It's a good thing that I'm such an adaptable person, because I had to do a whole bunch of adapting when it came to a late December Sunday outing to Singhampton to go caving. Caving gear owned by Johanna: headlamp, backup flashlight, helmet, grubby clothes including the infamous Kenora dinner jacket. Attire completed with knee pads for crawling, beat up old hiking boots, and leather gloves. And of course my camera in its own hardshell case - after all, I must obsessively document everything I do!
But of course I don't stop at things I actually need. My adaptability is greatly enhanced by my propensity to lug along extra gear. So my daytrip also included waterproof gloves, fleece mittens, extra clothing, GPS, gaiters, my other camera (I just got a new digicam and am not yet comfortable with it), FRS radios, my winter boots, snowshoes, toque... Since Lee has even more gear than I do, he was as adaptable as I was...
Good thing, too, when we got to Singhampton, it didn't require a snow probe (don't have one of those, though Lee's ski poles work too) to determine that the snow was deep enough to warrant snowshoes, gaiters and winter boots. So we've now used part of the arsenal of gear that we shoved into the jeep already! And the crampons on my snowshoes (which are only one year old, and not nearly as well used as they will be) came in well on some of the terrain.
We didn't really need the waypoints I'd put into the GPSes (which didn't stop us from having them on anyway) to find the blue blazed trail which led down into the "standing rocks and cave" area of this section of the escarpment. There was a veritable maze of canyons, and a lot of potential cave openings to explore.
And explore we did, which required changing my shell jacket for the grubby green checked shirt I love to get dirty, and putting on my helmet and headlamp, and changing my gloves (more gear used!). Lee scaled partway up the canyon to get a closer look at what turned out to be a dead end, but the second cave we poked into was too cool.
Since I don't yet have a good enough battery pack for my new camera to use the flash, I took the old one into the cave (yep, lugging both was worth it). We goofed off a bit (carefully - there was a lot of ice). We decided that it was high time that we learned proper rock climbing and started carrying all the gear that is associated with this (though of course I first need to learn about this. And I will). I sensibly stuck to seeing what spaces I fit in - though I did need Lee's help to climb back down from the perch I found in the picture on the left.
Lee decided to scale the canyon without safety gear save his helmet. I was too chicken, and I had no gear to make it easier - but I did have a camera, so I kept it trained on him so I could at least document his demise should it occur. You can spot him way up above me in the pictures on the left. Fortunately, he was sure-footed, because - even though we brought a ton of gear, we didn't have a first aid kit in our daypacks (I wonder how much good my well-stocked first aid kit would do in the case of a broken leg, but it makes me feel safer).
Turns out that even a gear fiend such as me forgets things. Though we had fun exploring a bunch of openings, we couldn't find the main cave. If I'd remembered to bring the Bruce Trail Guide, I would have seen, marked in this very area, the notation: "Singhampton Cave, seen in the crevices below, is accessible via a blue-blazed trail. Care is required as the ladder and rocks in the Cave are always slippery and sometimes icy". We were on a blue-blazed trails, in exactly the area marked on the map. But, though we slipped many times, we found no ladder or the big cave.
No matter, though, since we're so adaptable. We simply redefined our "find Singhampton Cave" objective to state "have a great day snowshoeing on the Bruce Trail and explore". And we achieved that objective successfully. We even managed to use more gear (not to mention the thermos full of apple cider) by splitting up and communicating via FRS radio. I felt so cool chatting into my little communicator (and had to figure out how to change channels when someone started talking over top of us - a no-no according to the instructions that came with the radios).
A very fun day. I'd never been on this particular piece of the Bruce Trail, and there is so much more to explore. Which is a good thing, since I'm determined to come back and find that cave! Truth be told, though, I love the exploring part as much as I love the caving bit - and this gives me an excuse to go back. I love spending my weekends this way. I will find the hidden treasures of Singhampton soon!