Venture patrol standing on
the south side of the exit pit at D. C. Jester Cave in southwest
Oklahoma. D.C. Jester is the longest gypsum cave in the United
States at 6 1/2 miles.
Chris on the 30 foot repel
to the river below to enter the cave and then we walk 6 1/2 miles out of
D. C. Jester Cave.
Patrol leader Jerry
on same repel as Chris above
Blake B
takes his turn to repel
to the bottom
Phillip W slowly but surely repels down.
Tom
W on repel
Phillip W,
Nathan H, Keith H and Blake B waiting for the rest of the patrol to finish the
repel
Adult leaders from
left to right Jerry C, Keith H and Tom W
Having lunch in
the cave. After 3 hours of hiking we were hungry and tired
This is a
section of cave that has a very steep and muddy hill. At the top of the
hill is a new opening but we could not get to it.
It is about 20 feet off the ground
Here the patrol is sitting
in the water. All most all of the time in this cave was spent in
water and mud. The cave is a active stream and could fill up
with water during a good rain storm. We needed to be be aware of the
weather or we could find ourselves in trouble.
As you can see
the stream cut a tunnel under ground to make this cave
In the cave we
found catfish, crawdads and bats. These catfish will swim up to
us because they are at the top of food chain and did not know what
we were.
