Family Caving Adventure

After such a great time exploring Petty John Cave, how could I not want to go on another trip? I mentioned to GISpuma that I would have my kids on Friday and if there was a nearby kid-friendly cave, perhaps we could go exploring. She wasn't free on Friday, but offered to go Sunday. Much to my surprise, my wife said she'd come along, even though she has stated numerous times in the apst that she does not like going into caves.

The cave that GISpuma selected (and got permission to enter) is not one that has a geocache near it, but there was another cave only a mile away from it that did have a geocache in its entrance and I was hoping that if everyone had a good time, they would be up to check out that one too. At the very least, we could grab the cache there after our caving adventure.

We met at 9am near the entrance to Eblen Cave and geared up. The kids had bike helmets, knee and elbow pads, gloves, flashlights and headlamps... they were prepped to go.

Eblen Cave was plenty adventurous for us. One passageway involved a pancake squeeze kind of crawl, which the kids surprised me by going right into. My wife... not so much. The cave had a bunch of side passages that we explored, and we spotted a cave salamander, and a big brown bat, as well as a couple really nice cave formations.

Cave Salamander

Nice Formation

Low ceilings are no problem for little kids!

ONe of our favorite new Caver terms was calling our helmets "Ceiling Detectors". We amde good use of them many times.

Emerging from the cave

Muddy Butts!

We all had a great time exploring the cave together, and the kids did great. They both were a little nervous, and expessed their fears and a desire to get out a few times. But with a little encouragement they managed to explore everything they could feasibly get into, and by the end they were all smiles. Since everyone was in a pretty good mood, we decided to tackle cave #2.

A tribute cache to a Caver/Cacher is at the entrance to this cave, GC1BM6T, and it was placed just inside the cave entrance. A kitten came over to play with us while we geared up, and a dog as well, which made the kids really happy. In fact, they were more excited to play with the animals then go in another cave. I wasn't even sure we would get to explore this cave much, since a stream was flowing out the mouth and it was higher than GISpuma remembered it being. There wasn't much chance of keeping our feet dry if we went in, but we decided to go for it anyways. After getting past one stream/pool obstacle, we were in a large chamber with an upper level that you could rock-climb up into. The climbing didn't look too hard, but it certainly didn't meet my definition of "family friendly" caving. Instead of this passage, we kept on going up the stream passageway, and encountered several tiny tri-colored bats roosting on the walls and ceilings. Some of these were head-level and we very narrowly avoided disturbing some as we crouched and scrambled down the passage.

Tri-colored Bat

On our way out, we decided to take an alternative exit that involved a belly crawl, but avoided the deep pool/stream crossing. It was quite a tight squeeze but we all made it out and back out to where the animals were waiting for us once again.

Exit Crawl

All in all, a very successful outing. The kids were stoked, I was stoked, and who knows, maybe we;ll end up doing some more caving as a family. Not sure if there will be much geocaching associated with the caving, but you never now.

Little caver girl

The Fugads Caving Clan