The group consisting of the charter members of the Great Lakes Cavers has its origins in the common love of the outdoors. Most in the group met in Wisconsin in the mid to late 1990’s but have since spread throughout the country. Our varied educational and professional backgrounds include Engineering, Geology, Education, Business, Computer Programming and Counseling.

We began doing caving side trips as part of our regular backpacking trips together and soon were planning trips with the sole purpose of caving.

As a group, we have done caving trips together in Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky and New York.

As a chapter of the NSS, we hope make caving a lifelong pursuit of learning and hopefully contributing to the existing body of knowledge and preservation.

February 2011 - Coldwater Cave: Decorah, Iowa

Check out the photos of our latest trip to Coldwater Cave in our photo section. It was the coldest, most pristine cave we've ever been in. One of the big highlights was entering the cave though a 94ft. steel tube. The Iowa DNR drilled the hole to further explore the cave and research whether the cave could be commercialized. The DNR decided that it was too expensive of an endeavor and returned control of the entrance to the original land owners. The water level in the cave was high due to the recent snow melt. We were unable to go downstream in the cave because of safety issues. We explored upstream until we reached a flooded out passage. We were partially to fully submerged in upper 30's to lower 40 degree water for most of the trip. Numb feet did not stop us from having a great time. A special thanks to Mike Lace and Dawn Ryan for being gracious hosts and guides. We hope to visit again soon.

August 2010 - Custer State Park, South Dakota

During a backpacking trip in the Black Hills we discovered a cave that was mined from back when Custer discovered gold in the canyon we were hiking in. . . The caving experience was unplanned (but an exciting surprise) and we got the location from an old trail guide who knew about it from years earlier. We obviously didn't have proper caving attire but we didn't let that stop us...

03-28-09 - Wayne Cave, IN

We revisted Wayne cave in Indiana. It was everything we remembered. This time we made it to the natural bridge. We are still perfecting our map reading skills. We didn't know exactly where we were for about 2hours. We knew how to get out, but couldn't get deeper into the cave. It was still a fun trip. Thanks again to the Indiana Karst Conservancy for allowing us access!.

02-25-07 - Sullivan Cave, IN

Check out the pictures from the latest GLC trip in our photo section. More pictures will be coming later on. We took our second go at Sullivan cave in hopes to make it to the end. Unfortunately, we were stopped by high water levels. Roughly halfway to the end of the cave is a bathtub, a 2-3 foot crawl way filled with water. Usually the water comes all the way up to the ceiling, making it impassable. At dry times of the year, the water level drops, allowing 6 inches of air space to make it through the bathtub (approximately 70 feet long). Our hope was to come in the dead of winter and find low water levels. That's not what we found. The trip was still a great time, partly due to the fact that we were more appropriately dressed with wetsuits. We spent roughly 7 1/2 hours in the cave getting cold, tired, and wet. Looking back, we did a poor job of chronicling our adventure with pictures. We took very few pictures. Dorian brought an all weather camera to capture our first ever video underground, but the video didn't turn out due to poor lighting. Thanks again to the Indiana Karst Conservancy for allowing us to have such a great adventure.

11-04-06 - Castle Rock Cave

Check out the pictures from the latest GLC trip in our photo section. Castle Rock Cave was pretty small. Just under 1000ft. of surveyed passages. For a small cave, it had some nice formations & some fun tight spots. The only downside was odor of raccoon feces in the cave. A special thanks to Gary Emerson who was our guide for the cave. Thanks Gary!

7-14-06 - Sullivan Cave Scouting Trip & Future Trip

Keep your schedules open in February! Aaron & I visited Sullivan Cave in Indiana before our family vacation this summer. Sullivan Cave is Indiana's second longest cave at 9.63 miles of surveyed passages. It's the 68th longest cave in the continental U.S. (A little bit a trivia for you). It was by far the wettest cave we had ever been in. We walked through passages of chest high water & crawled through tight spots with half of our face in water. We spent about 8 hours in the cave, mostly getting lost & trying to figure out a good route to the end. We made it to the halfway point in the cave which was impassable due to high water levels. The cave patron told us the the entire cave is accessible only during draught times in the summer and in the dead of winter. We are tentatively planning a February trip to go the entire length of the cave. Contact me, Andrew Debbink, if you are interested in attending.

Check out the photos of the trip in our photo section.

4-3-06 - Pictures & Awards of Recent Trip to Wayne's Cave

Wow, what a trip! We spent just over ten hours in the cave and saw less than half of it. There were many highlights to the trip, but the biggest one that sticks out is the long crawlway which led to the major sections of the cave. We crawled for over an hour, each way, without being able to stand up. The cave varied from 40ft. belly crawls to 90ft. deep canyons. It was an amazing cave & we got to see some very unique formations. We all exited wet, muddy, tired, & cold, but would do it all over again.

Check out the photos of the trip in our photo section.


	Trip Awards
		Gollum Award: James Mueller - for demonstrating the most effort and drive in the cave
		Gandolf Award: Andrew Debbink - for planning & knowledge
		Gimli Award: Aaron Debbink - for lugging around the heaviest pack

2-19-06 - Old Pictures Added

Here are a few old caving pictures I dug up. This was a trip we took 5-6 years ago to some Iowa caves. Check them out in our photo section.

2-15-06 - Upcoming Event

GLC will be taking their next trip to Wayne's cave in Indiana March 24th-26th. Contact Andrew Debbink for details. Wayne's cave has 4.25miles of surveyed passages. This will be GLC's biggest cave adventure yet

01-24-06 - Pictures Added

The pictures from last years trip to Pop's Cave have been added to the photo section. Thanks for your patience.

12-24-05 - Vertical Rope Training

A few of us got together, last minute, to practice vertical rope ascension. We practiced with both mechanical ascenders and ascension knots. Contact Andrew Debbink for future practice sessions. Check out the pictures in our photo section.