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Trip Reports |
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6-9-06 ~ 6-11-06 Camping & Caving at Bowden & Hamilton |
Part 1:
Camping out
near Bowden |
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This
will be a 3 part trip report, that takes place over 3 days of camping and
caving. This trip started out Friday afternoon after I got home from work. Ben, Sam, Ezra, and I were on this trip. Ezra is al old time friend, and had not gotten the chance to go out with us in a long time. He had only done one other caving trip to Sinks of Gandy Cave a couple years ago with Ben, and was excited to go on another caving trip. |
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Part 2: Bowden's Third Entrance |
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Ben,
Sam, and I had been to this part of the cave once before, and knew that it
wasn't going to be all that easy. Not exactly a good place to go on your
second caving trip, so we were not sure how Ezra would do in this cave. The cave doesn't waste any time getting difficult. Just a short 15 feet into the cave is the "Hairy Traverse". There is a small opening that is at the top of a 25 to 30 foot cliff. Off to the left, is a small ledge, that you have to plop yourself onto, and shoot across it, until you are over toward the left where there is room to crawl. Ezra is a bit afraid of heights, so he wasn't very comfortable with this area. It is rather intimidating, even though there is a piece of webbing running across to give you a bit of a safety line. The webbing is rather old, and not anchored in very well, so its best not to rely on it, or put much weight on it. Sam went across first to show Ezra how to go about it, and then guided him onto the ledge. Ben kept an eye on him from behind, though there is not much he could have done if Ezra was to fall. You could tell he was very nervous, but he didn't do bad at all for his first time. We didn't fell all that good about doing it our first times either. I did notice that going across it this time was much easier, and I was much more relaxed. |
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| You have to climb down a couple more 10 to 12 foot drop offs, but they aren't bad at all. There are some rocks piled up to give you something to step down onto. | ||
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| That's where the fun ends. There are a few nice rooms in the back of the cave, but to get to them, you have to go through a series of very low crawlways. If you can actually do a hands and knees crawl, you are lucky, most of the way is all belly crawl. We had been through all this on our first time here, but we also had a map with us, which we did not have this time. I only had my one master copy left, and Ben couldn't find his copies. There are about 3 places where the crawlways will split off in 2 or 3 other crawlways. | ||
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We tried our best to remember which ones were the
way to the back of the cave, but soon it was very evident that we had
taken a wrong turn or two. We ended up going through a wet crawlway into a
very small room, just large enough for the 4 of us to cram into. I knew
this wasn't the way once we got into the water, since our last trip in was
rather dry. There was one very small passage leading out of this room,
that none of us wanted to try to push. I am not sure we could have fit at
all. So, we headed back through the wet crawl to one of the intersections of crawlways, trying to get out bearings. We were not very far back into the cave, but it felt like miles. The belly crawls can really wear you out quickly. Most of the crawlways are so low, that you cant even tilt you head up to look ahead of you. |
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None of us really knew which way was correct, and none
of the ways is easy. We didn't want to crawl all the way down one, just to
find out it was the wrong way, and have to crawl back. I found one passage
that I am almost positive was the way to the back of the cave. This
crawlway has alot of rocks in the way, that you have to either crawl over,
or push out of your way, and I distinctly remember having to do that. But,
again, not knowing for sure, we really didn't want to do alot of crawling
that we didn't have to do. We ended up deciding to head back out of the
cave. Rather disappointing, as the back of the cave is the best part, and
we never got to it this time. Climbing back up out of this cave is a bit easier than climbing down. You can at least see where you are going, and where your hand and foot holds are. Going down, you are sometimes blindly stepping down the wall. |
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Once
again, we all had to conquer the Hairy Traverse. This is also easier on
the way out, but just as intimidating. Ben went out first, followed by
Ezra. Again, you could tell that Ezra was not very comfortable with this,
and was taking small movements to get across the ledge. But, he made it
safe and sound and I think was proud that he forced himself to do it. Being only a very short walk from camp made it very nice. Our first trip to this entrance was not as enjoyable. We camped out at the top of the mountain, and for some stupid reason, thought it would be a good idea to hike down the mountain to the cave. After 6 hours of caving, we exited the cave, into 30 degree weather, pouring down the rain and snow. It took us over 3 hours to reach the top. We had never been so exhausted in our entire lives, but had learned a very valuable lesson. |
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| Part 3: Pushing the Back of Hamilton | ||
