It was not as wet as we were warned it could be (the entire gate opening was out of the water, it was only about waste-deep not chest/chin deep) which was kinda nice. My legs seem to not mind getting cold it's as soon as my chest gets cold that I get cold. It actually reminded me a lot of "classic" TAG caving, lots of just walking borehole type passage, sometimes out of the water sometimes in, few things to scamper over or around here and there. Down a smaller side route though, were a lot of pretties. I do believe this formation is called the "Bleeding Heart".
I really liked the shelves on the walls here too, lots of layers of varied colours and tones.
And quite a few mini-waterfalls and little bridges over them.
This type of stuff was everywhere both in the main passage and side one, I know no one for scale in the photo but I would say it was about 15-20 feet high? I think this one in particular is called the "Wedding Cake".
We actually went completely through the cave all the way up to the gate on the other side, then turned around and came back through. As you go through the cave it gets drier and drier (still wet, but at the start you're in waste-deep water, by the end it sloshes around your ankles if you step in it, or walk on the "beaches"). On one of the "beaches" of mud and dark pebbles, I found this little tiny pool. I call these "Almost Pearls". The only thing they are missing is being round. On this same beach were small rimstone dams forming...someone might want to flag it somehow so people don't trample over it, right now the rimstone dams are white too. But if you're not looking you'd easily just stomp right over it all.
All in all we spent almost 3 hours in the cave. After changing and eating the pumpkin chocolate chip oatmeal cookies I'd baked (which were a huge hit!) We then retired to Mark and...Kristi's? house and ate "real food" of soup and stew that Mark had made, and pizza as well that Kristi made (Fayetteville Pizza is the best!! And there is an NSS member discount ;) yay!) After drying gear in the sun on their hillside and chilling for a while with good food in our tummies, we got to chatting about the next day as I called Dean to make sure Sunday at Buddha was a go and we had two (Beth and Brett) who wished to join John and I as well. During this whole conversation, it was mentioned, and subsequently decided, that some of us needed an even bigger caving fix. John, Elaina, and I decided to go check out Roberts cave that evening, as John had permission from the landowner to visit it that weekend if we so desired. We couldn't interest anyone else but we had our three, so we got our gear off the hillside and off we went!
Roberts is a pretty cool cave actually. A bit small and easy but it kinda has a little bit of everything on a small scale. Some walking. Some crawling. Some bellycrawling. Some climbing/scrambling. And the right side is where a lot of pretties are! Being just the three of us we decided to just really take our time and have fun.
One of the formation sections...maybe 2 ft tall.
I really took this time to try out my flashgun. I've not gotten a chance to play with it in a cave much yet, and I had read up a bit more and had a few ideas of types of photos I wanted to do with it in my head after toying briefly with it in Buddha during Capers (and seeing the failed results). Hey, failed photos teach me stuff too!
This is one of my favourites...I just set my camera on time delay and longer exposure and then set off the flash myself (it's my silhouette!) Bummer I moved a bit though, oopsie.
We tootled out of the formation area back to the left side of the cave. I got this idea for a photo, and although it's only Elaina's third cave trip danggg she's a great climber haha I wish I had her skills/confidence! I had John set off the flash behind them, I lightpainted the foreground.
Got back out after dark, and even with taking our time and taking lots of photos, it only took two hours.
~*~
The next day John, Brett, Dean, and I went to Buddha. Being only four we had plenty of time, our only time limit was whatever self-imposed one we wanted (basically so we didn't get home super late Sunday night...which ended up happening anyway. I got home at 1am Monday morning!) It was a good fun group of people. I had really wanted to return to Buddha, being so rushed last time and not really seeing anything in the lower levels much less time to get photos. And as it turns out, I really did miss a TON last time. Thanks Jeff for the permit and thanks Dean for leading (although I got to lead in the upper section weeeee
I like leading). The trip went really well and I had a BLAST. I think it's my favourite cave in Indiana. And one I would go back to again still without hesitation, too much to see and I know I'd see different things every time I went for quite a while.And without further delay...photos!!!
Shot that I just could not get last time!
The shot that I didn't have time to get as I had people bugging me to hurry up through the crawl-through, this is the rimstone right at the top that I think is just uberpretty especially with the black "border".
Another shot I just could not get last time!
And playing with my new mad flashgun skillz
And...that was as far as I got last time. But oh wow is there so much more cave...
There are more pretties I don't have photos of or just aren't as nice to share right now. But eventually you have a crawl. A low crawl over cobbles (owchie cobbles, I hate cobbles!)...
And a wet crawl through water...
Are a TONNNN more formations. Like, you think before the crawl is pretty, well shoo you've not seen anything yet!
Towering pillars (that's a headlamp in the background!)
Whatever this gobblygook is...looks like a weird sea monster thing to me!
More beautiful rimstone
And bacon!
This doesn't even give a good idea of how chock-full it is down there. Seriously, anywhere you look, and I mean anywhere and everywhere, are multiple beauties. Some brown, some tan, some cream, some white, some kinda orange or red even. Way more things to see and explore and photograph than I could in a trip. It's quite overwhelming to the senses actually, how many and how all over the place they are! Overwhelming in a good exciting way though.
Until next time!
Cavechat RSS Feed