Withalacoochie Caves

Withalacoochie Forest State Park
Citrus County, Florida
September 12, 2008

Dames Cave

My first cave. Tucked back in the Withalacoochie Forest State Park in Florida, the cave has two entrances. The first is a vertical drop of about thirty feet (approx), the other is a passageway to the right of the drop that leads into the same pit. The pit opens into a smaller area about 40 feet long that had a small crawlspace in the end of it. Managed to make it into the crawl space that lead to a room about 6 square feet. Not so easy to get out of. Trip was lead by my girlfriend Wendy Shirah and another Florida caver Bruce Flareau from the Tampa Bay Area Grotto.

Girl Scout Cave AKA Fungus Amongus
Cave was mostly blocked by a somewhat recent wash-out most likely caused by the storms the preceeding month. Only able to get about 20 feet or so inside the cave. Saw my first cave cricket, mistook it for a spider at first. Had a little panic moment.

Peace Cave
Also in the Withalacoochie Forest. Smaller cave with a flat entrance. Lower roof that lead to a short drop, maybe 3 feet down. Low roof for about 15 to 20 feet that opened into a slightly larger room, nearly large enough to stand in. Large circular room, lots of tea lights placed there by another unknown party. Quite a shame. The circular room had another smaller room in it with a small worm hole. Managed to squeeze into that. Another smaller worm hole inside that, wasn't quite brave enough to try to get into it.

Holey Oak Cave
Met up with two other Florida cavers, Nancy and Larry Rueff. Made the climb down a somewhat narrow squeeze into the cave, fairly short but relatively deep. Lots of break down, some of which looked man-made. Even more graffiti. Nancy and Larry both seemed to be quite knowledgeable about things, very informative trip and lots of fun for my first four caves.