An article in CNN moves me to post this. Interesting reading.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/06/25/cave.remains.ny.ap/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/06/25/cave.remains.ny.ap/index.html
MACaver
- Thread starter Flatlander
- Start date
Independence Day Caving With Martial Artists! 
Today was a good day for caving. Not quite as hot as it has been, approaching thunderstorms from way out west were cooling things off nice enough to allow a good day of training and actual caving.
Ceicei and her son Byron and a new caving buddy Max Barker and his wife Ailene (that's how I remember she spelled it to me) and son Russell and a even newer caving buddy Mike M. were present to get an afternoon's worth of training and then the rest of the day spent in their first cave (Ceicei and Byron excepting).
On the way out there we saw Pronghorn Antelope and a red-tailed hawk.
It was Ailene, Mike and Russell's first time doing SRT (Single Rope Techniques). Max who is a 4th Cord Capoera went out with me the previous weekend and apparently his story of that day was enough to get his wife interested. Russell couldn't make it that weekend and was wow-ed enough to definitely make the trip today.
Ceicei who has been busy with her life managed to squeeze in this trip thanks to it being a holiday. Byron was just being totally patient... but still had to do his chores to be allowed to go by both his parents and his SRT/Caving instructor (moi).
It was out to Pink Lime Pit (see previous posts) to initiate the new-comers and to give Max a chance to try out Prussiks (again see previous posts), one of Ceicei's favorite ways of getting up on a rope whilst deep in a pit.
Everyone did very well, my older students were, I felt proficient enough in the method of ascending (and rappelling) to assist (moi) in the hows and where-fores that my job was a lot easier that I could spread myself out helping whomever needed help the most whenever they needed it.
Utilizing the principals of energy conservation and motion as observed by Martial Artists as a teaching tool everyone caught on very quickly. Ailene was my major concern since she has had a series of foot surgeries that are just now beginning to heal and she felt well enough to make the attempt.
Once the basics were set down in their minds and bodies we had a quick lunch and went to a different cave.
Enroute we spied a growing brush-fire set off by who knows what. Idiots with fireworks? Idiots with a careless camp-fire? Lightning? Who knows? Either way we passed fire-fighting units from several of the small surrounding towns and was pulled over by a sheriff's deputy to be questioned and then sent on our way.
Upper cave is the name. It's basically as deep as Pink Lime Pit but has a real cave to go explore and some challenges of it's own. Exposed climbs and a long hand-dug belly crawl that (if memory serves correctly) extends well over 200 feet.
Lots of photos were taken by three aspiring photographers. Soon to be posted here as a continuation of this report.
Max and I chatted and we agreed that more MA-ist should try caving, as it utilizes full body-all muscle work outs in doing so. As well as internalizing personal fears and over coming them as well as other challenges.
Plus it's just a lot of fun.
Everyone had a blast, even the old-timer ... moi!
Today was a good day for caving. Not quite as hot as it has been, approaching thunderstorms from way out west were cooling things off nice enough to allow a good day of training and actual caving.
Ceicei and her son Byron and a new caving buddy Max Barker and his wife Ailene (that's how I remember she spelled it to me) and son Russell and a even newer caving buddy Mike M. were present to get an afternoon's worth of training and then the rest of the day spent in their first cave (Ceicei and Byron excepting).
On the way out there we saw Pronghorn Antelope and a red-tailed hawk.
It was Ailene, Mike and Russell's first time doing SRT (Single Rope Techniques). Max who is a 4th Cord Capoera went out with me the previous weekend and apparently his story of that day was enough to get his wife interested. Russell couldn't make it that weekend and was wow-ed enough to definitely make the trip today.
Ceicei who has been busy with her life managed to squeeze in this trip thanks to it being a holiday. Byron was just being totally patient... but still had to do his chores to be allowed to go by both his parents and his SRT/Caving instructor (moi).
It was out to Pink Lime Pit (see previous posts) to initiate the new-comers and to give Max a chance to try out Prussiks (again see previous posts), one of Ceicei's favorite ways of getting up on a rope whilst deep in a pit.
Everyone did very well, my older students were, I felt proficient enough in the method of ascending (and rappelling) to assist (moi) in the hows and where-fores that my job was a lot easier that I could spread myself out helping whomever needed help the most whenever they needed it.
Utilizing the principals of energy conservation and motion as observed by Martial Artists as a teaching tool everyone caught on very quickly. Ailene was my major concern since she has had a series of foot surgeries that are just now beginning to heal and she felt well enough to make the attempt.
Once the basics were set down in their minds and bodies we had a quick lunch and went to a different cave.
Enroute we spied a growing brush-fire set off by who knows what. Idiots with fireworks? Idiots with a careless camp-fire? Lightning? Who knows? Either way we passed fire-fighting units from several of the small surrounding towns and was pulled over by a sheriff's deputy to be questioned and then sent on our way.
Upper cave is the name. It's basically as deep as Pink Lime Pit but has a real cave to go explore and some challenges of it's own. Exposed climbs and a long hand-dug belly crawl that (if memory serves correctly) extends well over 200 feet.
Lots of photos were taken by three aspiring photographers. Soon to be posted here as a continuation of this report.
Max and I chatted and we agreed that more MA-ist should try caving, as it utilizes full body-all muscle work outs in doing so. As well as internalizing personal fears and over coming them as well as other challenges.
Plus it's just a lot of fun.
Everyone had a blast, even the old-timer ... moi!
Here is a link to where Mike had posted his (and Ceicei's) photos of our trip on the fourth of july... http://photos.mimbach.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=Caving
enjoy... (you can click on the thumbs, get the photo, then click on the photo itself and get a larger version of it...) some of the orientation of the pics are not proper... I written to Mike suggesting that he *ahem* fix that...
enjoy... (you can click on the thumbs, get the photo, then click on the photo itself and get a larger version of it...) some of the orientation of the pics are not proper... I written to Mike suggesting that he *ahem* fix that...
Here are my photos of the trip...
1. group photo of all present except for yours truly who had to push the button...
2. Ceicei on rope, all smiles.
3. Byron coming up out of the pit... he's happier than he looks.
4. Byron playing peek-a-boo in Upper Cave
5. Ceicei is umm... coming out? (j/k)
1. group photo of all present except for yours truly who had to push the button...
2. Ceicei on rope, all smiles.
3. Byron coming up out of the pit... he's happier than he looks.
4. Byron playing peek-a-boo in Upper Cave
5. Ceicei is umm... coming out? (j/k)
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Yet another caving trip, this last Sunday. To Blowhole Cave with some friends old and new. Practically all vertical cave reaching a depth of -340 feet. This will probably be my last trip in this cave for a while as I'm moving to TAG country (Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia) where some of the greatest vertical drops in the country are.
Roughly 90 % of this cave is on a 70-80 degree slope downwards. It was a geyser at one time in history a long long time ago, after the waters of Lake Bonneville drained. The temprature of this cave hovers at around 68-72 degrees and down lower the humidity level is pretty high too. It's drained dry and left behind a formation of rock we call the Navajo Blanket (see photos) a plethoria of photos of our trip can be found http://photos.mimbach.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album25
taken by budding cave photographer Mike Mimbach. The lovely Dannielle Harden took many of the "fossil" photos in the "Fossil Passage" an portion of the cave that rises above the main passage and extends to roughly 12 feet below the surface.
My own photos are here below. Enjoy
1. James and Mike observing the entrance drop.
2. Danni preparing herself for an enjoyable trip out in the hot desert sun.
3. Tamie making her way past me to the bottom of the deepest rope drop. All smiles as usual, she just loves this stuff.
4. Mike coming up out of Miner's Pit which gives the cave it's 340 foot depth, it's located some 180 feet beneath the surface.
5. The carcass of a dead bunny (black tip jackrabbit) that most likely died of starvation/dehydration after falling into the cave and not being able to make it's way out. There were two of them (in different locations) and they were umm, relatively fresh as the stench of rot premeated the lower areas of the cave. This guy was fairly deep down above Miner's Pit. He was still.... juicy. :barf:
Roughly 90 % of this cave is on a 70-80 degree slope downwards. It was a geyser at one time in history a long long time ago, after the waters of Lake Bonneville drained. The temprature of this cave hovers at around 68-72 degrees and down lower the humidity level is pretty high too. It's drained dry and left behind a formation of rock we call the Navajo Blanket (see photos) a plethoria of photos of our trip can be found http://photos.mimbach.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album25
taken by budding cave photographer Mike Mimbach. The lovely Dannielle Harden took many of the "fossil" photos in the "Fossil Passage" an portion of the cave that rises above the main passage and extends to roughly 12 feet below the surface.
My own photos are here below. Enjoy
1. James and Mike observing the entrance drop.
2. Danni preparing herself for an enjoyable trip out in the hot desert sun.
3. Tamie making her way past me to the bottom of the deepest rope drop. All smiles as usual, she just loves this stuff.
4. Mike coming up out of Miner's Pit which gives the cave it's 340 foot depth, it's located some 180 feet beneath the surface.
5. The carcass of a dead bunny (black tip jackrabbit) that most likely died of starvation/dehydration after falling into the cave and not being able to make it's way out. There were two of them (in different locations) and they were umm, relatively fresh as the stench of rot premeated the lower areas of the cave. This guy was fairly deep down above Miner's Pit. He was still.... juicy. :barf:
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lol nice koala , enjoyed reading the posts , more pics more pics!
KATIE SCHMITT - Daily Herald
In most places, bats have gotten the reputation as being scary, disease-carrying flying terrors, but one golf course is using them as a natural insecticide.
Gregory Taylor, 15, of Boy Scout Troop 870 in Spanish Fork, built eight bat houses in six months to place on the Sleepy Ridge Golf Course in Orem for his Eagle Scout project.
Bat houses are wooden structures built to encourage bats to live in a certain area by providing the right environment for them.
"We originally wanted to make markers on the golf course to show how far you are from the hole," Taylor said. "But the golf course wanted to know if we would build bat houses instead."
Brian Cloud, head golf course superintendent for Sleepy Ridge Golf Course, said the course is near wetlands and has been known to have a mosquito problem from time to time. He said he hopes that encouraging bats to roost near the course will help cut down on discomfort for the golfers.
According to Bat Conservation International, www.batcon.org, the Little Brown Myotis, a common bat found in North America, can eat up to 1,200 insects in just one hour.
Taylor said each bat house will hold up to 1,000 bats. (do the math)
"It might take a few years for the bats to find the houses," Cloud said. "But I think it will help control the mosquito population much more effectively."
Full Story here:
http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/187973/4/
In most places, bats have gotten the reputation as being scary, disease-carrying flying terrors, but one golf course is using them as a natural insecticide.
Gregory Taylor, 15, of Boy Scout Troop 870 in Spanish Fork, built eight bat houses in six months to place on the Sleepy Ridge Golf Course in Orem for his Eagle Scout project.
Bat houses are wooden structures built to encourage bats to live in a certain area by providing the right environment for them.
"We originally wanted to make markers on the golf course to show how far you are from the hole," Taylor said. "But the golf course wanted to know if we would build bat houses instead."
Brian Cloud, head golf course superintendent for Sleepy Ridge Golf Course, said the course is near wetlands and has been known to have a mosquito problem from time to time. He said he hopes that encouraging bats to roost near the course will help cut down on discomfort for the golfers.
According to Bat Conservation International, www.batcon.org, the Little Brown Myotis, a common bat found in North America, can eat up to 1,200 insects in just one hour.
Taylor said each bat house will hold up to 1,000 bats. (do the math)
"It might take a few years for the bats to find the houses," Cloud said. "But I think it will help control the mosquito population much more effectively."
Full Story here:
http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/187973/4/
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One of my caving buddies finally managed to get his video on the net. It's very low quality but clear enough to make out what's going on. Basically it's just us getting ready and going down the entrance of a 340 foot deep cave (see previous trip report above ... Blowhole Cave).
Hopefully will get more and better videos up for ya'll.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4471092647368518408&hl=en
On the same page there's Tabernacle Hill and Lava tubes done by another caving buddy of mine.
Hopefully will get more and better videos up for ya'll.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4471092647368518408&hl=en
On the same page there's Tabernacle Hill and Lava tubes done by another caving buddy of mine.
Another caving trip, this time to an unknown pit. Miners had started a shaft (a vertical pit) and broke into what is apparently natural cave. The total estimated depth is about 115 feet.
I was first one down since I had the most experience in vertical work (over 38K feet) and exploring unknown pits/shafts. It got un-nervving after waiting for the next person to come down as at the bottom there was literally no where to go if a rock was knocked loose by the person above me. Only 3 out of 4 of our party actually descended the deep pit.
We found another one not too far away but it was a smallish drop of about 15 feet and the guy who went down experienced what we call bad air, in basic terms low 02 count and high C02 count. He made it back out alright as it wasn't that deep of a pit.
Pictures of our adventure can be found here. No dead bunnies thank goodness. http://photos.mimbach.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album31
Fun times as usual. Will be going out again this coming Sunday.
I was first one down since I had the most experience in vertical work (over 38K feet) and exploring unknown pits/shafts. It got un-nervving after waiting for the next person to come down as at the bottom there was literally no where to go if a rock was knocked loose by the person above me. Only 3 out of 4 of our party actually descended the deep pit.
We found another one not too far away but it was a smallish drop of about 15 feet and the guy who went down experienced what we call bad air, in basic terms low 02 count and high C02 count. He made it back out alright as it wasn't that deep of a pit.
Pictures of our adventure can be found here. No dead bunnies thank goodness. http://photos.mimbach.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album31
Fun times as usual. Will be going out again this coming Sunday.
Thanks to my buddy Mike, he's created a webpage for me to post all my photos. It's a long work in progress but there are a number of old photos from trips dating 15 years ago to present. I will be uploading more over the next week or so. Keep checking back.
Enjoy http://ralph.rigidtech.com/albums.php
Enjoy http://ralph.rigidtech.com/albums.php
One of my caving groups had a party (so to speak)... lots of caves were visited and my "world famous spagetti sauce" was served. One of the caves I managed to visit was one called Chepeta in the Unita Mountians of Utah.
This is a spectacular cave with some vertical rope work involved and some of the most decorated rooms I've seen in years. It was my third trip to the cave and a first for the other three that came along.
Ceicei's son Byron was among them and he had a great time though we both missed his mother joining us. Someday again soon CC
This is one of the pictures of Byron as he posed among a cluster of formations. The photo was taken with a Canon D10 and it's one of the best I've seen. Altogether we took over 700 photos with two cameras (gotta love digital and those big cards they take) and roughly about more than half came out and most of those were worked with a photo editing program to where they looked a lot better.
I'm having issues with a rule that prohibits posting photos of the cave on the internet. Basically I think as long as location isn't given out it should be okay because everyone should be allowed to enjoy this type of beauty, even if second hand.
I will have the pics up on soon...
This is a spectacular cave with some vertical rope work involved and some of the most decorated rooms I've seen in years. It was my third trip to the cave and a first for the other three that came along.
Ceicei's son Byron was among them and he had a great time though we both missed his mother joining us. Someday again soon CC
This is one of the pictures of Byron as he posed among a cluster of formations. The photo was taken with a Canon D10 and it's one of the best I've seen. Altogether we took over 700 photos with two cameras (gotta love digital and those big cards they take) and roughly about more than half came out and most of those were worked with a photo editing program to where they looked a lot better.
I'm having issues with a rule that prohibits posting photos of the cave on the internet. Basically I think as long as location isn't given out it should be okay because everyone should be allowed to enjoy this type of beauty, even if second hand.
I will have the pics up on soon...
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This is copied from the NSS discussion board http://www.cavechat.org/ under Caving General Discussion and Questions section which was in turn copied from another listserv post (the link to THAT wasn't provided)... Very sad news for us cavers and those who love nature's wonders.
Here is a photograph of the formation before it was permanently damaged.
I post this here with hope that maybe someone will know something. The more faster and broader the word gets out the sooner these ....(grrrr) .... will be caught and MAYBE the broken piece be recovered and hopefully restored. It's possible to do so with epoxy resin but the pieces must marry together well enough for the adhesive to stick and for as little seam as possible to show... it isn't likely however as the broken piece might be in a trash barrel or tossed out of the vandals car to the side of the road (think lonely texas highways) in an effort to get rid of the evidence. As you can see from the photo this is a truly unqiue creation of nature... one of a kind now no more in it's purity.
Here is a photograph of the formation before it was permanently damaged.
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That's just horrible - both the act itself and the lack of action by the authorities.
The things people are capable of doing to beauty---in nature or in art---are horrific. I lived for a year on the Queen Charlotte Islands, an archipelago around 500 miles north of Vancouver and 70 miles offshore, the island of the Haida. In a remote part of these extremely wild, magnificent islands----think a bonsai version of New Zealand; a lot of the shots in Lord of the Rings look like a hugely expanded version of the Charlottes---was a gigantic Sitka spruce which, due to an apparently extremely rare mutation, produced golden rather than green needles; in fact the bark itself was golden tinged. The Golden Spruce really looked like a 200' tall spruce tree that someone had dipped in gold paint. It had essentially sacred status for the Haida and was, as far as I know, unique at this time---no other instance of this mutation has so far been discovered, though it probably occurs from time to time every millenium or so.
About ten years ago, I think, some psychopath who hated enviromentalists took a big chainsaw there and cut it down.
You can see what the tree looked like and read about the defective who killed it in the following links.
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/021104fa_fact?021104fa_fact
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4679760
The guys who damaged this cave are the same type, and given the chance, I would do the same thing to them that I would do to the guy who killed the Golden Spruce...
Get caught with a beer and they will go all out to throw the book at you, and yet something like this act that is really CRIMINAL is ignored??? The Park Rangers need to get their priorities in order...
Get in line okay... we'll (try) to leave enough for you to beat on ...
This is why I appreciate Flatlander for creating this thread, a means for me to help spread the message of conservation ... not just for caves mind you but for all things that nature has given us. Caves are the most fragile of environments but other places above ground should be held just as sacred and tread with care.
As martial artist we learn how to create harmony within our selves, our minds and our bodies. I believe that we also can learn from (MA) how to harmonize with our world. Though peace without cannot come unless there is peace within how nice it would be that when we (individually) achieve that inner peace that our world is just as peaceful and beautiful.
Please copy/paste the (above) post on the vandalism and put it on whatever other discussion forums you may belong to to help spread the word of this loss. Millions of people have visited Caverns of Sonora over the years and have appreciated the beauty of the butterfly and other formations throughout. I'm sure there would be some who would assist in the search for the perps.
Thank you.
Arizona Angel
Master Black Belt
These are just awesome pictures.
