Cave Cricket
by Nathaniel Bluedorn, Copyright March 9, 2004, all rights reserved. 939 views
7:30 – We leave the Russell’s house in Cincinnati and drive to London, Kentucky. We talk to a lady at the Kentucky tourist center about where Wells Cave might be, and we figure an approximate location based on where Buck Creek crosses highway 192. We have a map to the cave that was printed in the National Speleological Society News, but it is not clear. The NSS recently bought the cave and operates it as a public nature preserve.
1:00 – We arrive at Buck Creek, and start looking for a side road with the NSS kiosk. After meandering around for half an hour, I work up the courage to knock on someone’s door. A nice old gentleman directs us to a different road that we’d passed earlier.
1:30 – We arrive at the Wells Cave Preserve parking lot and suit up our caving equipment.
2:00 – We descend into the sinkhole that is the main entrance to Wells Cave. We see a passage to the left and take that route.
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| From 2004-03-09 Wells Cave |
Johannah in the entrance to Wells Cave.
I’m in a bad mood because it took so long to find the cave and because . . . well, I’m just in a bad mood. So Hans and I call a truce on bad moods, and proceed further in the cave.
The map from the National Speleological Society shows Wells Cave as a maze, but doesn’t give enough detail to get from one place to another. As we descend into the cave we discover many side passages and large rooms with many exits. We are looking for a way towards the main stream passage marked on the map. In one side passage, Johannah sees a creature we’ve never encountered before: a cave cricket.
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| From 2004-03-09 Wells Cave |
A cave cricket colony. They have long legs, even longer antennae, and they jump.
We try every side passage and all of them pinch off, or are blocked by cave crickets.
3:00 – We return to a second entrance to reconnoiter and look at the map. We realize our fear of cave crickets is somewhat irrational. We wish we had other people with us.
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| From 2004-03-09 Wells Cave |
Hans and Johannah looking at the NSS map to decide where to go from here.
3:30 – We find our way to a small hole leading down into a pit. We feel air flowing up from the pit and we hear water running down below. But we decide it is unsafe to chimney down the hole since we don’t know how to do this properly.
4:00 – We decide to make friends with the cave crickets. So we make a video of us going though a passage with crickets. They’re more afraid of us than we are of them.
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| From 2004-03-09 Wells Cave |
Hans and I sitting next to our friend, Mr. Cave Cricket.
4:30 – We haven’t found a way to the stream on the map and we are about to call it quits. Hans notices a small crack and suggests I go down it. It keeps going, and after descending a hundred feet or so, it opens into a big room with a noisy stream rushing though the middle. We follow this to a waterfall and a canyon passage that seems to go on forever.
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| From 2004-03-09 Wells Cave |
Crawling down low passage.
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| From 2004-03-09 Wells Cave |
Johannah and Hans next to the waterfall.
6:00 – We turn back because it is late and we left our extra batteries at the opening to the small crack. (Lesson: never leave your pack behind.) Our only regret is that we explored less than a fifth of the cave. We resolve to come back some day.
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| From 2004-03-09 Wells Cave |
Group photo after Wells Cave.
Lessons
We learned that it is much more enjoyable when other people come on adventures with us, and we learned that we must overcome our fears early on if we want to get anything done.
Comments
1 • Debbie • November 25, 2008 • 11:27 PM
I have a problem with getting cave crickets in my basement and hate them. I don’t think I want to be their friend. But neat story on your adventure. God Bless!
Debbie