Hello from Indiana!

[InTucky]

I just wanted to introduce myself, and say hello to everyone here. My name is Dustin i'm 27 i'm from aurora, IN, and I just did my 2nd real caving trip last sunday. This was my 2nd trip to pine hill cave in kentucky, and I have to say i'm officialy hooked! I've been reading this site daily for the last 2 months, and must say there is a wealth of GREAT information here. My first adventure into a cave was when I was 14, my friend, and I went into a couple of the caves at spring mills state park, here in Indiana with nothing but 2 flashlights. Later that summer I made my mom take us to Mammoth, and loved every minute of it. Skip head to two months ago, when my best friends brother-in-law takes us on are first real wild cave trip to pine hill, and I haven't been able to get caving off my brain since I've been putting all my gear together for the last month, petzl ecrin roc, petzl duo, had special pair of pants made with the knee pads sewed on, small pack, and all my extra lights, and emergency gear. Myself, and Jared (best friend) went to our first grotto meeting in cincinnati at the begining of the month, it was great to meet all the people. I believe were both going to be joining up at the first of the year, both grotto & nss. The only hesitation I have in joining the grotto is i'm going to be going under the knife Jan. 15 for ACL surgery, so I don't want to join the grotto, and then not be around for 5-6 months. We're going to be doing another trip before I have surgery though, try to kill the bug as much as I can, then after that my next trip will probally be karst-o-rama, or hopefully sooner depending on how my knee heals. Here are some pictures from our trip.............

Everyone getting ready outside from left to right Jason (leader), Joey, Jared, and I'm behind the cam most of the time lol











Heres my ugly mug


Going to need a much bigger light to see the top of the canyons lol




The "Birth Canal"


Here I am after the crawl to & from skylight dome through the canal


Hopefully i'll be reporting back real soon with another trip!

[NZcaver]

Welcome to the forum and thanks for sharing your photos!

Please don't let this discourage you at all... but if you're posting a bunch of photos try using the "add imge to post" link at the bottom of where you're composing the message. This allows you to post smaller thumbnail pictures, which makes them easier to see for some folks with sloooooooow dialup internet. Or you could just shrink your own online photos a bit, but you probably already did that.

You picked a nice state to start caving in!

[BrianC]

Welcome aboard Dustin! As a transplant from Cincinnati, I am familiar with the caveless area! We would load up the van and head to Sloans Valley,Ky. many weekends to cave!

[David Grimes]

Welcome, if you ever find yourself in south central indiana look me up we can do some caving I'm in harrison county and we have plenty caves around here.

I love doing the through trip at Bronson Donaldson cave at spring mill we usually go a few times every summer.

[InTucky]

Welcome, if you ever find yourself in south central indiana look me up we can do some caving I'm in harrison county and we have plenty caves around here.

I love doing the through trip at Bronson Donaldson cave at spring mill we usually go a few times every summer.

Are any of the caves at spring mills closed for bat hibernation?

[David Grimes]

Are any of the caves at spring mills closed for bat hibernation?

I don't think any are closed there really are not many bats in those caves.
It's the cold walk up all those stairs soaking wet that is the real problem. I have seen pictures from people who went in winter while there was snow on the ground but that's a little too much for me I will stick to dry caves in the winter.

We have plenty of dry caves in my area though I don't know how far from Aurora, In. I am but probably not any further than the caves you went to in Kentucky.

On a side note does anyone reading this know if it is possible to get access to whistling cave in spring mill park.