Day: February 22, 2003

Recreation Trip to Vandevander
Feb. 22, 2003
by Sharid Kamal

After much debate we were set, Larry Baer, Pat Bingham, Chris Woodley, David and Roy Efford were the ones heading off to Vandevander. The trip to the super sweet dig was already gone, but we figured since our cave was just around the corner we could take our time. With all the gear ready and every body ready to head out Larry made a keen observation, Bob’s car was blocking all the cars except one! Fortunately that one car that wasn’t blocked in happened to be Pat’s much-discussed diesel TDI Volkswagen. We were not going t let something this minor stop us from going, so we took two trips in the car (thanks Pat). On the first trip Larry, David and my self with Pat driving went and got the key from the land owner, who must have thought we were crazy for going our anywhere with the weather that we were having.

The three of us crawled in the relatively tight entrance and waited for the rest of the group in the fist open space of the cave. While we were waiting I was instructed about “ceiling burners” and the advantages of having a caving suits by the old timers (just joking guys)! It wasn’t long before I saw a light coming through the small crawl space, which led to the exit. When we had Pat Chris and Roy with us we began the journey within. I must admit that this cave is one of the most highly decorated caves I have ever been too. Which might not be saying much since I haven’t been to many caves; it made up for its relatively small size in beauty. The cave was hardly traveled since it was cemented up for a couple of years. Yet there were still people who were inconsiderate enough to leave carbide in the cave and scratch up the walls with arrows. We cleaned up as much of the carbide as possible and tried to rub the arrows out with some mud as we made our way though the cave. We saw silt dams with pollen on them, which was quite amazing we also saw some pristine cave formations and some untouched rimstone dams. I was in charge of the camera but unfortunately I could only take a couple of shots before the disposable camera stopped working, hopefully some of the shots will come out.

We reached the signature room where Larry pointed out that many of the footprints that were there before were gone and we didn’t want to disturb the ground if we didn’t have to. So we didn’t venture to far in to the room but got to see some of the signatures in the silt overhangs. Like Bob Zimmerman was saying how come the signatures that are there considered historic and our signatures considered graffiti, well I understand the difference but it is still is a funny observation. I had the privilege of being in the first car ride back to Rick’s place, pat soon went back and got the others. It was a great trip; I was tired from caving in Hamilton the day before and a short rec. trip was what the doctor ordered. The company I had was exceptional and that was what made the trip a success I thank you all for a great time.