A return to caving... sort of

Levin's class has been doing a module on geology and learning about caves and karsts recently. If a pandemic weren't still happening, they would have gone on a cave field trip, but that is out of the question right now. Instead, I planned a caving adventure for just me and the kids, to explore a wild cave in Kentucky.

Liz was pretty anxious about this trip, since caving is inherently a bit of a risky activity. more so when you have little information about the cave you are going into. My initial plan was to drive 3 hours down to an area near Somerset Kentucky, where I knew about some cave entrances from a geocaching trip I did there back in 2014. But then I got in touch with someone who knew about  cave a little closer, called Pine Hill Cave, and after talking with him, got enough information about this cave to plan a trip there. Having a map and some idea of what to expect in the cave helped reduce anxieties a bunch. Still, the kids, especially Levin, were not too excited about the trip. They had done some caving previously when we lived in Tennessee, but that was a while ago. Back then we also had a knowledgeable guide, my friend Natalie, which removes a lot of the uncertainty and danger. This trip would by nature of us visiting a cave we'd never been in before, would be more of an adventure and exploration. This can be thrilling or terrifying. I was hoping the kids would find it more on the thrilling side of things, as I usually find this kind of activity.

We left at a reasonable time and got to the parking spot in a reasonable time, a small pull-off on the highway just outside of Mount Vernon, Kentucky. We sorted through all the gear we would be bringing, plenty of light sources, elbow and knee pads, hard hats, and clothes we wouldn't mind getting muddy, then set off to find the entrance to the cave. This turned out to be very easy, thanks to the info I had gotten from another caver. At the mouth of the cave we put on all our gear, and sent one final text to Liz telling her we were going in.

Clean cavers, about to enter the underground realms

The cave entrance was nice and large, and looked to have several little branches to explore, but quite soon we were crawling on hands and knees towards the sound of rushing water. The main trunk passage of this cave is an underground stream and once we reached it it became clear that we were going to get wet on this trip. We would be traveling upstream, in the water for most of the passage. This slowed progress down a bit, and also dampened spirits. You could say it adds to the spirit of adventure to be slogging through a stream, but the kids were already a little nervous about being underground and completely on our own, and having soggy feet and chilled toes did little to make them more comfortable with this fact. We passed a couple side passages and eventually came to a spot where we either had to crawl in the stream, or take a dry looking side passage that on the map was labeled "mid section bypass". We opted for the bypass, which was easier going since it was dry. Towards the end of the bypass, where it seemed like it should reconnect with the main stream, there were two dry passage ways that had spray paint telling us they were both dead ends (which agreed with the map), but the way back to the main stream appeared to be a tight crawl under some break-down and the kids absolutely did not want to investigate this at all. The idea that we didn't really know if something connected, or even know exactly where we were on the map was dawning on them, especially Levin. Levin was getting freaked out, and was starting to whine about turning back and getting out. The more I poked around looking for the main passage way, the more vociferous he became. Ada, who up until this point had been really excited about exploring the cave, and was often out in front, started to join in with Levin about wanting to leave. Not seeing a way forward at this point, we turned back and headed to the place where the main passage was faced with a low crawl through the stream. At this point, it looked like the only way forward would be to take on this crawl in the stream, and both kids were distressed and getting close to tears about wanting to leave. We had been in the cave a little over 30 minutes. There was still so much more to explore, but I could see we were not going to get further in without a serious change in their mindset, and I didn't know how to calm the kids down. So we started heading back the way we came.

Levin looking longingly at the exit grafitti

One of he only cave formations we found, partially defaced

Navigating slippery rocks and streams

Fossil Ada spotted in the ceiling

Popcorn formations on the ceiling

Once we were heading back, Levin calmed right down. I don't think he was all that scared to be underground,, but the idea of exploring simply was not enticing him. Instead, the fear of the un-known had been firmly planted in his mind. Going back the way we came was now calm, because we knew this passage already. He happily scrambled over the rocky obstacles, and negotiated the slippery mud as we headed back to the cave entrance. He was quick to point out the landmarks we had observed on our way in, keeping us on the right path. And soon enough we were back at the cave entrance, exiting into the sunlight.

I couldn't hide my disappointment that we hadn't spent more time in the cave. We barely saw any cave formations that Levin had learned about in his class, and there were literally miles of passageways more to explore. The really cool things about cave exploration, discovering beautiful formations, seeing rare subterranean wildlife, figuring out how to overcome obstacles, we really had only just got glimpses of. Our hour underground left me wanting more. But the kids were totally fine with being back outside. I texted Liz that we were out, and got a reply that she was glad we were all safe. We shucked off our muddy caving gear and I started thinking about how to salvage our adventure. Had we really just driven over two hours to spend only a hour underground? Were we just going to turn around and head home? I think not!

Post cave portrait

Obligatory butt-shot showing who has the muddiest bottom (Ada wins!)

Looking at my geocaching map, I knew there was some interesting locations to explore a short drive north from where we were. We could travel some back roads through rural Kentuckian hollows to a places of more springs and caves, possibly scout out another cave to explore in the future, and look for a waterfall to hike to. The kids thought this sounded reasonable, so off we went.

I was pleasantly surprised by how beautiful the backroads north towards Berea were. The roads followed ridge tops and hollows, and there were signs of waterfalls, limestone bluffs and possible caves everywhere. I am not at all surprised to learn that this county has a huge concentration of caves, although I bet most are on private lands. We stopped at Climax spring, which is a beautiful small waterfall along the side of the road, with a drinking pipe set up.

Climax Spring/Falls

Levin has a taste of Climax Spring

Just a short ways past this was a geocache placed near Climax Cave, another little cave system that might be worth exploring some time. This cave is on property owned by a nearby church, and I'd want to contact them before making a trip inside, as there are a bunch of "No Trespassing" signs posted around the cave entrance. After finding the geocache nearby, we poked our heads into the cave and immediately there were more cave formations, stalactites and stalagmites than in Pine Hill Cave. Ada seemed like she would be interested in grabbing our helmets and headlamps and exploring a bit, but Levin wasn't having it. Instead we chose to drive a bit further north to the trailhead for Anglin Falls.

Ada checking out the small entrance to Climax Cave

Anglin falls was another place I only knew about because there was a geocache there, but I am sure glad we stopped for a visit. the geocache was right at the trailhead, but we set off up the trail, about a mile, to check out the waterfall. There were spring wildflowers along the trail )white and purple bloodroots), lovely limestone bluffs and the waterfall was running well and just beautiful. The uge boulders around the waterfall were fun to scamper over, and best of all for the kids, was catching salamanders in the pools beneath the falls.

This last little hike to Anglin falls really redeemed the trip for the kids. They were so excited about catching the salamanders, and just boisterous about playing around the waterfall and the rocks. This was more in line with what they want from an adventure trip. Somewhere to run around and climb on rocks, catch cool amphibians, and enjoy a little hike. I'll have to keep that in mind when I plan our next outing.

I would still really love to do some more caving, but I'm not sure I could get the kids, or Liz that interested in exploring a cave with me. So for now I'll have to content myself with the little taste of caving we got today. 

It's been a long time

After nearly two years without going climbing, I finally got back on a rope. As climbing trips go this one would barely count in most peoples books. IN fact, the climbing was an after-thought for the day,. We had taken the family down to Ijams to hunt for spring salamanders, and after spending the afternoon doing that, I dragged everyone over to the new Ijams Crag to check out the clibing.

Ijams Crag was only recently developed and opened to the public, and is a small limestone wall with sport routes. I jumped on two of the easier routes on the far left hand side of the wall. Bruce Banner (5.8) was my first taste of rock climbing. I didn't know what it was graded at the time, but it didn't look that hard. At the 3rd bolt was a cruxy move, which is probably responsible for the rating, but other than that it was easy going. For not having been climbing for so long, I felt pretty comfortable leading up. My wife said I wasn't as fluid as I used to be. No surprise there.

I jumped on an adjacent route next, Down on the Corner (5.7). It started sprinkling a little, and the rock started to get slick, and the crux section here felt more awkward for me, but I got up quickly (it is only 4 closely spaced bolts to the top). Liz took a turn on the route next, it's been even longer since she climbed, and I thought she did wonderfully.

As afterthoughts go, this was pretty fun. I may have to try to get in a few more climbing trips before move.

Fox Hole Cave

I had been wanting to visit this cave because of the geocache that exists at the entrance to it. Kind of a silly reason for picking a cave, that is, if you're not a geocacher. There are tons of caves in this area, some of which may be much cooler than this one, but this one has a geocache in it, so it was bumped to the top of the list. If you are not a geocacher, I wouldn't expect you to understand. But silly reasons aside, this cave turned out to be pretty darn cool.

First, let me disclaim that the cave is on the Closed Caves List, but is also on Private Property, which means that you can obtain permission from the landowner to access the cave. I'm not experienced enough to know whether caves on that list are on the list because of poor relations with landowners, or other reasons, but when my friend Natalie suggested I try to get permission, I was game. It took some internet sleuthing just to find out who to call, and I called a few wrong numbers at first. Eventually I connected with someone, only to make a mistake and ask for the person's daughter first (who is listed as the property owner) and then her deceased husband. You might think that after these faux-pas I wouldn't have gotten permission, but the lady I spoke to was kind enough to allow us to visit the cave. I was STOKED!

For the rest of the week I was planning the trip, not just to the cave, but also to a number of geocaches and natural formations in the area. Those other destinations seriously ate into our below-ground time, and it was nearly 2pm by the time we were gearing up for the cave. I wasn't all that bothered by this, but I was lucky that my caving companions were also geocachers. Any other caver might have been seriously miffed. The entrance to the cave is in a 30m deep sinkhole, locally known as the Confederate Sinkhole as it was used as a hide out during the Civil War. I had brought a climbing rope, harnesses and gear for rappelling/ascending, and was prepared to bring it with us. But jsut as we were getting ready to leave the car, a bunch of "kids" (ok they may have been in their lower 20s...) walked by and said they were heading to the cave too. They had no visible caving gear, such as helmets and knee pads, and no visible rope either. We figured if they could get down the sinkhole, so could we. Plus I was a little hesitant about leaving a nice climbing rope at the hole knowing that others could take it. Not that they would.... well, I guess I was just being unfair to them. If we hadn't seen anyone else around, i most surely would have hung and left a rope while were down below. Oh well.

We got to the sinkhole a bit behind the kids, and it turns out they did have 100' rope, cheap 8mm stuff that you might use as a tow-rope for water skiing. Heck, maybe not even that good. They were slowly making their way to the bottom, and offered to let us use their line.  Then, much to my shame, they offered to leave their rope in place even after they had left, since we would probably be in the cave longer than them. Boy did I feel low, having stereotyped them as rednecks, when they were just nice kids wanting to explore. So we descended to the pit using their rope. By the time we hit the bottom they were already disappeared down the main north passage. Rather than follow in their smoky wake (who smokes in a cave?), we quickly located a sandy crawl that took us to the southern passage. The way that this cave splits like this is not at all obvious. In fact, if we hadn't known to look for a southern passage right at the bottom of the sinkhole, we probably would have gone into the main north passage, since it is big and obvious. I think this fact actually helps protect the cave somewhat, since most "spelunkers" will be drawn into the northern passage, leaving the other passage to the "cavers". This was fairly well born out by us not seeing much trash at all in the southern passage, and what graffiti we did see seemed to be from carbide lamps. No spray painting or ugly rock scrapings.

The southern trunk was pretty sporting. A short ways in there was a 3m climb up a crumbly wall, aided by a fixed rope. Further in past that was another dicey traverse by some deep pits, once again aided by a fixed rope. The rope had been broken half-way, so it wasn't immediately clear to us how this portion was done, but we figured it out and even tied the two ends together to make a nice handline for the traverse. Mostly the passage was a good walking passage, and dry. There were numerous small leads off to either side which we stopped and took time to explore. I got pretty muddy going in one of them. We were looking for the lead which had been dug out by Hal Love in the 90's and opened up 3 miles of additional cave passage. We didn't know what we were looking for though, and were never sure if we had found it. The trunk passage we were in had survey marks labeling it as the F passage, and carbide markings dating back to the late 60's. It ended at a nice little pool (and some additional muddy crawls which we declined to investigate).

On our way out, we tested one lead with a nasty, tight and awkward z-bend. Natalie was first to get through, and got excited about possibly being on virgin cave. I followed (painfully) but there wasn't space enough for us both to be at the end of her lead. Mitch deemed the tight -bend to be beyond his comfort zone. Eventually, Natalie returned saying that the lead might go a bit further on with some more digging. Something for another day. I exited the z-bend in crazy style, contorting my body in painful ways, with my head smooshed to the ground, and my hips and legs sprawled up to the ceiling. Mitch got some video which I'm hoping to get access to.

When we got to the entrance sinkhole, the sun had already set, but it was still twilight. Rather than exit immediately, we walked a short ways into the North entrance-passage. Our earlier thoughts about cave condition were confirmed, there was a lot more trash and graffiti in this part of the cave, at least near the entrance where we were looking. What's worse, we found some fresh rock scratching graffitti from the kids who had entered just before us. They even dated their graffiti. Made me kind of pissed at them, because actions like theirs is what can cause bad landowner relations. And I stayed pissed at them even after we started climbing out the sinkhole and found that they had indeed left their rope for us to use. Ok, so they are generous about sharing their rope, but they are still idiots for marking their names in the cave. Sheesh. It was good and dark by the time we got out, but we had only been underground for about 5 hours. Not a long trip, but definitely a good one. A few days later Natalie sent me a pdf of the cave map, and there is a tone more to explore to this cave. We had utterly missed Hal Love's "recent" discoveries and their appear to be miles of awesome cave left to explore. It's always fun to have something like this to look forward to.