Not so good caving trip

Today was caving day.  I'd been waiting for quite a while.  I had also been planning this trip for a while.  Several times I thought about whether or not is was worth trying to continue as it was such a pain to put together and my drivers came and went.  But, finally the night before everything seemed to be good.  We met down at the Facilities Barn and we got a late start.  But we eventually got to the mouth of the cave a little after 11.

We made good progress working our way through.  We got to the upper level and soon turned onto the passage to go to the Art Room. 

                                (Esther, Elizabeth [Daniel's sister] and Jason as we stopped to wait for others in the passage to the Art Room)

We stopped and ate lunch close to the Art Room.  I thought beforehand it would be a good place to eat as we are surrounded by cool formations.  After we were done eating Ben and I did a little exploring while the others talked.  Then, when we came back somebody started singing Amazing Grace and we turned out all our lights.  Then we had fun throwing glow sticks up into the air.  After that we continued on.  It didn't take long to reach the Art Room.

                                            (One of the pillars in the Art Room)
I always enjoy seeing the lines of calcium pillars sticking up out of the ground.  But my favorite is probably the gypsum formation that is towards the back.

It was about this time that I could see a couple of the girls, more noticeably, Megan, were getting really tired.  On the way back out, and after we had exited out of the "mini-canyon" we stopped and she asked me how much longer it would take us to get out.  I told her about 45 minutes.  I felt bad about it.  Every time we would stop she would sit down and want to sleep.  I had thought it wouldn't be a tough trip as I cut it down to visiting the bare minimum because I wanted it to be easy.  But I guess it was tough for her.

We continued on, stopping periodically.  When we were about halfway through the midsection by-pass The group behind us stopped.  Lydia had hurt her ankle.  So that delayed our getting out by a long time.  Daniel and Ben slowly helped her out.  I felt pretty useless as all I could do was show them the way out and find the easiest way down for Lydia.  I almost feel like it was my fault she got hurt if I had just went slower and told them to be more careful.  Esther had an extra shirt, and Daniel tried tying that around Lydia's ankle, but that wasn't enough.  So I gave up my coat and that did the trick.  It was the best foot support Daniel could devise.  But we finally got out and Daniel insisted I take a picture of him, Ben, and Lydia.

(Our group, left to right: Megan, Jason, Joel, Hannah, Esther, Elizabeth, Ben, Lydia, Daniel)

Well, we finally got back to the cars.  Daniel, Ben, and I ran off into the woods to change.  Then we loaded up.  Daniel and his carful took off.  I had been riding with others in Megan's car.  Well, I told her to turn right but I guess she didn't here.  Joel repeated to go right instead of left and Megan turned around.  it just so happen when she turned around she ran over a little sign that was on the ground.  Joel got out to see if anything had happened.  It turned out, a long metal rod from the sign went straight through her tire.  I got out and looked at it, and then told Megan to pop the trunk.  I dug out the spare tire, lug wrench, and jack.  I spent the next 15 minutes changing Megan's tire, with Joel helping me.  The jack was a pain, though.  it was poorly designed.  You could not hardly turn the jack handle to screw it up as the handle kept running into the ground.  And it didn't help the car was real low.  While I worked with the jack, Joel used the end of the lug wrench to dig out under the tire. 

We finally got the tire changed, and got the tools put away.  For once in my life, I felt useful and I was glad to help Megan out, especially with her being exhausted.  And she really appreciated it.  But anyway, that was our caving trip that didn't turn out too good.

100th Post!

Well it's my 100th post.  And for this post, I'm posting a post with our group picture from caving Saturday.  This was taken after we exited the cave, after our long day.

Our group (left to right, top) Daniel, Critter, Me, Jonathan, Brandon, Ben, Jeremiah.  (Left to right, bottom) Jacob P., Jacob M., Leanna, Brian.

Best Caving Ever

Well I would have to say Saturday was the best caving trip ever.  When our group got to the parking spot we set out.  The entrance was pretty impressive to everyone who hadn't seen it before.

Our first little stop was the Register Room.  It was brief.  And then we continued on.  It seemed that the cave was colder this time.  Our first major stop was at a small crack in the wall.  Brandon and I had explored it before with our supervisor and Ivan.  It is really tight and you can climb up the crack and see some pools up top.  I got more pictures of them this time, with my new camera.

After we were done checking this out we continued on and stopped at the passage to the Fountain Room.  It took some people longer.  Brandon stayed back and showed people how to get through the first part where you have to wedge up the crack to have an easy time.  Jonathan and I continued on and we were alone in the Fountain Room for a while.  He asked me some questions about how it was going with Rachael.  And I told him what had happened in the last week.

                        (The calcium staircase leading into the Fountain Room)

                      (Your view of the bottom of the Fountain Room at the top of the staircase)
Eventually everyone made it.  We found one lone solitary blind, white crawdad in a pool, which was surprising.  It's hard to imagine how it got there.  Its not like there is any major water source.  But who knows.  We hung out in the room for a while and then left.

Our next stop was the skylight dome.  It took some time to get there and everyone was impressed when we did reach it.  I climbed up on a ledge in the bottom of the dome and got a good view, standing in the sunlight streaming down from the top.  It was the brightest I had ever seen it.

Everyone made it in.  We found more blind white crawdads and a salamander type lizard.  Then we sat and ate lunch in the skylight dome.  It was pretty nice.  After we were done eating, and resting, we decided to not visit the Art Room.  We decided to go to the waterfalls and then go out.  So we made our way back out through the birth canal and when we reached the main passage we ran into a group.  In all during our time, i think we ran into 2 or 3 groups.  This particular group followed behind us to the waterfalls.

Finally the big one came.  On the way up the falls Ben and Jacob Macintosh fell in.  Daniel and Critter just jumped in.

                              (Critter after diving underwater)
We went up to the Rain Dome above the last falls, and then after the group behind us came up we went back down.  Another group backed away from the big falls so we could get down.  Ben fell in on the way down again.  He just had bad luck.  And then the long journey out began.

Jacob has a group picture we took after we got outside.  I'll post it as soon as he gives it to me.  But it was the best caving trip I've been on.  A great time to blow off steam.  It was also the toughest trip I've been on.  I was exhausted and slept 11 hours that night. 

Here is a link to all of the photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/jholcomb8/PineHillTripSeptember#

Art Room

So Wednesday evening was a nice way to end the summer.  With a caving trip!  As soon as work was done, Brandon went up to EKU and got his brother, and then met me, Elgin (one of our supervisors that normally goes) and Jusladin (I don't know how to spell his weird name).

We got to the mouth of the cave and met some guys coming out.  We talked to them, and then went in.  It was slower going because Brandon's brother is very overweight.  When we made it most of the way through the midsection bypass Brandon's brother could not go anymore.  So Brandon went back out with him and took him back to EKU.  The rest of us continued on.

We made it to the passage that led to the art room.  Over our whole couple hours we explored these passages that branched off.  There were stalagmites and stalactites everywhere.  It was an awesome sight to see the pillars in the art room.

Caving Trip

Well, Thursday Brandon and I went into work earlier with my supervisor, Tony.  That way all three of us could get off at 4 and go caving.  So we got off at 4 and then began on our journey.  We were going to try to find the art room and maybe the Hurricane Pit Entrance.

  (Brandon and I standing in the entrance)

We made our way to the passage to get to the 2nd level in order to go to the skylight dome.  Tony began to have a little trouble.  He was nervous about looking down.  But he kept going.  But then we got to the birth canal.  Tony made it most of the way, and then decided it was too much.  So he turned around. Brandon and I hurried to the skylight dome, got a video clip, and then went back to join Tony.

So we turned around and went out.  We ended our trip really early, but it was okay.  Next week, which will be our last caving trip of the summer, will be awesome as we'll hunt down these places.

We were starving (we realized that we hadn't ate dinner).  So we stopped by the McDonalds as a girl we worked with on grounds this summer also works there.  It was her last night, and we came through the drive through to get our stuff and said hi.

You can view all of the pictures from our trip here http://picasaweb.google.com/jholcomb8/PineHillCaveTrip#

Judgement House

Thursday night I went to Westside Baptist Church with Daniel for Judgement House.  Daniel's wife, Lauren, was acting in it.

We were put into a small group.  We went from room to room viewing a scene that people acted out.  The first scene was the final moments of a convicted murder.  A preacher was trying to convince him that it wasn't too late to turn to Christ.  But he refused.  Then we went back in time to see what caused this man to murder.  We were shown how he viewed pornography and stalked young girls on facebook and he got pleasure out of that.  We were also shown how this one girl was tricked by this man and they ultimately met at a pizza place when she snuck out of the house.  There she met a youth group who tried talking to her about Christ, but she wouldn't listen.  She went and met this man from facebook and it turned out he was not what he said he was.

The girl's father burst in demanding the man get away from his daughter.  The man then pulled out a gun and shot the girl, and one of the guys in the youth group as he tried to save the girl.  Then the police arrived and subdued the man before he escaped.

We then went to "The Throne of Judgement" before Christ.  We saw the guy from the youth group give an account of his life and he entered a gate into heaven.  Then the girl came before Christ and she insisted she was a christian because she had played all the "moves".  However she wasn't found in the book of Life.  She was ushered into the gates of hell. 

Our group was then told it was not our time to go yet, but we could view the two alternatives.  First we went to hell.  And I must say, I was scared and wanted to get out of there.  They had made it eerie, the actors were screaming in agony, it was dark, they had the heat turned up, there was mist, horrible sounds, and you could feel separation and the sense of being alone.  There we watched a scene of when the murder and the girl arrived in hell.  They both begged for mercy, but they had lost their chance.  They were bound for eternity in hell.  I hated that scene so much.  It was as real as you could make it. 

After watching the 10 minute scene and enduring what it felt to be in there, we were shown a small glimpse of what heaven would be like.  It was much more peaceful.  And then we ended with people have the opportunity to accept Christ as their Savior.

I think the hell scene affected me the most.  I've read and heard what hell will be like.  And yes, the Bible's description is not a pretty thing.  But to actually feel a small taste of what hell will be like, it really gives you a wake up call and I thank God so much I am not going to hell and I want more than ever to help people avoid it.

Pine Hill Cave Trip

Tuesday evening was our biggest cave day ever.  Brandon, and his cousin, came up from his place (He's been on vacation), and my cousin Ryan came down.  Also Tony, Hannah, Hannah, and Esther came with us.  So it was nice to go caving with just a bunch of Christians.

Anyway, when we all finally got together we drove down to the entrance and got underway.  Our first stop was the skylight dome.  We went through the Birth Canal and right before we entered it we stopped to get a group picture.  However, Tony and I got cut out.  But everyone else is in it.

(Left to right: Ryan, Hannah, Esther, Hannah, Josh (Brandon's Cousin), Brandon)

The crawl was interesting but everyone really loved the skylight dome.  So far they had been having a really good time.  And I was surprised that the girls didn't care about being wet.  I guess they are some of those "tough" girls.  Anyway, the skylight dome was even better for me because for the first time we could see light streaming through the top, 125 feet above.  It was about 8:00 in the evening so there was still light out.  It was fascinating.


We didn't spend too much time in the dome.  We then exited and went back to the main passage.  I gave Ryan my camera and he was able to get a couple pictures before the lens started to fog up again.  I hate having that problem.

We continued on the left fork and entered the waterfall area.  Everyone really loved it!  And I am still awed everytime I see this section.  We went all the way to the biggest one.  And everyone but Hannah made it across without falling into the deep pool.  We then went right upstream to the Rain Dome.  We stayed there a minute and then turned around and exited the cave.

It was a fun night, especially with all the people we had.  Some of them I'm not good friends with (*cough *cough), but I'm working on it, slowly but surely :D 

(Left to Right: Ryan, Brandon, Josh, Josh, Tony, Esther, Hannah, Hannah)

King's Island

My friend Tony and I got up at 6:00 and then went outside Boone Tavern.  The college bus was supposed to be there at 6:30 and we would load up and then leave at 7.  As it turned out, the bus did not show up until 7:15.  But we finally left Berea, a good 30 minutes late.  However, it wasn't that bad as the park didn't open until 10.

On the way up we stopped in Dry Ride at a McDonald's.  I got a couple egg bacon biscuits and then we continued on.  After we turned onto I-71 we got bogged down for a while because of construction.  But we finally made it to the park at 10:30.  We didn't have to wait long for our tickets as the college had already bought them.  The trip leader just picked them up from a different window.  And when he passed out the tickets we were free to do whatever we wanted until we had to be back at the bus at 8:30.

So Tony and I went in and looked around.  We decided to go to Drop Zone first.  We got in line with some other Berea students.  I didn't know any of them.  To pass the time we started an estimation challenge.  We would each guess how many rotations the ride would go through before we got our turn.  It turned out we did this on every ride.

When it was finally our turn we got strapped in.  The Drop Zone is this tall 300 foot pole.  40 people strap into seats on the outside of this ring and you are hoisted up to the top of the pole.  The ride up was a nice ascent.  We could see the whole park.  A girl in our group, Zee, was freaking out.  We finally reached the top and looked down 300 feet below us.  We did not know when we were going to drop.  It ran on a random pattern.  So all we could do was wait.  At this time I was thinking to myself why I got on this ride.  It wasn't the height that I hate, but the sensation of falling.  When it finally dropped us I just waited to get to the bottom.  Some huge magnets slowed us down and at the bottom I knew why I had got on the ride.  The adrenaline rush is worth it.  When we unhooked and started walking around our legs and hands were tingling.  Falling that fast must have done something to our blood circulation.  I'm not sure what it is.

Our next ride was the Diamond Back roller coaster.  When it was finally our turn we piled in and started ascending up to the highest point, 230 feet up.  When we reached the top I again asked myself why I got on this thing.  The first plunge was the worst.  But it was a smooth ride.

We were hot by this time so we stood in line for The Crypt.  It was inside a "tomb" or something and was air conditioned. And really, the AC was the only thing worth waiting for.  The ride was really short.  There were two rows of seats on a platform. This platform was swung around on a bar that was swung around.

Next, we went to Vortex.  This coaster wasn't that bad in drops.  There was only one drop that was bad.  And it wasn't as high.  But it was a rough ride.  It snapped you around and was uncomfortable.  But we did go upside down several times and we looped around as we spun.

After that we were tired and hot.  So we took the train over to the other side of the park and entered Boomerang Bay, the water park.  We walked under some fountains and then went into the Endless River.  The recharged us.  We felt so much better.  However, they make you get out after one loop because there's so many people and they're waiting for tubes.

By this time our group split in half.  Some of them didn't want to get wet so they went off to do something else.  The rest of us stood in line for a water slide that had three tubes.  However, when Tony and I got up there they told us to go back down as our swimming trunks had metal rings holding the pockets on.  We didn't get what the problem was.  They were smooth and we're going to scratch the slides.

Then we went and stood in line for Tasmanian Typhoon.  That was a fun ride.  We got to go down in a tube, so they didn't turn us away.  Before we dropped into this big funnel we went over a really steep drop.

After this we were took the train back to the other side of the park.  For about the next two hours we tried to get in touch with the other half of our group who had most of the other people's wallets.  We were starving, and beginning to get cranky.  All I'd had all day was two biscuits.  Later, Zee Tony and I went to the park entrance and got our wallets from the locker we'd rented.  Zee then split up to go find some "cheap" food.  Tony and I split the price for a pizza.  It was 20 bucks.  We also got some bread sticks.  We sat down and didn't utter a word until the whole pizza was gone.  Oh, and we also savored our $3.75 bottle of water.  Then we went and got a smoothie from an ice cream place.  By that time it was just about 8:00.  We had agreed to meet our group in front of the 1/3 scale replica of the Eiffel Tower.  And then, we went and loaded back up on the bus.

I went in and out of sleep.  I'm glad I did because it helped pass the time of the long ride.  We got back at 11:15 and I crashed in bed. 

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#