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Jonah-begins-his-journey.
We started the adventure with a lecture followed by an equipment check, then hauling plastic
canoes about 1/4 mile to the cave entrance. Here we are in the canoes waiting to move ahead.
Abandon-all-hope.
The cross piece of the canoe has a notch for your neck; you rest the board on your
shoulders when carrying it. It is a one-person job.
Note the shoes the girl in this picture is wearing. The best shoes for this type of
spelunking are athletic shoes with widely spaced cleats.
Bat.
We saw a few bats in the cave. Toward the end of the trip, I saw
perhaps three bats flying through the cave.
Belly-of-the-beast.
Being in Missouri, the land of caves, you will see cave formations. I was
surprised that there weren't more in this cave, but you can't have everything.
Cannonball.
This is a feature known as the cannonball because it appears as though a
cannoball went through the rock. Paying attention to features like
this make it possible to not lose your way.
Canooooeing.
Canoes hold two people, except for our guide who took a single seater. The
canoes take on water almost immediately. You cannot keep your pack dry.
Working-in-a-coalmine.
We were required to wear helmets with headlamps attached. They supplied the
helmet, we supplied the lamps. As for clothing, my regular hiking gear worked
well. Materials needed to be synthetic: polyester, nylon, polypropylene.
I became wet within moments of entering the cave and wet all while underground.
Cotton just wouldn't have cut it.
Find-batman-in-the-dark.
As an exercise, our guide had us turn off our headlamps then try to find him.
I found that a crab crawl was a useful approach.
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