Why not, right? =)
Okay basically this is "Amy's Excuse for Posting Massive Amounts of Photos of Awesome" :P
Thursday morning I flew to Atlanta and met up with David who I often go caving with, his fault I got into this, yada yada. Originally we had planned to do Signal Light on Friday so we had a day, basically, to get stuff together but it ended up that the entire day was spent packing up his grad housing dorm room thingie and doing the cleaning and checking out, and that wiped us both out to power-move and scrub a semester's worth of dirt and grime from the bathroom and kitchen (I didn't touch the bathroom, I did do the kitchen floor though. Seeing how horrible the kitchen floor was...no, not cleaning a bathroom 4 dudes shared all semester :P) anyway! so we opted for sleep instead.
Got to stay at Mudpup's...holyshit love his place I could live there it is so awesome! And he's amazing and nice and a great cook omnom. We did end up throwing a rope into a tree on Friday to do a bit o' practicing anyway. Mudpup liked my changeovers lots so I was happysquee to get complemented on them
And I got to see Spot again too! And met other cavers from around there although sorry I dun remember people's names. There was a Maureen. I remember that!
Mudpup ended up coming with David and I to the Huntsville grotto's trip to Snail Shell on Saturday. And I met Marduke from this here forum too! He brought a 2 seater inflatable kayak and I got the second seat. Kayaking in a cave, how freakin' awesome is that?!?! I also swam later on though past where we docked the boats and floats. It was a fun trip but eventually just got to be meh old because nothing new passage wise and it sounded like there wasn't anything further upstream so soaked to the bone and starting to feel chilled (as were most the others) we turned back. Oh, my new 30 ft of purple webbing was put to use! Apparently usually this huge flowstone formation thingie is often ducked under but water levels were too high no airspace so we climbed it instead. Much to my surprise, it wasn't a problem for me to climb. Looked harder from the ground than once you started. Either that or maybe I'm just getting better. I didn't even need the handline just used it in case, basically.
Upstream Entrance
Snail Shell Cave 001 by
Sunguramy, on Flickr
Docking the kayaks
Snail Shell Cave 006 by
Sunguramy, on Flickr
That formation that gets ducked under we had to climb instead
Snail Shell Cave 019 by
Sunguramy, on Flickr
It was really cool, when you looked closely at it, looked like a lot of mini rimstone, I guess? Funkily awesome.
Snail Shell Cave 013 by
Sunguramy, on Flickr
mmm flowstone
Snail Shell Cave 022 by
Sunguramy, on Flickr
Kayaking out of the cave...David getting a hand up from another grotto member, sorry I didn't catch many names this trip.
Snail Shell Cave 027 by
Sunguramy, on Flickr
On Sunday, David and I met up with Marduke to do Limrock, since he knows where all the cool stuff is, hehe. Totally was not lying, lots of neat stuff in that cave! And we went all the way to the back. I actually really enjoyed that second breakdown that is like a giant 3D maze. It was a lot of fun! Flexibility and agility and being shorter than the dudes comes in handy at times...lol!
I am such a sucker for long exposure of waterfalls...and this was cool too seeing the rings and jazz
Limrock Blowing Cave 012 by
Sunguramy, on Flickr
Flowstone above the boat pool.
Limrock Blowing Cave 013 by
Sunguramy, on Flickr
The room with the large white formations on the floor and large curtains up above...well...this is that whole dome area lit up. Curtains are like...10? 15? ft tall to give some scale. Gracias to Marduke for his lighting help here!
Limrock Panoramic - Formation Room by
Sunguramy, on Flickr
And closer up of the curtains
Limrock Blowing Cave 017 by
Sunguramy, on Flickr
Getting hungry yet?
Limrock Blowing Cave 030 by
Sunguramy, on Flickr
Limrock Blowing Cave 023 by
Sunguramy, on Flickr
Some of the delicate whatchamacallit crystal formations.
Limrock Blowing Cave 038 by
Sunguramy, on Flickr
Monday then was Pipesides and Stephens Gap.
Pipesides. Pretty little thing it is. =)
Pipesides Pit 005 by
Sunguramy, on Flickr
There was a cute little guy there too.
Pipesides Pit 001 by
Sunguramy, on Flickr
HOLY MOLASSES is Stephen's Gap incredible. On my first rappel (yeah I did it twice, hehe) the sun was hitting the waterfall jussssssst right to make a double rainbow. I uh...no...didn't get a photo. I was too busy gasping in awe and thought to just lock off my rack and chill there a bit and stare and soak it in. Never dawned on me my camera was right on my gear loop. Ah well, that image is burned in my memory forever :) I took a TON of photos and ended up creating panoramics of most of them. And I'm gonna go over to the UKcave forum and bump and old thread of someone asking where this cool cave was in the UK and some blamed the Dales people for hiding it, haha! Now I can bump it and say "neener neener I've been there!" because I'm cruel like that
On the second rappel I did I remembered to take photos, but the sun had moved past. Also I learned taking photos on rope is hard, you tend to have inate moving since you're just hanging there, it's not as steady as being on the ground. I really didn't get good shots while on rope, haha. However, I did get eaten alive by mosquetoes to the point that my right upper arm is way past itchy and to the painful discolored swollen point. Markduke and his friend who came along were tracing constalations in the bites, apparently they were spidering out. It's on the back of my upper arm so I couldn't see it well, and no spidering now, just one mass of swollen. Very much worth it though. Only got 3 ticks, too, so not bad at all! haha.
This is what kept happening to my on rope photos:
Stephen's Gap031 by
Sunguramy, on Flickr
Not all were that bad though
Stephen's Gap029 by
Sunguramy, on Flickr
Classic dual entrance shot
Stephen's Gap026 by
Sunguramy, on Flickr
I really like this one, Marduke looking back up, I basically laid down on the pedestal to take this shot upwards.
Stephen's Gap020 by
Sunguramy, on Flickr
Panoramic of keyhole and such
Stephen's Gap Panoramic - Keyhole Entrance by
Sunguramy, on Flickr
Another classic shot. With a burst of orange Marduke for flavor.
Stephen's Gap Panoramic - Brian on Pedistal by
Sunguramy, on Flickr
I've not seen a photo like this, and it looked so purdy, so I put together this panoramic too!
Stephen's Gap Panoramic - Big Entrance (horz) by
Sunguramy, on Flickr
See ya later!
(after photo from Limrock....David being excited, Marduke being chill and cool, me being...oh gosh I look like such a dork here)
Limrock Blowing Cave 039 by
Sunguramy, on Flickr