the time we had the route figured out it was reaching 7:00 PM.
Sunday: Meet up with Kyle at the BLM office and prepared to place a temporary kiosk at the entrance to the cave. We grabbed a generator, 2 posts, and 2 4ft square sheets of plywood. We also printed out a large-scaled map to post on the sign. However we couldn't find any cool tool (jack hammer or mechanical chisel) to find create holes to mount the sign. When reaching Bloomington we were all in agreement that creating holes was a lost cause. We decided to push for a more permanent slick-looking sign with completed information.
We then tried a bit more angle grinding on the graffiti in the North Entrance. While we were working Justin catch a glimpse of a crew of teenagers heading with bottles of beer. He decided to have a bit of fun and followed them into the cave. They were in the cave cutting glow sticks and splatting them onto the walls (a trick I blame on BYU). They also were seen throwing beer bottles down into the Big Room. Justin got pictures of most of these activities of these under-aged drinkers. And he got photos of their truck's license plates.
Monday: We meet up with Kyle to survey Kyle's recently rediscovered Basket Cave. Ever since Kyle had moved to St. George he had heard about this cave, however had only discovered its location about 2 months ago. The cave was an archeological site with a Native American basket and a pot. As classic Kyle, he had only lightly explored the cave previously. We overspent our expected time as the cave slowly relieved 3 new rooms. We ended up getting Justin back too late. He missed Provo Canyon closing at 10 pm for construction.
We will be heading back within a few weeks with corded angle grinders and generators to remove massive amounts of graffiti in the Bloomington's North Entrance. We will also be flagging a new trail in the Northern Exposure area. And hopefully before summer hits we will be placing an information kiosk with a Bloomington Cave map, conservation, safety, graffiti removal efforts, and a surface register. If you are interested in working hard to restore a well neglected cave, email, call, or harass me.
| Photography | ||||
 Justin using battery angle grinder to remove graffiti Jon Jasper |  Basket Cave Entrance Jon Jasper |  Native American Pottery in Basket Cave Jon Jasper | ||
 The recent Judd's fluorescent orange graffiti stopping at the recent green flagged route Jon Jasper | ||||