What's the spookiest thing you've ever seen in a cave?

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What's the spookiest thing you've ever seen in a cave?

Postby BillRigg » Aug 8, 2017 7:39 pm

Hey all, hope you're doing well. I'm wondering about the spookiest or scariest thing you've ever seen or experienced in a cave. Something make the hair stand up on the back of your neck? Did you hear "them" talking or walking in distant tunnels? Maybe you saw a cave ghost, or only thought you did? Found something historical or natural that was super unnerving?

I want to hear about it! I had a bit of a spooky experience in Secret Cavern NY, and I'm very interested in hearing if anyone else has had some frightening cave experiences.


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Re: What's the spookiest thing you've ever seen in a cave?

Postby BrianFrank » Aug 9, 2017 10:11 am

I wouldn't say spooky, but I hate how the mind plays tricks on you when you are alone in a cave.

I had to wait at a junction about a half mile in a cave for 2 hours by myself waiting on a part of our group so they would not get lost. After about 20 minutes alone I swear I heard voices from coming from all 3 directions at one time or another. That was impossible because I knew we were the only group in the cave and where they were. There was dripping water all over this cave and a stream about 25 yards away.

Same thing happened to a friend of mine in Limrock Blowing cave (also a wet cave). He couldn't get through a restriction because of his size and sat there waiting on us for a couple hours. He said he heard voices after about 30 minutes.
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Re: What's the spookiest thing you've ever seen in a cave?

Postby BillRigg » Aug 9, 2017 1:41 pm

I've heard and read a little bit about this - the mind creating sensation when deprived. I've heard before that water dripping or flowing can have this effect on people in caves. I've also heard some cavers refer to these noises (and their unseen sources) as "them", which is downright spooky! :bananabat:

Thanks for sharing! Do you know of any ways one could diminish those sensations? Maybe by focusing on something, or potentially bringing in a small mp3 player or something to satisfy the brain's need for sensation? I feel like it's a good idea to be prepared for something like this.

To be honest, I'd say this counts as spooky - I know I would be spooked out if it happened to me!
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Re: What's the spookiest thing you've ever seen in a cave?

Postby eyecave » Dec 8, 2017 9:32 pm

once a long time ago i went into ellison's to bounce fantastic alone... :bananabat: ...my wife knew where i was going and what to do if i did not get back home by 6 a.m......in my dozen or so previous trips to ellisons i had never been to the attic......i had never been able to get into the upper part of the cave and rig the 586... :shrug: ....that day at the begiinning of the slimy climbdown on the way to the balconey rig point i found where the climb up into the attic began.... :banana: .....i was overly excited and started up the climb without my cave pack...having only a carbide lamp... :doh: .....as soon as i reached the top and was in the attic where the attic rig point is, my carbide began to dim and flicker.......it quickly reached a point where i did not want to risk the fall i would suffer going back down the escalator climb...i knew then that i was in for a long day and longer night..... :yikes: .......it was about 18 hours before my rescuers arrived.......almost all of the time i imagined that i could see what looked like a wall, but i knew it wasn't.....the combination of the dripping water voices and the flashes that could be cavers coming near the passage you are in fooled me at least a coupla dozen times........finally the rescue cavers arrived and all became well again... :woohoo: ....as soon as the carbide flickered out.....i knew immediately that my stupidity wasn't fatal and that my survival was pretty much a sure thing and all i had to do was maintain at least a sliver of control over the visions and voices in my head. :sad: ....
Last edited by eyecave on Dec 14, 2017 11:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: What's the spookiest thing you've ever seen in a cave?

Postby l lambert » Dec 10, 2017 3:39 am

A month ago I had some work in a local cave that would take all night. While I was working I thought I heard school kids cutting up.
It was faint and almost as if it was coming from inside my head. I had a lot of work to get done so I ignored it.

A few days later a friend told of two electricians working in the cave a couple of weeks before. As they were working one of them looked up toward the
entrance of the room they were in then went back to work. A little while later the other one looks up in the same direction then goes back to work.
Finally both men look up toward the entrance of the room. One looks at the other and says "I hear school kids". The other man nods in agreement and says he hears them too!

I was not really spooked but if I had a coworker hearing the same thing it might have had more effect! :yikes:
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Re: What's the spookiest thing you've ever seen in a cave?

Postby trogman » Dec 12, 2017 5:06 am

There is a place on the map of Lamons Cave, AL that is labeled "Talking Waters." When you are in this area it does indeed sound like people talking around the next bend or two. The effect is created by water lapping up into overhanging flowstone along the banks of the pools in this cave. If you weren't aware of what was happening, you'd swear that there was another group coming into the cave. I've also noticed this same effect in other caves as well.

I had a freak-out moment in a cave just a month or so ago. I was alone in a new cave that I had dug open, and the first 150' or so was wading in knee-deep to hip-deep water. The passage was very tight meandering canyon passage. As the passage started to get a little wider, I suddenly felt an animal bump against my leg while it was swimming by. EGADS! It only took me a moment to realize it was a beaver, and there was very little room for both of us in the tight passage. I knew from past dealings with them that they are generally not aggressive, but can get that way if they are cornered. Fortunately, the passage opened up into a fairly large room. Here I stepped up onto dry ground, and saw the beaver sitting in the stream a few feet away. He took a couple of steps toward me, and I yelled at him to back off. He then headed back out of the cave, and I didn't run across him any more that day.

I notice that a lot of experiences being related have to do with being alone in a cave. Just having someone else with you dispels a lot of feelings of creepiness, wouldn't you say?

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Re: What's the spookiest thing you've ever seen in a cave?

Postby Steve_S » Dec 13, 2017 7:21 pm

I'm not sure if my story is considered "spooky" but it certainly spooked the crap out of myself and the other people in the cave. A few years ago we went caving in Coffin Cave in Massachusetts. To get into this cave you need to slide down a 10 foot super tight chute with a small opening at the bottom that you need to squeeze through. Tough to get in and twice as hard to get out. As we're exploring the cave we came to a small room with a tube passage dropping off into the darkness with a hand line rigged to it. As I was about to climb down I grabbed the hand line and gave it a pull when I heard the unmistakable growl of an extremely pissed off bobcat! And we were in between him and the only way out! Now I know your not supposed to leave any human waste in a cave, but I'm pretty sure we all shit ourselves in the mad scramble to get out of the cave as quickly as we could! Luckily I had rigged a hand line and had an ascender with me which made getting out much quicker! But being the last guy out not knowing if the bobcat was going to try to get out too was stressful to say the least lol. Luckily he stayed put and we all got out unscathed!
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Re: What's the spookiest thing you've ever seen in a cave?

Postby eyecave » Dec 13, 2017 11:03 pm

:banana: i had another spooky experience.. :off topic: ...anyone who has visited dark well has seen that the entrance is announced by a waterfall sound you hike up to and hear :argue: when the water is present......at the entrance there is a small climbdown into a floored crack wide opening with the waterfall at the end of the slot that is ten feet high at that point.......in the floor is a small round hole :yikes: that is the opening to a free fall 60 plus foot wet pit.. :yikes: ...the opening is easily missed by a thirsty hot hiker on the steep sides of a TAG mountain intent on the water........at the bottom of the pit is a small crawlway eventually leading to pit number two.......as i entered the crawl i saw a piece of bone....i know a lot about human skeletal features so it caught my attention.....i examined it and noted that it was a right side major mid part of the lower piece of the human jaw......it was old.......i pictured how surprised the person had been, or was he murdered, :boxing: was he alone.....or with friends.....many questions,... :shrug: ..i would bet it was a total accident by an older overheated man wanting to soak his bones in that water coming off the ceiling and wall........who didn't see a hole......... :sadbanana: ......as a georgia bulldog student i took the bone to a professor who had a specialty which included osteology..........he was delighted with my treasure....and verified everything i thought... :banana_yay: ...i did not excavate the pits floor; but i did look about......he encouraged my efforts in searching the cave... :clap:
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Re: What's the spookiest thing you've ever seen in a cave?

Postby BillRigg » Mar 30, 2021 2:01 pm

Whoa, these are excellent posts! Thank you all for your stories, they're definitely spooky. Part of the mystique of the cave environment I suppose.

I know this is four years late, but it's been a crazy four years!
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