spelunking

[kiddrock33]

the term spelunking was first coined by clay perry here in western massachusetts. clay perry formed the first grotto , grotto number one. the national speleological society was formed here also. clay was a writer who was hired by franklin roosevelt during the depression to be his writer. k.g.c. used newspapers to deliver information around the country right under everyones noses, any guesses who has that job now?ill tell you this , he writes in the secret book , that is located in the white house. and you all think movies are not based on reality. this is a bit of a squeeze , and a bit chilly 41 degree water. these are the types of areas that need to be searched. yes caves are dangerous, no place for wimps, death can happen in caves.

 

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[buckshot]

That's alittle extreme for me, but "go for it"... You will get to see things only a very few do... Take care.

 

[kiddrock33]

heres one pic i like.

 

[cptbil]

For Me! (& Bugs)
Give "Us", one of them NM/Ariz/Cal., Dry Type Caves (caverns)
BuT!
Darn the Luck!
If! Even the serious (deep) ones out there, aren't "wet!" Too!
We'll be in lots of them, "if" and "when", I ever get The Jeep running
& Get out there!
(I'm completely rebuilding & modifying IT!)
I'll take plenty of picures and post them here ....... ?
(someday?!)

 

[allen]

im not going into a place like that for sure.
you guys are brave or crazy...lol

 

[Tnmountains]

Cool I grew up caving and rope climbing. Its great fun. Nice to see pictures. I wishe we would of had the cameras of today when I climbed. Thanks for sharing your adventure.
TnMtns

 

[John CA]

Great site! We have some great caves were I live in Italy, I will have to take my camera and post some pictures. I don't get to cave hunt all to often but I was in a cave a few weeks ago that seemed to be carved by natural springs, I was amazed by the amount of crystal I saw and rock formations.

 

[pickaway]

Wow no way im crawling in a cave ive been in a few where ya drop down in em, how ppl wiggle thru them openings is beyond me.

 

[cptbild]

There are unknown/unexplored/unnamed caverns (systems)
BIG enough to drive Tank in & around!
Care to see one of them ?
I'm Very! Serious

 

[Tnmountains]

oh man great pics cool. Shrink em down just a little bit. I ran across this pic of me like 20 years ago doing cash canyon pit. Notice the bell bottoms thats all we did as kids was climb and cave. I did some serious cave repels for a few years. My cousin who I climbed with set three world records on ropes. One at Mount Thor for the worlds longest repell and later on Angel Falls. Enjoy this topic. Ok here is an oldie pic notice all the cuting edge gear we had

 

[kiddrock33]

ill make them smaller here, i like this color thats for sure, nice to see that old picture of you repelling, did you scan it? kidd

 

[kiddrock33]

heres a few from last night.

 

[Tnmountains]

Excellant pics. We used to do a lot of our caving in the winter. Sometimes we would enter through a water source and would be frozen till we hit the water inside the cave. That felt like bath water then. You know the tourist trap in Tennessee called" See Rock City and Ruby Falls"? We used to do the lower caverns off Ruby Falls. Found a Saber tooth tiger skull and a cave bears skull embedded in the calcification. They eventually closed it off but it had some great drops in it.
Nice pictures. I might do a cave on some land I lease and will try to get some pics.
Thanks for sharing

 

[FloridaDigger]

Has anyone been in Warrens Cave in Florida (near Gainesville). I was in this cave a few times in 1970 before it was closed. On one occassion four of us including my brother and two friends spent 16 hours crawling to the back part of the cave where we found and signed the "register". I've always wondered if this register is still in the cave or if it's been removed.

 

[kiddrock33]

yes

 

[John_Arizona]

I'm going into a cave on my claim tomorrow. I found on the outside carved in the rock; a skull, 3 priests and a horse looking at the entrance from above, a date: 1760. I will give more in detail with photographs wednesday.

 

[pippinwhitepaws]

I'm going into a cave on my claim tomorrow. I found on the outside carved in the rock; a skull, 3 priests and a horse looking at the entrance from above, a date: 1760. I will give more in detail with photographs wednesday.

can we see some photos of the inscriptions? please?

 

[FloridaDigger]

yes

Yes, meaning........?

 

[eyemustdigtreasure]

yes, a respect for what the cave can do to you, your buddies - your whole day!
Safety first, take extra lights batteries, etc, water, food, good boots, hard hat
three (3) sources of light, gloves...etc. Tell someone where you'll be, and be sure
to take an extra measure of smarts with you as well...!

SPELUNKERS go in the cave for fun, not make it a hobby,
whereas CAVERS explore caves as almost a lifestyle - SERIOUSLY perusing knowing
all there is to know about the craft of caving,
and the caves they explore.
....here's an easy way to remember the difference
"Cavers Rescue Spelunkers" ....- I've been caving most my life, and I'm in my LATE 60's!

 

[hvacker]

I was a member of the Windy City Grotto out of Chicago. We would mostly do caves south of home. I really liked the experience. When I first started I was reading books on both caves and climbing mountains. One of those books was about the life of Floyd Collins. He was called the world's greatest caver and died while trying to find a new entrance to a cave in 1925 and it became the first media event. His foot became trapped in a squeeze by a rock no larger than a football.
My story though was while reading the Collins story and how he became trapped I went on a trip to my first hard core cave southern Indiana called Ted's Dig. The entrance was not impressive, just a hole in the ground. But to enter the cave I had to crawl through a squeeze and somersault into the opening. The squeeze appeared like the description of what trapped Collins. Even the football sized rock barley hanging form the top of the roof. interesting day. But I managed to put it out of my head and go on. I just remember looking at that rock and thinking about Floyd.

The best thing about going with experienced NSS (National Speleological Society) people is they've been there before. I would probably only cave with NSS people. I watched them talk a guy out of a skinny canyon (think small) where he had gotten stuck like a cork in a bottle. Took almost an hour. The canyon was named 219 as that was what the stuck guys weighed. Meaning if you're heaver than 219 don't attempt that canyon.
Like eyemustdigtreasure said if interested the NSS will turn a spelunker into a caver. There's probably a Grotto near you.