Saturday, October 27, 2007
Airman's Cave
Evidently there was recently a big news story about some UT students who got lost in a cave in Austin and had to be rescued. This story prompted some of my friends to put together a caving trip today, which I was part of. And because we're smart, we went to the same cave these students did.
We arrived at the spot where we parked shortly before noon, and headed off to try to find the cave. One of the people in our group had been to this cave before, so we headed out with only "I'll probably recognize it when I see it" to go on for locating the entrance. Along the way, we found a small inlet in the rock, and went in about 20 feet as practice (and to make sure everyone's nerves were up to going into the cave.
We hiked for a fair distance looking for the cave. At some points we were hiking on a trail, other points going along the bottom of the dry river bed. There was one point along the way where we climbed up a rather dangerous-looking rock wall, only to discover that the ledge we climbed up to ended in an abrupt drop off a short distance away. In my estimation climbing up (and then back down) this section was probably the most dangerous part of our whole trek.
At 2:10 pm, after getting (conflicting) directions from several hikers, we finally ended up back at the small inlet, which several hikers assured us was indeed the entrance to the cave. We had seen how small it had gotten toward the back, and figured that there's no way something that narrow could be the entrance to the cave we were looking for. I guess the entrance isn't called the "birth canal" for nothing.
Once we finally entered the cave, and our lead guy started trying to go through the "birth canal" (which is designed to allow only really skinny people into the cave) the thought of carrying our backpacks with us became a bit unpleasant, and we spent the next 15 minutes discussing what to do. Eventually we left all three backpacks (we had eight people and had consolidated our items into three backpacks before heading out) and ended up just having each person carry (read: push along) their own water bottle. After the birth canal, which was only a yard or two long, it got high enough that you could crawl on your elbows, and then opened up into a larger section where you could actually go past people and sit up. Unfortunately, that was probably the most open section we reached. Much of the rest of the cave was only about 16 inches high, with occasional sections that were high enough to crawl on hands and knees a couple yards. At the three (or so) sections where it was high enough to sit, we stopped to regroup and take water breaks.
At 3:07 pm we reached one of those "high enough to sit" sections, and decided that it was probably about time to head back (so we would be able to call our friends before 6:00 pm to let them know they didn't need to call in a search and rescue party, as 6 was the time some people had told their friends they would be back by). We sat in complete darkness and silence for about a minute before my alarm rang telling us it was indeed time to head back.
The path back was just as difficult going as the path forward, but finding the route back was more difficult than finding the route in. When you're going in, it looked like there was really only one way to go the entire time, but on the way back it looked more confusing. I think the trick is that on the way in you can't see all the things that are opening up behind you. I don't think we would have taken any wrong turns (there didn't seem to be anything big enough to allow you to get too far off the path we took in), but it was comforting to come across all the playing cards we'd dropped behind us as we went in. Playing cards seems like a much better idea than bread crumbs. And if that had failed, we could probably still have retraced our steps. This is because the floor the entire way (except the birth canal, which was polished smooth) is covered in a thin layer of brown clay. Evidently farther into the cave there's a clay art gallery that has been built up by the people who have gone before us. This clay ended up getting us quite messy. If we had needed to, we could probably have examined the clay to see where it was disturbed from having eight people crawl/wiggle through it.
On the way in I had been near the back, so most of the time I'd simply gotten to see other people's feet, but on the way back I was second for most of the way, allowing me to see more of the cave. For the climb back up the birth canal we switched the order a bit. I went first, since I was the only one with a camera, and we wanted to get pictures of everyone being "born again". After me came the girls, smallest first, and at the end came the rest of the guys. This was so that we wouldn't have our big guys getting stuck and blocking the way for the rest of us, and so that the guys could help push from behind. Several people weren't able to get through it without a push, so it was good that we'd planned ahead this way.
Once we were all safely out, we stood around for a while enjoying the ability to stand again, the fresh air, and the sunlight. We also took a large number of pictures in an attempt to get some that would turn out OK. I think we had some success. Taking pictures in the cave was a bit difficult because of the lack of light. If people had their headlamps on, there was enough light that the camera would take a really, really, dark picture. Most of the pictures were actually taken with all of the lamps turned off, so that the picture was taken in pitch black. I'm impressed that they turned out as well as they did.
Some of the things we saw in the cave include:
-An insect that looked vaguely like an ant, but which didn't really look much like any insect I've seen before. I may have crushed it as I went past, so I don't think any of the others saw it.
-A white worm (I heard people behind me talking about seeing one anyway)
-A bone (I didn't see it myself)
-A bat
-A ticket to the American Player's Theatre production of "As You Like It" (this may be the wrong play) which I dropped from my coat pocket when I pulled out my camera to take a picture before heading back up the birth canal.
-A geocache containing some toys, antlers, headlamp, and other items. We all signed our names in the geocache's logbook, and got to read some other people's entries. It also contained a much more detailed map of the cave than the one that's easy to find online. Too bad we found the geocache on our way out.
It was a fun experience, made fun mostly by the people I was with. We're most likely going to wake up with extremely sore bodies tomorrow morning, and will have bruises everywhere. I've heard that some people go hours into the cave (we only went in for 45 minutes) and I find it hard to believe that people have the ability to keep going in those conditions. My arms are completely dead, so I wouldn't have been able to do much more arm work than what I did. If the cave gets bigger (so that you can at least squat and waddle through) and stays like that for the rest of the way I think I could go more, but not if it stays as low as it was the portion we went through.
For next time I think I'm going to try to get a headlamp. I was carrying around a flashlight, and I don't think it appreciated all the bumping I gave it. It would sometimes get dim, and there were a couple times where the light when out (rotating it or shaking it would bring it back to full brightness, so I think there's probably a loose connection in there somewhere). I had along extra batteries, but I don't think this was a battery problem. Although if worst came to worst, there were 7 other people there with light, and I had my cell phone to use as an emergency light as well, so I wasn't too worried about it.
We arrived at the spot where we parked shortly before noon, and headed off to try to find the cave. One of the people in our group had been to this cave before, so we headed out with only "I'll probably recognize it when I see it" to go on for locating the entrance. Along the way, we found a small inlet in the rock, and went in about 20 feet as practice (and to make sure everyone's nerves were up to going into the cave.
We hiked for a fair distance looking for the cave. At some points we were hiking on a trail, other points going along the bottom of the dry river bed. There was one point along the way where we climbed up a rather dangerous-looking rock wall, only to discover that the ledge we climbed up to ended in an abrupt drop off a short distance away. In my estimation climbing up (and then back down) this section was probably the most dangerous part of our whole trek.
At 2:10 pm, after getting (conflicting) directions from several hikers, we finally ended up back at the small inlet, which several hikers assured us was indeed the entrance to the cave. We had seen how small it had gotten toward the back, and figured that there's no way something that narrow could be the entrance to the cave we were looking for. I guess the entrance isn't called the "birth canal" for nothing.
Once we finally entered the cave, and our lead guy started trying to go through the "birth canal" (which is designed to allow only really skinny people into the cave) the thought of carrying our backpacks with us became a bit unpleasant, and we spent the next 15 minutes discussing what to do. Eventually we left all three backpacks (we had eight people and had consolidated our items into three backpacks before heading out) and ended up just having each person carry (read: push along) their own water bottle. After the birth canal, which was only a yard or two long, it got high enough that you could crawl on your elbows, and then opened up into a larger section where you could actually go past people and sit up. Unfortunately, that was probably the most open section we reached. Much of the rest of the cave was only about 16 inches high, with occasional sections that were high enough to crawl on hands and knees a couple yards. At the three (or so) sections where it was high enough to sit, we stopped to regroup and take water breaks.
At 3:07 pm we reached one of those "high enough to sit" sections, and decided that it was probably about time to head back (so we would be able to call our friends before 6:00 pm to let them know they didn't need to call in a search and rescue party, as 6 was the time some people had told their friends they would be back by). We sat in complete darkness and silence for about a minute before my alarm rang telling us it was indeed time to head back.
The path back was just as difficult going as the path forward, but finding the route back was more difficult than finding the route in. When you're going in, it looked like there was really only one way to go the entire time, but on the way back it looked more confusing. I think the trick is that on the way in you can't see all the things that are opening up behind you. I don't think we would have taken any wrong turns (there didn't seem to be anything big enough to allow you to get too far off the path we took in), but it was comforting to come across all the playing cards we'd dropped behind us as we went in. Playing cards seems like a much better idea than bread crumbs. And if that had failed, we could probably still have retraced our steps. This is because the floor the entire way (except the birth canal, which was polished smooth) is covered in a thin layer of brown clay. Evidently farther into the cave there's a clay art gallery that has been built up by the people who have gone before us. This clay ended up getting us quite messy. If we had needed to, we could probably have examined the clay to see where it was disturbed from having eight people crawl/wiggle through it.
On the way in I had been near the back, so most of the time I'd simply gotten to see other people's feet, but on the way back I was second for most of the way, allowing me to see more of the cave. For the climb back up the birth canal we switched the order a bit. I went first, since I was the only one with a camera, and we wanted to get pictures of everyone being "born again". After me came the girls, smallest first, and at the end came the rest of the guys. This was so that we wouldn't have our big guys getting stuck and blocking the way for the rest of us, and so that the guys could help push from behind. Several people weren't able to get through it without a push, so it was good that we'd planned ahead this way.
Once we were all safely out, we stood around for a while enjoying the ability to stand again, the fresh air, and the sunlight. We also took a large number of pictures in an attempt to get some that would turn out OK. I think we had some success. Taking pictures in the cave was a bit difficult because of the lack of light. If people had their headlamps on, there was enough light that the camera would take a really, really, dark picture. Most of the pictures were actually taken with all of the lamps turned off, so that the picture was taken in pitch black. I'm impressed that they turned out as well as they did.
Some of the things we saw in the cave include:
-An insect that looked vaguely like an ant, but which didn't really look much like any insect I've seen before. I may have crushed it as I went past, so I don't think any of the others saw it.
-A white worm (I heard people behind me talking about seeing one anyway)
-A bone (I didn't see it myself)
-A bat
-A ticket to the American Player's Theatre production of "As You Like It" (this may be the wrong play) which I dropped from my coat pocket when I pulled out my camera to take a picture before heading back up the birth canal.
-A geocache containing some toys, antlers, headlamp, and other items. We all signed our names in the geocache's logbook, and got to read some other people's entries. It also contained a much more detailed map of the cave than the one that's easy to find online. Too bad we found the geocache on our way out.
It was a fun experience, made fun mostly by the people I was with. We're most likely going to wake up with extremely sore bodies tomorrow morning, and will have bruises everywhere. I've heard that some people go hours into the cave (we only went in for 45 minutes) and I find it hard to believe that people have the ability to keep going in those conditions. My arms are completely dead, so I wouldn't have been able to do much more arm work than what I did. If the cave gets bigger (so that you can at least squat and waddle through) and stays like that for the rest of the way I think I could go more, but not if it stays as low as it was the portion we went through.
For next time I think I'm going to try to get a headlamp. I was carrying around a flashlight, and I don't think it appreciated all the bumping I gave it. It would sometimes get dim, and there were a couple times where the light when out (rotating it or shaking it would bring it back to full brightness, so I think there's probably a loose connection in there somewhere). I had along extra batteries, but I don't think this was a battery problem. Although if worst came to worst, there were 7 other people there with light, and I had my cell phone to use as an emergency light as well, so I wasn't too worried about it.
Comments:
Thankfully we didn't run into any other groups inside the cave. Most of the time there wasn't much room for passing, and I don't relish the thought of one group having to crawl backwards to get to a point where you can pass.
I was slightly worried about meeting another group, since the cave is just a hole in the wall off of a park trail, so anyone can go in and no one will know if there's already someone in there (unless they hear you or you leave stuff behind in the cave, like we did).
Post a Comment
I was slightly worried about meeting another group, since the cave is just a hole in the wall off of a park trail, so anyone can go in and no one will know if there's already someone in there (unless they hear you or you leave stuff behind in the cave, like we did).
