A beautiful summer's evening saw eleven of us (Brendan, Steve, Glyn, Jen, Luke, Adrian, Pete, two Katies, Bernie and me) gathering on Slitherstones Lane for a foray into Sidetrack. This was the second time in less than a week that some of us had had to deal with the huge puddles and ruts of the lane as there was a call out there the previous Thursday night, when DCRO came to the aid of one of Mark Hadfield's cute little calves which had fallen down an open cut.
Sidetrack Cave
In the wake of the AGM and dinner - 5 " intrepid " cavers from the TSG attempted a Sunday trip - after much deliberation - Sidetrack Cave , Eldon Quarry was selected as a non-SRT route was preferred. Thus with a plan made, gear was packed, a call-out put on the board and we drove up to the snowy wastes. Once all lights and other stuff was sorted we visited the postbox on the quarry gate to fill in the visitors book and double check navigation-and after walking up the lane we quickly established that we were “close”.
This week's mid-week trip was to Sidetrack Cave; a real gem, hidden away on a ledge at the now-abandoned Eldon Quarry. There were six of us (three TSG, two Crewe and one Eldon) and we parked at various points on the rough lane past the quarry. The cave itself is situated on a ledge some 10m below the top of the quarry, and we rigged this with a ladder and a rope. Most abseiled down the rope to reach the ledge, and then wandered along, past the remains of Alsop's Cave (now quarried away) to Sidetrack itself.