Spelunking on Fang Mountain

I've always resisted the idea of going into a cave. In my mind caving means crawling around on your stomach, through a wet dirty tunnel in the dark. Ugh. So, yesterday, when everyone was putting on their headlamps in preparation for going underground I was having a temporary fit, thinking I didn't really want to go and besides I had forgotten my headlamp. surely that was a sign I shouldn't go.

First we hiked the steep slippery (it had rained overnight) Fang mountain trail, past the cave entrance up into the wet squishy alpine, lovely views in all directions of course and lots of little lakes. We ate lunch up there then continued on up through the col and onto a ridge for more some more exciting scenery.

Evanoff Provincial Park contains several caves. The Fang cave we went into is the ninth largest cave in Canada. By the time we had descended from the alpine we were all, except me, anxious to try spelunking. The fact I had forgotten my headlamp was still nagging at my reluctant brain about the whole adventure, still I climbed down to the entrance with the others. Once there I decided the cave looked big enough to stand up in so I went.

It was fun. I didn't miss my headlamp because I kept close to the others.

The picture was taken near the cave entrance. Behind us the ceiling got lower as we had to craw along a ledge to the point where it dropped off into a deeper blackness. There were the beginnings of tiny stalagtites on the ceiling. We did not go any further because there were too many of us and apparently things got much more technical beyond this point.

I would definitely like to go back there to do some more exploring.

For more photos check my Fang mountain hiking trip photo set on flickr.