Dame Caves

[ScubaRob]

This is a little off topic, but is related to caves. I had the chance to check out Dame Caves.

The 1st cave I checked out was Vandal Cave. It was pretty obvious how it got it's name. Not sure how far it goes but it was tight and I was solo so I stayed in the cavern zone. I crawled through the 1st hole which was only slightly bigger than me. The lead to a room with a another tight squeeze. I did not enter this one but did sqeeze in far enough to to look around. Does anyone know if this one goes?

There were 4 other caves close by. One of them looked like it could go. Immediately following a restriction was a breakdown room that I could see 30 - 40' into.

I also managed to find peace cave. This one looks like it could go quite a ways. I was probably almost 200' into this one. There were several leads here. The most promising was off the room in the back with all the ledges. I could see a tunnel that dropped about 10' and looked like it could keep going from there. Any one know about this one?

All in all it was a pretty interesting hike. If anyone has more information on this system I would love to hear about it.

I hope this was not too far off topic.

[phreaticus]

You might want to contact the Tampa Grotto of the NSS....I'm sure they have a lot of info about those sites....

[cavermatt]

There are many caves in that area, it makes for a nice hike.

From where you stopped in Vandal Cave you would climb up to the left and there is another squeeze, this leads to the last room.

The cave with the 30-40' long breakdown room goes up to a small loft and down, down goes further and gets sporting at the end. I have heard several names for this cave, I think most are calling it Sick Bat.

The tunnel in Peace does go, but it gets tight! There is a small room at the end. This is where two boys got stuck several years ago and partially led to the gating of the cave.

I too would suggest contacting the Tampa Bay Area Grotto, or the Florida Speleological Society in Gainesville if you have any interest in dry caving.

[ScubaRob]

There are many caves in that area, it makes for a nice hike.

From where you stopped in Vandal Cave you would climb up to the left and there is another squeeze, this leads to the last room.

The cave with the 30-40' long breakdown room goes up to a small loft and down, down goes further and gets sporting at the end. I have heard several names for this cave, I think most are calling it Sick Bat.

The tunnel in Peace does go, but it gets tight! There is a small room at the end. This is where two boys got stuck several years ago and partially led to the gating of the cave.

I too would suggest contacting the Tampa Bay Area Grotto, or the Florida Speleological Society in Gainesville if you have any interest in dry caving.

I took my daughter with me today. We both had a great time. This time we were more prepared.

We made it to the last room in Vandal Cave. It was pretty challenging going thru all the squeezes, but I'm pretty sure we hit the end of the line.

We also hit the sick bat cave. Now that was a tight squeeze for me. I'm glad it was easier to exit than enter. We took a tunnel a pretty good ways in till we ran out of options.

We checked out 3 tunnels in Peace cave. My daughter went a little further than I did, but then again she's only 110 lbs.

I took a bunch of HD video using my 15W HID for lighting. Just finished editing and waiting for the computer to finish rendering it.