Trout Lake Caving 6-6-2013

On Friday night I drove down to Trout Lake with James, Ben and Barry and set up camp well after midnight near an extensive multi-leveled lava tube called "Dynamited". We got going as early as our bodies would allow the next morning. First we explored the small attic space near the entrance, then continued on to the first drop off, where we rigged a rope for rappelling (although it was hardly necessary).

The next drop features a dramatic flow frozen into the rock floor where it disappears. Near the edge we found a ~6 inch long sprout from a seed in the remains of a pear core, left behind by an irresponsible caver. Several insects were cruising around on the pear carcass. After examining the "Balloon" we rappelled the ~50 feet to the Ballroom and then another ~60 feet down into a blind pit full of decorations.

We lacked the rock pro to rig a safe passage over the blind pit where the Big Room and Attic Passage are, so we returned to the last drop and used our last rope to ascend onto the Balloon and into the passage beyond it. Here we found some intense red scrolling and a cool little gallery at the end of the line. Halfway between the balloon gap and this dead end is another access point to the Attic Passage and the half of the cave that we didn't see.

With no rope left, we returned to the first and smallest drop and into the 1000 foot long tube below it and the main entrance. We explored dozens of small "sand castles" along the way and entered a very tight squeeze a little over halfway back. After about 40 feet, the shrinking passage opened into a huge room with possibly the tallest ceilings we had seen all day, at around 50 feet high. we followed the large room to it's end where a large pile of breakdown disappears into the ceiling less than 50 feet below the surface.

This was my favorite caving trip yet and by far the most eventful- I made my first couple of rappels in a cave, found some interesting lifeforms to look at(we also found a salamander near the entrance), and met a few members of the Oregon Grotto on our way out. We also made a quick stop at the Ice Cave before heading back to Seattle. Not much ice is left this late into the summer, but we did more exploring than we had planned to and found a few decent photo opportunities.



Dynomited Cave Map (.pdf)