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Trip Report: Pearl Cave - Fun Outing with Central
Oklahoma Grotto |
1. Off to the Northwest - not to try to connect passage - not to crawl though unknown leads - not to survey - but just to have fun! It was a C.O.G. (Central Oklahoma Grotto) members fun trip - no work to do (yeah - other than bodily workout) and a time to enjoy fellow caver's company. |
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2. The entrance into Pearl is a bit tricky - within a couple of more years it will be rope work to get in and out of it! As it is now, it's a slide grab a vine (oops...that one was poison ivy!) and then shift directions and slide down the next slide... miss the turn and Spee-lunk! You just fell into the pit! John V. thought that's probably were the term Spelunker came from - that unique sound when a caver hits the ground! |
3. It was a very pleasant day outside... (why is it always a pleasant day when we go play underground? Why can't it be a blizzard or 900 degrees...) but I guess it was worth it to see the gem of the gypsum caves. This day had temperatures in upper 60's to low 70's. We weren't in any hurry today - no deadlines to make - no distances to be mapped - so at 12:15 p.m. we finally made our way down to the cave. |
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4. It was nice not having to get up at 5 a.m. to get to the NW part of the state to start a 10 a.m. caving trip. Nine people came on the trip. One entrance here doesn't look too fun as it is completely under water. |
5. But the other side was it...the dark gap in the wall of this pit called Sylvan Pit Entrance. |
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6. Talk about a warm cave!! After just a short while we were all a bit drippy! But there were some highlights. Near a mini waterfall you can actually find gyp flowstone. This room is called the Flowstone Waterfall Bat Room. This red bloody mass looks like a cave brain. Maybe left over by some past explorer since everybody knows you have to be pretty brainless to do some of the things a caver does! |
7. John Bozeman took the group up Pearl Canyon to start the first half of the trip. He said he wanted everybody to see the cave pearls but I think he just wanted to bruise us up and shred our coveralls!! <grin> Notice I don't have a picture of the pearls - fat boy here could hardly get though the canyon much less take his pack with him!! This picture is after coming back out and us breathing hard!! Pearl Canyon leads into Coral Pane Bat Room where we all rested and then had to climb back out. |
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8. This was the trip that we can say Roy started to become a master cave photographer. Lots of experiments to try different light settings, exposures, etc... He lugged that camera and tripod through the entire cave! Brave soul!! But if those pictures all come out he should have some spectacular ones!!! |
9. After being squeezed in the canyon, we took off down the main branch of the cave. Long HIGH tunnels made this part of the trip very very pleasant!! The original river channel in the ceiling was full of striations and always worth looking at. |
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10. During one of Roy's shootings in the Axolotl Axis corridor, I got to play with my stupid camera's exposure rates. Dumb caves - they are so dark you can't get a good picture unless you go long time exposure - then if the subject moves they smear it (of if you tremble taking the picture!) So to get the rest of the cave the camera was set for a whole one second exposure! The lamps really look bright now!! |
11. Whenever we would take a break we would make up a fog cloud around our bodies! Sometimes we would fill the entire room up with fog making it hard to see. Just giant condensation plumes. Here is John sending out his fog bank! |
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12. Some of the stone is so shaped that if you thump it with your finger you can get a tone resonance! Here John is trying to find the right keys to play a song! |
13. Trick of the day - How in the world did Dale get into this mess??? Owww - it hurts just to look at it! |
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14. I just hate it when that happens! |
15. We had two guys (Dale and Roy) with headlights that looked like car lights. So many times we had them stay back and we went forward to see what various parts of the cave looked like commercial lighting lit! (notice our fog in the right side... We liked making fog rooms this day!) This was right near the Coalescence tunnel. |
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16. The highlight of the day was near the Poison Ivy Entrance where if you were really skinny (and that's not me!) you were able to go up into what everybody says is the prettiest crystal room in the state called the Crystal Alcove. Five of our party got to fit into the hole in the ceiling that leads into it. The rest of us had to be content at looking at these crystals growing in the Disc Bat Chamber (pocket knife for comparison). |
17. I never thought I'd see the light of day again!! No not really this trip was an extremely fun trip - great company - nice and pretty cave - and not having to work - just play all day. In at 12:15 and out at 5:30. Then clean up a bit and head off to Woodward for Pizza and home actually before Midnight!! <Gasp!> |
