Boxing Day Bat Cave Bushwhack
         
Last year at this time, the four of us Wandels and Andy went to the Desbarats Bat Cave. I thought it was the coolest adventure ever, but later I found out that it's a very bad idea to go into bat caves. Apparently, you can change the microclimate. If it gets too warm, the bats will think it's spring. They will wake up. And then they will die.
Thing is, I wasn't sure if this particular bat cave was small enough for that to be an issue. It's got gigantic caverns, and a huge entrance - I wondered just how much goofing off I would have to do in the cave before it got warmer. But I didn't want to take any chances, so I had the perfect plan: I would get Jim to come, and ask him.
Jim was conveniently around, as it happens, since he'd come north for the Christmas Adventure Caper (aka let's go hang out at Johanna's parents' camp). Besides Jim and the four of us Wandels, Lee had come for a visit, and Iain, Crystal and Graeme were all visiting family for the holidays, and Andy spends his winters in Sylvan Valley - so they were all available too. Altogether, ten of us stomped off along Cave Road and into the bush to find the cave again.
I had commandeered Markus' GPS, which had the track log from last year's bat cave trip programmed into it. I neglected to commandeer my snowshoes - I didn't think there was enough snow to warrant them. Markus took his new Denali Ascents, and Jim and Lee had theirs too. After a bit, I wished I had mine... but I had my new camera and the GPS to make up for it...
The hike was a bit more challenging than last year's version because of the snow (the scramble up to the cave entrance was particularly tricky - it was impossible to tell what was solid rock and what was only a thin layer of snow over an ankle-twisting hole).
Post cave-exploration, we did the obligatory scramble to the top of the cliffs (and Jim produced the ever-present leftover Halloween treats - I wonder just how many bags of them he purchased in October...) Markus, Jim and I made it to the other side of the bowl, and then we returned to the bottow via the canyon we'd come up (we couldn't find the other way down this year).
It was a great way to spend a day - some physical activity, some cool stuff to look at, and hanging out with all of my siblings and some great friends. Better than sitting around eating, though we got to that later too...