Skylight Dome

Well this caving trip to Pine Hill was a very enjoyable trip.  We avoided having to crawl on our bellies through freezing water.  Brandon and I had missed the midsection bypass, but we found it.  It made us thrilled! 

When we reached the section to climb to the upper level in order to reach the skylight dome, we entered new territory.  A couple times we discovered we traveled in a circle on the upper level.  And in another instance we were on a small ledge holding on as our wet shoes slid on the steep clay bank that led to a 40 foot drop into the passage below.  Needless to say, we'll never go that route again.  But after searching we got our bearings and the directions we had began to match what we were seeing.  So we found the correct (and pretty much safe) way to get to the skylight dome.

Very soon we found ourselves at the mouth of the birth canal.  I don't know who gave it that name, but somebody thought the small passage we crawl through looks like a birth canal, so the name has stuck.

                                       (Me crawling through the birth canal)
We reached the end of the passage and it opened up.  Before us was the skylight dome!  We were thrilled.  We climbed down to the bottom and gazed upward.  It was incredible.  Sometime we are going to go during the day so we can see the brilliant shaft of sunlight steaming down 120 feet to the bottom.

                                           (A bottom view of the walls)

                                      (Brandon and I sitting in the bottom of the skylight dome)
We poked around a little and then discovered there was life in the bottom of the dome.  There is a small amount of water and we found a few frogs, a salamander, and a blind crayfish.

                                          (Brandon holding one of the frogs he caught)
After our time in the skylight was done, we climbed back up and exited back to the main passage.  We were going back to the main fork to go on the right passage to try and find the tower domes.

                                          (Me, as I'm getting ready to lead the way back through the birth canal)
We searched and searched the right passage, but could not find what the directions were supposed to describe.  So we ended up not finding the tower domes but instead just did some exploring.  It was still fun, though.  It always is.  However, on the way out of the right passage Brandon found what we are almost 100% sure is the passage to the tower domes.  So that will be our priority next week.

          (Brandon took this picture, accidentally getting his finger in the way.  I think it looks pretty cool)
But anyway, it was a good trip.  And yeah, my back is now in pain because I had pulled or twisted it a couple weeks ago and caving made it really bad, but it was worth it. :D

Weekly caving...

So Thursday was our weekly caving excursion.  I got a few pictures...

                                 (This is Mason as he tries to get across without falling into the deep pool)

                                  (Brandon looking up to the top of the rain dome)

     (These are some pictures of the walls inside the rain dome.  They are sheer and smooth like this all the way up)

                             (This is Roddy and one of our supervisors, Elgin).

Some one finally did fall into the deep pool.  It was Roddy. :D

Caving

Well, Thursday night was an intense night of caving. Brandon, me, one of our supervisors, and Ivan went to Pine Hill Cave.  We went straight in and began going down the main passage, following the water.  Soon came the crawl.  Since Brandon and I, and our supervisor knew what to expect, the cold water wasn't as bad of a shock to us.  But it still was pretty cold.  It was a race to get through the first part, climb up out of the water on dry ground and rest.

                                    (Ivan, still shocked by the cold water)
The second half was more hands and knees, and then stooping.  However, along the way we found a very narrow side passage where water flowed out of.  We decided to investigate.  I went first and slowly worked my way in.  It was very tight and took a lot of shifting, flexing, and in some places climbing and crouching.

Finally we reached a  point where the stream went upward, however the bottom passage was too small so we climbed up and eventually made it to an upper level.  Up on this level is where we saw some beautiful pools.

Anyway, we poked around, found a pretty impressive room, and then squeezed back out into the main passage and continued on.  After a while we came to another side passage and we decided to see where it went.  It was tight in some places, and narrow.  You could also climb 10-15 feet up in the crack and walk along the top.  In some places it was easier to do it that way.  You just had to make sure you had good footing.

                                      (Brandon, below me)
We eventually reached a point where it was like a natural stair case of calcium.  Level by level we crawled up on top of it, and through the trickle of water that ran down.  When we reached the top we entered what we later found out was the Fountain Room.  I got a photo of a pool in the room that I really like.

I like the way I was able to capture all of the ripples as water dripped down into the pool.

We entered a crawl continuing on out of the Fountain Room.  We decided to turn around and go back, although I believe it eventually rejoins the main passage.

When we reached the main passage again we decided to make a shoot for the waterfalls, and then go back out of the cave.  We continued on, through some thigh deep water in places and soon got to the portion of the cave that was just solid rock.  This is where we began seeing the waterfalls.

It was also at this point that I began to run into a problem.  The inside of my camera was building up moisture from the humidity.  There was moisture on the inside of the lens.  So at this point my pictures began appearing fuzzy.  I had kept it in a ziplock bag during the trip, but the cave was very humid.

We finally got to the dreaded point.  We walked along a rock wall and held onto handholds with a deep pool beside us.  The hardest point was a large gap we had to span.  It required us to put our right hand in a handhold which was like a milk jug handle in the rock.  We then swung around and used out left hand to grab the wall on the other side of the water.  We then climbed up the biggest waterfall. 

 (Brandon, having made it to the waterfall.  You can see the "milk jug" handle that we use to swing ourselves over.)


When we got past the big falls we continued on to where we decided last time we were here, to stop.  Our reasoning last time was that it probably dead ended and got narrow (which it does eventually).  However, we decided to keep going a little bit.  And no joke, but ten feet from where we stopped last time it suddenly opened into a large dome.  It is probably around 75 feet tall (not the tallest ones in the cave system).  We found it hard to believe that we had stopped just short of this last time.

We decided this would be a good place to officially end our exploration and then proceed back out the cave.  Getting down the waterfall and swinging across was trickier coming down, but nobody fell in.  So far, nobody has fell in on our trips.  However, we are hoping that will change when we go caving with Mason (a fellow grounds worker) next Thursday.

When we reached the last part of the crawl we slid into the water and used all of our strength to propel ourselves through and get out on the other end.  It was literally a race to get out of it.  But we made it out safely and are going to explore more of the cave next week.  In fact, Brandon discovered on Youtube some people had taken high powered lights and cameras into the cave last week and had uploaded some videos onto youtube.  If you would like to see them, here they are.  There are two parts. We have not seen everything in these videos yet, but we have seen the Register Room, the Fountain Room, and the Waterfall.

Part 1- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJJvczUjH6o
Part 2- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_On6yTfyH6A&feature=related

Anyway, I contacted the guy that made this video and he is kindly sending me a very much more detailed and accurate map of the cave system!!!!

And to see all of the photos from our trip, go to this link to view my Picasa web album: http://picasaweb.google.com/jholcomb8/Caving5?authkey=Gv1sRgCPfknsTRwLP7GA#

Until next time, this is the cave addict saying adios!

Memorial Day

Brandon came back this morning and we geared up.  We first drove into walmart and got some things to eat for lunch, some spare batteries, and glow sticks.  Then we went south.  We found the turn off to park and then we easily found Pine Hill Cave.  This is us in front of the entrance.

We entered the cave and worked our way along using the map.  It's a really interesting cave system.  Our going was pretty good for a while following the map.  But then we began to get confused with a bypass section, and different routes (we found out later on in the day that it's because there was a cave in a while back)  During our time believing we were on the right path we began crawling. 

                                        (Brandon crawling through some water)
We eventually stopped and ate lunch.

                                          (Our cave lunch)
We worked our way back out and marked one path with a glow stick so we can see it hanging over a water passage to possibly go down it.  It will be done glowing, but we should see it hanging there.  We got out of the cave and then were disappointed that we weren't able to make it to the skylight dome.  The skylight dome is a hole in the ground and it's 125 feet up from the cave floor.  Here is a photo of it that I didn't take, but I found on the internet.  Someday I will get my own photo of it.

So then we decided to try hiking in the general direction outside the cave to reach it so we could look in.  On the way searching we found a turtle just out in the middle of the woods.

We were unsuccessful in finding it so we eventually went back to the truck.  We decided to go to the local gas station and ask if they knew, but there weren't any help.  Well we didn't know what to do.  So I said we should go up to sinks of the roundstone cave (the one we've normally went to).  So we drove up there.  However, as we were almost to the pull off we saw a guy with a horse on a small turnoff next to the road..  It was right over a bridge over the creek that eventually flows into Roundstone.  So we asked him if there were any other caves around besides Roundstone.  Brandon said he had heard of one right across the road from Roundstone that not a lot of people know about.  So we asked him.  And he replied with a "Yeah, there's a cave right behind you."  We went up and looked.  Below the water came out of a cave entrance.  It was completely submered.

This water comes out of Pine Hill Cave, and emerges here.  Then it flows for maybe a mile before it goes into Sinks of the Roundstone.  I forget where it emerges after Roundstone.

Anyway, we were disppointed as we couldn't enter here.  However, we climb up above on the cliff and discovered a very tight passage.  The guy did say it was around 200 feet of tight crawling before it started to open up.  This is what we saw.

Well we decided to go up to the parking area for Roundstone so we could get cell phone service.  When we pulled up there were two vans and a large group of people.  And I was shocked at who was there.  I saw Jacob there!  He stared at me, then realized who I was and ran over to meet us.  Brian and Ben were also there.  Brandon and I were shocked to see them.  It turned out that they were doing cave training in Roundstone.  They do that some for their summer job (confrontation point ministries).  We got a chance to visit before they took off to go through the cave again.  Well Brandon and I went across the road to find this other cave.  And we found this little hole. We crawled into it a bit, saw that it was a tight crawl after about 15 feet and we came out.

Well we turned around and then went back to the blue hole and climbed through the very very very tight squeeze.  Eventually it opened up enough to allow us to crawl on our knees.  We continued on to the point where we were able to walk straight in a few places, or walk stooped over.  However, soon we came to a pit entrance.  We said if we had rope we could lower ourself down.  It dropped into a large cavern.

We continued on and the passage dropped down into the large cave passage.  We were able to climb down and it was pretty huge.  Easy walking in gravel and water flowed.  Walking along we soon found this hole that we saw earlier.  It dropped down into the same passage.  The guy told us that eventually this somehow connects with Pine Hill Cave.  So the water that was flowing by us eventually came out right below where we entered the cave.

We reached a point where it was sort of deep water and we decided to turn around.  So we made the long trip back and crawled our way out.  We were tired, weak, and hungry.  We made it back to the truck and we decided to go back to the parking area for Roundstone just to see if the CP group was still there.  A couple of them were, one of them being Brian.  The rest were still inside the cave.  But we sat down and talked with Brian a little bit.  He told us about the cave in in Pine Hill, and that small cave we found across the road is actually something bigger.  So we will have to crawl down that tube sometime.

Well we said by to Brian (not waiting to see Ben and Jacob again) and took off.  It was a great day.  By far the best caving time I've had yet, expect for Virgin Falls cave.  However, with all the steps to preparing we forgot to bring a chance of clothes. 

Here is a link to my Picasa web album to see all of the photos from our caving today. 
http://picasaweb.google.com/jholcomb8/Caving4?authkey=Gv1sRgCPr1q8rl3fnDYw#

Back to Berea

So today i came back to Berea to start my summer job.  Grandpa, Grandma, and Gramma Rose and I loaded up in the truck and took off.  We got to school around 2.  I checked in while everyone was kind enough to haul my junk up into my room.  Then we all, plus Uncle Matt, Ryan, and Brandon went down to the park to have lunch.

Then we parted, and Brandon and I went back to our room.  We worked unpacking.  Then I hung out doing much of nothing while Brandon talked with his girl friend.  However, when he was done it was time.  Earlier Brandon had said he wanted to go caving.  So a little past 9:30 we took off.  We were ready this time.  We had a change of clothes, lights, water, even a little jerky.

We first went to Walmart and I got some drinks, and Brandon got a headlamp.  Then we took off.  When we parked we walked along the railroad tracks until we reached the back entrance on the other side of the mountain.  We were anxious to get into the cave as we were jittery walking out in the woods alone.

We entered into the cave and it was pretty fun.  Since we came in the back we didn't have mud for the first 1/3 of the cave.  However, when we got past the crawl point we began encountering extreme mud.  At one point we got to the spot where there are two ways down.  You can climb along a steep wall which when dry it's pretty easy.  Or you can go down the foot slide.  When it's dry you normally put a little bit of water down it to make it slick.  Well we decided it would be better to go down the foot slide.  So we did.  And at the bottom was a large knee deep mud hole.  Not only did we hit the bottom standing in it, we slipped in it.

On and on we went.  Climbing up mud, sliding down into mud.  Slipping into mud.  And the cool thing is, we discovered where we went last time in the cave.  We didn't even go into the main passage.  So that explains how we made a circle.  Anyway, we made it out pretty good, and covered in mud and wet.  So we washed up a little at the entrance, and then hiked back to the truck.  We got changed, and then came back to school. 

Wednesday Part 2

So... here comes Wednesday Part 2!  Brandon finished up his paper and then me, him, Critter, and Ben decided we needed to do something together and have one last "good time".  That would be our last night that all four of us would be together until fall term.  So we got the random idea to go caving in Sinks of the Roundstone.  It wouldn't be a problem as I had been through several times.  We were going to do a straight run from one entrance and out the other.

So we all pitched in some money for gas and squeezed into Brandon's truck.  There was pretty bad fog.  But we eventually made it and hiked down to the cave entrance (at 11:45 at night).  The entrance had changed a lot.  The flooding had really changed the cave area.  It even looked like it moved some huge boulders.

We entered into the cave and we soon realized that we had not thought of something.  The flooding had left the cave very wet.  Normally, the hard clay/dirt floors and mounds are easy to climb.  However, it was all one giant cave full of very slippery mud.  Up and down we struggled to climb.  We seemed to be making good progress.  However, it was hard to go fast because of the mud and we did not take the normal ways of climbing through the passages because they were steep and now hard to climb due to the mud.  We finally reached a large open room where there was a huge tree that was washed back inside the cave.  We used it, and a bunch of organic matter to help climb up the mud.

However, a little while later we dropped back down to the stream and Ben announced that he had seen a shoe earlier, that had been washed in.  So we had made a circle. That wasn't hard to believe.  In a good majority of that part of the cave there is a huge mound (like a spine) running through the middle with the stream on one side, and another route on the other side.  So it appeared that we had missed out exit to go further on into the cave because we were always looking for an easy route through the mud.  So then I decided that we should just go back to the entrance.  It was clear we weren't going to have a "quick" shot through the cave.

So we began making our way back to the entrance.  Then Brandon said we should just wade through the stream back to the entrance (as the creek flows into the mouth of the cave).  That way we wouldn't have to struggle through the mud and we could clean our shoes off a bit.  So we began following the stream.  And probably 30 minutes later I stopped.  I knew something was not right.  We were in a passage that I had never been in before.  There was no dry ground to talk on.  The walls of the cavern came straight down to the water.  I told the guys that we were heading in a direction I had never been in.  Evidently there are a couple streams and somehow we began following a branch stream, not the one that flows into the cave from the main entrance.  So we turned around.

We retraced our steps and then turned left at the next passage.  I believed it was the main passage that would take us back to the entrance.  So we continued on this second passage for a while and then soon our lights shown upon a huge cave in.  Our path was totally blocked.  There was no way around it.  So we retraced our steps yet again.  We got back to the large passage again and I began to recognize it.  So I knew we had finally picked the right path.

Along the way on our "getting lost" we had found this little hole near the wall.  I climb down into it and discovered some water going through a small passage.  You could crawl through it.  I want to go back and check it out.

Soon, we suddenly found ourselves at the entrance, without really realizing it.  So we hiked back to Brandon's truck and it was there that we discovered really how filthy we were.

So we stripped off our shoes and socks, and threw them in the back of the truth.  And then, since we had not even prepared, we had no change of clothes (cause we weren't expecting it to be muddy).  So we were forced to strip down to our underwear so we would not get Brandon's seat filthy.  Needless to say, it was a little uncomfortable.  As Brandon said, if there was a man law we hadn't broke, we might as well get it over with and break it as we'd broken all the others.

So we rode back through thick fog in our underwear with our filthy clothes in the back of the truck.  Our greatest fear was what if a cop happened to pull us over and we would have to explain ourselves.  At one point, we though our nightmare had come true.  Brandon was getting ready to pass a truck when we saw sirens and lights behind us.  However, to our relief, it turned out to be an ambulance.

So we made it back to campus and Brandon parked his truck back in Student Parking.  So we spilled out of his truck and got dressed before walking back to our dorm to go to bed.  It was almost 2.

So we certainly had our last good time.  I think it's been one of the funnest times I've had in Sinks of the Roundstone, despite our unfortunate events.  But we definitely won't forget it.  And we were whippersnappers.  We didn't even think to tell anyone else on campus where we went.  It was only us 4 that knew.  But I guess that's what being young is about.  The rest of yall who are reading this might be thinking "You dumb guys" but I can tell you right now that you did the same kinda stuff so.... :P

But it was good times....  Looking forward to the next chance I get to crawl underneath the earth.  It's my favorite place to be...

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.