spe-lunking
oog I'm sore today.
I was in Huntsville this weekend with mike and his family and yesterday mike and his younger brother took me "caving". Now let me set the back story for you. Mike tells me that, as a kid, he and his dad used to go caving, and so it's one of those fun things that he thinks fondly of from when his lived in Huntsville. So, when Mike asked me if i wanted to go caving while we were there this weekend, I said sure, thinking that it would be a fun, adventurous thing, and probably not traumatic or scary, since it was something he did as a kid, and most parents don't willingly endanger the lives of their children. You can probably see where this is going.
It was a relatively small cave, I'll say that for it. But I knew it wasn't going to be what I expected when I saw the 2x4 suspended across a gap that I would have to cross to get into the big part of the cave. I knew then and there that this was not an experience I was going to enjoy. And boy, was I right. After being persuaded to cross the 2x4, I had to either 1) climb up over a drop-off on these boulders to get across to the other ridge, or 2) slide down into the bottom, and up the side of a really muddy, steep boulder to get the the other ridge. After I watched mike slip and slide down the and then try to climb back up, I knew I wasn't going to be able to grip with my tennis shoes, so I decided to climb up and over instead. It was slow-going, but I could handle it. And then we came to a ridge with sporadic footholds keeping you from falling into this deep pit down where the water would normally be if there hadn't been this damn drought all summer. Well, the thing about this ridge is, you can only reach the footholds and the hand holds if you're tall. And I am decidedly not tall. So, after much panicking and freaking out, I end up falling a couple of feet, mercifully landing on a foothold and catching myself, as mike's brother caught my arm to keep me from falling entirely down into the ravine.
He then consoled me with a nice speech about how if you fall, you will always land somewhere, eventually.
After that, my legs were shaking so I could barely stand, and I was almost glad that we had to crawl on our stomachs through the last room before the exit. I have never been so glad to get out of a hole in the ground, especially having realized that, had I taken a real fall, I almost undoubtedly would have been hurt, and there would have been no way to get help.
After climbing up an 8ft or so rock wall, we were back on the trail, and I spent most of the rest of the day in silence, literally feeling like my vocal chords were paralyzed. A fine day of fun in alabama.
The kind of twisted thing is, I sort of feel like I want to go back, because for all that terror, I really didn't see what the cave looked like, and it could have made for some cool pictures, if I ever dared to try and bring a camera. Damn boys with their long legs, rushing through everything.
I was in Huntsville this weekend with mike and his family and yesterday mike and his younger brother took me "caving". Now let me set the back story for you. Mike tells me that, as a kid, he and his dad used to go caving, and so it's one of those fun things that he thinks fondly of from when his lived in Huntsville. So, when Mike asked me if i wanted to go caving while we were there this weekend, I said sure, thinking that it would be a fun, adventurous thing, and probably not traumatic or scary, since it was something he did as a kid, and most parents don't willingly endanger the lives of their children. You can probably see where this is going.
It was a relatively small cave, I'll say that for it. But I knew it wasn't going to be what I expected when I saw the 2x4 suspended across a gap that I would have to cross to get into the big part of the cave. I knew then and there that this was not an experience I was going to enjoy. And boy, was I right. After being persuaded to cross the 2x4, I had to either 1) climb up over a drop-off on these boulders to get across to the other ridge, or 2) slide down into the bottom, and up the side of a really muddy, steep boulder to get the the other ridge. After I watched mike slip and slide down the and then try to climb back up, I knew I wasn't going to be able to grip with my tennis shoes, so I decided to climb up and over instead. It was slow-going, but I could handle it. And then we came to a ridge with sporadic footholds keeping you from falling into this deep pit down where the water would normally be if there hadn't been this damn drought all summer. Well, the thing about this ridge is, you can only reach the footholds and the hand holds if you're tall. And I am decidedly not tall. So, after much panicking and freaking out, I end up falling a couple of feet, mercifully landing on a foothold and catching myself, as mike's brother caught my arm to keep me from falling entirely down into the ravine.
He then consoled me with a nice speech about how if you fall, you will always land somewhere, eventually.
After that, my legs were shaking so I could barely stand, and I was almost glad that we had to crawl on our stomachs through the last room before the exit. I have never been so glad to get out of a hole in the ground, especially having realized that, had I taken a real fall, I almost undoubtedly would have been hurt, and there would have been no way to get help.
After climbing up an 8ft or so rock wall, we were back on the trail, and I spent most of the rest of the day in silence, literally feeling like my vocal chords were paralyzed. A fine day of fun in alabama.
The kind of twisted thing is, I sort of feel like I want to go back, because for all that terror, I really didn't see what the cave looked like, and it could have made for some cool pictures, if I ever dared to try and bring a camera. Damn boys with their long legs, rushing through everything.