Disclaimer: The name and location of the project is not being provided externally until the conclusion of the project at the request of the park ranger.
The Tritrogs first organized trip to “Project” cave to assist the park work on their cave was a success. The team was small, Ken, Christian, Linda, and myself, the work accomplished grand. At the risk of repeating information, it is rumored the cave was purposely blocked to prevent people from going in to far; we are trying determine if that is true and what else lies within the cave.
Given the size of the cave, the number of participants was about correct; future trips may opt for one or two more individuals to help with dirt management once the dirt is outside the cave (the park management would like to sift through the dirt for any possible artifacts before disposing of the dirt).
Our mission was primarily digging, and digging we did. The dirt was rather loose and easy to dig; a garden hoe was the prized tool, unfortunately we had only one. The weather was actually appropriate for digging, in the high 60’s with heavy cloud cover and a fine rain.
Several potential leads were selected, then the team set to work. I worked on a lead that snaked slightly downward at the backside of the cave. Christian and Linda worked a lead nearby which also had a downward angle. Ken and Tanya hauled dirt out of the cave; interesting enough using “Flying Saucers”…you know the round things used for sledding! Ken and Tanya hauled all afternoon, an extra thanks goes out to them!
My lead pinched down to something impassable; Linda gave it a try just to insure I wasn’t loosing my sense of dimension due to being positioned head down for too long. We can with certainty say this passage was not traversed by anyone holding a torch.
I then worked on a lead we suspected Christian and Linda’s effort would connect into. At some point Linda focused on another lead between their original lead and the one I was now working. Eventually I was able to hear Linda’s efforts in my passage. A possible connection inspired Linda; she was determined to make the connection today. Soon Linda was digging from both sides…well not at the same time, but you get the idea. I moved further into the passage to work toward Christian; it wasn’t long before I could hear him, but more distant.
After the connection, I thought the effort would conclude but it was not meant to be. I went back to check out the tremendous effort Christian did, while Linda checked out the continuing lead I had been working. Linda and I quickly found we were closer than expected. Well Linda quickly jumped on the task of completing another connection. It wasn’t long before I was pushing dirt her way and working myself through. We may have robbed Christian of some glory, but we wouldn’t have been able to make the connection without him.
After a day of digging we feel confident that this section of the cave was not filled in by human efforts. It must have been filled in during repeated floods or surface erosion. How much cave remains is still unknown; there are more leads and significant amounts of dirt yet to be extracted. That will be another trip.
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