Sun, Sep 14 2008 - Pioneer Camping Cloudland Canyon - Sitton's Cave (Sunday) (View Original Event Details) Trip Leader(s): Jason Kotz, EB Participants: Gary Babiarz, Melanie Dixon, EB, Jason Kotz, Cristy, Taressa, James Sergent, Lauren

Write Up:
We entered the cave around 11:30am, and exited at 2pm, putting us in the cave approximately 2.5 hours. We had a couple of experienced cavers with us, and several beginner cavers. As the Lower Entrance (our chosen entrance) starts with a belly crawl through mud, Sitton's is a great introduction to newbies to figure out if they can handle the physical and emotional stressors a cave often offers. Everyone did beautifully, and moved quite quickly. Jason led the front of the line, and EB played sweep to make sure there were no problems.

We quickly discovered that much of the cave had been flooded since our scouting trip, and most of our time was spent walking in or crawling in water at least 2 inches deep (and sometimes more).

Jason and Cristy checked out a couple of very tight, water-filled passages to see if they were passable and found they were not. Not wanting to risk the group's comfort and safety, we turned around and explored some of the upper parts of the cave (especially around the Maze).

We had a moment of lights out for everyone to experience total blackness, and Jason enjoyed scaring Jacqui in a maze passage by popping out in front of her. Cristy was a great help with exploration, and making sure folks got through some spots ok. We definitely had a great team for this trip, in general, as well.

We exited through the main entrance with a dramatic climb up to the sky, and gorged on chips and hamburger buns with cheese slices (thanks V!) in the parking lot before heading out.

Flora of note: EB saw a single sprout while belly crawling through some mud, but was unable to identify it
Fauna of note: a snake at the lower entrance slithering toward the cave (down the hill), a couple of salamanders, and several bats (both resting and flying).

Injuries: None reported; Gary and his broken arm did fine for the 2.5 hours; Several checks for cold yielded most folks fairly comfortable with the temperature, minus Cristy who was wet to the neck from exploring and quickly cold after—Melanie loaned her a jacket and pretty sure that solved it for the short time in the cave.

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