Dry Caving Intro for Cave Divers

On Monday August 11 there will be an introduction to dry caving oriented toward cave divers. If you are a cave diver wanting to see what dry caving is all about, this is the intro for you! Team Vinzant has prepared two dry caving trips into two of the more popular dry caves in north peninsular Florida, Newberry Bat Cave and Warren Cave. To register for either of these trips, you can come by the convention registration area to the Day Trip Signup Table or email Woody or Matt directly (see below).

Bring a change of clothes to either cave, or you will have to ride home dirty. Be sure to watch our video on Warren Cave at: http://www.nss2008.com/PicsandVideos.html.

Monday August 11th the Vinzant caving family will field Woody (Dad) and Andy (son) at Warren Cave and Matt (son) at Newberry Bat Cave. These three fellows are all experienced Florida dry cavers and cave divers. Matt will lead the Newberry Bat Cave trip for beginners, an easy cave that can be explored by almost anybody. Woody and Andy will lead the trip to Warren Cave, which is a moderately tough cave to get around in and is no place for those who are out of shape.

The trip into Warren Cave will take approximately 5 - 6 hours and will be limited to 8 attendees. The trip will start at 9 am sharp, so get there early to gird your loins. We will explore multiple levels of the cave with several types of geology. We will do a 30ft rappel in to the cave and a wall climb of about 30ft also. There will be several squeezes and a fair amount of crawling in small passages.

Warren is a fun but challenging cave. Harnesses, ropes and other safety equipment will be provided. Knee pads and gloves are recommended. Volleyball knee pads from Wal-mart will work for this trip. A small tote bag with water and a power bar is suggested also. Feel free to bring your small camera as there is no water in the cave, but pad it and protect it from sand. If you have any questions email Woody Vinzant at TeamVinzant@Tampabay.rr.com, or cell 863-602-5228.

Bat Cave is a small cave located in Newberry in Alachua County. It is owned and maintained by Santa Fe Community College in Gainesville and is used for their Geology Field Station. This is a beginners trip. It should take no longer than 3-4 hours to thoroughly visit the cave. It has 5 natural entrances, all of which have been gated by the college. The main entrance even has a spiral stair case! It has a small pool in the main room that often harbors troglobitic crayfish. You will see bats, so sterilize your caving duds if you are from the Northeast US.

In Bat cave you will encounter walking, crawling, thick mud, tight squeezes and some water depending on the water table (currently is down). Long pants, and solid shoes are a must. Knee pads and elbow pads are recommended but not required. There is no vertical rope work in this cave, though at some of the entrances a hand line is helpful. Helmets will be provided by the Florida Speleological Society. This trip can be as easy or as hard as you want it to be. It is a great place to get the feel for a dry cave.

At the Bat Cave Station is a gazebo with several picnic tables. Feel free to bring lunch and have a picnic at this beautiful location. We will plan to meet at the cave at 10:00 am on August 11th. For further information feel free to contact Matt Vinzant; cavermatt@hotmail.com. There are excellent directions to Newberry Bat Cave and a map of the cave posted at: http://inst.santafe.cc.fl.us/~jklein/Cave/cavea.htm