Just like Charles Dickens said in the very first sentence of ‘A Tale of Two Cities’: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”
In spite of a worldwide pandemic, civil unrest, and political upheaval–four cavers got together without any fanfare to do a good deed.
Jennings Cave gets a lot of local visitation and a lot of trash due to many disrespectful visitors. In February the FSS got together to do a little house cleaning of Jennings Cave and remove debris, trash, and a dryer that had been thrown down the entrance. We found that we could hardly access the cave because some local folks had pushed a giant rock into the cave entrance on the top of the debris pile and the dryer.
READ PART 1 HERE
This rock was really big and wedged in tight. So, when you have a REALLY big problem, such as a giant rock wedged in a cave entrance, what do you do. Well…you go home and think about it, or maybe talk about it with fellow cavers.
While everyone was sitting at home–Dr. Jeff Karr, the brothers: Jeremy and Russel Atayo–got together with Derick Penkava from the Tampa Area Grotto (T-BAG) to finish the job. Jeff, Jeremy, Russel, and Derick brought out some heavy equipment and were able to remove the BFR, debris, and smashed dryer from the entrance of Jennings. This was a lot of work for four people, but they pulled it off and cleared the entrance. The Southeastern Cave Conservancy in addition to Cavers from all over Florida are in in your debt.
Jeremy and Russel remove the BFR.
Jeff and Russel by the remains of the removed dryer.
Removing the rest of the debris.
Hats off to our caving heroes!
Photos by Dr. Jeff Carr Story by Philip Walker