by - Eli Kutsch, SPL, Troop 677Troop 677 of Bozeman, MT recently headed to Idaho for our first caving high adventure (low adventure?) experience. We were guided by Vern Bowden, an experienced caver and scouter from Manhattan, MT. We were also joined by an adventuresome scout from Troop 676.
Mr. Bowden came to our troop meeting the
week before our trip to show us how to “be prepared” for this trip in terms of
the necessary gear, caving “leave no trace” ethics, safety awareness, and
positive attitudes. We thought we knew what to expect…..but were soon surprised
by the rugged beauty of the lava desert and the cave itself!
We followed Mr.Bowden off-road through
miles of sage and lava rock and wondered how anyone could have found this cave
in such a remote area. We learned later that the rubble resulting from the
collapse of a portion of the Dragonbreath lava tube caused a suspicious
formation that was noticed from above by someone in a plane!
When we arrived in the area of the cave,
Mr. Bowden led us to a small area where there was more grass than sage and we
set up our camp. We brought the troop fire barrel and stand so we could avoid
leaving any trace of our campfire and could be especially cautious in the dry
conditions. 
After camp was set up-we headed to the
cave entrance. We put on our helmets and lights; got
on our work gloves; loaded our daypacks with extra light sources, water, snacks
and emergency gear. The cave entrance was a small crack in
the lava boulder jumble-but it opened immediately into a giant room. Of course,
the sight of this secret space caused my little brother Eric start to humming
the theme music from “Indiana Jones”!
The lava tube was massive in some spots,
like an airplane hangar. In other spots it became more
narrow, but never a tight squeeze. Mr. Bowden pointed out interesting things
such as “moon-milk”, soda straws, roots sticking down from the roof, and the
skeletons of pack rats. After a while, we got to marvel at the
bright red “secondary lava flow” that cut a channel in the floor of the lava
tube and was even hot enough to re-melt the rock walls of the original tube.The only cave life that we encountered
was a single bat that fluttered past us. 
After nearly a mile of careful travel
underground we stopped to rest and snack-being careful not to drop any crumbs.
While there, we turned off all of our lights for a minute to experience total
darkness. We returned to the entrance.
We climbed out back into natural light and desert heat-a different world! My
Dad mentioned that several Native American tribes have origin stories that
involve people emerging from the ground like we did. 
We returned to camp and cooked dinner. That night we stargazed after our
campfire and were lucky enough to see the International Space Station fly
overhead!
We backed up early and headed back north after a quick breakfast. On
the way home, we stopped to climb and play on some sand dunes.
We had a great time, learned a lot, and
are very grateful to Mr. Bowden for showing us our first wild cave!
Thanks,
Allen
“Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but well placed footsteps, kill nothing but time.” – cavers’ creed
No comments:
Post a Comment