Caving in the Cold is a Terrible Idea

When we got back Jacksonville, Mike invited everyone to go caving with him and his sister, Steph, after Christmas. Apparently, I was the only one stupid enough to think this was a good idea. So, a few days after Christmas, I found myself waking up and meeting them at their house at 7 AM. We drove straight to Neversink and hiked up to it, setting up gear for the rappel. This, in retrospect, was very poorly planned. We had very little daylight to work with when we started and by the time we ascended out, it was dark. I also hadn't prepared clothing-wise. I had thrown on a pair of sweatpants over my shorts and was wearing Sperries instead of real caving shoes. Neversink was wetter than I had ever seen it before and I sank straight into the mud. I also dropped my camera lens cap when I was ascending, but luckily Steph and Mike found it. It started raining on us so we had to ascend and gather gear in dark rainy weather. It was also very cold and my sweatpants absorbed water like a sponge. 


Camping on this trip was an interesting experience overall. We went to Scottsboro Mountain, where we usually camp, but rather than setting up tents, we stumbled upon a small shack that was created for cavers to crash in. There was a couch and a bunch of foam pads. The place was disgusting but it was that or the pouring rain, so we braved the shack. Mike called dibs on the couch, which was perfectly fine with me and Steph, since it seemed worse than the floor. We laid out the foam pads to sleep on. In the middle of the night, I noticed a leak that was splashing water in my face. I tightened my sleeping bag and ignored it, but when I woke up, a small pool of water slid on to my face. We got our stuff together and headed for the car, only to see hail and snow on the ground and in the air. Mike coaxed my car down the mountain and didn't hit anything on this treacherous "road" until the very end, an impressive feat.

When we pulled up to Fox Mountain and Mike informed me that the cave we were going to was called Cemetery, I had a mild internal panic attack. We hiked for a bit, including going through a long tunnel that runs under the highway. Of course, Mike decided to creep up behind me and whisper "always watching." I instinctively smacked him in the arm and picked up my speed. When we finally got to Cemetery, there was already a group on rope, headed down. We talked to them and they were from upstate New York and Canada. We were going to set up our own ropes but they offered theirs and we decided that would be easier. So we followed behind them and began exploring on our own. We ran into them again at a second drop point of about 20 feet. They told us to come on down, so we used their rope again and descended further into the cave. We stumbled upon a registry and wrote our names. We explored a fair amount of the cave and Mike found a rope that had been left in the cave as a permanent line. He remembered from the last time he had been there a few years before that this line led to the exit, so when we left we decided to take that line to go up rather than ascending out on the other group's second rope.

Unfortunately, none of us bother paying attention to the small out arrows pointing to the right and we went to the left instead. We eventually found out arrows that ended up just turning us in a circle. After at least two hours, we found ourselves coming upon another registry. I had the worst feeling in my stomach. When we opened the registry, we realized that it was indeed the same as the first and we had ended up in a giant circle. We rested briefly and discussed contingency plans in case we couldn't get out. Then, we carefully went up the permanent line again, this time searching for arrows immediately. The path to the exit didn't take much longer but when we arrived, we realized the rope was gone. Mike yelled up and luckily the other group was still there. They threw the rope back down and he quickly ascended up to set up our rope so they could leave. Steph and I, both cold and tired, waited at the bottom only to realize that our rope wasn't long enough. We had the 300 foot rope in the car, which Mike could have hiked back to and then set up for us but Steph figured that she could free climb the 20 to 30 feet at the bottom. Mike rappelled back down to a ledge with some webbing and tied a line for us. I climbed up after Steph but I was much more nervous about getting to the ledge where they were. I was almost certain that I couldn't do it, despite their coaching. I ended up clipping myself into the safety line of webbing and swinging over to them. It worked and we all ascended out as quickly as possible. It was freezing at the top and there was snow on the ground. We practically sprinted to the car and I turned the heat on before I could even think to do anything else. 

We had emerged around 11 PM, desiring hot food. Our options were already limited based on location but time of day destroyed the chance for option at all. We ended up at Huddle House and the warmth was fantastic. We also all refilled our water bottles and washed our hands and faces in the bathroom. I also bought myself a hot chocolate, which was an excellent source of warmth that dipped down into my toes. After a very late dinner/very early breakfast, we returned to Fox Mountain and set up camp by the car. By set up camp, I mean that Steph set up a tent and slept outside while Mike and I decided that the car would be much warmer and much more comfortable. He slept in the front seat with the back reclined as far back as possible, nearly flat, while I stretched across the backseat, thankful for my height. 

The next morning, we hiked in the opposite direction from Cemetery, toward Rusty's Cave. I don't think any of us had ever been to Rusty's before, but members of the NSS (National Speleological Society) claimed it was about 20 feet of drop. This was false. It was much closer to 40 feet. We had more than enough rope, so we set up several back up systems and descended with some ease. There was a lot of thick, peanut butter-like mud that we referred to as "jungle mud." The cave itself was beautiful. There is a fast-paced stream running through the entire cave that we followed. At first, I stayed high like Mike and Steph, scrambling over rocks and past formations several feet above the stream. Once we reached a decent stopping point, we rested and tried further routes. I crawled through a squeeze for at least 10 minutes that ended up going absolutely nowhere and unless we wanted to go swimming, we had to turn back around. We ran into another group of three from Georgia Tech but they didn't know if the cave kept going. We turned around and I decided to stay low, either jumping from rock to rock in the stream or straddling the small canyon a few inches above. I liked this a lot better and I was a lot faster on the way back than I had been going in. We reached the end and let the Georgia Tech group go ahead of us. Then we ascended up and I was splattered in jungle mud. We were out of the cave fairly early and on the road at a reasonable hour, returning home for New Year's Eve. 

Events occurred: December 28-30, 2012