Rippled is my first cave trip in California. The trip was organized by Sonia Meyer as part of the #100newbies project with a goal to get 100 newbies underground. We had participants from SFBC, Mother Lode, and cavers from Santa Cruz. Our trip consisted of the following cavers: Sonia Meyer, Cindy Wu, Brody Blacet, Tracy (Brody’s friend), Christina Duprey, Ethan Preble, Neel Karhansis, Marianna Zhang, David Martin, Carly Robison, Abhi Puranam, Gavin Rea, two of Gavin’s friends, Marianne Russo, and probably others that I have forgotten. (Reminder to self to write trip reports the night of.)
I picked up Carly at 6:45 at her apartmentn SoMa. I’m surprised that Carly got into my car after I made a u-turn on an empty one way street going against traffic. I clearly wasn’t fully awake. We picked up Abhi at his apartment in Oakland, then headed over to Sutter Creek Post Office. We left too early and Google Maps gave us an ETA of 9AM, so we went to get breakfast in Jackson at Rosebud’s Cafe. We got some beignets to share. I ordered a breakfast burrito without cheese and a coffee. I probably didn’t need the coffee. I saved half of my burrito to bring into the cave because I love eating strange foods in caves, but then forgot to bring the burrito into the cave. It made a great snack on the drive back.
We met with the group at Sutter Creek Post at 10AM. Carly made some PB&J sandwiches with a few cavers while we waited. Once Sonia arrived with Marianne we caravaned over to the cave entrance where Marianne Russo was waiting for us. We all signed waivers and Marianne gave us a brief history of Rippled Cave and the Western Cave Conservancy.
We got our cave gear on and met at the entrance. I learned from Brody that the Mother Lode Grotto has a rule that at Rippled you need to have a helmet on anywhere beyond the big rock on the right towards the cliff face. It is probably a good idea for cavers to ask the host grotto what rules they have before entering the cave, just to make sure everyone is on the same page. We split into three groups. Gavin, two of Gavin’s friends, Carly and Abhi formed the first group. I forget who the trip leader was. Brody, Tracy, David, and possible others that I have forgotten formed the second group with Brody as the trip leader. Sonia formed the third group with me, Christina, Ethan, Neel, and Marianna on our team.
Sonia’s group headed up to the top of the cliff face to rig a rope to the tree trunk. I got to practice using the wrap 3 pull 2 method to use the tree as an anchor. I tied a water knot on one end and passed the other end through that water knot to connect the ends. Marianne helped me out with this. I’m not super familiar with rope work, but we ended up having two ropes rigged to the tree. One rope only went to the entrance and a longer rope went all the way into one of the cave entrances. I’m hoping to get more practice with rope related things!
We each practiced descending to the bottom of the cliff before entering the cave. We took a quick lunch break and then entered the cave through the vertical entrance. Once into the entrance we left our vertical gear at that entrance and went in search of Cinderella’s closet. I learned from this trip I have no idea how to read maps. Looking at the map now makes my head spin. I should probably work on this.
I *think* we started in the Big Room and went through the connection. The order was Sonia, Ethan, Christina, Neel, Marianna, and me holding up the caboose. Once each person was through The Connection we went in search of Cinderella’s closet. We made it to Cinderella’s closet, but looking at the map now I can’t tell you how. I know we went through the Confusion Room and Pancake Crawl. Once we got to Cinderella’s Closet, we hurried back to surface because the whole group had planned on meeting at 4PM to regroup. When we got to the room that connects to all four sections, Marianne was waiting there.We found the box where you log your names and added our names to the log. Some of us exited out the special way and the rest of us, the normal way.
Group 1 left at 4PM. Carly and Abhi practiced ropework. Our group (Group 3) re-entered the cave in search of Papke’s Room. Sonia led with me keeping up the rear. I was super excited to check out the test crawl room. There was also a tight section that I forget the name of where everyone went uphill. I found a side passage on the right that makes a left turn and connects with that tight section. I hung out there and took a nap while waiting for the team to make it through that section. After everyone was through I tried to take a sharp 90 degree right turn crawl, but wasn’t able to do it. I ended up making a sharp 90 degree left turn crawl, straightening out and then continuing with the group. Before we made it Papke’s, Sonia left our group to practice some ropework and derig. Brody joined our group. Once we were in Papke’s we decided to make our way back. I led the group back to the room with the four connections. I was surprised at how well I remembered the way back. To be honest, earlier in the day when Sonia asked me to lead a group I was really concered I would get my whole team lost. Turns out maybe this is an irrational fear of mine. It was super fun getting to lead the team back to the main room.
Once in the main room, Brody led us to the Balcony, the Rippled Passage, and each of us took turns exploring the Bear’s Den. We exited the cave the Regular Way. When we were out it was already dark. Sonia had successfully derigged. Some people went to camp and the rest of us went home. I took the SFBC helmets in my trunk to bring back the next day. I drove Abhi back to his apartment in Oakland and then went home to Noe Valley. I did my laundry and got ready to leave the next morning one our later than I had left on Saturday morning. I texted Sean we were leaving at 7:45 and not 6:45. He seemed to appreciate the extra hour of sleep.
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