A Trip to Hutchings Hole

I've been doing a fair bit of caving lately, trying to get it out of my system and take advantage of the good weather before winter sets in. A couple weekends ago I joined a Tri-Grotto get-together, where I met lots of cavers. I decided to visit Hutchings Hole with a group. To get there we drove a long way on bumpy gravel roads through sagebrush-covered terrain. Much of it looked like the photo above.

Finally we reached the end of the road (which then turned into an ATV trail). It was time to park, get our gear, and hike up to the cave. Sometimes finding the cave can be a whole adventure in itself, but fortunately we had a couple of people who had been to the cave before, including one who had GPS coordinates to a cave that had a different name but matched the description. (This cave has many names, because it has been "discovered" many times.) After a slight detour, we were in the right spot.

Here's some of the group hiking up the hill. We had the rare sight of a mostly cloudy sky over the Great Basin terrain.

Within a five minute walk, we were at the edge of the cave entrance. And it was quite a cave entrance! A gaping hole about 40 feet wide and 15 feet across led to a dark passage below. There was a dropoff of about 10 feet to get into the hole.

An obligatory butt shot. Here they are discussing the best way to get down into the hole, which now appeared deeper than it was in their memories.

A rope was rigged, but a tree branch was found to be in an opportune location so that the rope could just be used as a handline and no rappelling or ascending gear was necessary.

The inside of the cave was full of big breakdown blocks. The cave sloped down quite steeply, so we had to carefully pick our way though the rocks. We could see the huge entrance from almost every spot in the cave. 

But near the back there was a hole going down through the boulders. I followed a couple other cavers down a handline and found that there was quite a bit more passage. There wasn't anything particularly notable-no cave formations, water passages, or exotic cave biota. But it was still fun going down a passageway where I didn't know what was at the end of it.

Here's a skeleton that was near the entrance, probably a jackrabbit.

And here's the cave entrance from below. Even though the cave wasn't all that big, it was still a fun trip. The fault-block cave was quite a bit different than many of the dissolution caves in the area. And it was great to meet some other cavers.

We hiked back to the vehicles, happy to have visited a little bit more of the subterranean world, and ready to go on the next expedition.

Checking Hay

We were supposed to have lots of rain last night and today, but so far nary a drop has fallen down in the valley. We have gotten plenty of wind, though. And in preparation for the supposed deluge (well, California and Reno got it), my husband has been working hard to try to get they hay up. Cut hay and rain are not a good combination.

Desert Boy and I went along one afternoon on a hay checking expedition. I've learned never to go on one of these trips unless I have some reading material and/or my camera with me. They're a little tedious and always take longer than my husband says.

I was content to stay by the truck, but Desert Boy wanted to go follow his Daddy, so he hiked out into the alfalfa field and started following him around.

Soon it was time to go check hay in a different row. Desert Boy likes to hold onto someone's hand (unlike his independent, younger cousin!).

He also likes to be carried, and he managed to convince Daddy to pick him up.

Then it was time to flip over some more hay and check its moisture content. They hay has to be just right to make the best bales.

Desert Boy sorta looks like he knows what he's doing!

Then it's time to head back to the truck. Desert Boy starts out walking all confident-like.

Then it's time to hold onto Daddy's hand.

And then the other hand.

And, uh-oh, he's convinced Daddy to pick him up again.

Apparently checking hay is tough work for a two-year old.

Skateboarding Cow

I've seen these skateboarding cow signs on trips, but recently one popped up down the road from us. I particularly like the juxtaposition of the trees and building in the background--almost makes you think there might be a skateboarding park up ahead with Herefords and Holsteins battling it out.

How Remote Are You?

Image of The Continguous United States Visualized by Distance to the Nearest McDonald's courtesy of Stephen Von Worly (via Carpe Diem). 

I know I live in one of the remotest places in the lower 48 states. After all, it's an hour drive's to our nearest grocery store. Here's a map that helps show how remote places are in the U.S. based on the location of 13,000+ McDonald's restaurants. 

"For maximum McSparseness, we look westward, towards the deepest, darkest holes in our map: the barren deserts of central Nevada, the arid hills of southeastern Oregon, the rugged wilderness of Idaho’s Salmon River Mountains, and the conspicuous well of blackness on the high plains of northwestern South Dakota.  There, in a patch of rolling grassland, loosely hemmed in by Bismarck, Dickinson, Pierre, and the greater Rapid City-Spearfish-Sturgis metropolitan area, we find our answer.

Between the tiny Dakotan hamlets of Meadow and Glad Valley lies the McFarthest Spot: 107 miles distant from the nearest McDonald’s, as the crow flies, and 145 miles by car!"

So this map shows that we are fairly remote, but not the remotest in the country.

Now I wonder how if the map would look any different if the nearest WalMart was plotted. Our nearest WalMart is 135 miles by car.

Into Ice Cave

A couple weeks ago I took some work colleagues into a nearby cave. It's not real large, but it has some interesting features in it. To go in, first we had to unlock the gate.

Desert Boy doesn't look too sure about this outing. He wasn't supposed to go, but my husband had a water meeting that ran long, and since I knew Desert Boy could handle the cave, he got to go.

He was happy when he was doing something physical, otherwise he was ready to leave. He made the cave seem quite a bit bigger and was able to squeeze along some of the rather small passageways.

Do you see the scallops on the cave walls? They are an indication that there was once flowing water in the cave. I've been in this cave when water flowed into it--brrrr! It required crawling through some cold creek water. The scallops are found at all levels of the cave and you'll see them in the following pictures, too. Obviously there used to be a lot more water flowing in the cave.

Here's Bryan, who was eager to explore every little nook and cranny, hoping to find some new passageway.

Bryan, Travis, and Nicole reached a deadend and had to turn around. But before they could get out of the passage, I made them stop and pose for a picture. I'm mean that way. 

I didn't have any kneepads that fit Desert Boy, but it turned out he hardly had to crawl, even though the rest of us did.

Here's Nicole in an upper passage. There is just a little bit of maziness to the cave that makes it fun to explore.

I love looking down the deep, dark passageways and wondering where they go.

Travis was willing to not just wonder, but crawl around and find out.

Of course I'm always on the lookout for cave insects, but I didn't find a lot on this trip. This beetle was one of the more interesting finds. There was also a lot of rodent scat in the cave, some of it fairly fresh. But we didn't run into any live rodents. 

Another crawling passage, this one with plenty of dirt on the floor. And you know what you get when you put Desert Boy and dirt together...

...yum. Or not. I just hope he is getting his immune system strong.

After an hour and a half of checking out the entire cave, it was time to leave. But we'll be back!