Hiking in Snow Canyon State Park, Utah

 After our Padre Canyon hike, we spent the night in Snow Canyon State Park in late October during our fall break. The campground is small and often fills quickly, but we were able to get one of the last spots. The state park doesn't allow climbing on the nearby rocks (Valley of Fire State Park near Las Vegas does allow scrambling on the rocks at the campground, if this is important to you). So we decided on a hike the next day that would allow us to do lots of scrambling. Since we had brought our bikes, we thought it would be fun to make a combo hike-bike trip. I drove the truck with everyone's bikes uphill to where we wanted to end our hike, then biked down to the parking lot where we would start the hike, which was near the campground.

We started on the Hidden Pinyons trail, which has great parts like walking between these rock features.

There was even an optional jump. The kids realized that this wasn't going to be a normal hike. They were happy.

We soon were on the sandstone. Our basic plan was to take the trails north.

Soon we didn't even see the trail markers. But the park isn't big and we figured we couldn't get lost, so we just scrambled where ever we wanted to.

For the kids, that meant vertical trails!

My brother was a good sport. The clouds made hiking really comfortable.

We saw a few other people wandering around, but we had plenty of space to ourselves.

The cross bedding was amazing.

At this point, the kids didn't look that thrilled with the route I chose.

But we got to see some cool Hemiptera (true bugs) mating or something.

We kept going up...

...the views were stupendous, with contrasting red sandstone, white limestone, and black lava.

And finally we reached the top of a sandstone knoll. The kids thought they should celebrate by sticking out their tongues.

Next we descended and tarted the lava tube part of our adventure.

This is what we had the helmets--and lights--for. We met one family with no helmets and just one phone light for all seven of them. There were flip flops in the group. Hopefully they made it out. Unfortunately there's a lot of trash in the lava tubes and more glow sticks than you can imagine. It was sad. The kids really seemed upset about it. Hopefully some scout troops will go help clean up the lava tubes.

When we finished the hike, it was the biking part. It was all downhill, so super fun. I drove down to pick them up and get my bike.

I highly recommend hiking in Snow Canyon State Park, especially during the fall, winter, and spring. In the summer it can get so hot you have to take some special precautions. Here's their website to learn more.

NSS 2016 Western Regional, aka Caving with Friends in California

When I heard about the NSS Western Regional being the second weekend in October, I thought how much fun it would be. Then I got busy and didn't think much more about it until some friends asked if I would be going. I decided it would be worth it to see some caves in a part of California I had never been caving in before. I took the kids, and we headed off towards Sonora, California, with fun stops on the way (see this post). We arrived Friday evening and set up our tent, then a big group of us went out to eat in Sonora, a very touristy town in the Motherlode area in the foothills of the Sierra.

The next day, we met our trip leader and group to go to one of the Western Cave Conservancy (WCC) caves. The WCC works to protect and conserve caves. I've been a member for years, but had never been to one of the WCC caves, so was eager to go. The cave entrance was easy to negotiate, and we let the kids go first. They have quite a bit of cave experience. Plus, this trip for me was all about making sure the kids were having a good time and enjoying caving.

The kids loved being the leaders, but they gave up on tight passages a little too quickly. I'd have to tell them to keep going, and then they would get to a bigger room. They got better as we went on and showed us how easy the challenge crawl was (only one adult made it, and she had to take a shoe off). I was glad to see the kids interacting well. The cave was quite dusty and full of belly crawls, so I didn't get many photos. But we spent most of the day there. And then, on the way back, we stopped for some promised ice cream, and that made the day even better!

 The kids and I skipped the business meeting to go to church, as that ends up being difficult to get to where we live. Then we returned to the Motherlode Fairgrounds for a delicious dinner, followed by a slideshow presentation of caves in Spain and Vietnam. Then came an entertaining auction. The party continued, but the kids were ready for bed and I decided to join them in our tent on some comfy grass.

The next morning was a little leisurely, but eventually we got breakfast and packed up and headed to another cave. This one had a limit of six people, so our group was much smaller. We drove down a long gravel road with amazing views, then had a short hike to the hidden cave entrance. We belayed the kids at the entrance.

Then we were exploring the cave, along with some big millipedes.

The cave had fantastic decorations.

This time I took a couple extra flashes and from time to time got inspired to try to set up a cave photo. The pros make it look so easy! (I still have a lot to learn!)

Desert Boy was glad to follow Ron into a secret passage.

We all enjoyed the beautiful speleothems.

Some were nearly translucent.

We saw teeny tiny crystals as well.

And beautiful draperies.

This interesting area might have been a streambed that had washed away during a flood event. Katrina made a very nice mode.

The draperies almost looked like teeth!

Even though the kids were the only ones on the trip, Ron and Teresa made them feel extra special, and they were having a great time.

Desert Girl checked out more speleothems. She seemed happy to pose for photos.

We got out of the cave while it was still light, but not by much. We passed signs for tourist caves that would be very fun to visit. In fact, I would have really loved an extra day in the area! We ate dinner at a tasty place in Murphy's, and then decided to spend the night there before beginning the long trek home the next day.

...to be continued...

Lava Beds NCRC Level 1 Seminar 2016

I left my part of the Great Basin and went to the very edge of the Basin and Range province to Lava Beds National Monument for over a week in mid-September to teach a cave rescue class for the National Cave Rescue Commission (NCRC). Every year the NCRC hosts a national seminar with a variety of classes. This year it was in Mentone, Alabama, but due to other obligations, I wasn't able to go. I was approached about teaching a Level 1 seminar at Lava Beds, and it all worked out, so I set out. 

Even though I spent eight days there, I managed to get very few photos (at least by my usual standards). I didn't even get one of the entrance sign. The first day I arrived I was very intent in trying to figure out what caves we'd be using for the rest of the week. Above is Ron in the culvert for one of the caves, one we ended up using for the mock rescue at the end of the week. It was a difficult entrance to negotiate.

 On Saturday we started with classes in Lava Bed's fire conference room.

But this is a cave rescue class, so why not do the Cave Environment underground in Mushpot Cave? The park uses the cave for school group presentations. We stuck around long enough for the Hypothermia lecture, which the 50 degree temperature made us feel a little bit more.

A big part of Level 1 is patient packaging. We need to know how to keep a patient warm in a litter and tied in securely, no matter which way the litter is being moved.

By Day 3, we were ready to head out to some short cliffs and practice moving the litters up and down. We had a station for using the Ferno, our Cadillac of cave litters, and another station for the Sked, which looks like an orange burrito but can fit in tiny spots.

We used a pike-and-pivot technique to solve the edge problem. After the exercises, some of the class went to the bottom of Skull Cave, which is one of 18 caves in Lava Beds that still has ice in them. Twelve others used to in recent history, but that ice has since melted. There are a whopping 700+ caves at Lava Beds!

Our evenings were largely consumed with doing check-offs, which is when the students show the instructors that they know the skills we've been practicing in class. Below is the comm station, where students hook up old military phones to comm wire and talk to each other.

Day 4 we went into Sentinel Cave to practice a variety of techniques, such as searching for patients, running comm line and operating field phones, anchoring, and doing some hauls and lowers in the lava tubes. Below, Tom knew how to make an entrance on an upper level, with the class below him.


It wasn't a very big drop, but big enough to practice setting up a mainline and belay and finding anchors that wouldn't move.


In another station, students found their own anchors, then attached a rope and rappelled down it. Over ten different anchors were used, which was pretty creative.

We all celebrated when Checkoffs were completed! Bill provided entertainment.

After a written test it was time for the mock walkthrough. We used Catacombs, a particularly mazy cave along the cave loop. Lava Beds has over 20 caves open to the public, many with staircases or ladders that descend down into the lava tubes. Then you can walk--or crawl--wherever you like. It's a cool experience.


The mock walkthrough is an exercise in how to run a cave rescue incident. Eddy's a pro at it, and we did five iterations so students could rotate through various positions and try out different roles in a rescue.

There were some humorous moments, like when the medic decided he better clear the airway of the drunken patient who was pretending to throw up. The medic was prepared with his glove. Oh, what we do for fun in cave rescue!

After several hours of practice, we packed everything up and headed back to the vehicles.

It was time to get ready for the mock rescue the next day, which would start at 8 am and go all day. The scenario was that a park employee took two others caving in a cave we hadn't visited all week. When they got to the bottom gate, it wouldn't open. One person got injured with a broken lower leg. The other two went back through to get help. One got hit in the head with a rock and was unconscious up on top of a drop. The other was wandering around, lost and hypothermic. In came the rescuers, who had to employ all sorts of strategies to get all three out.

We were in the cave so long that we had to use pee bottles, as it is not at all kosher to pee in a cave. There's no rain to wash the pee away, little wind to scatter the smell. Gatorade bottles are commonly used, but one must be very careful not to confuse a lemon lime with a pee bottle (it's been done more than once before!). This cave rescuer carefully marked the caps with skulls and crossbones and put duct tape around one bottle that said "Hydrate or die!"

Twenty-one students finished the intensive 7-day course, with up to 14 hours a day of instruction. Thanks to Lava Beds for hosting, all the instructors who volunteered their time, the staff who kept paperwork in order and cooked meals for us, and all the students!

If this sounds like something you'd be interested in, check out the NCRC website for upcoming classes. Next year's nationals will be near Bend, OR from June 17-24.