Last weekend to remember

Well this has been the last weekend of my life at Berea, in which all of my friends will be here.  I will be here next weekend, but a good majority of people will be gone.

Friday night I went to a bonfire, with some of the people from Inter-varsity.  We roasted some hot dogs, and some people played their guitars, and we just sat around and enjoyed the nice evening.  It was a good time.

Saturday morning, however, was the last caving trip of the semester.  We met at Alumni circle.  It ended up being me, Nathan, Alex, Jimmy, Sean, Josh Best, Yhoshua, Hannah, and Lydia.  Brandon also met us down at the parking for the cave.

We got going, and made pretty good time.  We went to the Tower Domes & Canyon first.  I always love seeing the fossilized coral bed, visible in the walls of the dome.  We poked around in the domes, and then the canyon for a while.  We also went to the room at the end of the canyon that has some pretty good formations in it.

                                     (Alex, Sean, and Lydia)
When we were done there, we turned around and went back to the main fork.  Our next stop was the Fountain Room.  At the beginning of the passage to the Fountain Room you have to climb up to the top of a crack, and then work your way along the upper level, until the passage gets narrower and you eventually get to a calcium staircase.  This is the grand entrance into the Fountain Room.

                                             (Nathan and Jimmy climbing up)

This was the first time I'd seen the Fountain Room in the spring time.  So it was really wet and the formations looked extraordinary!  Yhoshua and I squeezed into a crack to see where some of the water came from.  you had to go in on your side, and you could only use one arm to pull and push your way through.  But eventually we reached the back and found a small hole where the water was coming out of, right next to a small stalagmite. 

We backed out, and then met with the others, resting and admiring the beautiful room.  Then we headed back out.  Our next stop was the Skylight Dome.  We were going to have lunch there.  When we reached the mouth of the Birth Canal we ran into a group coming out.  It was a good thing we met at the beginning, instead of in the middle.  It wouldn't have been fun trying to pass each other.  But the whole area smelled of skunk.  I believe the reason for that is because there is a very strong draft that comes into the skylight dome, and through the birth canal.  There was probably a skunk outside the skylight entrance, so naturally the smell got sucked in.

It was really cold in the skylight dome.  We weren't moving.  And being wet, and having the really strong draft blowing through, it got cold very quickly.   We wasted no time crawling back through the birth canal and getting into calmer air.  Before we left the upper level passages, however, we went to the Art Room.

                                                (Sean, near  a giant formation near the Art Room)We ran into the same group again, coming back from the Art Room passages.  So we stepped aside so they could pass.  When we reached the Art Room, we didn't stay too long... Everybody was ready for the climax of the trip!  To the waterfalls!

So we made our way back to the lower level stream passage, and again we met the same group.  They were stopped though, so we passed them.  And we entered the series of waterfalls, as they progressively got taller.  It's really neat because you are walking on gravel and sand most of the cave, but then you get to pure rock, and that is where the falls are.  Everybody loved the falls, but then the big one, Thunder Falls loomed ahead.  And we all took our turn climbing up.

                              (Brandon and Alex, getting ready to climb up)

                                              (Hannah climbing up)
A couple people fell in.  We then climbed up the last falls and went up to the Rain Dome.  We waited there, assuming the other group would follow up after us.  I went back and checked twice, but it appeared they were waiting until we were out of the way.  So, we came back down.  Alex led the first jump off the falls, followed by Brandon, Jimmy, Sean, and Hannah.  The others climbed down.  When I was done filming the jumps I threw my pack over the falls and jumped too.

We moved out of the way of the group, and thus began the exit.  When we exited the cave it was 3.  We had entered at 9.  It had been a 6 hour trip... The longest caving trip I'd ever done.  We were all tired, wet, and hungry but it had been awesome.  Everybody had a blast.

(Our group left to right (except Brandon) Alex, Hannah, Josh Holcomb, Yhoshua, Nathan, Jimmy, Josh Best, Sean, Lydia)
Our journey wasn't over at that point, though.  Brandon drove back down to London, but the rest of us went to Berea.  Alex dropped Josh Best off at a church function he was involved in, and then we all went up to Richmond.  What is in Richmond?  The awesome Chick-Fil-A!!!  We all got some of their amazing food and ate outside, enjoying the beautiful afternoon.  Later on we all laid down outside soaking up the sun and dozing off.  I am sure people though we were crazy, but nobody said anything to us.

We all went back to Berea, then, and I cleaned up my gear, took a shower, and sorted through my pictures and video clips.  Then at 8:30 Hannah invited me over to her dorm with Sean, Josh Best, and Catherine to have some food.  Hannah had made stir fry, and some garlic bread, and some cookies.  It was AMAZING food!!!  We sat around talking for a while, and then we split up.  The great day had came to an end...

Link to all my photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/jholcomb8/20110430PineHillApril30#

Link to a video of us jumping off the waterfall: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8QwW0fNsy0