Speleo-Ed 2009
March 20-22
Owl Canyon at Rainbow Basin
Barstow, California
Mojave Desert

Rainbow Basin Cave
Lead by Bruce Rogers, Rainbow Basin is a small soil pipe through cave. 170 Ft long x 37 Ft deep. The cave is formed in siltstone with an over 20 Ft high passage. Found bat guano at the entrance, however no bats within the cave. Area could have been a roosting point for a solo male some time ago, not nearly enough guano to suggest that a colony of bats was ever there.

Hidden Canyon Cave
Also lead by Bruce Rogers, Hidden Canyon was more like the caves I'm used to. Also a soil pipe cave, the entrances were at ground level and the second was at 46.1 Ft vertical. The descent was relatively smooth and the cave was rather wide on the inside until the last 10 Ft. Plenty of break down from siltstone and a very narrow squeeze to get out, roughly 3 Ft high and 10 In wide.


Pisgah Crater Lave Tube Caves
3/21/2009
Russell Stewart Cave
Lead by Russ Harter of the SoCal Grotto, this was my first trip into lave tubes. The lava flow field looks more like a moonscape, and at 2,172 Ft elevation the winds were exceeding 70 MPH. The blowing sand and small pebbles made it quite difficult to see and the winds made it nearly impossible to stand. Russell Stewart cave is located in a pit in the lave flow field, the entrance is a somewhat narrow squeeze and a short drop down, however the cave widens out quickly once inside. A brief crouch walk followed by a hands-and-knees crawl (appx 15 Ft) opens into another large chamber with a small breakdown formation in the middle. Signed the register.

Glove Cave
Also lead by Russ Harter, this cave was roughly 20 Ft from Russell Stewart Cave and had three entrances. Myself and two others used the middle entrance while the rest of the group used the lower entrance. The cave lead down plenty of break down for roughly 150 Ft do a wrap-around crawl space called Button Crawl. The entrance to the crawl was about 6 Ft up and wrapped around to another entrance on the opposite wall about 10 Ft. behind it. Whole crawl was fairly easy until the last few feet that had a very small squeeze, appx. 8.5 In. Had to remove my helmet and pack to make it through. Managed to lose my pack out of arms reach inside the squeeze, was recovered about ten minutes later by another caver coming out of the same squeeze. Signed the register.