Day 2

 

Day Hike to Bridge of Sighs




Today was a layover day, and Gary wanted to show us the Bridge of Sighs and an "interesting cave."  It was only a mile or so away, so it was expected to be a short day.  We arrived at the Bridge of Sighs without much effort -- walking on top of the Redwall was pretty easy.  After viewing the Bridge of Sighs, we walked a short distance to a steep drainage that had an opening on the far side that was the entrance to a cave.  It was a little spooky getting to this entrance, and not everyone felt comfortable with it. 

 

Gary Setting Up His Large Format Camera Leslie and the Bridge of Sighs Entrance to Cave

 

The cave was pretty cool.  A short distance in, still in view of the entrance, was a hole in the floor of the cave.  Gary said that the hole was something like 6 or 8 feet deep and ended in the roof of another cave.  Apparently the hole twisted a bit so you could not see the bottom from the top.  Several of us wanted to check it out, but the only person who was small enough, and also wanted to do it, was Patrick.  It would be fairly easy for Patrick to squirm down the hole and into the cave below, but retuning seemed problematic and risky.  So we tied a loop onto the end of our webbing and Patrick squirmed down the hole, barely fitting, with one foot in the loop. 

Patrick described the cave below as a large, wide cave, only about 4 feet high.  He walked out the the opening in the lower cave and found what looked like ancient construction of something like a scaffold, made from tree branches, that could have been used to climb down further and eventually reach the River. 

It was difficult for Patrick to climb back up through the hole.  With one foot in the loop at the end of the webbing, and with others pulling on the webbing from above, he was able to squirm back up through the hole.  The hole was so tight that he would not fit with his arms down by his side -- he had to keep them stretched out in front of him. 

 

Looking Up from the Cave Entrance Cave Entrance from Inside Patrick Starting Down the Hole

 


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