Now that I have returned from my week long camping/caving trip, I thought I would do alittle write up on some of the gear that was used, and what I thought about its performance. I will also include general comments and suggestions about some things I have learned during my trips. — Location ——- This was our third year in a row for this trip. |
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— Camp ——- Each of us had our own tents to sleep in, which were setup first. Shelter should always be one of the main priorities on any camping adventure, and I like to get it setup early on. We tied up two large tarps overhead. This served us very well, as it rained at least 4 times during our stay. I have also noticed this helps to keep the tents and other gear alittle cleaner. Alot of dirt, dust, and other small tree fragments fall in the course of a weeks stay, which was evident when looking on top the tarp. |
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— The Caves ———– We went to 3 caves on out trip. Sinks of Gandy Cave Stele (sp?) House Cave – this is sorta part of Sinks cave, but doesn’t connect. AFAIK Bowden Cave – very extensive, lots of ways in, not all connect. Sinks of Gandy cave is basically an underground stream. Heres where the water runs out. |
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Bowden was a first for us this year, so everything was a new adventure, makes it alot of fun. and we barely explored it, theres much much more to see. Here are just a few highlights, |
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Here is just inside, seems they had the cave gated off a while back. Bet that didnt last long though. |
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As you can see, some places in caves can get very tight. Little un-nerving, crawling a few hundred feet, with this HUGE flat slab of rock over you. |
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Buts its usually worth it, here is a hallway it opened up into. | ||
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You can see that all the stalagmites in this cave have been broken off, and taken. But they are still very cool! |
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At the end of one hallway, we found a ladder ! We thought maybe we found another entrance, but that wasnt the case. |
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This is me, looking up into a huge hole in the ceiling, this is just off to the left of the previous ladder photo. | ||
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Well, we just had to see what was up that ladder, so… | ||
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This is what we find. Seems its another huger hole in the ceiling. I guess I shouldnt say hole, since the top is not open. We think its a sink hole of sorts. |
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Heres the two friends that went with me on the trip. Trying to get a better hot of this huge sink hole. | ||
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Here is the main caving Gallery index: http://www.jtice.com/gallery/view_a…lbumName=Caving |
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— Photography ——— Taking photos was a big part of the trip. Between the three of us, we took over 4000 photos, and 70 video clips. About 1200 of those photos were for a couple time lapse shots we did. Time Laspe works by taking many photos over a long period of time, at a set interval. Those photos are then played back as frames in a video. Here is one we did on the trip, http://www.jtice.com/home_movs/time_lapse/megafire.wmv It consists of 845 photos taken over a 3 to 4 hour period. Those photos are then played back at 12 frames/photos per second. Here are a couple others we have done. Candle Burning Down – http://www.jtice.com/home_movs/time…candle_burn.wmv Clouds – http://www.jtice.com/home_movs/time_lapse/clouds1.avi Most of the photos were taken with a Canon A95 digital camera. One of the techniques that we use in the cave photos is called “Painting”. Here are some examples of them we have done, |
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No Flash was used in any of those photos. All were done with 8 to 15 second exposures, most using the Coleman lantern and LED modded Maglights. Heres some shots of the laptop rig all hooked up. I think this was right before one of our time lapses. |
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And a couple shots of the just ridiculously large camp fire. | ||
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— Photography Related Gear ——– I decided to take my laptop on this trip, mainly due to the amount of photos we were taking, which quickly filled our 1GB cards, and so that we could sit back each nigh and look at the ones we took that day. So if there was anything we wanted to do differently the next day, we could look at the photos and determine what needed changed. I also purchased an Apacer cd211 Portable hard drive for the trip. Although I ended up not using it, since the laptop was with me. The Apacer is basically a portable laptop hard drive enclosure, with a builtin Li_Ion battery, that has a small display, and a few buttons. It allows you to create folders that you can copy files in and out of. It has whats called OTG USB (On The Go) This is a fairly new technology, that lets the Apacer read and copy data off just about any USB device. You can simply connect your digital camera to it, hit a couple buttons, and your photos are now copied. I like to use a small USB card reader with it, instead of plugging in the camera. I think it is alittle faster that way, and it also saves battery life on the camera. — Lighting Equipment ————– I brought a ton of lights with me, and probably didnt use half of them. — Surefire U2 — Promagnum Maglight mod by Lambda. — Streamlight 3C Lux — UK 4AA LED My UK 4AA LED Review: http://www.jtice.com/review/lights/uk_4aa_led/ — X990 Heres a vid of us using it in the cave. http://www.jtice.com/home_movs/lights/X990_caving.wmv My X990 Review: http://www.jtice.com/review/lights/x990/ — Arc AA — Electrical / Charging Equipment. ————- First I ran a cable back to the bed of the truck, took a Pelican case, and make a multiple power connection for it. I should have ran a bit larger cable for this, for future projects, but I had only a day left to do it, and this was all I had handy. But it worked really well for these inverters. |
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There are 5 sets of screw terminals, the one main large set via wingnuts, and the cig plug. Should cover most all the bases.
Here is the connection box ran over to my buddies bed, this is another reason I made it like this. |
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I took two power inverters. One was a small 150 Watt one that ran off a cig lighter plug. This did fine for running the Vanson chargers. and even the Pila charger, all at once. I also took a 650 Watt one, that has larger leads, and a builtin fan. I tried not to use this one much, since I dont think it is as effecient. The X990 battery and the Laptop were the big problems. Even the small 150 W inverter could charge one at a time… IF, the truck was Running! The voltage would drop from the trucks battery too much if it wasnt running, the inverters would trigger thier protection, and shut down. So, for about 40 Minutes each night, I had to run my truck as a generator of sorts. — Storage ———— — Tips and Tricks —————— – Bring ALOT of rope, paracord, etc. – We found some nails in a pile of ash from previous fires, – When going caving. – Even though theres usually lots of water in a cave, |