by Zooey » Nov 27, 2009 3:16 am
Hello,
I have not been caving since Parker's Pit Cave in 1989. This was the cave that convinced me I didn't really like the sport anymore. The recent news from Utah gave me the heebie-jeebies and for whatever reason I started googling some of the old caves I had been to. I can't even remember most of their names, but I could never forget Parker's Pit, because I almost bought the farm in there. I'll tell you the story. Me and four other members of the Purdue Outing Club obtained permission to enter this cave in the spring of 1989, right when I got home from boot camp. If you find the register tube in the cave, you will see my real name. (Probably the only "PFC" on there.) I remember that the list was very short, we were something like numbers 15, 16, and 17 to ever sign the register. It was in a piece of PVC pipe with screw ends, and it said "Welcome to Parker's Pit Cave!" on it. This was located at one end of a very large and long passageway that made us wish we had brought a glow-in-the-dark frisbee.
Parker's was probably about my seventh cave? We went to a couple of popular ones in the vicinity of Greencastle multiple times. I remember rappelling down the entrance shaft, and maybe my memory is exaggerating, but I remember it being a small hole in the ground that opened up into a shaft big enought to drop a school bus into that went about 100 feet straight down. We had an overhead view map, but it was hard to tell where the connection was to the rest of the cave. We pushed a couple of low wet gravelly crawls, and after an hour of finding nothing that went anywhere we were soaking wet and cold. Two of us decided to call it quits and jumarred out to wait topside. On the way up, one of them saw a hole in the side of the shaft, about halfway up. This is how to get to the rest of the cave. So the three of us continued, you went in the sideways hole and there was a little stream coming from the back that flowed into a hole in the floor. Yep, we had to go down that hole! So, more rappelling, this time in a freezing-cold water fall. Then there was a tight vertical canyon you had to go up and down to find the wide spots to fit through. It was at least ten feet from top to bottom, and it waved back and forth and was only wide enough to fit your chest through sideways. Then there was a long long low crawl pushing my helmet ahead of me and dragging my froggy. It was really long, but pretty much stayed the same size all the way. Then there must've been some other stuff I don't remember, and then the enormous passageway where the register was. (Is?)
At this point we had been below ground for many hours, I can't remember how many, and although we had lugged a bunch of rope all this way (because you apparently need it farther on) and the cave was "just getting started" we decided to turn back. And a good thing, too, as it turned out, if we had continued (and got more tired and hungry than we already were) I probably wouldn't be here. I remember when we finally made it out our two friends were pretty freaked out and said they were just about to go call for help. (No cell phones back then, or they probably would've already.) I think we were in there for over 14 hours, that's the number that first came to mind when I was remembering this.
On the way out, because of getting wet so early and only having a couple of snickers bars in all that time, I got stuck in that tight vertical canyon because I was just physically exhausted and getting weak. It had little ledges sticking out that you could use as hand and footholds to clamber up or down to find the wide spots to fit sideways through, and I just lost the strength to do it. I remember it very clearly, that jiggly vibrating weakness that you get when rock-climbing right before you yell "falling!" But, there was nobody on belay to help me. I got stuck and then unstuck myself, and then got stuck again, over and over. It was extremely scary, and there wasn't anyway for my friends to help me. I think they were struggling, too. And remember, I was a 19 year old Marine fresh out of boot camp in the best shape of my life. Yes, Parker's pretty much kicked my butt, to the point that I have zero desire to ever go caving again. Ever.
Thanks for giving me a place to tell my story. If you do Parker's, bring more than two snicker's bars to eat and rain gear to wear during that rappell so maybe you won't get so soaked right away. And don't be bigger than 5'10" and 165 lbs.