The Brandywine Valley Association has a summer camp program that encompasses many interests of natural environment, particularly water sheds. This is the third year that that I have been involved that they have done a program that involves caves, and the second year that I have taken this group on a wild cave trip to Wind Cave in Lancaster County, PA.

The week prior to this trip I took a few of the staff to Wind Cave to get them aquatinted with the cave. It’s always good to have another person on a trip that is familiar with what is going to happen on the trip. So I had taken Giselle, Tara, Emily, and Nick to Wind Cave and we looked through the rooms and passages and reviewed which areas the kids would probably like to play in the most and which rooms have the most hazards that we should stay away from. That trip in itself was a lot of fun as they are all enthusiastic about nature, and now caves.

Thursday morning rolls around and I head on out to the Pequea Creek Camp Ground to meet the group. There are eleven youths ranging from ten to twelve years old. There are both boys and girls this year, which BVA was excited about. I pull in about 1 PM and the kids are all excited about visiting a wild cave.

We do a head count and talk a little about what they are going to see and experience and try to set aside all the myths they have heard. One young man was on last year’s trip and was still very excited about going back into the cave.

Everyone gets in the van and off we went, down the road a little, to Wind Cave. They are, for the most part, already dressed. Passing out the helmets and making sure they fit is a small challenge. There are enough helmets, just the sizing of them has to be done with each individual. Then the lights are distributed and batteries put in place. Light check looks good, we make a few adjustments to the gear and off we went on the hike up the hill to the main entrance to the cave.

We review one more time about personal responsibility for safety inside the cave, how to move carefully through the cave, and one more light check before we go in. Then through the large opening of the main passage we go and get our eyes accustom to the dim light of a headlamp in the darkness.

I’m not going to go into every inch we more through. Just look at the pictures to see the kids’ expressions of their experience. This is a larger group than I usually have while caving, so we moved a little slow. But they didn’t seem to mind. It gave them a chance to play in all the major rooms and explore nooks and crannies throughout the cave.

They did get to do a little climbing. They did get to do a little crawling. They did get to do a little chimneying. Experiencing this first time in a cave with them is very exhilarating. It’s almost like experiencing it for the first time yourself, even though you’ve been in this cave many times before.

I hope BVA continue to offer this program. It gives these kids a very unique opportunity that they would not have otherwise. It’s a well worth day off work for me. After all, any day underground, especially with kids, is a good day.

More pictures of the trip.
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