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Caving Adventure

by Zack Reynolds, Copyright July 11, 2004, all rights reserved. 446 views

(pardon me for taking literary liberties with this event, it is quite necessary as I do not remember all incidents exactly as they happened)

Bear Cave

We parked for the first cave in the midst of a campground on a hot sunny day at around 1:30pm. Campers milled around in bathing suits, either sunning themselves or trying not to. We started getting our equipment from the back of our cars, and donning it amid wide-eyed astonishment from the crowds (we managed to take a before picture without much attention). I admit it must have appeared strange to these people that on a hot, sunny day, people were putting on more clothes (as if what we had on wasn’t enough).

In short, we were pulling on what appeared to be winter clothes in the middle of summer. Then, to the incredulity of bystanders, we put on helmets and…head lamps—on a sunny day. Maybe they thought we were Martians (or worse, would-be Martians).

So after we finally managed to get into caving suits, and grab flashlights (and other extraneous supplies), we headed down a trail for the cave. We walked down the trail, and then we came to the river. About twenty people were lounging on beach chairs or in the water and watched us, in our full suits, splash through the water. One particularly bright-looking sort of chap asked us if we were going caving. When we reached the other side, we followed along the path (that was slightly overgrown) as it wove up a small hill, then around a grassy meadow. When it swung beneath some power lines (and appeared to the eye to be following them for some way), Leon called for a halt. He suggested that we might have taken the wrong trail.

Leon said that it looked like the path wound down-stream along the river for some distance. So we retraced our steps to the bank of the river, and discovered that no path lay in the direction that we desired to go. So we re-crossed the river.

The chap (to whom I previously alluded as bright-looking) chided us for giving up so easily. We told him that, to wit, we had not given up yet, and had simply gone on the wrong path. With that he seemed satisfied. So we finished crossing the river, then found a path winding along downstream along the river. Then we followed that for quite a distance, upon which certain members of our party remarked that caving suits were not the best for hiking (with which opinion I heartily agree). When the path abruptly ended in a dangerously-large patch of poison ivy, the conclusion suggested itself that perhaps this also was the wrong trail.

We supposed the conclusion to be true and reversed course. When we reached the spot at which we had departed from the beaten path, we again came across the amiable bunch of people who were lounging in or near the river. The bright-looking chap proved his adjective true by remarking that indeed, we had been gone barely long enough to duck our heads in the entrance. We admitted that we had not found the cave yet (but on a bright-looking note), but that we had not given up (yet).

Finally, some bright chap looked at the map and came up with a startling revelation. We were on the wrong path!

Following that revelation, we went back up the path, passed our vehicles, and walked along the road until we came across a path that Kelli said should be the one that lead to the cave.

This path seemed to be the right one, as it was actually beaten earth (instead of a tractor path). We followed it until we reached the river, and saw an encouraging rock formation. A concrete slab had a sign informing us about the cave we were about to see. We eagerly crossed the river, walked upstream for a little bit, and found the cave.

We chatted quite amicably now, satisfied with our accomplishments (to wit, finding the cave). The cave proved to be equipped with the latest innovation in AC units. The large entrance wafted out the cool air onto our heated faces. Then we noticed that the cave seemed to have metal bars inside the entrance, blocking further entry into the cave.

We turned to Leon and asked him what on earth were those bars doing in our way (for those of you in the dark, Leon arranged official permission for the caves we were going to explore).

Leon professed that, until this moment, he had been unaware of the bars’ existence. So, with no recourse, we had to abandon any ideas of exploring this cave. Fortunately, however, there was another cave in the near vicinity of this cave that we were also to explore.

So we tread our grim way to the next cave (it was only about a hundred feet or so), and almost missed it because the opening to this cave (Bear Cave, but not the one in MS Park) was about two feet high and about four feet wide (contrasted to the other cave, which was about fifteen foot high and about twenty foot wide). We then split up into two groups. Group A, consisting of Kelli Hedding, Michael Julian, Glenn, Carla, and Erin Cotita, and myself, was to explore the cave first. Group B, consisting of Leon Hedding, Jim Bippes, Dana Mizener, Joe Reynolds, and Mary Reynolds, were to explore the cave next.

So Group A began their struggles to enter the cave. The size of the entrance dictated that one person enter at a time (wonderfully stimulating to the thought that if there was a large beast below, Group A would be easy prey).

After we all entered the cave, we began exploring, and soon found this cave could boast of being a muddy cave. After sliding down a short section of muddy floor, there was a short section of water. I put my feet in and started walking across. I found that not only was the water thigh-deep, it was also rather cold. However, I had put my foot in the pot, and had no recourse but to go on and jump into the frying pan. As we all know, nothing lasts forever, even water-filled tunnels, and soon I shivered my way onto a sticky ledge.

Kelli was right in front of me, leading the group, and the Cotitas and Michael trailed along behind us. It was rather nice having someone in front of me. Kelli announced (sometimes involuntarily) of the terrain ahead, so I could prepare. We reached a large room, where we could actually stand up straight (I am of the firmly-held opinion that long-time cavers will have perpetually bent backs and stooped heads—let’s keep caving).

On one side of this room was a large formation, with a ten-foot cliff beside it. It appeared that tunnels led off from this upper level, but the problem of reaching that upper level was rather stiff. Kelli attempted climbing the cliff (reminisces of rock-climbing floated to my brain), but with no success, even with my shoulder providing extra height.

We then gave up that route, and turned to a normal-looking sort of tunnel. This tunnel petered out after a little while, and we conceded that we had explored the ordinary sections of the cave, and turned back. We passed Group B (on their way in and our way out), and waited in the little room just inside the entrance for Group B to finish (which they did in a reasonable amount of time).

Then we exited the cave, and noted that we all looked rather like little kids after they’ve finished with a muddy puddle. We crossed the river again (making sure not to wash the mud off), and took our after picture. Then we walked back to the river (where the particularly bright-looking chap was), and proceeded to wash ourselves off in preparation for traveling to the next cave.

Some of us grabbed a quick bite for an early supper before hopping into our vehicles.

From Misc Images

Before Little Scott Cave.

Little Scott Cave

After we drove to the next cave and parked along the highway, we proceeded to ready ourselves for entering Little Scott Cave. This only took a few minutes, as our stuff was already sorted. Then we hit the trail and starting looking for the cave. The time was around 5pm.

Leon told us this cave was padlocked. And he also told us we needed to memorize the combination for the lock. While others suggested various methods of remembering the numbers, I decided to simply memorizing the numbers.

So after we found the cave, Leon proceeded to un-padlock the cave. He struggled with the lock for a while, finally discovering the lock wasn’t there at all! (Leon later informed park authorities about the missing padlock). He lifted the bar (this cave had a vertical entrance—straight down), and then we proceeded to descend into the depths of the earth.

Once we got into the cave, we split up again into Group A and Group B, each group consisting of the same people as in the previous cave.

In this cave, there were three tunnels. One went straight ahead, one went left, and the other went right.

Leon sent Group A to the left, while Group B took the middle. After a little while, our tunnel petered out to a little hole. Erin managed to squeeze through the hole and found it emptied into the middle tunnel. Now we had a choice. Either we could squeeze through a hole, the size of which we just had a visual demonstration of, or we could turn around. We turned around. Once we got back to the first room, we decided to head to the right. This also proved to be a dead-end road. So we traveled back to the first room yet again. Now we struck down the center road.

This tunnel proved to be quite a lengthy one. After a little while, we passed Group B, who told us about a circular tunnel just ahead of us. So we clambered on, and crawled up into a tunnel, and found there were actually three levels of tunnels! We were in the top tunnel, and I had the privilege of looking down three levels (about twenty to thirty feet, depending upon the place).

We traveled farther and farther into the cave, finding cool formations (including one that looked suspiciously like a bear jaw), squeezing through tight tunnels, and climbing up muddy hills (yes, hills do exist underground).

Finally we decided it was time to go back. Suddenly we realized how maze-like this cave really was. With three levels and many, many tunnels, it can become rather confusing. After wandering around for years and decades, and possibly centuries, we met up with Group B. Chaos ensued as some unseen (and unnamed) person yelled, “I found the way out!” and gullible people (oh, okay, I have to admit, I was one of them) followed. It was quite amazing how they did it (and it still amazes me), but in about ten minutes we were back where we started. After waiting about fifteen seconds, another call was set up, and the gullible group followed yet another prophet who marvelously succeeded in bringing us back to where we started. Finally Jim, a first-time caver, got a-hold of everyone, and led the way to the entrance of the cave.

With a big sigh, and a glance at our watches (oh, my, it’s 9:00pm!), we clambered out of the caves, and realized how pampered we’d been. It was about 140°F, and foggy as snow (okay, maybe it was only 120°F…uh, 100?…okay, maybe it was 90°…or 80°…and it was foggy as…oh, I give up. It was humid and rather warm compared to inside the cave, a shock for us who’d been inside for four hours.

From Misc Images

Before Entering Illinois Caverns Erin beside a cave formation.

We took after pictures of this cave also, but amid the fog, dark, etc., I’m afraid that the picture didn’t turn out.

We went up to our cars, and while Leon and Kelli had to head one way, the rest of us were headed the other, and decided to stop at a all-night restaurant to talk everything over. So at about 10pm, employees at Denny’s found out how muddy cavers actually get (okay, we were pretty clean, but still…).

Caving sure is an adventure. Sometimes I wish we had got lost, just for the fun of it (well, I guess it wouldn’t have been fun at the time, but…)…;)

See you at the next adventure.

 

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