Schoolhouse Rocks

I was perplexed why a school under construction needed a cleaning, but we parked beside the power washer on Sunday morning and hiked down to a cave entrance Tanya had identified the day before.  I pulled out some logs and branches and slid down into the entrance of Schoolhouse Rocks.  After I knew that we had found real cave, Dave Duguid and Jacob Jackson joined me.

We traveled down the four-foot high passageways, and I was thankful that this cave afforded so much more space than Cold Sink Cave.  Dave, Jacob, and I traveled to the downstream end of the cave where it sumped and surveyed toward the entrance.  In the meantime, Lisa Hall, Brian Williams, and Tanya McLaughlin started at the drier upstream end.  Jacob set great stations, and we worked our way to the entrance with just six survey shots. The cave was nicely decorated with draperies, stalactites, stalagmites, and rimstone dams; I probably would've enjoyed them more if I hadn't been lying in the stream reading instruments.  I knew that I should've bought one of those Swaygo packs from Scott McCrea the day before.

I climbed out of the cave to a warm January sun and in just a few minutes felt toasty (well, soggy toasty).  The other team eventually finished their survey and joined us outside while Brian and Dave finished photographing the area near the entrance.  I would've enjoyed a good power washing when we returned to the truck.

Photo by Brian Williams

Photo by Jacob Jackson