Date: 06/17/2023
Author: Cole Arthur
Participants: Cave dogs, James, Katherine, Colin
My friend James asked me to take him on a more difficult caving trip. Horsethief was that weekend so I suggested we take a trip down to Wyoming.
We left Bozeman about 2 then waited about an hour in Lovell for Colin who generously agreed to give us a ride.
The next morning we joined more of a sight seeing / scouting trip due to the lack of sketchers. We were joined by Colin, the cave dogs crew and Katherine.
We entered first and made relatively good speed though the crawl. Onley stopping for 15 minutes or so having trouble with the gate. And Wills group catching us right at the gypsum wall.
From there we proceeded though the spit hole, over the Dinosaur Back and up to Mind Bender eventually reaching the room where the Crack Where the Water Comes Down is located.
Dylan then spent a few minutes trying to climb up a crack before the other team arrived to start survey in White Dirt Maze and informed us he was trying to climb the wrong crack.
The rest of the team then preceded up the crack. I did not as I had been advised by Will that I could possibly have a hard time in leu of my trouble at Titan last month. James stayed with me as well.
We went and helped the White Dirt Maze team start their survey while the rest of the other team explored the Carpet Room. We returned to our original team after about 6 shots.
From there we took our time back though Mind Bender then went up to L line. We got a bit lost looking for Powder Mountain eventually turning around when we got into the M line tags. We did eventually find Powder Mountain on the way back.
From there we quickly returned to the crawl. I got stuck in the first crawl at the top of the wall. I had to back out and dig some dust out of the way first and then made it though. I did make the mistake of removing my mask for this process meaning I took a big face full of dirt and had breathing trouble the rest of the way out. Would not recommend that.
From there the crawl out was slow but uneventful we reached the surface around 5:30 pm.
Katherine gave use a ride down and we left for Bozeman arriving back around 11:00 pm. Myself and James then drove to Highwood to start our week’s work as summer camp staff. I could not put my hands above my head for 3 days.