Clough Cave Project 2011 - Finished!

After a successful gate building effort in March, WCC Volunteers and Park staff returned to Sequoia National Park in mid-October to undertake restoration efforts at this long-abused cave. Between Wednesday the 16th and late Monday the 17th, more than 20 volunteers came and went throughout the weekend. A field kitchen was set up, pumps and generators were installed at the river, and a ton of gear was packed up to the cave. While all this was going on, a small group of volunteers with biological expertise explored throughout the entire cave, flagging invertebrate habitats so that these would be protected from cleaning activities. Over the course of two very busy weekend days walls and formations were scrubbed and hosed down, old blast rubble and broken formation removed from rimstone pools which were later subject to wet vacuum cleaning, and an excavated pit was filled in and disguised. Finally, a preliminary inventory of 73 graffiti locations was completed. Evenings were spent enjoying Chef Dopplemayr's most excellent dinners, sitting around the campfire enjoying wine and beer contributed by participants. By Monday afternoon everything was finished and all the equipment packed up. Joel Despain, cave specialist and geologist for the Park, who was the overall supervisor, was very happy with the final results. Clough Cave now has two very well built gates and is in much better condition than it has been for many, many years.