By Randy Youngman

On April 3, 2005, a successful expedition to Gremlin Cave was mounted by Central FL Cavers “SchoolGirl Caving Squad”

Emily and Gail Youngman on April 3, 2005 accompanied by Randy Youngman and lead by Mike Gordon of FSS. After the customary rendezvous screw-up, we finally arrived at the site and proceeded to scramble around in the two smaller caves of the Gremlin trio and make a general nuisance of ourselves while Sarah Cervone, Wendy Shirah, Tom Feeney, and Kitty Markley tried to get serious work done practicing their cave mapping skills. Much to their relief, we split off from their mapping trip and Mike guided us through the main Gremlin passages. As usual, the girls had a blast and are becoming more accustomed to tight crawls, scrambling, and climbing around in the dark.

There were no equipment failures, near-misses, or incidents to report, and air quality was good. This was our first visit to this cave, so we cannot report on changes of condition. No particularly dangerous conditions, significant litter, or vandalism were observed.

On behalf of “SGCS”, I want to express our gratitude for all those who have taken the time to help me get my kids engaged in caving, including all those listed above, Bill Birdsall, Steve Nesmith, and our own Central FL grotto members. With lots more to learn and explore, caving has offered us valuable lessons in expanding our limits, developing self-assurance, confronting fears, stewardship, team work, and the joys of coin-operated Laundromats (Mommy won’t let us wash our cave stuff at home!).

Cave Safely, Cave Often