Caving Story

This is a story about one of my many caving adventures. The names and locations of the caves have not been used to protect the caves. The names of the cavers have not been used either.

At 4:40 am my alarm went off and awoke me from my deep sleep. I got out of bed thinking today was going to be a great day for caving. As I got ready, my vision became blurry. I thought to my self, “oh no, not a migraine. NOT TODAY!” As I continued to get ready, I was hoping the migraine would just go away. I was not so lucky. As I drove to the meeting place my head was throbbing with pain. Upon arriving at the meeting place I waited for the rest of the group to arrive. I took a pain reliever pill, in hopes that it would take the pain away.

At 6:30 am we began our hike along the dirt trail. After 5 minutes of hiking I felt the great feeling of my stomach contents coming out of my mouth (good bye pill). Our group leader turned off the main dirt trail and began ascending up the mountain. This ascend was no walk in the park. It felt like the trail we straight up a cliff. 

Because of how steep the trail was, we took several breaks. Every break I felt noshes, but I kept telling myself that I can’t give up because I wanted to find these caves. During one of our breaks, about an hour in, the rest of my stomach contents came out. Several individuals in the group were concerned about me and kept asking if I was going to be able to make it or if I should turn around. Knowing how my migraines going, I told them I would be fine and I wanted to keep going.

After two hours of pain from the migraine and pain from the hike (sometimes bush whacking), one of the members of our group located a hole in the ground. The hole was next to the cliffs and was surrounded by bushes. While several individuals from the group explored the hole, I laid on the ground trying to keep my insides inside of me (with no success). I didn’t enter the hole, but saw the entrance. I was informed that it was about 10 feet deep. They gave the cave a name and continued onward through the bushes and up the mountain. Within a few hundred feet, another cave was located and explored. This cave was about 10 feet deep.

A little while later, one individual stood on top of a rock and waited for the rest of us to catch up with him. The group leader went below him and asked, “Did you see this hole?” The individual did not know what the group leader was talking about. We gathered around and saw what the group leader saw, it was a prospect hole. The hole went about 15 feet back into the mountain and stopped. Again while everyone looked at the hole, I was over in the bushes (dry heaving this time).

We continued our hike. After about 3 hours from starting the hike, we found another cave in the mountain. After taking a short break, I started to feel better and had more energy. I decided I wanted to explore this cave. The cave had an entrance that was about 3 feet high and 4 feet wide. After going through the entrance, it opened up to were it was 10 feet high and 3 feet wide. It was back about 15 feet and then became too tight at a bend to continue. I could see that it continued around the bend but I could not see how far. I exited the cave and was happy that I was able to go inside. Once outside, one individual from the group said that I had the color back in my face and was more energetic.

With me feeling better and have more energy I got my GPS out and started to look at the direction we were going. The group was going further up the mountain, but my GPS was showing that we needed to traverse the mountain. I informed the group leader of this. He stated he was going by a description and a map, but wasn’t sure if he was correct. The group decided to follow the GPS and see where it took us (mainly because it wasn’t up hill).

Within a few minutes I arrived in the area that my GPS was stating the cave was at. With a little bit of searching I located the cave. The group gathered at the entrance and got ready to enter. With helmets and lights on we began our decent. The first room we entered was about 10 feet wide, 5 feet high and 15 feet long. In the far corner there was hole in the ground. We went down the hole about 30 feet and it brought us into a large room. The room was about 40 feet long, 20 wide and the height varied from 6 feet to 1 foot. This room was the end of the cave. We located several formations beginning to grow on the ground. On the walls there were several names written from the early 1900’s. After explored and taking pictures we exited the cave.

Within a hundred feet we located another cave. This cave required us to use our vertical gear. Since only a few of us had our vertical gear we did not enter the cave.

We continued traversing the mountain towards the next location on my GPS. Upon locating the cave, the group leader informed me this cave was not the one we thought we were going to, but was one of them were wanted to find today. One individual and I decided to go in to cave and explore it, while everyone else looked for the other one. The cave went about 40 feet down, then had a portion where we would need vertical gear to continue. We exited the cave and met up with the rest of the group.

The group was sitting at the entrance of the main cave we were here to explore. We all got prepared and entered the cave. The cave was the biggest one of our trip. The main room was about 70 feet high, 20 feet wide and 70 feet long. We located several plants growing off of rat droppings. Also there were several formations along the walls. In the back part of the cave we found several names written on the walls. We found one name that was dated July 1882. This cave also had a vertical part. We didn’t explore that section during this trip. After taking several pictures and exploring, we exited the cave.

He ate our food and decided what to do next. A couple of the individuals decided to go back down the mountain and call it a day. The rest of us wanted to look around and try to find another cave that was supposed to be in the area. We split up and began looking. 

After looking for a while I sat down to take a break. I thought that the rest of the group would come back my direction, since they could not go far the other way since there were cliffs. After about 10 minutes they did not come back my way. I was getting hot and was very low on water. I began to walk towards the direction they went. I made it to the cliffs and did not locate them. For an hour I yelled their names and whistled. I went to the caves that we search earlier to see if they went back, but they were not there. With no water, sweat pouring from my face, and no one around, I decided to make my way down to the cars.

When I was half way down, I saw one individual from the group standing on a rock on the other side of the ravine. We yelled back and forth and decided to meet at the parking lot. When we met at the parking lot we decided it was a miscommunication between all of us. We agreed that next time, it would be good to take 2-way radios with us.

In the end, it was a great day of caving, with lots of lessons learned. Thank you everyone that was on this adventure, I enjoyed the trip.