Dangerous bat cave sealed for safety

[Cheryl Jones]

Dangerous bat cave sealed for safety

By Paul Boring
Whidbey News-Times (Washington)

Oct 27 2007

The memory of Matthew Hubner lives on in those who knew the 13-year-old Oak Harbor boy and in the travelers who are introduced to him for the first time on Pass Island, where a bench perched on a breathtaking vantage point bears his name.

Hubner was killed in May 2006 when he slipped while trying to access a cave northeast of Deception Pass Bridge. He fell 150 feet to the water below and attempts to recover his body were in vain.

Almost a year-and-a-half later, the historically-romanticized cave that attracted Hubner and many other hikers to its entrance on the treacherous rock face was effectively sealed off Tuesday night.

A crew of three highly-trained, acrophobia-immune workers from Sedro-Woolley’s Buckhorn Construction installed a “bat gate,” aptly-named grating that will allow Townsend’s big-eared bats access to the cave while dissuading spelunking. The rock shelf in front of the entrance will also be inaccessible with the addition of what Jack Hartt, Deception Pass State Park manager, called a “cow catcher.”
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