Pryor Spring Cave Return - Trip Report

[Sharon Faulkner]

This past Sunday, January 14, four cavers (Kelly Norwood, John Maddox, Elizabeth Maddox and myself) made a trip to Pryor Spring Cave. While we were expecting more water than had been encountered last fall, we found the water situation at the cave was vastly different from a trip I'd been on this past October. The entrance waterfall was flowing freely, and gave us cause to reconsider whether the pull down trip thru this short multi drop cave would be possible on this day. Climbing closer for a better look gave us a view of the amount of water that would be flowing through the cave today making the drops very sporting, bordering on risky. With the amount of water we encountered the entrance sink itself would have been a challenge to navigate over huge logs and slippery rocks just to rig the first drop. After some discussion, we decided to reschedule the pulldown trip and do the horizontal portion of the cave today.

We went back down the mountain and entered the lower entrance of the cave, which is quite nice passage as well as being well decorated. Well before reaching the last drop, we could feel vibrations from the amount of water pouring down. On reaching the bottom of the drop, we found it also had a strong waterfall. We still had a good trip touring the lower stream passage of the cave, took photos, and found the remains of a long abandoned animal nest in a side passage. While talking with the landowner after the trip we found out this had been a nesting site for a beaver, which met an untimely end after eating a neighbor's ornamental trees. While looking around another side passage we found a small cache of empty beer bottles, which we brought out of the cave with us.

Though we decided to postpone the pulldown to a later date, it was fun to visit the cave again and a beautiful day to be out! Here are some photos from the trip:

[Sharon Faulkner]

John plays around with the empty beer bottles we picked up in the cave. ;D

Photos hosted by ImageShack

[Mike Green]

That's funny. We were there too. I was wondering who all the other cavers were. We ended up doing a pulldown trip, but with a lot of hesitation and consideration. One person in our team ended up backing down. The pits past the first were not quite as daunting. I'm hate that we missed the opportunity to meet. Maybe next time!

[madratdan]

Looks like you had a fun trip, Sharon. You too Mike..........I really need to come back there and visit sometime.

[Sharon Faulkner]

Hey Mike, glad you all went ahead and did the cave! What time were you guys were there? I didn't see any other cavers, but I left right after our trip (around 3:00). I had a birthday dinner to attend Sunday night. Kelly and the others were eating when I left, maybe you saw them. Too bad we didn't meet up earlier in the day.

Maybe we were being overly cautious. We considered hard rigging the first drop and going to take a look at the second drop, but after discussion it was decided to return to the cave another time. It's good to know that the second drop isn't quite as wet and wooly as we thought it might be. That info may come in handy next time.


Dan, you're welcome to visit anytime. We'll set you up some good trips if you and the Colorado group wants to get together and pay a visit this summer. We might even be able to arrange a digging project for Jon. Lacey Pot, a cave with two known hundred footers inside, collapsed several years ago and only a lucky handful of cavers have ever had the opportunity to visit the cave. I'm not one of them by the way. ;D

[L Roebuck]

Wow Great Caving Trip Report Sharon!

Enjoyed the Photo's!