Spelunking

One of my hobbies is exploring natural caves and caverns, or spelunking.  This page presents my thoughts and feelings about the hobby, as well as a pictorial essay of some of caves I've explored.  Throughout this page you will see pictures, each of these is a link.  By clicking on them that picture will open in a popup window at a larger size allowing you to see much more detail.  This will allows you to see the full size versions without having to constantly reload this page, or wait for long periods for them all to download at once.  I hope you find it convenient, please note it does require javascript to be active to work.

I became involved in this hobby almost purely by chance in the mid 90's.  Two of my cousins had discovered a small cave in the Virginia mountains.  They had explored part of it, but there was a chamber in the back they had not gotten into yet.  I was invited to explore the cave with one of them and did so out of curiosity.  Back then I had no special equipment of any kind, and only had an ordinary flashlight for light.  I can remember decending down a 12 foot deep chimney (a vertical tunnel) to a small aclove which opened into a passage.  This aclove was barely large enough to stand in.  At the back of the aclove was a small opening just barely large enough to squirm through.  Beyond was a small horizontal tunnel no more than two and a half feet wide and about two feet high.  We had to crawl through this for about 6-8 feet before making a sharp left turn in the tunnel which went another 3 feet and ended in a small crevice.  Beyond this crevice was the main chamber of the cave, but to get into it you had to roll over on your back and attempt to sit up and into the crevice, then pull yourself up through it into the main chamber.  It was a very tight fit, but if you held your breath you could do it.  The main chamber wasn't grand, only about 8' high and about the same in length, it was very irregular in shape.  I can still remember when I first entered it, it was the first time I'd really been in a cave other than the commercial tourist traps.  But the best moment was yet to come.

There was still that last unexplored chamber to enter.  The last chamber was connected to the back of the main chamber via a small round opening about two feet wide.  Beyond you could see a small oval chamber with a low ceiling, a small ledge and a pool of still water.  After some debate I decided to enter feet first and attempt to squat on the ledge without slipping into the pool.  It took a bit of wriggling but I managed to do so.  I can still close my eyes and picture it.  The water was crystal clear and cold.  In the bottom of the pool were bits of stalagtites and cave pearls covered in brown silt.  Around the edge of the pool were tiny crystal formations that looked like delicate stone flowers.  Hanging from the ceiling were a few soda straws and stalagtites, all of a nearly pure white.  Unless you have had a similar experience it is hard to know how overwhelming it is.  Though this was not a large cave, and not even the most impressive I've visited (I've since visited much larger complexes), there is something special about knowing you are the first to enter a chamber.  To know you are seeing things perhaps no one else has ever seen before, never touched before.  The feeling is almost one of being in a sacred place, a place that has remained completely undisturbed by human hand for who knows how many hundreds or thousands of years.  Perhaps it has never been visited by any human before, and you are the first.  It is both a humbling and awe inspiring feeling.

And so it began.  I was hooked and wanted to explore and see more.  Many people don't quite understand what drives a person to crawl into holes in the ground.  To climb through dark places into the unknown.  For many people caves are terrifying places, something to be feared.  I can understand the reaction.  It's easy to let yourself fear what you don't understand or don't know.  It's easy to imagine all sorts of dangers lurking in those deep dark places.  But such imaginings are not a fair or realistic descriptions of what caves are.  Caves can be places of much wonder and mystery.  They possess a unique kind of beauty all their own.  You may see stone in almost every color of the rainbow.  Rock and crystal formed into such delicate shapes that the meerest touch could shatter them.  Curtains of stone that look like hanging cloth.  I have seen formations that look like frozen waterfalls, but were made from hard rock.  The sheer size of some formations are staggering.  I once came across a giant stalagtite that had broken off from the ceiling and fallen.  It had pierced the soft stone of the floor and stood there imbedded in the rock.  The formation was more than three times my height and was so thick I could not put my arms around it.

Caves can also be strangely peaceful places.  Beyond the sound of flowing water they are places of absolute silence.  For those accustomed to living in cities you simply cannot imagine what this silence is like.  You have not trully known quiet until you have sat deep in a cave with the darkness wrapped around you like a blanket and simply listened to the sound of nothing.  For me it is not at all disturbing, I instead find it very relaxing and a good chance to be able to listen to my own thoughts.  Strange as it may seem to some I like to crawl deep into a cave, sometimes as much as half mile back, turn off all my lights and simply sit in the darkness.  Caves are a world unto themselves, unlike what we know here on the surface of the earth.

It would be remiss of me if I made caves sound like an idyllic paradise, for they are not.  Caves can be dangerous, but only to the foolhardy or incautious.  As I said, they are a world unto themselves and have their own rules.  Though beautiful they are as unforgiving of mistakes as the stone from which the are made is unyielding.  You must respect these hidden places deep in the earth, for you are a stranger there in a strange land, a visitor only.  For the unprepared caves can be cold, wet, uncomfortable places which can confuse and confound.  For those who have learned to understand and respect this new world, they can yield up beauty and wonders they defy imagination.  My advice to anyone inspired to visit such places, go with someone who is experienced.  It's true I began my caving career as an amateur with no one to teach me.  I have been lucky to have never had an accident or mishap and that is in part because I was smart enough to be very aware of my own limitations.

If you are interested in learning about caves in your area I suggest you start with inquiries to your local colleges and/or a county or state surveyor's office.  It would be best if you could find a local spelunking club which would be willing to take you along.  Such clubs can also sometimes loan you extra equipment and help you get started.  At the very least you will want a good pair of hiking or boots with rubber soles, perferably waterproof.  A good pair of leather gloves, which fit snug and have been treated with mink oil.  You will want a waterproof and shock resistant flashlight.  A helmet or miner's light is also very helpful.  Always have at least two light sources with you when you go into a cave.  Trust me you when I tell you you don't know what dark is until you've been in a cave without any lights.  Chemical lightsticks for emergency light and marking your trail are invaluable.  Take a small waterproof first aid kit with you, it's also a good idea to keep a foil emergency survival blanket.  You might also want to keep an extra pair of dry socks in zip lock bag.  Wet feet tend to be miserable feet.  Take it slow and easy when you first start exploring.  A common mistake made by beginners is going to deep into a cave and not turning back before they get tired.  It will take you just as long to get out as it did to get in, keep that in mind and watch the time.  One final caution, find out what the weather for the area is.  NEVER go in a cave if it is raining or calling for rain, this can be a FATAL mistake.

I hope you found some of the same inspiration in visiting this page as I do each time I explore a cave.  If you decide to try it for yourself I wish you the best of luck.  Just be careful down there and remember to respect caves.  They are a natural resource and once spoilled and polluted by careless explorers they will never be the same.