Spelunking
So, we got up at 630 this morning to the sound of thunder and flashes of lightening. It was a full on storm. We were scheduled to go spelunking at 915, an hour away from the hotel. Spelunking: defined as the recreational sport of exploring caves.
After rushing through the breakfast buffet, we headed out to The Natural Bridge Caverns. We ended up doing the Adventure Tour.
There were 9 of us, 5 females and 4 males, and every single one of us mentioned “The Amazing Race” at least once. I guess all the adventure-types dream of seeing the world, doing crazy things, and winning $1M! Out of the 9, 4 were military and 1 was a police officer for the Pentagon. Rich and I were able to keep up with all of them!
They started out by lowering us into a well shaft, 160 feet below ground.
Rich volunteered to be first.
They had 2 guys hand-cranking the rope that was attached to the D-ring on our harness. They don’t use the motor to lower the rope because they want to make sure that they can hear you if you freak out and want to be pulled back up.
While Rich was being lowered, one of their guys was showing us a cannonball that they found. He put it on the ground and gave it a little kick. Well, that little kick of his got the cannonball headed straight for the hole that Rich was going down. I, and a few others, jumped out of our seats pissed off, running to catch the cannonball. Although, it was still a distance away from the hole, it was too close for comfort! They can’t be doing stupid things like that!
That whole time Rich had no clue what was going on. I mentioned it to him when I got down to the bottom and he said that at that point, he heard everyone screaming and the rope jerking him up and down. He knew something was going on up on top. His morbid quote: “That would have been a nasty way to die. I would have made it to the bottom with no head!”
I was the next one to go down the shaft. I read that the caves were a steady temperature of 70 degrees plus humidity. So, I wore a tank top instead of a t-shirt, since I’m not very good with heat. While I was being lowered, the back of my shoulders got scratched up a bit and my ass kept on getting stuck on the walls of the shaft. I kept having to push myself off. This was actually one of the highlights of the tour. It's so hard to describe but if you’re claustrophobic, this definitely isn’t the thing for you. I’m not even sure how a heavier older gentleman was able to make it down.
It took almost an hour to get everyone down into the cave since it took about 5 minutes per person. Once there, they gave us military bags that had batteries, a granola bar, and water. The air in the cave was very stale since there is a high concentration of CO2. If it wasn’t for our headlamps, we would be in complete darkness.
The tour was a mixture of rock climbing in muddy conditions,
rappelling 60 feet down a cluster of rocks,
crawling through tight areas in the most awkward positions,
and sliding down muddy rock faces. My knee is still bothering me and I had to wear a knee pad. Thank goodness since we were on our knees quite a bit.
The lowest part of the cave that we ventured to was 230 feet below the ground. It was one of the greatest adventures I’ve had in my life.
The formations were amazingly beautiful: stalagmites, stalactites, draperies, curtains, bacon drapes, mud cups, and soda straws. It was the first time that I saw anything like that in person.
At one point, we sat in a flat area just to rest and eat our granola bars. We all turned our headlamps out.
It was actually quite creepy but exciting at the same time. We sat like that for about 20 minutes. Did you know that you can go blind if you are in total darkness after 16 days?
The tour lasted until about 3pm but could have ended sooner. But because of the heavier man, we had to make frequent stops for him to catch his breath. I really felt bad for him. He said he went spelunking once before, but that was 10 years ago. I think he forgot how strenuous it was. I was having a very difficult time breathing, especially after pulling myself back up the 60 foot rock wall with a knotted rope.
I may not be the most fit person but I can easily say that I’m in way better shape than he was.
By the end, all we really wanted to do was just finish….especially since most of us were holding in our pee. We drank a lot of water while we were down there, but you can imagine, there is no where to go!
The tour ended in the Jeremy Room, where walking tours are given every hour. We were beat up at that point….our hair, shoes, and clothes were covered in clay and mud. We were sweaty and tired! It was kind of funny walking up the stairs while the other tour group stared at us in their nice clean clothes!
When booking the tour, the operator didn’t tell anyone to bring a change of clothes. We brought some because I thought we would be going out afterward. The older couple didn’t. They had to drive back in that filth!
I'm glad we were caving during the storm. We completely forgot it was raining until we were done.
When I was in high school, we used to play “Rambo” at Heritage Park’s island in Cerritos. We’d sneak off around midnight, cross the water, and “kill” the other team. My favorite part was getting muddy! This was just like it but 100 times better. They are closing this part of the cave to the public next year. I’m glad that we got a chance to experience it!
After rushing through the breakfast buffet, we headed out to The Natural Bridge Caverns. We ended up doing the Adventure Tour.
There were 9 of us, 5 females and 4 males, and every single one of us mentioned “The Amazing Race” at least once. I guess all the adventure-types dream of seeing the world, doing crazy things, and winning $1M! Out of the 9, 4 were military and 1 was a police officer for the Pentagon. Rich and I were able to keep up with all of them!
They started out by lowering us into a well shaft, 160 feet below ground.
Rich volunteered to be first.
They had 2 guys hand-cranking the rope that was attached to the D-ring on our harness. They don’t use the motor to lower the rope because they want to make sure that they can hear you if you freak out and want to be pulled back up.
While Rich was being lowered, one of their guys was showing us a cannonball that they found. He put it on the ground and gave it a little kick. Well, that little kick of his got the cannonball headed straight for the hole that Rich was going down. I, and a few others, jumped out of our seats pissed off, running to catch the cannonball. Although, it was still a distance away from the hole, it was too close for comfort! They can’t be doing stupid things like that!
That whole time Rich had no clue what was going on. I mentioned it to him when I got down to the bottom and he said that at that point, he heard everyone screaming and the rope jerking him up and down. He knew something was going on up on top. His morbid quote: “That would have been a nasty way to die. I would have made it to the bottom with no head!”
I was the next one to go down the shaft. I read that the caves were a steady temperature of 70 degrees plus humidity. So, I wore a tank top instead of a t-shirt, since I’m not very good with heat. While I was being lowered, the back of my shoulders got scratched up a bit and my ass kept on getting stuck on the walls of the shaft. I kept having to push myself off. This was actually one of the highlights of the tour. It's so hard to describe but if you’re claustrophobic, this definitely isn’t the thing for you. I’m not even sure how a heavier older gentleman was able to make it down.
It took almost an hour to get everyone down into the cave since it took about 5 minutes per person. Once there, they gave us military bags that had batteries, a granola bar, and water. The air in the cave was very stale since there is a high concentration of CO2. If it wasn’t for our headlamps, we would be in complete darkness.
The tour was a mixture of rock climbing in muddy conditions,
rappelling 60 feet down a cluster of rocks,
crawling through tight areas in the most awkward positions,
and sliding down muddy rock faces. My knee is still bothering me and I had to wear a knee pad. Thank goodness since we were on our knees quite a bit.
The lowest part of the cave that we ventured to was 230 feet below the ground. It was one of the greatest adventures I’ve had in my life.
The formations were amazingly beautiful: stalagmites, stalactites, draperies, curtains, bacon drapes, mud cups, and soda straws. It was the first time that I saw anything like that in person.
At one point, we sat in a flat area just to rest and eat our granola bars. We all turned our headlamps out.
It was actually quite creepy but exciting at the same time. We sat like that for about 20 minutes. Did you know that you can go blind if you are in total darkness after 16 days?
The tour lasted until about 3pm but could have ended sooner. But because of the heavier man, we had to make frequent stops for him to catch his breath. I really felt bad for him. He said he went spelunking once before, but that was 10 years ago. I think he forgot how strenuous it was. I was having a very difficult time breathing, especially after pulling myself back up the 60 foot rock wall with a knotted rope.
I may not be the most fit person but I can easily say that I’m in way better shape than he was.
By the end, all we really wanted to do was just finish….especially since most of us were holding in our pee. We drank a lot of water while we were down there, but you can imagine, there is no where to go!
The tour ended in the Jeremy Room, where walking tours are given every hour. We were beat up at that point….our hair, shoes, and clothes were covered in clay and mud. We were sweaty and tired! It was kind of funny walking up the stairs while the other tour group stared at us in their nice clean clothes!
When booking the tour, the operator didn’t tell anyone to bring a change of clothes. We brought some because I thought we would be going out afterward. The older couple didn’t. They had to drive back in that filth!
I'm glad we were caving during the storm. We completely forgot it was raining until we were done.
When I was in high school, we used to play “Rambo” at Heritage Park’s island in Cerritos. We’d sneak off around midnight, cross the water, and “kill” the other team. My favorite part was getting muddy! This was just like it but 100 times better. They are closing this part of the cave to the public next year. I’m glad that we got a chance to experience it!
posted by Mur at 10:18 AM
3 Comments:
You are such the adventurer. Congrats on a successful journey!
wow that's really cool! what an adventure! while i think it would be cool to do, i think i'd freak out (esp in that narrow tube going down) if i was down there long...
wow...awesome!
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