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...