[trip] Bowden Cave

Kathrine Gurtler, Tom Lilly, Chris Eleyette, and Dave Riggs took a Monday evening trip into Bowden Cave. We drove down from Morgantown, meeting Chris in Elkins, and arrived at the cave around 6:45pm. We took the standard tourist trip in -- up the main trunk passage to the breakdown room, climbed up to see the dome, then headed up the chilly watercourse to the gate. On the way back out, we decided to do a bit of exploring, and followed the stream entirely rather than taking the dry, upper paleo passage. This route is not recommended! We turned around and took the standard way back out.

The wise ones changed clothes in the mouth of the cave, the rest ran for the vehicles and changed in record time -- my cave suit managed to freeze solid before I could peel it off. We had a suprisingly good dinner in Elkins and met a friend of Katherine's who had actually helped build the gate in Bowden and is a family friend of Will White. We made it back to Morgantown at about 12:45, after a very enjoyable caving trip.