Underground wonderful

[RedRoxx44]

Into the dark----A call comes "this may be virgin cave!!!"

That stimulates us to drop our survey kits, even our packs, and go exploring---
Shouts--"bring the camera" makes me skirt some dicey climbs and traverse a very slick rounded dome of flowstone. The others are tall enough to reach the ceiling and I am not, so go low and use my knee pads for more friction. My new caving boots--el cheapo earth shoes hi tops for $19.00---do really well for grip.
Oh my--- the cave goes on and certain parts are trafficed, but where we go seems to be no old or new signs of passage. We had been led to believe the survey of this area would be short and sweet, uncomplicated. But the cave has other secrets. It goes on, above us, below us, beside us.
A shield with a long drapery of flow stone stands about 15 feet tall. Another is near the ceiling, jutting out and defying gravity. A slope of darker stained flow stone with helectites also darkly stained causes conversation. A starburst pattern in some different rock gives us pause to the tremendous forces at work here eons ago.
What a great experience. Perhaps the first to see, or at least the few to see and photograph. One area really needed a tripod and some slave lights. The ceiling adorned helectites are the densest and most complex I had ever seem. Lots of sparkly gypsum in this room too. Fanciful designs, one of a shark swimming upside down ( I named it the shark room), a dog with a floppy ear, a long saw like the lumbercutters use.
We feel we are near the surface, some of the floor is damp wet dirt, some corners of rooms have gravelly breakdown. No roots to be seen though. This part of the cave is extremely wet, at times little drips on your shoulder. We are wet from butt sliding and crawling, fortunately the caves warmth and humidity guard us.
Gorgeous formations are close at hand to, we have to move at times very carefully, avoid raising your head lest you bang it on some stalactite.
We take off in all directions, loosing sight of each other but stay in voice contact. Some crawl spaces lead to rooms. Others just little nooks. One I crawled in I called for the other two cavers, it was an old "pool" room, very distinct water line and mammilary bodies, intact and stained bright orange from old water, now gone.
We explore joyfully, we have a fourth person on the other side of the tight entrance, to assist our climb out. We almost forget about him and the time passes. We had surveyed some points but realized to do the whole thing would be at least one to two more trips, more equipment and a certified sketcher needed. I want to learn how to do that too.
Climbing down where you cannot ascertain your holds was awesome. I had brought a hand line and we used it several places. One place I hugged a thin column and swung on over. I am amazed how my confidence is slowly building in my ability to travel this challenging and beautiful cave.
Now to leave. Gravity assisted us in the descent through the "keyhole" but it was so tight I took my helmet off and guided it behind me. I was first through so memorized what I could see and I went in on my back with feet first, no way to see past a small about 12 inch high passage. Getting out you had to fight gravity and no good holds. It was tough. Our helper had to grab one outstretched arm and pull like heck to keep us up along the wall to keep from sliding down and trapping your hip in a rocky notch.
In the main cave we had rigged ropes for traverses as the coming weekend some out of town cavers would be coming through, normally ropes are not left in here due to environmental degredation. However this was done to speed what might be a large group through. Again, rigging is a science and an art. We got to try out our set up. I used a small pully on one to have my own "zip line"; pretty fun.
It was surprising to come out to daylight. After the hike to the cars we all changed into clean clothes and rehashed the day. Everyone's face looked different. I realized it was the new light in our eyes, from the wonders of the day. I would love to keep that feeling forever.
_________________
You can rest when you're dead

[Nighthiker]

Sounds like it was a great time, when you folks make a survey does anyone make a 3d map with photo links ?

[Arizonaheat]

Nice wirte up Letty.