Before...
We met at 9am and headed to the parking area at the rim of the Cheat Canyon. We hiked down the hill in the rain, geared up, and were in cave at 11:20am. Despite the rain, the cave's water level was still fairly low; we mostly stayed dry except for the rain-soaking we received outside. The outside temperature was roughly the same as underground, so the Druid winds were non-existant. After the rock-on-rock crawl - a 15'-long crawl with both chest and back against solid bedrock, roughly the half-way point of the current cave length - the group decided that we weren't feeling up to the torturous journey the the back of the cave. Rather than push past our collective limits, we aborted the mission and headed back out. I noted at least six crayfish on the way out of the cave, including one "lobster" about 5" from tail to claws. We exited the cave at 3:30pm, four hours underground, cleaned our gear in Lick Run and hiked back up and out of the canyon by about 5pm.
After.
Brian swears that next time we'll make the connection... (sound familiar?)
Choice quote from Bob Griffith: "This cave sucks. It sucks in more ways than one would think one cave could suck. It's a veritable smorgasbord of suckiness... But I've gotta see the Whack-A-Mole™ passage."
All photos by Brian Masney
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