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#