Central Pennsylvania caves

Sticking with the caving theme, I am putting up a few shots of caves from central Pennsylvania.  As I continue to scan my slides (a woefully slow process) there will be a lot more caving pictures here.

And since we are preparing for yet another snowstorm and cold temps here in Falls Church, VA,, I went with two shots with ice and one that was a winter trip and we were hiking in deep snow to get to the cave.

First up...

Brrrr. Fry Cave entrance in winter.

This is Gypsy standing outside the entrance to this quite small cave.  From the outside it has this classic entrance shape of a cartoon cave entrance.  And it is right beside the stream, so one might think it would go somewhere.  But it does not.  Just a pretty little cave with a lot of ice on a cold day.

I got permission to visit the cave a long time ago, and have no idea if visitation is allowed currently.

And a really cold cave is...

Bilgers Rocks Ice Cave. We actually had a fine but frigid time mapping these caves one winter, although you wouldn't know it from the expression on Mike Petery's face.

Bilgers Rocks is a sandstone outcrop with a few small caves.  And, it has its own website at:  http://www.bilgersrocks.com/index.htm 

The third cave for today is McAlisterville Cave, located in Juniata County (Contact Nittany Grotto: http://www.caves.org/grotto/nittany/main.htm for access information).

McAlisterville Cave's big passage, with Mike Petery (in front) and Andy Fluke.

And no, the cave didn't have some weird gravity.  I put them in those odd poses to try and frame them in the flashs' light.  This was back in the day before infrared flash slaves or radio triggers were being used to set off remote flashes.  This photo was taken in total darkness in the cave, and I had the camera set for 1 second shutter speed.  Upon hitting the shutter button I would shout and everyone (three people in this photo) would set off their flash manually.

And as always back in the day, you had no idea whether you got the shot or not.  You had to wait until the slides got developed.  Here I am fairly satisfied with the result, as this passage was deemed hard+ to photograph given its structure and I got something showing it, even if not perfect.