Caving With Boy Scout Troop 368

The Scoutmaster of Troop 368 contacted the Pennsylvania Cave Commission looking for a way to take his Boy Scout Troop on a beginner cave exploring trip. He didn’t want a commercial cave with walk ways and lights. He was looking for crawling and climbing and getting muddy.

A friend of mine from the PCC forwarded his request to me hoping I could help. This was all back in 2016 and May 2017 we made this happen.

Their meeting place was a bit far for me to travel to give a cave talk at their Troop meeting. We set up a Skype call which worked out really well. We could see each other and talk about caves, how they are formed and how we, as cavers, try to preserve them.

Coming from difference places, we all met up at a convenience store about a mile from the cave. They were all set and ready to go. At the cave we distributed and checked helmets and lights. Inside the gate entrance we had a reminder talk about safety and cave edict and made all the introductions.  These guys were good sports and willing to try just about everything I challenged them with.

I don’t want to go into too much detail. You can get a good idea from the video how it all went. Watch and see how much fun we all had.



https://youtu.be/8dAK2zm6Qcw

If you would like more information on how to take your Troop, Crew, or club on a cave exploring trip, please feel free to contact me at allenmaddox@youcave.org.