6-1-03 HONDA CAVE DIG
"Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It’s Off To Dig We Go"
By Brian Williams

Plans were made for a big exploration trip into Briars the first weekend in June. Plans change, and the trip was cancelled. That's ok though, we are flexible and we all love a good dig... so away we went. Sean Roberts, Bill Walker, Caytlin Walker, Stephanie Juiliano, Adam Scherer and Brian Williams.

Before we got to our first dig we all had to stop and check out a new hole that had opened up and swallowed all the water in a retention pond behind some office buildings.



It goes somewhere, but how stable is it ?

Next we headed off to work on another one of Bill and Sean's secret digs. They had been working on this small crack out in the woods and they had widened it out quite a bit with some "explosive persuasion." There was just a little more rock that needed shaving to allow someone to slide in and check it out. It’s located on a great ridge with fantastic possibilities. It was blowing a little when we arrived and that was all the inspiration we needed to get started.




Caytlin Walker knows she can fit without any more work.

Well, of course we were not going to let Caytlin scoop all the good stuff, so we widened it out a little with the cave persuader. Just shaved off enough rock for Stephanie to fit and go check it out.



Down she goes to check it out

"So, what's the story? Does it go? How big is it? Which way? Can we all fit? What did you see? Come on give it up!"

Stephanie said, "Well, it goes, it’s tight, it’s rocky. I don’t know, check it out yourself."




That was enough for us. You know how it is when you get a report like that. If it seemed like it was blowing a little bit before, now it really seemed to be blowing. Got to get it bigger so the rest of us can fit.



Bring on the tools !




Almost ! Just a little more persuasion with the air hammer.

And we are in! It's tight, it goes, it's blowing. Turns out to be the kind of entrance we all hate to see, a long fissure crack that just keeps going but stays really tight. This one has potential but it’s going to be some work. The entrance is two parallel cracks that are joined by another in the middle. When viewed from above it gives the impression of the Honda symbol on a car, thus, Sean christened it "Honda Cave". Only one problem, we all fit in except Sean.

The cave has good possibilities and good air flow. It is a long fissure crack that just keeps going down for about 25 ft below grade. It’s tight. It needs some more work. We'll be back.




Here Sean sits, wishing he was a little smaller




Caytlin says, "Don't worry Sean, it's not that great. Dad, can I go in again?"





Adam in the bowels of Honda Cave




Bill Walker looks into the void.