Alan Cressler

Alan and I weren’t done caving yet.  While Ryan and I had been in town, he had been searching for Serendipity Cave.  We drove a couple miles away from SERA, parked alongside the road, and walked about a 100 feet downhill to the cave entrance. 

I rigged a rope and descended the 13’ mossy, nuisance pit.  At the bottom was a small room with a plank extending from one side to the other likely used by the locals to get into the cave.  I checked the corners of the room and climbed down a slope into a larger room.  To the left I saw a couple holes in the floor.  Ahead, I saw some broken formations hanging down.  The room ended but I spotted a lead at the far end of the room.  On the right side of the room  I spotted a belly crawl lead. 

Alan came into the cave and I first checked out the hole in the floor.  I descended, entering a canyon passage.  I chimneyed across the top of it to a crawlway which dead ended ahead.  I then came back to the canyon and slid down through it into a lower level where I saw a drain and a slot that led me to a climb-up back into the main room.  I checked a potential upper level lead above the hole and wondered where Alan had went. 

I decided he must be in the lead at the end of the room.  I slid sideways through it, followed a short S canyon crawl and emerged in another room.  The only lead out of this room was a very tight belly crawl which appeared to open into a standing area ahead.  I took off my vertical gear and attempted it.  I got in as far as my butt.  The rock was digging into my chest.  I decided that it wasn’t worth wrestling my body through and came back out into the room.  I checked the perimeter for leads and headed back out. 

Alan asked if I’d checked out the long crawl near the entrance which I hadn’t.  On the way back towards the entrance I took my vertical gear off again and pushed the low down sloping belly crawl that was now on my left, facing towards the entrance.  The low belly crawl opened into a crawling room about 12’ x 10’.  To the left and ahead the room ended in mud fill.  A belly crawl continued right which soon T’d.  To the right it ended in mud fill.  I could see down 20 feet to the left where it appeared to pinch.  I wormed back into the main room and checked out the walls near the entrance.  As I headed up the entrance slope I saw a loop around in the left wall which I later worked my body through.  To the right of the slope I spotted Alan’s long crawl. 

I squeezed through on my side into a stooping elongated room.  Ahead, and above I saw a passage with formations which I later checked out and found that it looped ahead.  I went through a low belly crawl near the floor and emerged in a rather large room.  On the right wall a passage entered from the formation passage I’d just seen.  There was also a short standing loop.  I circled around the room and found a little alcove that dropped into a hole on the far wall. 

Towards the left side of the room, I found 3 side leads branching off.  The first one ended in a hole to the right that I later connected to the alcove with the hole in the floor.  I crawled into a lower section and found a small standing room I believe.  There was also a small passage just off the left wall where I climbed atop a false floor went feet first through a hole at the end of it, and soon emerged back in the main room.  It seems like there was also a small formation alcove higher up at the other end of the false floor. 

I hadn’t heard from Alan for awhile so I went back to get him and Bo’d him to the hole I’d come through.  It took me a few minutes to remember where I’d come into the room at.  I’d become somewhat disoriented checking out all the leads perimetering the room.  Alan came in and I checked a couple of the leads I’ve already mentioned and double checked that I’d seen everything in the room.  Confident, that I’d checked everything in the cave, we retreated to the entrance and ascended the 13’ pit.  It may have only been a 400’ long cave but it was certainly quite interesting and entertaining.  To Swell Well