Virgin Falls!

Well I am back from my trip.  And it was unbelievable.  We met at food service Tuesday morning at 8:00.  We had a little breakfast, and loaded up our lunches and ourselves.  We got under way about 8:40.  It was cold and sort of rainy.  But we all knew it would clear up, it was just a matter of when.

The ride down consisted of us starting to get used to each other and know each other.  Most of us knew each other existed, but we had never been together like this so it was a learning experience.  Soon after we left Berea a game was started by Brian.  Ben and Johnathan joined in and were the main competitors.  You look for horses.  And you call "zip" for every horse you see.  If you beat the other people for the horses you get a point for each one.  Then, if you see a church you call "Double my horses!" and you double the amount of points you have.  And if you see a grave yard you call "Bury your horses!" and everyone but your horses are all gone and they go back to zero.  It was a very intense game at times.

I don't remember where, but after we were in Tennessee for a while they pulled onto a side road and told us our first surprise was approaching.  And this was the view we saw.

Johnathan said it is one of the world's tallest tree houses.  And the neat thing is, the guy is a Christian.  He built it in Christ's honor.  He actually showed up while we were there and we got a chance to meet him.  I don't even remember how many stories it is, but there are a lot.  There is even a chapel inside it with pews, a cross, and a pulpit.  And from the top you can see this view in one of the fields.

So we finished eating our lunches and then we continued on.  Around an hour later we finally reached our destination.  A parking lot!  And there was nobody there.  Now came the fun part.  We unloaded our backpacks, got them all adjusted, and took off down the trail.  For a while it wasn't all that pretty.  Most of the trees hadn't bloomed yet.  But after a while along a small creek greenery began to show.  Our first stop was at a waterfall.

I thought this waterfall was impressive, but I was to soon be surprised.  During the hike I twisted my ankle twice so for a while it gave me problems, but then for the next couple days it was only sporadic trouble.  Anyway, we continued on and came down to a bigger creek.  We eventually cross it and then followed it down.  At some points we were along some pretty steep trail.  And then, when we were about halfway to our camp site we began to hear a roar.  As we drew closer we discovered it was a waterfall.

This is Big Laurel Falls.  It drops off into a cave.  Well, it's sort of a cave.  There is a huge room behind the waterfall.  The creek flows into this room and then gets sucked down to who knows where.  So in a sense, there is a cave as the water is going somewhere, but a human can't go anyfarther than that big room.  We had some fun behind there and we rest up.  Then it was time to continue on.

Two miles later we finally reached our camp site.  It was next to a river (I was never told the name).  We set up our camp.  Nick and I were sleeping in a tent.  It was pretty small.  Then Nathan and Shaun were in a tent as well.  Johnathan, Brian, Ben, Jacob, and Josh Best were in hammocks.

                                                        (Jacob relaxing in his hammock)
After we got our camp set up there was a little time for rest but then dinner was calling.  Nathan and I were assigned with Ben for our trip.  Each group was responsible for a different chore every day.  For Tuesday, we were in charge of cooking dinner.  So we whipped up the meal of Chili-joes.  It was chili mixed with ground turkey.  We threw in a chopped (more like hacked as all I had to cut it was a pocket knife and a small pot) and we ate it on buns.  It was pretty good stuff.

                                                    (Ben, stirring our dinner)
After dinner we waited a little while and then had caramel and apples around the fire.  The rest of the evening consisted of just chatting around the fire and getting comfortable around each other.  We were all in bed by 9:00.  We were tired, it was dark, and since you don't have things like electricity there wasn't much point of staying up late.  So to bed we went.

It was a long night.  Nights on camping trips are always long.  I woke up several times, and it was the coldest night of the week.  Around 6, most of the group woke up and talked for a while and then went back to sleep.  We all got up around 9.  Josh Best got a fire going and then we all ate what we had brought for breakfast.  Then there was a race for the shovel!  I'm sure I don't need to explain that.

Then we all split up and went off by ourselves to do devotions.  When that was done, we met back at camp and got ready for a long and exciting day. We loaded up two backpacks with each others lunch stuff and rappelling gear.  Our first stop was Virgin Falls.  It was a short hike, maybe 30 minutes.  Virgin Falls is a creek that comes from who knows where.  It flows out of Virgin Falls Cave and then drops out over a cliff and down into another cave below.  Most of the year that cave below is not accessible.

We did some exploring above the falls, and stood on the edge up high next to it.  And Ben tried to shove a big log over the falls.  He almost succeeded, but it got stuck right near the edge.

               (Jacob took this picture when he was on the other side of the top of the falls.  That is Nick and I)
We left Virgin Falls and continued on, climbing higher.  We stopped momentarily at Sheep's Falls.  The creek falls out of Sheep's Cave and down into another one.  We hiked back to Big Laurel Falls and had lunch, and then we had a long haul as we got higher and higher until we reached a huge cliff over look.  The view was incredible.

This is where we did rappelling.  I had never done it before.  And when my turn came it didn't seem too bad until I was hooked up and slowly backing up to take that first jump backwards.  I finally did it and after that first jump and that ledge it wasn't so bad.  You had faith in the rope.  On the way down I banged my left leg on the cliff so I had some nice bloody spots and a bruised leg bone.   I finally reached the bottom (There is a video of me) and then I unhooked, filmed some other people, and then hiked back up to the top.  Ben and Johnathan went down Auzzie style, which takes some major guts.

After everyone was done we packed the gear up and hiked back down to camp.  However, we stopped at a pool a ways above Big Laurel Falls.  No cameras were allowed.  We all stripped down to our undershorts and most of us took a flying leap into the ice cold water.  It was fun to watch everyone's facial expressions as they came to the surface and swam to the edge.  But after a minute or so of being out and your nerves calmed down, it felt good from the hot and sweaty day.

We were starving.  Ben, Nathan, and I were in charge of water for the day.  So we filtered water from the river and filled up a big collapsible storage container and then everyone's nalgenes.  While we were waiting for dinner to be ready, Johnathan had an urge to chop down a tree with a hatchet.  So he did.  Unfortunately for him, it didn't fall like he wanted to.  It merely slid onto the ground upright, hung up on another tree.

Brian's group was in charge of dinner.  And what was on the menu?  Gumbo!

It was pretty good.... until we were 3/4 of the way through the pot and no longer starving.  Then it was pretty disgusting.  It was a lot of rice with seasoning, canned beans, and turkey sausage.  It was strange to go from ranting about how good it was to gagging at the thought of eating more.

That night we made banana boats for dessert.  We took a banana, peeled it, sliced it in half and then stuff it with chocolate chips and marshmallows.  Then we wrapped the peel up again, put it in aluminum foil, and shoved it into the fire.  It turned out to be pretty good.

The next morning we packed up camp after breakfast.  We were going to move camp to Big Laurel Falls so we were halfway out and didn't have as long a hike the next day.  However, we still had a long day ahead of us.  After breakfast we had our devotions, then hauled our gear up to Virgin Falls cave.  We didn't enter through the passage the creek/river flows out of.  There was a much drier side entrance.  And this cave was intense.  Lots of calcified mud, slick walkways, and a huge stalagmite/stalactite room.  We ate lunch in the cave.  There was a big ledge we climbed up onto.  It was weird to have the smell of fried spam that some of the people were eating, filling the area.

                                                  (Jacob took this picture of us eating lunch)
When we reached the stalagmite/stalactite room we were in awe.  Below are a couple of the best pictures I got.

After we left this room we crossed a huge caved in room.  It had happened a long time ago so don't be worried. :D  We eventually got to a point where we waded through a creek.  In some points, up over our knees.  It was so cool!  Then we could no longer walk.  We crouched and half crawled on and on.  Finally we went past where Johnathan had been before and there was no end that he could see to this water filled passageway we crawled through.  So we turned around.

We realized that it was be even more difficult to stay on some of this mud/calcified clay (Might I add that calcified clay is the worst thing ever!) so we followed the creek most of the way.  And then, conveniently, I smashed my left knee (Each day I got an injury that progressively went up my left leg).  And it was at that point that I sort of crashed.  My ankle and leg were bad enough, but now my knee.  I had a hard time getting out of that cave.  I was cold, wet, in pain, and for the first time ever I had an urge to get out of a cave. 

As I struggled along at the back of the group we soon realized that we were walking in the bottom of the stalagmite/stalactite room.  We had some new views.

I finally got out.  But not without souvenirs.  Some of us had found little broken pieces of stalagmites and we had picked them up.  I too had found a large chunk that had different rings.  I hauled that out of there.

We left and it was not a fun task hauling 40-50 pounds on your back with an injured ankle and knee.  But, no one else can carry your stuff so you have to do it.  I just fell behind the group a lot.  On the way to Big Laurel Falls we stopped at Sheep's Cave Falls and rested.  I enjoyed it.  And we also waited for Ben who went back to the entrance to Virgin Falls Cave to get the poop shovel.  Some of the guys explored up at the top of the falls, but I stayed in one spot the whole time.  Ben gave me some ibuprofen and then we continued on.

Finally, that evening we made it back to the falls.  Everyone but Nick and I climbed up above the falls a ways to go jump into a pool again.  I stayed and unpacked some stuff and since I was on the group to get firewood, I slowly limped around trying to find some.  Most if it was gone around the immediate falls area.  But I found a little.  When the group got back, Ben and Nathan found some dead branches.  I sawed a good portion of them as Ben hated doing it and I didn't mind, especially if it meant I didn't have to walk all the way back to camp over boulders carrying firewood.

That night Johnathan's group cooked pasta noodles and some sauce.  I donated the summer sausage Critter had given me and we threw that into the sauce.  Then we had pineapple and smores.  It was all very good.

Nick and I didn't want to set up our tent as there really wasn't a good spot.  Too rocky and uneven.  So we just laid our tarp out and slept under the stars.

The next morning we ate some breakfast, packed up, had our devotions, and then I faced the climb out.  For the first mile up the trail from Big Laurel Falls it's pretty steep.  It was a killer on me.  I was always behind the group.  And then later after we stopped at our creek crossing to get water Ben stayed behind with me while the rest of the group made it back to the van.  Ben and I eventually made it.  We ate lunch and then loaded up into the van. 

Our first surprise was Cumberland Falls.  I hadn't been there yet and it is beautiful.

After that everyone else except Nick and I changed into our swimming trunks for our final surprise before we made it back to Berea.  I would have probably participated in this surprise had I not been a cripple.  You know what it was?

                                 (Johnathan jumping off the 40 foot cliff into the water below)
It was cliff jumping.  There wasn't any danger, the water was a good 25 feet deep.  Everyone except Johnathan stuck with the 20 footer.

We got back to Berea around 7:30.  Food service was closed, and so was the cafe.  So Johnathan and Brian treated us to pizza from Little Caesars.  And that is some of the best pizza around.  He bought 6 of them, plus some drinks.  We sat in the quad on campus and two guys didn't join us.  They had to leave.  The 7 of us that were left polished off all 6 pizzas in 18 minutes.  We were starving.  It was a fitting way to end an awesome trip.