Sat, Jul 19 2008 - Spelunking (Introduction to Caving) (View Original Event Details)
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WOWWWW! That's all that needs to be said about this event. Really.
Oh, okay - I might have one or two more things to say.......
There had been a lot of rain and all the caves were nice and cool but VERY slippery. None of us had shoes that gripped the wet rocks well and it made it that much more potentially dangerous and challenging. Before lowering us down to each of the three caves, our excellent (and incorruptible) guide, Carlin, would give us all full instructions on how to proceed once we were down there. Regardless, this was a typically heard conversation amongst the ones already in the cave or the next chamber inside the cave, and those near the opening:
Where do I go from here? (asks the person standing near the opening)
Left. (someone inside the cave would yell)
What? Where?
The opening on your left.
Which one, I only see a tiny hole?
Yeah, that's it.
GET OUTTA HERE!?
No, really, that's it!
What - NOooo?!
Yeah!
That's so small!
I know!
I can't fit through that! How'd you get in there....?!
Through there.
Nooooooowaaaaaaay.........?!
But fit we did! Even - unbelievably at times - the menfolk! In the first cave, we were belayed 40 feet and disturbed some bats (they flew about but didn't bother us!) with all our activity, while waiting for everyone to arrive in the "big room", which really wasn't all that big! We took a route away from the upper bat cave and found some pretty decent (and occasionally precarious) challenges to climb and boulder through and back out into the light. Carlin helped those who needed it. This took us an hour and a half and warmed us up (and steamed up Dave's glasses!). We then climbed a slippery tree to get up to a beautiful lookout, where we had our lunch in the sunshine.
After, we walked along a ledge (our harness attached to the rope) on the side of a rock face, before swinging clear of it and zipping (belaying) down 80 feet to the opening of the Ice Cave. This was near a fern jungle that had streaks of mist rising from the nearby ice, into the bright sunlight. Beautiful. From there we held a rope and slid down a hill of ice into the cave itself. This made our posteriors quite wet and dirty from mud - which didn't help keep us warm while surrounded by all that ice - but it was too slippery to walk across. Inside, we had to wait in the chilly cave as others went (in twos) to the very bottom and found the foot deep stream. Once down there, we turned our headlamps off and listened to the gurgling water at our feet, in total darkness. What a feeling, being inside the earth, and just listening to it!
...What? Where? Nooowaaay?...
We warmed up in the sun again, for a bit, before hiking to Anvil Cave. Next, we were lowered 20 feet and waited to be lowered another 20 down into it. This opening (we saw to our horror!) was trianglular, VERY small and looked.....ssssharp and jjjjagged, all the way to the bottom! Various parts of us got stuck at one time or another on the way down. Carlin told us to stay to the right inside the cave and look for the blue "webbing" which turned out to be a line attached to a large hanging boulder which you had to hold and swing on, to get down a sudden drop. WHEE! Emerging later, the cave opened up more and more until it was a green rock face, all 30 feet of it above us, bathed in more sunlight. We scrambled down and out a short distance, just as several people arrived to enter this cave - without ropes. These were the only other cavers we'd seen all day and on the hike back to the cars, the rock faces were filled with friendly rock climbers, all suspended at different levels...
Covered in dirt, we ended our day (some of us feeling a little muscle sore!) on the rooftop patio of Brazen Head in Liberty Village and we felt lucky to get a seat at this hopping joint. Just as we finished eating, the rain that was promised, came pouring down.....and we headed for home.
Many thanks to Carlin and OneAxe Pursuits (we understand now why they limited us to 6 people!) and everyone who signed up for this event of Sperl..Schpeel...Spellik....Spplinking...............Caving! Everything went smoothly from start to finish and everyone added so much fun and enthusiam to it, in their own way, for everyone else! It was.... truly AWESOME!
(I threw everything I was wearing, including shoes and my packpack into the wash as soon as I got home. All the dirt came out! I hope everyone else (especially Mike) was as fortunate!
Have some photos from this event that you'd like to share in our photo album? Please forward them to Erik Sonstenes at photos@torontooutdoorclub.com. Please note that we prefer to receive the photos in approximately 640x480 or 750x500 pixels - do NOT send original high-res photos. If you have a LOT of photos, please submit up to twenty of your favorites (only) for a day event, or up to forty of your favourites for a multi-day event. Thank you.