Clicks Cave, Indiana, USA

Amy

New member
Well I figure I may as well post some sort of Amystyle trip report, eh? Ok also I just have some cool photos I want an excuse to post  :woohoo: This was a St Joseph Valley Grotto trip :)

So Friday afternoon I left to drive the 3.5 hrs to Beth's place in northern Indiana where Jason and Rebecca and John met up with us and the five of us piled into her car and headed down to southern Indiana. It was about a 5 hr drive to...people's place where apparently lots of folks crash overnight for caving the next day I really don't remember their names and I'm not sure I met them, it was after midnight I was exhausted and I swear there were 20 people there (I'm sure there wasn't that many, it just felt like a whirlwind of activity  to walk into being exhausted). I only got names of like, 2 people, the whole trip and I know there were 13 of us at Click's, lol. So I only knew names of 7 folks of out 13, and there were others at the house not on the trip. Got up in the morning and went to a restraunt (another almost hour away) for the meetup with others coming in then headed out to the cave!

On the drive to the restraunt though, we stopped at this cemetery to take photos...warning for future generations: that new lead? watch out for caskets...lovely sinkhole in the middle of it, heh.
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Once at the cave, we decided to get some pre-caving experience for our group that had driven so far...
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Ahh in the cave now, woot! The first bridge crossing...I guess someone brought in new board...the next 5 crossings were just the 2 steel bars - frames from Model T, I was told (iirc, maybe it was a different model, heh). Made interesting crossings, I did the stradle and scoot method once, but then opted for the faster just crawl across and use your balance method :p Assuming I remember what I was told right, it was a show cave ages ago (late 1800's to mid-1900's??? something like that) so the bridges are leftover from that, of course, wood long since rotted away but the metal beams still in place! If all rusty and slightly creepy and sometimes wobbly, ha!
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There really weren't many formations in the upper level going back into the cave. I'm guessing, since some areas seemed like there were some, they were just long since taken/destroyed. But there was an area with a few, and lots of widdle soda straws, and the ceiling was this cool honeycomb like texture thing...anyone know what that's called/how it forms? It's really neat!
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I should've taken more photos of the other (harder) "bridges" but I guess I just crossed them fast and sat chatting waiting for the rest of the group to cross, and was distracted to take photos! heh. Anyway so here we get to where you climb down into the river, woo! It's a funk angle, looking about 12 ft down and I dunno how many feet out, maybe 20, and it's at like a 45 deg tilt too. But it's pretty.
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A straighter image of it, from after I climbed down, hehe
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Headed to the back of the cave...pack on Jason's head so it wouldn't get soaked at the deep bit, haha. (Personally, I went for the "screw this, it's up to my nose, I'm just gonna swim!" method) shaky photo I know, but i love the light reflection in the water and the sense of movement it gives :) I kinda like dark cave photos better...this is how I see it when I'm there anyway :)
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There are, however, neat formations in this lower part of the cave. I guess they didn't make their visitors swim for the cave tours, hahaha! In fact, going back upstream (we stayed in the river back up to the entrance) there was a part of it where there were sooooo many small helictites along a good long portion of one of the walls that I didn't dare try to use the wall for stabilization in the river for fear of breaking them. I've never seen so many before 0.o and certainly never so many in one place. It got to be slightly creepy, like some sort of horror movie worm attack!
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So yeah, wooo I got to go underground!!! It still sucks that I was basically in the car for 9 hours on Friday night, then 6 hrs Saturday and the rest 3.5 home today. But it's what I have to do...maybe I'm a little crazy though, lol. It still makes just flying to Atlanta for getting to TAG for the weekend enticing...a 1.5 hr flight then 20 min train airport to my friend's apartment, 2 hr drive or so to the NW corner of GA...lot less time! lol.But carpooling for SJVG trips does keep it *slightly* cheaper to do those instead (by only like $50, though, lol).
 
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