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| View of Cleft cave from afar |
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| Justin and Erica, the young couple that joined me on this ACC club outing: on the approach to the cave entrance |
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| Just inside the cave entrance |
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| The view out the first lookout window after spelunking through rightmost passage (didn't realize there were two windows and initially thought this was the 'lofty lookout'). |
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| At first window |
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| At second window, 'lofty lookout' after backtracking to main route |
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| At lofty lookout |
To complete the loop we had to do a bit of routefinding and we explored a dead-end that was inhabited by a few pack rats (we initially noticed a musty smell then saw a million droppings, then we actually spotted a few of the varmints). The rats looked a bit like gigantic pikas and were kind of freaky. Erica lead us through a very, very tight squeeze and we completed the loop and passed through the ice caverns on the way back.
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| Justin spelunking through the ice cavern |
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| Ice crystals on walls |
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| Ice stalagtites growing on slippery floor! |
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| The stream crossings seemed to go faster on the way back |
