Deep water!

This morning Brandon came back to Berea and we went over to Alumni Circle to meet Jason, Hannah, and Lydia to go caving.  We were going back to Mullins Spring Cave so we could do some more exploration.  We were really looking forward to it.  When we got to the entrances to the cave, we went in and this time made good time through the first big stretch of the pool.  I knew how deep it was and knew what to expect.  That doesn't mean it wasn't freezing, though!

                       (Brandon, working through the deep pool)
When we got out of the pool we went through the crawl and then worked our way up to the upper level passage where I had went last weekend and found the waterfall.  We all crawled through a passage and spent some time at the waterfall.  I also found a small hole I wedged down into.  It allowed me to get closer to the bottom of the falls, but not enough to safely climb down.

                                (Myself, coming out of the hole that led to a lower section by the waterfall)
  But then it was time to go into unknown territory!  We pushed onward through a passage I saw last time.  Pretty soon we found ourselves in a very large room.  There were a couple ways to go.  I led the way through a small passage and Hannah and Lydia followed me.  There was some small formations and trickle of water.  And of course, it was raining cave crickets!  We crawled through the passage with cave crickets falling off the ceiling onto us, and jumping around.  It soon reached a dead end, however.

                          (This is the small stream we followed; it goes into a hole)
The three of us made our way back out and Brandon and Jason were below us.  In this large room was almost like a giant sinkhole.  It connects upper level, and lower level passages.  Anyway, Brandon and Jason had climbed down to the bottom and found a really deep pool.  And there were fish in it!  So Hannah, Lydia, and I climbed down to the bottom and checked it out.  We saw a couple fish around on the surface.  My first cave fish!

Next to this pool was a passage that led into another room.  We followed it and found ourselves in front of a really tall waterfall.  It wasn't a big one, but there was flow stone on the whole height of the falls

                       (Jason, posing next to the waterfall)
After we discovered that nothing branched off from this room we went back to the deep pool.  We were curious to know how deep it was.  Hannah said she would give Jason $1 if he went in.  So, Jason took off his shirt and went in.  He ended up swimming.  No matter how hard he tried he could not find the bottom.

                                    (Jason swimming in the deep pool, trying to feel the bottom)
He finally crawled out of the pool and we continued exploring.  Hannah, Lydia, and Jason climbed halfway out of the sinkhole and found some ledges to go on, and ended up finding some really nice rooms with formations.  Brandon and I found a passage that had a lot of cold air blowing out of it.  We followed it for 20 feet and found ourselves right at the mouth of the crawl, after the first pool coming into the cave.  All the time we had spent exploring, and we now discovered it all made a loop.

Brandon and I went back and rejoined the others (Just so you all know, it wasn't dangerous to split up in this area.  You couldn't get lost).  We went up to the rooms Hannah had found and admired the really pretty formations.

                                     (Soda straws, hanging from the ceiling)
After we were done exploring this room we decided to make our way out.  This time, going on the passage Brandon and I had found.  We went back through the crawl, and waded out through the pool again.

                                     (Hannah and Jason)
We got out the "dry" entrance and it wasn't even a minute and Hannah and Lydia disappeared.  They had seen a small hole in the side of the hill about halfway between the "wet" and the "dry" entrances.  Jason followed them too.  So, Brandon and I crawled in after them.  It soon opened up and it looked like we were on top of water, walking on rock ledges.  We explored a little bit and decided there was a connection to the "dry" entrance, but it was a maze.

Hannah and Lydia decided to check out a lead and they soon reported they saw light.  It ended up, they saw the "wet" entrance.  They blazed ahead and exited, while Jason and I jumped into the water and began the cold wade out.  It ended up coming almost up to your shoulders in a couple places, and you had a foot and a half of room between the water and the ceiling.

                         (Jason, pressing on towards the light)

                              (Brandon, nearing the entrance)
It was really cold and deep, but we made our way out.  A lot of the mud was washed off, but we were still filthy and very wet, and cold.

We changed, and then Brandon took his truck and drove back to London.  The rest of us piled into Hannah's car and headed back to Berea.  We had made really good memories.  However, the interesting thing is we still haven't hardly made a dent in this cave system.  We haven't found the connection to the stream passage that trends to the North west for a VERY long distance.  We just explored upper and lower level sections in a small area.

Link to all of the photos from the trip: https://picasaweb.google.com/jholcomb8/20110326MullinsSpringCaveMarch262011

Mullins Spring Cave!

This morning I got up at 6:30 to go explore a brand new cave!  I was bringing along Jacob Patton, Daniel, and my new caving friend Hannah.  We were going to Mullins Spring Cave.  This cave has two entrances.  A "dry" one, and a "wet" one.  The dry entrance simply means you don't get wet until 10 feet inside.  The wet entrance means you are wet before you enter.  The two entrances are less than 500 feet apart.

                                         (The "wet" entrance)

                                         (The "dry" entrance)

We went in the dry entrance and saw a huge pool that showed no sign of ending.  After looking around we decided we were going to have to wade through it.  That's even what the cave description said when it was mapped.  So we plunged in.  Jacob waited a little while until we found a route to a big rock in the middle of the pool.  And that's where things got sketchy.

                                      (Daniel waiting for me to lead the way)
See, we could see the pool stretching on. It was kind of a maze, going around corners and stuff.  Because of the minerals dissolved in the water, it was cloudy.  And you can't see the bottom of the pool.  I didn't see a clear way to get through.  I tried lowering myself off the big rock, but I couldn't feel the bottom.  So, finally, with all four of us hunkering around this rock Daniel finally just jumped off the rock, found the bottom, and led the way.

We waded along, the deepest it came up to on my was a little past my belly button.  We finally got out of the water and walked along some of the lower level sections in the cave.  We also found another pool, and next to it was a deep hole.  And of course, Daniel, being curious, had to lower himself into it to see how deep it was.

There were some scattered formations we looked at.  We really didn't know where we were going that much.  Just doing some exploring, and marking the passages with glow sticks.  After going through a rocky crawl, we found a way to climb up to the upper level passages.

                                            (Jacob, able to now get on his hands as knees as he comes out of the crawl)
When we reached the upper level of the section we were on, we could hear a roar of water.  So, we checked it out.  I found a small hole to crawl through and found myself on level with a waterfall.  The waterfall came out of a hole in the wall and tumbled down about a 35 foot shaft to the lower levels.

We all came through the small passage and admired the waterfall for a while, before we began the trek back.

                                              (Hannah, just came through the hole)
We made pretty good time coming back, and soon we got back to the huge, expansive, deep, pool.

                                    (Before it got too deep.)

It was an interesting trip back through the pool, but it didn't take us too long this time.  We made our way out, got a group picture, and then split up to change.  It was an awesome way to end spring break!  Over all, apart from my amazing backpacking trip to Tennessee, I managed to crawl around in 4 caves this week!  Two of them I'd never been in before!  I'd call my spring break a success!!!

                                           (Morning sun, it's hard to get good pictures)

Quick Pine Hill Trip

Brandon got off work early this afternoon and we went to Pine Hill Cave.  He hadn't been caving since September.  I decided I'd take him to the Tower Domes and the Canyon, since he hadn't been there yet.  We made pretty good time, and enjoyed studying the coral fossils, and overall caving experience.  It was a fun, quick trip.

When we changed and got back to the truck, Brandon and I decided to take a longer loop through the hollers and hills.  I am going with a few friends tomorrow morning to explore a brand new cave, and I wanted to make sure I remembered where it was.  So we head out.  On the way, we found ourselves in front of this huge, old, abandoned Limestone quarrys.  I remember a friend telling me about them but I'd never went to check them out.  And of course, we had to go check them out.

They were pretty impressive.  We continued on, driving on the windy, sometimes steep holler roads and finally made the connection.  We saw a lot of beautiful country on the way.  We pulled up to the entrance to Mullins Spring Cave, and then headed out.  I'll be getting up at 6 tomorrow morning to take a few friends and have a blast getting really wet and exploring this new cave!

Virgin Falls Wilderness

Saturday morning my spring break trip began!  We met at food service for breakfast, then packed up and hit the road.  We stopped at the huge tree house in Tennessee for lunch.

                                   (Our left over turkey and ham that food service had given us, after everyone had eaten their fill of sandwhiches)

Within another 45 minutes we reached the parking for the trail head.  There was LOTS of cars there; however most of them would be gone by the end of the day.  Most people went there for a day hike.  We took our first break at Big Branch Falls.

                                              (Daniel and Jason climbing above the falls)
 We continued on, but we did not take the usual route.  Jon said we were going to camp on the Caney Fork Overlook that night.  So we took a right, when we came to a fork in the trail.  Soon, we were lugging our packs and gear up the steep rocky slopes.

That was the toughest hike for me.  I'd never had a problem before, but I think having influenza recently made it a little harder for me to breathe.  But we finally reached the top of the overlook and rested, on the main cliff that juts out over Scott's Gulf.

                               (Looking South-west across Scott's Gulf)
We hiked a little ways away from the main cliff and found a nice spot to make camp for the first night.  Jon, Jason, Jacob, and I were in hammocks.  Since there was no clouds Jacob and I didn't double bunk ours to share a rain fly.

                                 (My hammock set up for the first night)
While some of the guys hiked to the spring on top of the overlook to filter water, the rest of us gathered up firewood and Jon got dinner cooking.  He made chili-joes.  It was ground turkey mixed with chili, and we ate it on hamburger buns.  It was really good; especially after the long day.

While we were eating, the sun was going down and we all ran over to the main overlook and watched the sunset.  It was really pretty.

We finished up dinner, and then all walked to the spring to wash our dishes.  Sand and water was our cleaner!  It doesn't do the greatest job in the world, but it worked well enough.  It began to get dark, and we got a fire going, some of the guys had fun walking on the slack line, but then when the stars were out nice and bright we walked to some different overlooks I had found.  Jon found another one, though, that he decided is what cliff we would rappel off of the next day.  We all kind of spread out, hanging out feet over the edge of the cliff, and watched the stars.  Jon and I talked a little bit, catching up on things.  The sky was so beautiful.  Not a cloud in the sky, just the wind and the sounds of the middle of nowhere.

We watched the stars for a while, and then went back to our campsite.  We fixed banana boats for dessert.  You take a banana, slice it in half (with the peel still on) and fill it with mini marshmallows and chocolate chips.  Then you close it up, and wrap it in tin foil. You let it cook for a while in the fire.  When you are camping, you usually end up going to bed early.  That's what we did.  I crawled into my hammock and loved it.  However, I had to get up 4 times to go water some trees because I drank so much water with my dinner.

Morning came and we all eventually crawled out of our warm sleeping bags and gathered around the fire that Drew got going.  We ate our breakfast.  My breakfast every morning was a pop tart, and granola bars.

Jacob, Jason and I decided we would say good morning to the world in a unique way.  We found a nice overlook on the cliff, and we all went out and stood on the edge, with the sun coming up, and emptied our bladders over the cliff, making sure to water a tree hanging off the edge as well.

After everybody was up we packed up our campsite and walked the short distance to the cliff Jon had said we'd rappel off.  Rather than do the grueling hike down off the overlook again, Jon decided we'd save ourselves some effort and time.  He said we would rappel with all our gear.  So Jon got the rope set up and he went down first.  I was soon to follow.  It went fine until I ran out of rock ledge.  the majority of the rappel was dangling in the air.  With a 40 pound backpack the weight of it pulled you over so you were parallel with the ground.

                              (Caleb nearing the bottom of the cliff with his pack on)
It was pretty nerve wracking.  I kept thinking I was going to flip completely over and end up going down head first.  Because of this, I panicked and let go of the rope coming out of my belay that controls your speed, and I grabbed the rope above me.  I would have fallen straight down had it not been for the fireman holding onto the bottom of the rope at the base of the cliff.  If anything happens, his job is to yank on the rope and it will stop you in place.  So I recovered, and got myself back on track, and I continued descending, until I reached the bottom.  Needless to say, unless I have to, I'm never going down with a backpack again.

After a while, I hiked back up the top of the cliff.  I was going to go down again, but then backed out because of my bad experience with the backpack.  I watched Jon go down Auzzie, but finally I went down again.  The beginning is always the hard part.  Until after you learn back out over the cliff, and take those first couple steps it's torture.  But after that it's really fun.  And without a backpack I had a blast putting less friction on the rope and zooming down to the bottom.

                    (Daniel coming down with his gear, and Caleb as fireman)
The rest of us ate lunch, and then took a nap under the cliff, while Jon and Drew ascended the cliff using a rope and knot system (I've been practicing on it, but I'm not ready to try and get past a lip in a cliff).

                             (Jon, working his way up the rope)
When they were both done, they did a double rappel (meaning you have two ropes running through your belay).  This allowed Jon to undo the rope when he reached the bottom.  Then we packed up, and began the hike down to hide our gear.  We stopped at Big Laurel Falls for a break, and we looked around a little bit.

                                 (Daniel, standing in front of Big Laurel Falls)
The creek flows backwards and gets sucked into an underwater cave system.  Jon found a couple sinkholes, though, where water had once flowed.  And of course, I was very eager to check them out for him.  I got muddy and got some nasty foam on me, but they didn't lead anywhere I could get to.  We continued on and Jon said we would see about camping at Virgin Falls.  So we continued hiking and went past Sheep Cave Falls, and then finally made it to Virgin Falls.

                         (Virgin Falls)
However, with the cool air flowing from the cave and the waterfall, it was cold, and would have been colder come morning.  So Jon decided to hike down to the Caney Fork River.  By the time we got there I was beat.  I took off my pack and laid on the ground resting.  I was really weak and ready for dinner.  Even 6,000 calories/day wasn't always enough.  But, we got our camp set up and then Jon began preparing dinner.  We had Jambalaya.

(My hammock on bottom, Jacob's on top.  That way we could share a rain fly).
After dinner it was just mostly sitting around the camp fire talking, and covering up stuff.  Jacob had brought his weather radio and the forecast said rain.

Morning came, however, and there had been no rain, to speak of.  We ate breakfast, and then split up to do devotions/praying/whatever.  When we were done we got our gear together and hiked up to the upper entrance to Virgin Falls Cave.

                                 (On our way to go caving)
We had brought along rain gear too, in case it began raining while we were in the cave.  We got to the upper entrance, suited up, and then descended into the darkness!

                                              (Before....)
We made pretty good time.  Jon led us the route we had taken last time.  I remembered a lot of the formations and such.

This time, Jon pushed farther than we went last year, following a stream.  There were some tight spots, getting down into the water.  But it was fun.  But at a point Jon stopped the group and said he didn't feel comfortable going farther ahead because the breakdown looked sort of loose.  So we turned around and followed the stream out.  However, at one point Jon stopped the group and let everyone see how crazy I am.  He showed them a small crack with some water coming out and he knew I would want to investigate.  I had been bringing up the rear, so when I caught up with the group I took off my helmet and slithered in.  I was able to get to a certain point until I couldn't go any farther.  Some flow-stone prevented my shoulders and chest from squeezing through.  I could see that the crack went farther, though.

                        (Looking back at everyone in the crack)
Then to everyone's amazement I was able to turn myself around and come out headfirst.

We made our way out and came outside to see that there was still no rain.  It was even on the warm side. So we changed and then hiked back to our campsite.

                                            (After...)
We got back to camp and Drew and Jacob decided they wanted to go jump in the river.  The river is freezing this time of year, and has lots of water in it.  If you stay in long, you're going to get hypothermia.  But we were filthy, and stinky, and wanted to freshen up.  Eventually, all of us ended up jumping in.  But it was more fun because on a large sycamore tree near our campsite some one had tied a rope swing onto a branch.  So we flew way out into the river and had to swim back, in shock.

                                     (Me, as I'm about to go underwater)
It was a big shock to our bodies, but it felt good.  After we had all jumped in, we changed, and Jon got dinner going.  We had some type of Italian pasta stuff, and french bread.  We sat around the fire talking, and Jon told us the plans for the next day.  It would be a free day.  Jon and I already knew what we would be doing.  It wasn't long and the rain FINALLY came.  We scrambled to cover up stuff and then went to bed.  The rain went pretty much until late morning.

I ate breakfast in my hammock as I didn't want to get up into the rain.  But I finally did, when it let up.  We all figured out who was going to do what.  Everybody except Daniel was going to go up to Sheep Cave Falls with Jon and I.  However, only Jon and I wanted to go explore Upper Sheep Cave.  We gathered up lunch items, and our gear and hiked up to the falls.  The first place Jon, Jason, and I explored was the lower sinkhole.  It was a steep slippery climb down.

(The sinkhole where Sheep Falls goes into.  This is Lower Sheep Cave)
We could only get to the bottom and see a small waterfall before the water got sucked into Lower Sheep Cave.  During a dry season, you can get into Lower Sheep Cave.  When All three of us finally climbed out, we then hiked to Upper Sheep Cave.  Jon and I then got suited up.

                          (Entrance to Upper Sheep Cave)We had my map I had gotten hold of and we were just expecting a somewhat boring stream passage.  But it's still a cave and therefore very exciting!  We found a couple small side passages to look at, but then continued on.  When we were halfway through the cave we were shocked.  We rounded a corner and before us was a bunch of formations, flowstone, and stalagmites/stalactites hanging down into the water.  It was beautiful.  Pictures can't even do justice to it.  You just have to be there.

It was really incredible.  And as we continued to the end of the cave passage the formations just continued.  When we got out Jon and I agreed that for the short passage length, Upper Sheep Cave has a lot of formations and is the easiest cave we have done.  All you do is walk in water that at the deepest point is knee deep.

We got out and were really excited.  We changed and then I got some pictures of Sheep Cave Falls.  There are essentially two halves to the falls.

                                  (Lower half, and this isn't all of it.  The camera couldn't fit it all)

                               (Upper portion of the falls)
Everybody met back up and then we hiked back to camp.  At that point I decided to change and then rest in my hammock.  Jon and Jason ran off to go explore along the river.  It wasn't long, however, when Jon and Jason came back telling me to grab my caving gear.  They had discovered a couple resurgences farther down the river.  Resurgences are where water comes out of the ground; from an underwater cave.  We all grabbed our headlamps and I followed them.  We were able to crawl a little ways into them before they became submerged/ and/or too tight to go through.  The second one had a deep pool you could jump into, but you would need air tanks to go any further.

                                       (One of the resurgences)
We began poking around the rocks and cliffs trying to find other leads, but we didn't.  However, when we were climbing around I had an accident.  I was trying to lower myself down to a foothold.  My balance was off and I fell, hitting the rock on the right side of my rib cage, and then sliding another twenty feet down to the bottom.  Thankfully though, I'm pretty sure at this point nothing is broken.  I just have bragging rights to the worse injury out of everyone on the trip, and some pretty bruised ribs (And a nice thick, long scab).

That took it out of me.  We went back to camp and I cleaned up and then I fell asleep in my hammock.  I didn't get out until dinner time.  We were having pasta with meat sauce, and bread.  It was a great meal!  We cleaned up our dishes, and it was my turn to wash one of the pots.  Then some of us stayed up later, but Jacob and I went to bed.

The next morning Jacob got a fire going, and I got up and joined him.  We sat around the fire talking and eating, before everyone else got up.  We ate, and then packed up camp.  Before we headed out we took a couple group pictures.

We made good time hiking out.  We stopped three times for breaks, and to retrieve the climbing gear we had hidden.  We finally made it to the van, exhausted.  The ride back was pretty quiet.  Everyone slept on and off.  We stopped for dinner in Somerset, KY.  Jon was going to surprise us by taking us to what he says is the best southern BBQ place in the area.  However, as soon as we got out of the van the owner came out and told us to go away.  He said it was closed, but didn't offer an explanation.  So we loaded back up into the van, really sad.

Jon found a really good burger joint a couple miles up the road and we went in.  As soon as we walked in, we were the main focus of the place.  All the poor girls working the register see is 7 filthy, smelly guys who just walked out of the wilderness, and come in to order some food.  We didn't have a clue what to order.  We'd been living on granola bars and noodles for 5 days!  So Jon ordered first, and to make it go quickly we all ordered the same thing.  And of course, not having to filter water, or wash our bowls with sand was nice.  The whole meal we made jokes about stuff.  We wolfed down our food, and the manager even came out to talk to us.

But, we made it back to Berea fine.  Got cleaned up and unpacked.  It was a great trip, better than last year.  I got to do more caving, spend more time out in the wilderness, try some pretty freaky things and get over my fear of leaning back over cliffs.  And I was even able to spend some good time talking with God out where there are no distractions!

Here is a link to all of the photos from the trip.  Most are mine, the ones towards the end are Jacob's: https://picasaweb.google.com/jholcomb8/20110316VirginFalls2011#

Also, here is a link to some short video clips I compiled from the trip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu-3Nyed4k4