Sun, Sep 16 2007 - Caving Trip to Cedar Ridge & Bible Springs (Sun) (View Original Event Details) Trip Leader(s): Tom Collins, Tony Theriault Participants: Rama, Shannon Mc, Alex Hall, Sheri Lense, Aklea Whalen, Lee, Amy Beth, David Troesch

Write Up:
Cedar Ridge and Bible Springs Cave Trip This was coincidently a rather special trip since all 8 of the participants there as first time cavers as well as several on their first trip with the AOC. Interesting note as well is that 7 of these 8 first time cavers were women! Where were the adventurous AOC guys hanging out today? Everyone showed up at the carpool on time, all prepared, and eager to shine an LED light on Inner Earth. Trip organizer Tom Collins was ill, so I (Tony T) led the group using some basic directions and tips about the caves from Tom. The first cave to visit was Cedar Ridge, Crystal Caverns. The heavy steel security door that protects the cave from vandalism required some persuasion to push open. After everyone slid in through the 2'x2' steel opening, I closed the door behind and discretely shut the lock to avoid the inevitable "what if" questions about getting back out again. Once we climbed into the main cavern, I tried to encourage random exploring. But most of the semi-nervous and excited group snaked around both caverns in a long congo-line tour of headlamps throughout this nicely decorated cave. Forward progress was punctuated with sliping, sliding, climbing, and camera flashes. We crawled down in a dead-end passage to a small room to visit an inhabitant I noticed scooting underneath to escape our presence. The bat fluttered around us within inches of our bodies and faces before making his sonar navigational changes. He seemed upset about us invading his personal space, but everyone stood quietly and watched. I could feel the wind on my cheeks, hear the airflow under his wings, and the "ahhhhhh"s of amazement from those witnessing. We reversed our way back into the main room and found one of the 2 passages into the other large room in the back of the cave. One person had chosen to enjoy the experience alone in the main room and listen to the sounds of the cave. Every view in any direction is formations...stalagtites, stalagmites, columns, ribbons, soda straws, bacon, rim dams, flowstone...Although the cave was relatively dry, there was still enough moisture on the stone to give it a wet waxy surface to give it all the appearance of an edible dessert topping. Trying not to cover the same ground twice, we took a bit more of a climbing route out of the back room into the main room. Since the cave is small and has no air flow, it was rather warm after some climbing exercise. I was getting thirsty and figured it was time to head out. Once we all exited the cave, I told them a story about the people who left the key inside near the door. A packrat picked up the key and stashed it away, and they were stuck there for days before the next cavers came to visit. We piled back into the cars and headed to the second cave, Bible Springs. There was a nice cool breeze at the cave entrance. So we had our lunch sitting on the rocks with the free A/C. Bible Springs is a very different cave from Cedar Ridge. It is a wet cave that is mostly stream passage. Just inside the tight entrance, it drops straight into waist deep 58 degree flowing water, and 58 degree blowing air. We waded and ducked our way through the snaking passage with small waterfalls and waist deep pits. Then a short belly crawl opens up into easy-walking bore hole passage. The first cave started like a library tour, with low wispers and little talking, but the cold water in Bible springs opened up the chatter boxes, hoots and wimpering! The walking passage easiness ended at a 50’ low ceiling belly crawl through the cold water. Even with the water level relatively low, there was 12-16” airspace above 1 to 2 feet deep water. I heard a 3 minute choral session of …BRRRRRR!!Is there another way around this??BRRRR..How long before it opens up!!!BRRRR. Is this REALLY the right way??? BRRRR..Does it get higher???BRRRRR. How much further in this BRRRRR!!!. On the other side, all were happy and excited about co-miserating in the shared experience. Just one decided that the pebble beach before the wet crawl was a nice place to meditate alone and take a quiet nap. Rama still seemed content and relaxed when we joined her again on the way back out. The rest of us pushed on through to the back of the cave. There we came to a large breakdown pile. We climbed up and around it looking for the elusive rabbit-hole passage to the other side. A short break standing still was enough to get chilled. We headed on back, trying to vary the route from the way in. The low wet crawl seemed much easier the second time around. Finding the way out turned out to be a challenge. It took about 10 minutes to find the hidden low spot that was easy to pop out of, but not so easy to identify on the way out. The trip leader was lost. I walked up and down the end of the big passage, wondering how I couldn’t see the way out. I went up alone up into a dead-end side passage to collect my thoughts and relieve the bladder. Back in the area where the cave exit had to be, I stuck my head under a ledge. I could hear the waterfall in the narrow passage downstream and felt the airflow pulling towards the nearby slit to the exit. It was so easy to overlook. Back to Outer Earth, the group was all smiles. Most of the women headed off to the corn-maze changing rooms to freshen up and change clothes. I thought about checking my cell phone for messages, which led to the realization that it was in my pocket…and my pocket had just been underwater multiple times in the last 3 hours! It drowned. We all packed up, drove out and gathered again the one and only best Mexican restaurant in South Pittsburg for a hearty lunch. A local and infamous fellow caver named “Mudpuppy” was in the restaurant, and joined us at the table for a while. We have all been invited to camp nearby on his property, 20+ acres, and he will even cook breakfast. He also told us how he and 2 other cavers blasted an opening into a virgin cave passage that morning, and described it as one of the prettiest he’s ever seen. I wanted to ask him if he meant the prettiest cave or the prettiest virgins, but held my tongue. Everyone seemed very excited about the experience and ready to join future AOC trips. Tony T

---