February 2017 Lint and Restoration Camp

We attended a lint and restoration camp in January, and then a second one in February at Lehman Cave. After dusting off lint for awhile, it as time to start on the restoration--or removing old dirt and sand trail to find the natural cave bottom. It's a very satisfying task for all ages. And the kids were happy to be able to talk as they worked.

Below you can see some of the natural floor being uncovered. The dirt might have been brought in to help protect some of the delicate parts of the cave. Then they walked on it. We figure just uncovering it and then not walking on it at all might be a better solution.


There was also some restoration in a place called the Dog house. The natural cave floor, which was the bottom of a pool, was found.


As a reward, participants got to visit the huge Talus Room, which is longer than a football field. It's off the trail route and rarely entered.


Another reward was seeing a very wet cave. Recent snowmelt made the water come through the epikarst (layer above the cave) quickly, and as a result we were seeing unusual things like bubbles at the end of soda straws that were dripping water.

It's so fun seeing the kids enjoy lint and restoration camp. They're the next generation that will carry this forward.

Some treasures were found during the restoration, namely pennies in the Lake Room. About a dozen were found, including a couple wheat pennies. Probably people threw them into the pool. We haven't seen a pool in that room for years, it's been too dry.

The girls really liked washing rocks. It's a bit of a tedious process, but it works well to get old asphalt and dirt residue off the cave rocks. Then they're put back into the pools and look amazing.

Another fun part of lint and restoration camp is the potluck. There's always plenty of tasty food. This year we even saw individual creme brulees!

The girls carrying the rock-washing water out of the cave. They were full of smiles the entire time.

Here's a small pool in the Cypress Swamp before being cleaned.

 

And here it is after being cleaned:

It's exciting to see how much difference we can see in just a couple days. We're going to keep working in this area in future years to see how much we can improve it.