Trip Leader: Ralph Powers
On Trip: Ralph Powers, Byron Crye, Vern, Michael, Anthony, Rebecca Bowden, Darrell Taylor
With concerns for the impending storm breaking our plans for the trip, the Idahoians made it down safely enough and were eager to begin their trip. Byron is a (dutch) nephew of mine that made it where his mother who planned to join us as well, had to quit due to illness experienced along the hike to the cave. The recent snow fall wasn�t that much of an obstacle, made things slick.
The trip was my typical tourist visit to the cave. This was Byron�s first vertical cave and he (with his mother) had been training long and hard for this trip at Hansen�s High Adventure�s rock wall. At 12 yrs old he�s bitten bad by the caving bug and may have a long career ahead of him.
Entering the cork-screw was basically the same until I got to the hole above the �free-hanging� section of the main entrance drop. Someone had placed a bolt above the drop, positioned where the rope would hang totally free instead of against the rock/lip where so many people on trips past had difficulty crossing coming up. I was glad to see the bolt but as a personal preference would�ve liked to see it placed higher up the wall than where it currently is. This is mainly so a person can ascend their body up past the constriction and get off rope easier and for possible rescue teams to rig their haul system without worries that the sked/stretcher won�t be right at the constriction when they haul it up. Thus having the haul team man-handle the bulk through the hole. They (SAR�s ) may not even use it for that reason.
Visiting the attic/upper section of the cave as usual, allowed me to show off the first part of the cave�s beauty as an appetizer. Everyone was very impressed with what they had seen so far. I rigged a 9mm hand line for the climb up to the attic section (that�s what I call it) for Byron and Michael which was more of a mental security than anything else. Everyone else made the climb well enough.
Vernon took pictures along the way, and I took pictures of my own, particularly of Byron so that his Mom would have something for him to remember his first cave by. At one point I was disappointed that a small piece of broken bacon-rind was missing from it�s usual place at the highest point in the cave. It is here that I use this piece as a visual aid to pass along the conservation message.
As a visual catalyst of explaining why we gate caves. .
Once we were done, we regrouped back at the sandbags and after a brief explanation of why the bags were there, I rigged another rope for the slide and headed on down first. I brought along a 1 Million Candlepower spotlight that I purchased some time ago. I used it to the photographer�s advantage. While in many spaces it washed out the formations it helped illuminate a lot of stuff that would�ve gone un-noticed. At the bottom of the rope for the slide I basically allowed everyone their head and let them explore at their leisure. Vern and I stayed together taking pictures and enjoying each other�s company.
At the �bottom� of the cave there were those who crawled into the coffin room as I stayed and examined the register and sorted out the mixed up pages back to their original order. One of the pages was full and thus needed to be taken out and given to (my) grotto secretary for safe keeping in the archives. Everyone signed the register as required and then group photos were taken, using the spotlight to our advantage. Byron being the little imp that he is managed to get into the background of one family shot. This wasn�t noticed of course until after developing.
When it was all said and done it was a long climb back up to the ropes and the cavers both reluctantly and gladly got their gear on and ascended up.
I had gone ahead of Michael to provide an assist. Turned out that he really didn�t need it. He was in fact doing better than most of us. At one point I was below him in the corkscrew and found out that I was too close. His foot lashed out to find a hold and kicked me in the head. Hit me hard enough to knock my hearing aid off and in effect the device tumbled all the way back down the drop to the sand bags.
I sat there in (forced) silence and waited for Darryl or Vernon to make their appearance at the constriction. It was Darryl and he spoke to me which was in effect just mouthing the words. I told him that he needed to look around and ask Vernon to look for my hearing aid which was knocked off, until then I wouldn�t be able to hear squat. Turned out that Vernon, while waiting his turn, felt something land on his boot. He didn�t think it was a rock and looked down to see not only the hearing aid but the battery that popped out of it as well. Both were returned to me in short order. Whew, thanks a lot for paying attention to what�s going on.
At the surface we got everything together and began the hike back down. Again this was my usual route down the rock-slide/chute that lies to the left and below the cave entrance. Again, folks just loved the fun way down. To me this route is much safer than the one coming up despite the danger of rock fall, it�s not as steep and a person can lower their center of gravity and basically slide their way down.
| Photography | ||||
 Vern Taking His Time With Pictures Ralph Powers |  Vern Admiring The Formations Ralph Powers |  A few of the many Ralph Powers | ||
 Anthrodites Ralph Powers |  Family plus one Ralph Powers |  Byron going up Ralph Powers | ||