By Adam Scherer

On Saturday, August 28th, 2006 Marsha Bush, Phil Walker, Bill Waller, and Adam Scherer went into Catacombs. After saying hello to the always gracious owner, Bill rigged the rope and we all downclimbed the sporting entrance pitch. The water was beautiful as usual and we proceded directly to the cube room. We ended up checking out the maze of rarely traveled passages past the cube room.

Captions

1. A before shot of the group.
2. Bill’s brother Phil climbing out.
3. Bill’s brother Phil climbing out.
4. Marsha climbing out the entrance.
5. Marsha finishing the climb.
6. Adam at the entrance.
7. Adam at the entrance.
8. An after shot of Bill Walker with the rope.

When Bill Birdsall put the

call out that he might need some help running people through Whitecliff Cave for the city, fellow FSS’ers were quick to respond.

The city had

planned a Brick City celebration of sorts. Camping out, track and field events, and a visit to the cave on the property were part of the fun on the Arbor Day weekend. The weather was great for

such an event.

By 9:00 am the seven of us, Bill Birdsall, Jerry Johnson, Jim

Smith, John Tumino, Kathryn Storey, Kitty Markley, and I were ready to start the procession though the entrance. We decided on staging ourselves throughout the cave and slot and basically passed each visitor from one to another.

The mini tours for our guests seemed to go smoothly and I believe that everyone we introduced to the site was grateful and impressed with the effort put forth. For most, it was their first experience underground and at each staging area FSS members were giving a quick lesson in cave conservation or busy answering a myriad of questions.

When the trips were done we exited and stood for our group pictures. One photo in particular sent to me by Bill B. showed the seven FSS members who participated. It’s a good shot and worthy of being displayed in my home.

Afterwards, we all headed to Burger King to eat some well earned fast food. I had a great time helping out. I enjoyed everyone’s company and respect each ones dedication and ability.

Bill, thanks for asking for assistance and staying on top of all the little details involved in Whitecliff. I’m sure in the future when the call goes out the energetic response will be every bit as good.

By Kitty Markley
7/3/05

We finally got a celebrity into a cave.

On Sun., July 3rd. Mike and I took local author Darlene Marshall to Whitecliff Cave. She had contacted the FSS in May and was interested in doing some research for her next romantic novel. The plot obviously involved caves (we promised not to give anything else away). We figured she had to be pretty interesting and maybe fun so we decided to set her up.

Buford, Mike and I threw location ideas back and forth and since she had never caved before we settled on WC. It turned out to be a good choice.

Darlene, Mike and I arrived at WC cave at about 11am. It didn’t take long to gear up and we were ready. Mike went in first. At this point I had to hand it to this lady-she just turned fifty and this was completely new to her. I recognized the look on her face (since I’ve worn it on mine)-definite trepidation. She later mentioned that she almost backed out at that point, which made me like her better for seeing it through. I’m sure the WC entrance looked small, dark and scary, but she figured she’d just trust us and in she went.

The trip was great. We’ve been in WC before and liked it but it was even more enjoyable in her presence. We were going through the cave at a pretty good clip stopping to look at interesting stuff here and there. Darlene, relaxed now, asked some questions about how caves are formed and what elevations Florida caves are found at, etc. Definitely a smart, well read person.

After about an hour of caving we were back at the big rock under the entrance passage discussing cave terms and plot twists. That was very cool.

It took a few minutes to climb the rock up and out. I let Darlene stand on my back (and neck and head) and Mike pulled her up. She was so appreciative to us for making that climb easier that she later gave us a copy of her last novel ‘Smugglers Bride’.

After exiting the cave we beat it out of there quickly (the mosquitoes were thick and felt like they had fangs).

We took Darlene back to her car so she could head back to her home in Gainesville. She promised to credit the FSS for our contribution to her new novel coming out later this year.

We’re looking forward to seeing our grotto’s name in print!

By Randy Youngman

On April 3, 2005, a successful expedition to Gremlin Cave was mounted by Central FL Cavers “SchoolGirl Caving Squad”

Emily and Gail Youngman on April 3, 2005 accompanied by Randy Youngman and lead by Mike Gordon of FSS. After the customary rendezvous screw-up, we finally arrived at the site and proceeded to scramble around in the two smaller caves of the Gremlin trio and make a general nuisance of ourselves while Sarah Cervone, Wendy Shirah, Tom Feeney, and Kitty Markley tried to get serious work done practicing their cave mapping skills. Much to their relief, we split off from their mapping trip and Mike guided us through the main Gremlin passages. As usual, the girls had a blast and are becoming more accustomed to tight crawls, scrambling, and climbing around in the dark.

There were no equipment failures, near-misses, or incidents to report, and air quality was good. This was our first visit to this cave, so we cannot report on changes of condition. No particularly dangerous conditions, significant litter, or vandalism were observed.

On behalf of “SGCS”, I want to express our gratitude for all those who have taken the time to help me get my kids engaged in caving, including all those listed above, Bill Birdsall, Steve Nesmith, and our own Central FL grotto members. With lots more to learn and explore, caving has offered us valuable lessons in expanding our limits, developing self-assurance, confronting fears, stewardship, team work, and the joys of coin-operated Laundromats (Mommy won’t let us wash our cave stuff at home!).

Cave Safely, Cave Often

Brian Williams and Sean Roberts recently visited Orange Lake Cave to collect a crayfish specimen for a University of Florida study. Here are some

photos that Sean took in the big room of the cave.

BY MIKE GORDON
PHOTOS BY DAN AND ANNETTE BRINTON

When Sean mentioned the University was looking for volunteers to trap albino crayfish from some of the lesser traveled water passages I could see the excitement in Kitty’s eyes. With a degree in biology this was an opportunity to combine her caving skills and scientific education.

About six years ago, while caving with Kitty in “Lemonwood” (her very first cave), I squeezed into a new area where I had to straddle water in a lower chamber. At the time I estimated the water depth at 20ft. We remembered this area and thought it might produce a crayfish or two.

After telling Dan and Annette of our intent they agreed to join us. Not having seen the water room before, they were interested, so we met at the location at a predetermined time.

In we went, minnow trap, cat food, and monofilament line all in tow. While Dan and Annette peered into the depth of the water room, Kitty busied herself with baiting the trap and securing the line. Without a lot of elbow room for everyone back there I decided to check on the little hobbit hole to the right. Holy Cow, right there in the bottom of the small circular pool just an arm and shoulder length away sat three albino crayfish. I was able to snag two of them. Kitty’s excitement over this discovery was amusing to us all. We hadn’t even set the trap and we’re two up already. Upon further inspection by Kitty both specimens were female and we needed reproductive males, so those to lucky girls went right back where I caught them.

Slowly Kitty lowered the trap into the deep part of the well. We agreed on Sunday night being the best time to check on our project. All went well so far. On the way out Annette spotted a bat as it flew through the tunnel landing on first me then Dan before wisping off into the dark behind us (luckily we had our helmets on so it couldn’t lay eggs in our hair).

Sunday rolled around, time to check our trap. The four of us entered, this time with elbow and knee pads covering our cuts and bruises from the last trip. After contorting just the right way I was again able to straddle the water in the small room. Locating the filament line was easy but lifting the trap proved difficult as the line was cut by the sharp underwater formations leaving us unable to bring it up. We tied off a submersible light and lowered it to locate the trap on the bottom. Dan and Annette were each able to negotiate the squeeze and verify the depth at 14ft 3 inches.

Leaving the cave was bitter sweet. At the bottom of the well room some underwater passage was evident; however, losing the trap was on everyone’s mind. On the drive home I believe we all devised a way to return the next day and retrieve it. After a brief discussion we agreed on Dan’s plan to try.

We met with high hopes and the right equipment. A tank, regulator, mask, guide rope, weights and a camera were all carefully set in position. After getting into the well room we passed Dan the gear he needed. Annette snapped picture as Dan descended being extra careful not to disturb the silt on the ledges. After a nail biting amount of time he returned to the surface with excitement in his voice and our crayfish trap in his hand. “I’ve never seen more crayfish in one room before in my life” he called up to the rest of us. The trap was crawling with strange milky white critters.

The final count was twenty in the trap, three males and seventeen females. We selected two viable males to transport out and the rest we returned to the area we got them. After securing the equipment and some cave chat it was time to depart with are little captives.

The success of this trip was apparent to each of us. The trap left uncollected could have collected crayfish for years, potentially wiping out a colony. Without Dan and Annette’s knowledge and skill of underwater passage and Kitty’s gritty determination none of this would have been possible. I thank all three and was proud to be a part of the challenge. While the numbers of caves that legitimate cavers have access too dwindles each year, perhaps now is the time to focus on some of the less impressive more familiar locations.

Caving, whether in virgin passage or known terrain can be equally fulfilling if done with the right attitude and adventurous caving buddies.

First Trip

Second Trip

On Sunday, February 13th Dan, Annette, Kitty and

I had planned on getting together to load up the debris piles along the road to “Jennings” for a couple of weeks. Today was that

day. We met a little early to show Dan and Annette our most recent discovery in the area. We have been interested in getting an opinion from more experienced cavers on this particular site and this was a good opportunity. Not to mention they’re a lot of fun to cave with. We had a blast discussing the potential and swapping stories and before we knew it we were 20 minutes late to meet the others.

Back to “Jennings” we went. Waiting patiently were Amber and Edge perched on a rock at the entrance. Mike, a local neighbor of the property, also showed up with a trailer. That gave us two trailers and seven strong backs to work with. First were the giant pine logs. We loaded them up and Mike hauled them off to burn on his property. Next was the shingles and construction junk. That all went into Dan’s trailer without incident. Annette, Kitty and Amber began removing limbs from around the property and path and helped get the last of the piles we could haul safely.

Before unloading, we all geared up for a quick check on the

cave interior. We were pleased to find everything in order. Surprisingly, we counted five bats. That’s as many as have been counted in several years. It would be great to see a colony take up residence again. After unloading we headed back to my house for pizza and drinks by the outside fire. Between the logs and construction stuff I figure we got rid of a couple of tons of debris. It was a good day and I think those that helped would agree we were happy with the accomplishment.