our girls are spelunkers

This week’s adventure post is brought to you by Tide Stain Release, Tide HE, and our new High Efficiency Kenmore washer and dryer.  That’s what happens when you decide to remodel the laundry room, by the way.  The old washer and dryer served us well, and probably merit a blog post of their own…

Andy and I are working hard to keep our commitment to spend more time in the great outdoors.  We want to do something adventurous every other weekend.  A couple of weeks ago we took some of our girls on a short hike.  We decided to step things up a bit this past weekend by taking a trip into the netherworld.

It wasn’t quite as dramatic as Brendan Fraser’s Journey to the Earth (did you hear that they were planning a sequel?  Hmm…) but we had a BLAST!  We loaded up the van, armed with lunches, headlamps and helmets, and a change of clothes for the ride home, and we were off…only 20 minutes late!

Andy brought Lucy, and I had the full complement of Sublett girls (sans Kim who stayed home to clean and recover some sanity) along for the day.  Lilly and Sadie were pretty stoked about the prospect of going underground, while Josie and Annabelle had a few reservations.  Annabelle doesn’t like to be dirty, and there’s just no way to avoid the dirt when you’re underground.  I was a little surprised at Lilly’s excitement; I didn’t expect her to be as gung-ho as she was!  Josie had this sort of “let’s wait and see if I like it” kind of thing going on.

The cave we selected is one that I’m very familiar with.  I’ve spent more than my fair share of time in these halls, and I’ve led countless groups through the cave.  The only catch is that I hadn’t been to the cave in several years.  My internal GPS is a bit shaky (Sadie is quick to point out that I get lost all the time!) so I was a little concerned about the hike to the cave.  I knew that if I could find the entrance, we’d be set; but that’s a pretty big if.  I calculated that it would take us about 30 minutes of hiking to reach the cave.  It took about an hour.  All uphill.  In muggy, pre-rain conditions.  We were wet and red-faced by the time that we arrived, and Andy had already launched into a defensive stance:  “If we don’t find the cave it’s no big deal.  We came out here for adventure, and this hike is pretty adventurous, isn’t it, girls?”  As we neared the one-hour mark, I scampered ahead to see if I could find the final turn on the trail, and there it was, just like I remembered!  We whooped and hollered as we made our way down to the creek that’s been flowing into the rock, carving out this cave for ages.  Naturally, Sadie walked right into the water.  Annabelle stood on top of the rocks, carefully scoping out the whole scene.

We took a few minutes to snap some pics and eat our lunch before heading in.  Everyone was in good spirits, and we were all excited about getting underground.  As we donned our helmets and tested our headlamps, I gave the girls the safety speech.  Go slow.  Don’t aim your light in anyone’s eyes.  Be careful about your footing.  Don’t follow too closely.  Be an encourager.  When climbing, keep three points of contact with the rock.  It’s OK to be scared, just as long as you tell us that you’re scared.  Try to push yourself beyond what you think you’re capable of–you will surprise yourself!

Have you ever been in a non-commercial cave?  No lights, no guide, no handrail and steps…only the musty smell of damp earth, wet leaves washed in by the latest rain, and the clammy chill of cave air.  As we entered the mouth of the cave, Annabelle had her sleeves pulled down over her hands, protecting them from the invading dirt and mud and wetness.  No way–if you’re going to be safe, you’ve got to use your hands.  She reluctantly slipped her hands out, and we were off.  As you can see from the pics below, it didn’t take too long for her to embrace the mud!

We inched our way through tight spots, crawled through some worm holes, slid down muddy banks, and climbed up and over and around rocks.  The spots that the girls thought were tight at the beginning seemed much wider as the day went on!  We laughed and played our way through about a third of the cave.  There were bats slinging tightly to the cave walls, sleeping the day away.  There were mineral deposits and mud rooms.  At one particularly tricky point, we had to climb and shimmy our way across a rock shelf, laying on our backs with just toes hanging on to an edge.  There were some tears shed, but everyone pushed through and the laughter of victory soon replaced the tears brought on by fear.

We could have spent several more ours in the cave.  Everyone was having a great time.  But we didn’t want to overdo it, so we planned our escape from the underworld.  I let the girls pick their way out, and was pleasantly surprised to see them jump at the chance to lead.  In no time at all we were breaching the surface of the earth and breathing the fresh air.

A quick change of clothes, a few drinks from our water bottles, and we were headed downhill.  Then the skies opened.  I wondered how the girls were going to react, but I didn’t have to wonder for long.  They loved it!  They were skipping and singing, dancing in the rain!  We were wearing our clean clothes, and by the time we reached the van (45 minutes!) we were soaked to the bone.  We scrounged whatever semi-clean clothes we had tucked in our bags and found a couple of blankets to keep the girls warm for the ride home.

On the road again, I asked the girls for a vote:  thumbs up or thumbs down for the caving trip.  It was unanimous–all thumbs were pointed at the sky.  I’m pretty sure that Lilly already has plans for her birthday party to take place underground!  What a good day!  And if those aren’t the prettiest caving women I’ve ever seen, I don’t know who is…