Climbing in Florida

Okay first let me preface this, I’m fairly new to climbing and I also have limited outdoor climbing experience. As you probably know our home state has so little of that oh so precious rock we wish to test our ability on. Recently I heard about this set of cave formations at Citrus Wildlife Management Area in Lecanto, Fl. The caves aren’t far from the parking area that sits along the highway, they are referred to as a karst formation and are considered some of the oldest caves in Florida. I personally believe the area has potential to become one of the only crags in Florida. It could certainly use some TLC from the community, It’s gained a nickname as the vandal cave due to all the graffiti that lines the walls of the cave. I took the trip recently to check out some of the holds and see if I could clean the rock up a bit. If anyone is interested I’d love to get a second set of eyes on this one. maybe even set up a top rope and check some of the holds along the lip of the cave.

What are you asking?  Whether you should bolt it or just clean it up and boulder around?  

Wait (years) until you have more experience.  At that time, consider whether your future self (with even more years of experience) will be proud of what you did there.  Most likely you will be glad you left it alone.  

I live far from Florida so I am not really in a position to say much, however having been involved in access issues for a long time, I think it is important to make a couple of points. You write that those caves are part of a "wildlife manangement" area--that word 'management' is very significant!!! Before you do ANYTHING there, you must contact the 'managers' and get their OK. My guess is that, this being Florida, they will have no knowledge of climbing and that their initial reaction will be negative. Therefore before approaching them, I would try to locate other climbers to work with you and also contact the Access Fund for advice on the best way to proceed--maybe even come prepared with examples of similar places elsewhere where climbing is permitted.

Another concern, is that I notice that, not surprisingly in that area, the caves are water-filled. I have heard stories of such caves being the homes of such delightful 'creatures' as 'brain-eating amoebas', so this is something else that should be researched before moving forward to develop the caves for climbing.

Sorry for being a bit negative, but it is important to try to do such things the right way, rather than just pushing ahead blindly.

Mitchell Goldmanwrote:

What are you asking?  Whether you should bolt it or just clean it up and boulder around?  

Wait (years) until you have more experience.  At that time, consider whether your future self (with even more years of experience) will be proud of what you did there.  Most likely you will be glad you left it alone.  

Realistically just clean it up boulder around, I don’t think it would be much use to bolt it, it tops out at about 20ft max.

Mitchell Goldmanwrote:

What are you asking?  Whether you should bolt it or just clean it up and boulder around?  

Wait (years) until you have more experience.  At that time, consider whether your future self (with even more years of experience) will be proud of what you did there.  Most likely you will be glad you left it alone.  

This is a weird comment. What makes you think a person would likely regret cleaning up and possibly bolting some rock that has more graffiti than a city underpass?

Alan Rubinwrote:

I live far from Florida so I am not really in a position to say much, however having been involved in access issues for a long time, I think it is important to make a couple of points. You write that those caves are part of a "wildlife manangement" area--that word 'management' is very significant!!! Before you do ANYTHING there, you must contact the 'managers' and get their OK. My guess is that, this being Florida, they will have no knowledge of climbing and that their initial reaction will be negative. Therefore before approaching them, I would try to locate other climbers to work with you and also contact the Access Fund for advice on the best way to proceed--maybe even come prepared with examples of similar places elsewhere where climbing is permitted.

Another concern, is that I notice that, not surprisingly in that area, the caves are water-filled. I have heard stories of such caves being the homes of such delightful 'creatures' as 'brain-eating amoebas', so this is something else that should be researched before moving forward to develop the caves for climbing.

Sorry for being a bit negative, but it is important to try to do such things the right way, rather than just pushing ahead blindly.

I appreciate your input regarding the access issues regarding the management area. That’s definitely something I’ll look into. To my knowledge the area has been pretty much left to rot and they don’t do very much “management” of the area as it’s been run through with parties and fires there’s often broken glass and other trash scattered within the cave. Also the cave in question doesn’t flood it’s connected to a series of waterways underground that connect to the aquifer, so water drains pretty efficiently. Nothing good planning couldn’t get around. As for the amoebas there are none in these caves they’re pretty popular hiking destination for locals an people often go caving in them so I don’t believe that’d be much of a concern. I’m not interested in bolting the area, I certainly don’t have enough experience to bolt it. At best just cleaning it up for some bouldering.

You should try checking in with these guys:

https://www.seclimbers.org/

Ben Silverwrote:

You should try checking in with these guys:

https://www.seclimbers.org/

I just reached out to them, thanks for the info man!

What if climbers cleaned up a natural area without the end goal being to climb it?  Is that juice really worth the squeeze? I left Florida ten years ago, so who am I to say. It's cool that's out there and it's too bad that it's so trashed. The Florida wilderness is spectacular on its own terms and I miss it all the time.

Looks like a great place to establish some (potentially highball) bouldering. I grew up in FL. Clean that place up, boulder around, test yourself and take some falls. I don't see any reason to bolt for 15 ft walls, especially if you're not experienced with that.

Collin Teixeirawrote:

I just reached out to them, thanks for the info man!

Hear anything interesting from them?

Bumping just to see if there has been any interest here. Went to these holes a few times when I was younger. I'm desperately looking for somewhere to climb outdoors and this was the first place I thought of. Looks very climbable

Is anyone still looking at route-finding in this area? 

Climbed there with my dad and some of our Orlando based climbing team around 2006. Super fun but the top outs were almost impossible and a lot of the rock was chossy/ wet.

@david Sounds worth going I'll probably try to clean stuff up, and if I go a few times might start putting stuff on MP

Ben Silverwrote:

This is a weird comment. What makes you think a person would likely regret cleaning up and possibly bolting some rock that has more graffiti than a city underpass?

Obviously you’ve never seen the damages a single incompetent/uninformed individual can make in a weekend with a hammer drill and a pry bar. When we change the natural state of rock, weather that be removing what we believe to be death blocks or stabilizing them, or adding protection options by drilling out rock(especially sedimentary rock like lime stone). In Thailand they historically chipped rings to sling before the smaller bolt filled holes became popular, and now the technology filling those hole has improved even more to be safer for the public enjoying there earth and healthy for our earth we live enjoying. Not to mention the environmental impacts of using paint removing acids like the popular “elephants snot” I’ve seen used in open woodland areas in a cave environment! The road to hell is paved with good intentions!

This is AMAZING to see. I've been curious about these caves since I started climbing, and finally seeing people talk about then (and post photos of people attempting routes) makes this Florida Man incredibly happy. We don't have much to climb here in the Sunshine State, but I'm proud to see we have SOMETHING. Bucket list bouldering for any Floridian.