Thought I'd share this with you all too and not just the us forum Enjoy what is a "typical" caving meet here! We have a lot throughout the year...MVOR, VAR, SERA, Speleofest, Karst-O-Rama, TAG Cave-In, etc etc etc. I have yet to spend a lot of time in the above-ground activities since i have to travel so far to cave I spend my time caving. But above ground has lots of activities as well.
Started off Thursday early morning, met up with John and drove the remaining way to Lonestar arriving about 2:00pm. Found a nice campsite spot and met a few folks and John knew most the peeps there it seemed although I didn't. Although I did find my cuz! LOL Kim knows an Amy Hinkle and kept wondering why her noncaving person she knew was posting caving stuff. So we just claimed to be cousins all weekend long xD. Anyway, headed out to Hidden River because John was going to be leading a trip there on Saturday, but with all the rain we weren't sure of the water levels, and, he knew that the footholds to climb up all the mudbanks would need to be re-troweled out.
Met up with Missy and Joe there, entered the cave around 6pm. Water level at the crossing John said was usually ankle/shin deep, but it was up to my chest! Even right next to the bank there, Joe is still in knee-deep.
Hidden River 03 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
The mud was slick and fun. I think I spent more time on my arse than on my feet. :rofl: Luckily there were some downward bits we could just slide. That was a BLAST. I love mudslides in caves. Got some GOOD speed too, on one I think I got some air even where it drops off sharply at the bottom
We made it back to Sunset Dome just fine. If I remember right, it's a 5 acre room. HUGGGGGGGE dome. John has a great photo of it but this not being a photo trip and here my 200lumen apex was definitly NOT enough for lightpainting, here are a few of my best quicky shots I got as John kept digging out the holds down to the School Maze.
The rock is maybe 7-8ft tall, and in the distance in this photo.
Hidden River 05 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
Hidden River 06 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
I ended up not doing the downclimb out of Sunset Dome down to the School Maze because there was a section that there was nothing I could reach with my hands to hold, and the mud was super slick and my feet were not staying in the dug footholds. Being that if I had slipped there in that toughest spot, it would be a long way down a slick mudslide with nothing to stop me but a few boulders and then deep fast river at the bottom (aka prolly death would stop my fall should I slip, heh) I didn't do it. John doesn't know how or like body belays or something like that, and there wasn't really anywhere to rig to so I couldn't get myself a handline (which had I had, it'd have been fine, I just needed something I could trust my weight to if needed). Joe and John made it though, however, the School Maze was flooded so it ended up I didn't miss anything than a harrowing too dangerous for my taste climb.
Missy and I waited for the in Sunset Dome and got artistic. She made a snowman and hand, I did a turtle and dolphin.
Hidden River 14 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
We were in the cave for about 4.5 hrs even though we didn't make it far! Digging took a lot of time, and the mud was a PITA to get through, a lot of it was peanutbutter thick deep where it wasn't so slick you were falling on your arse all the time haha. Definitly tie boots tight or you'd loose them as you sunk a foot or more down into the mud!
On Friday, Sarah, John, and I went to Cooch-Webb and also Rough caves. I don't know why they call it Rough Cave, it's short, like 500ft or something tiny like that, and it's basically just a formation room. I think we were in there maybe 30-45 min tops.
Rough Cave07 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
I dunno what you call this but it was cool.
Rough Cave05 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
Then we headed over to Cooch-Webb. Most of the group to Cooch-Webb did the vertical route but Sarah never has done it and John wasn't interested (I know he has gear but I don't think he's been on rope for like...3 years or something and never did it much), so I just stayed with them so we had three for the Piano Entrance.
Sarah modeling in the Piano Entrance. You can see how it gets its name I hope!
Cooch-Webb Cave01 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
There were some formations but it was actually a lot of walking and breakdown passage. Kinda reminded me of TAG type caving how you get those huge passages you can actually walk in for a while, lol.
Cooch-Webb Cave03 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
We didn't go that far, actually, the water levels were high so we stopped when we hit the stream/river. It was a short 2-ish hour trip if that.
Sarah stayed around the evening too, and that evening we practiced dancing the Creep, the Bernie, and she taught me to Pretzel. We were great at embarrassing John and such, but we had fun dancing with Pup and hanging out with some of the mudhippies .
:woohoo: :woohoo: :banana: :banana:
The next day, Saturday, John had his Hidden River trip which only one person ended up going on so they did the upstream route since it is easier or something like that. Sarah and I decided to go to McCamish Crystal Cave because the maze passages and climbing around and gypsum sounded fun. It was a lead to entrance trip, told can't get lost as all the maze bits pipe back into the main route. Sarah and I had hit it off well the day before, but today we definitly decided we were not only on the same page, we were reading from the same entire book. Instant friends and cavebuddies We kept finding the littleist stupid things that we were the same about from needing to dance and sing to music, to various things that most people liked but we didn't, or vice-versa, I can't remember them all but there were so many haha. It was like we were cut from the same crazycloth LOL. Anyway, we were towards the front of the group entering the cave, but I have no clue why everyone darted through stuff, missing the gypsum! We hunted all over for flowers, found sadly quite a few broken ones on the ground (sounds like it's a very well used cave including by boy scout troops and spelunkers and such, graffiti sadly proved use by those who didn't care too). So out of the main passage we went. I think we checked out EVERY little hole on the way in. We never got lost, always knew were we were. We were quickly in the back of the group no one else around xD which was fine that's how this trip was, shown the entrance do whatever last few out make sure gate is locked so the cows don't escape the pasture type thing.
This was the type of climbing here I loveeeeeeeeee. And she did too. SO MUCH FUN. There would be holes up above our heads, but reachable kinda, just a lower foothold too low and nothing for a while until a hand hold, so needed help. Only two of us? No problem. We figured out it was best for her to go up first, because I had the strength to stand up underneath her as she stood on a shoulder or something (using the holds she could find on the way too) or I could give a knee or give her a foothold with my hands or something. She would be up and in. Then brace herself and give me a leg (she has long legs) and I could grab around her ankle to hold, use the lower foothold with her foot, kinda jump to the next level while pulling up and she could slide back to give me more lift, then I could get to the higher formerly unreachable holds and scramble up after her. I was somehow better at climbing down, so we just reversed the process for getting back down. We were able to get into everywhere working together, and it was flawless, we got along like two peas in a pod.
Started off Thursday early morning, met up with John and drove the remaining way to Lonestar arriving about 2:00pm. Found a nice campsite spot and met a few folks and John knew most the peeps there it seemed although I didn't. Although I did find my cuz! LOL Kim knows an Amy Hinkle and kept wondering why her noncaving person she knew was posting caving stuff. So we just claimed to be cousins all weekend long xD. Anyway, headed out to Hidden River because John was going to be leading a trip there on Saturday, but with all the rain we weren't sure of the water levels, and, he knew that the footholds to climb up all the mudbanks would need to be re-troweled out.
Met up with Missy and Joe there, entered the cave around 6pm. Water level at the crossing John said was usually ankle/shin deep, but it was up to my chest! Even right next to the bank there, Joe is still in knee-deep.
Hidden River 03 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
The mud was slick and fun. I think I spent more time on my arse than on my feet. :rofl: Luckily there were some downward bits we could just slide. That was a BLAST. I love mudslides in caves. Got some GOOD speed too, on one I think I got some air even where it drops off sharply at the bottom
We made it back to Sunset Dome just fine. If I remember right, it's a 5 acre room. HUGGGGGGGE dome. John has a great photo of it but this not being a photo trip and here my 200lumen apex was definitly NOT enough for lightpainting, here are a few of my best quicky shots I got as John kept digging out the holds down to the School Maze.
The rock is maybe 7-8ft tall, and in the distance in this photo.
Hidden River 05 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
Hidden River 06 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
I ended up not doing the downclimb out of Sunset Dome down to the School Maze because there was a section that there was nothing I could reach with my hands to hold, and the mud was super slick and my feet were not staying in the dug footholds. Being that if I had slipped there in that toughest spot, it would be a long way down a slick mudslide with nothing to stop me but a few boulders and then deep fast river at the bottom (aka prolly death would stop my fall should I slip, heh) I didn't do it. John doesn't know how or like body belays or something like that, and there wasn't really anywhere to rig to so I couldn't get myself a handline (which had I had, it'd have been fine, I just needed something I could trust my weight to if needed). Joe and John made it though, however, the School Maze was flooded so it ended up I didn't miss anything than a harrowing too dangerous for my taste climb.
Missy and I waited for the in Sunset Dome and got artistic. She made a snowman and hand, I did a turtle and dolphin.
Hidden River 14 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
We were in the cave for about 4.5 hrs even though we didn't make it far! Digging took a lot of time, and the mud was a PITA to get through, a lot of it was peanutbutter thick deep where it wasn't so slick you were falling on your arse all the time haha. Definitly tie boots tight or you'd loose them as you sunk a foot or more down into the mud!
On Friday, Sarah, John, and I went to Cooch-Webb and also Rough caves. I don't know why they call it Rough Cave, it's short, like 500ft or something tiny like that, and it's basically just a formation room. I think we were in there maybe 30-45 min tops.
Rough Cave07 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
I dunno what you call this but it was cool.
Rough Cave05 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
Then we headed over to Cooch-Webb. Most of the group to Cooch-Webb did the vertical route but Sarah never has done it and John wasn't interested (I know he has gear but I don't think he's been on rope for like...3 years or something and never did it much), so I just stayed with them so we had three for the Piano Entrance.
Sarah modeling in the Piano Entrance. You can see how it gets its name I hope!
Cooch-Webb Cave01 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
There were some formations but it was actually a lot of walking and breakdown passage. Kinda reminded me of TAG type caving how you get those huge passages you can actually walk in for a while, lol.
Cooch-Webb Cave03 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
We didn't go that far, actually, the water levels were high so we stopped when we hit the stream/river. It was a short 2-ish hour trip if that.
Sarah stayed around the evening too, and that evening we practiced dancing the Creep, the Bernie, and she taught me to Pretzel. We were great at embarrassing John and such, but we had fun dancing with Pup and hanging out with some of the mudhippies .
:woohoo: :woohoo: :banana: :banana:
The next day, Saturday, John had his Hidden River trip which only one person ended up going on so they did the upstream route since it is easier or something like that. Sarah and I decided to go to McCamish Crystal Cave because the maze passages and climbing around and gypsum sounded fun. It was a lead to entrance trip, told can't get lost as all the maze bits pipe back into the main route. Sarah and I had hit it off well the day before, but today we definitly decided we were not only on the same page, we were reading from the same entire book. Instant friends and cavebuddies We kept finding the littleist stupid things that we were the same about from needing to dance and sing to music, to various things that most people liked but we didn't, or vice-versa, I can't remember them all but there were so many haha. It was like we were cut from the same crazycloth LOL. Anyway, we were towards the front of the group entering the cave, but I have no clue why everyone darted through stuff, missing the gypsum! We hunted all over for flowers, found sadly quite a few broken ones on the ground (sounds like it's a very well used cave including by boy scout troops and spelunkers and such, graffiti sadly proved use by those who didn't care too). So out of the main passage we went. I think we checked out EVERY little hole on the way in. We never got lost, always knew were we were. We were quickly in the back of the group no one else around xD which was fine that's how this trip was, shown the entrance do whatever last few out make sure gate is locked so the cows don't escape the pasture type thing.
This was the type of climbing here I loveeeeeeeeee. And she did too. SO MUCH FUN. There would be holes up above our heads, but reachable kinda, just a lower foothold too low and nothing for a while until a hand hold, so needed help. Only two of us? No problem. We figured out it was best for her to go up first, because I had the strength to stand up underneath her as she stood on a shoulder or something (using the holds she could find on the way too) or I could give a knee or give her a foothold with my hands or something. She would be up and in. Then brace herself and give me a leg (she has long legs) and I could grab around her ankle to hold, use the lower foothold with her foot, kinda jump to the next level while pulling up and she could slide back to give me more lift, then I could get to the higher formerly unreachable holds and scramble up after her. I was somehow better at climbing down, so we just reversed the process for getting back down. We were able to get into everywhere working together, and it was flawless, we got along like two peas in a pod.