Spelunking

Ok, it’s caving for us plebeians. Yesterday 6 teens and three adults (myself included of course) headed out to a cave in West Virginia to go caving. This was one awesome trip. I wish more teens had come, but sometimes God gives us just the right mix.

We headed into the cave looking like this picture on the left. We shared a great breakfast of Milky Ways, Three Musketeers (the best candy bar ever), Sprees and Gobstoppers. So we were full and ready to go!

As we went through we all agreed to try heading down one arm of the cave where we had one foot to 18 inches of clearance. What it meant was that I had to literally squirm my way through three different sections of rock. One arm was pinned behind me, since there wasn’t space to have both arms forward, and my head was stuck to the side, since there wasn’t space to turn it over (the crawl back was much easier). I definitely got a bit spooked and didn’t look forward to going back out the same way.

That squirm was well worth it. We got to the end and were in a huge mud room. Some people had some pretty big mud fights. I got to scoop up big clumps of mud and smear them all over Bethany. Regardless of what SHE says, I definitely won.

We also got to drop down into a hole about 20 feet deep and could actually hear the water dropping against the mud. It was an incredible sound. Unfortunately it was too hard to hear when a lot of people came in the room. The climb back out was a bit tough, but so much fun.

We lunched next to a dead bat. Did you know a bat’s hands naturally are closed tight; they hibernate hanging on the wall (and apparently can die hanging on the wall too). It was pretty cool.

Michael and Tom got to sing the Indiana Jones theme song multiple times, as they slid down walls and explored. Bethany was crazy adventurous by leading the group almost all the time (she’s small enough to fit through anything). Then you had Christine, Maggie and Susan who were a bit more like me. Ready to explore and try stuff, but glad to have someone near.

I can safely say that for every wall we looked at, someone had a different view on what it looked like. I say this picture on the left looks like the inside of a larynx; other people had their own ideas.

Really, this was one great trip. We came out of that cave closer to one-another than when we went in. we shared stories, and I’m still learning about some of the people who went on the trip. As with every good trip, no one can stop talking about it.

Remember what we looked like going into the cave? Here we are just coming out. If that doesn’t make you want to go caving, I don’t know what will.

Thank God for the chance to see the inside of His great green earth.

Peace,
+Tom/Bob

posted by Tom at 10:11 PM