This was the "Historic" cave entrance...our entrance was NOT through a door.

Clemon, our guide chatting about the caves' history to me and Josh, our fellow caver.

This was our entrance to the cave...down into a hole...feet first into complete darkness.

Eventually our crawling led to this magnificent "Mammoth Cave".

These are my feet and legs going into the "pancake press"....and I thought I was claustrophobic. By the way...this did not just open up into a room. We crawled on our bellies for quite a long time like this...and it was soooo much fun!!!

Clemon and Bret going into the "womb room". This hole was so small a regulation size basketball wouldn't fit through it. It's peanut shaped so you had to wiggle and squirm your way in. This passage leads to a nearly perfectly round room about the size of the inside of a VW bug. It was a little claustrophobic in there because once a few people huddled inside it got a little stuffy. The exit out was like going through the "womb" during birth...it took a lot of strength to pull yourself up and out

This was coming out of the "worm hole"...another long passage that you had to crawl through on your hands and knees....lucky for us we had knee pads!

Bret climbing out of yet another long tunnel.

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Entering "Middle Earth". For a long ways we had to press our backs against this rock wall while our feet and hands pressed against the opposite rock wall. We carefully inched our way along. The only thing under us was water....a long way down so you could not let go of the tension in your body or feet or you'd fall down into the water. Here, we were hanging out waiting for the group in front of us who were crossing over the catwalk ahead. We couldn't see anything and only heard the troubles they were having and it didn't sound like it was going to be easy. All of a sudden we heard a very loud splash and knew it couldn't be good....

The crevice we were wedged into eventually opened up to where there was a very narrow catwalk somewhere in the water. This was where a man in the group ahead of us fell in. He had missed the catwalk but fortunately it was there to help him out of the water to safety. Clemon shined his flashlight on where specific rocks were located--though you couldn't see the rocks under the waters surface so you just had to take a leap of faith that they were there. If you got lucky and found the rock, you had to balance on it with one foot while you braced your hands on the walls to take the next giant leap to that catwalk under the water. We had to carefully slide along the catwalk which was about 2" wide without slipping off. Then the next big step was to another rock at the end of the catwalk. I thought for sure I was going to fall in but made it with my eyes closed!!

This was easy for Bret since his legs are so long but quite a stretch for me. Luckily we had just done "splits day" in yoga so my legs were still flexible enough...and it was that long of a stretch that I was nearly doing the splits, while balancing in wet, muddy clothes in the water....

Clemon was in the raft across the lake waiting for us to enter. We were supposed to take the raft across but Clemon was nice enough to let us swim across. You can barely see it in the picure but I'm climbing down a ladder into the water. The last rung of the ladder ended at the waters surface so from there you just had to jump in...no easing in a little at a time. Josh went first and yelled back that it was ok. Then I went and Bret followed. We were covered in clay, still had our big heavy boots on and weighed at least 10 lbs heavier than when we started so swimming in 52 degree water was not an easy task. The lake was about 80' deep and without the flash of the camera, was quite dark. The only light we had was from our headlight. Clemon had to tell us which direction to go to get us to the next series of ladders out. When Josh got to the other side and we got around the corner, his light helped guide us to the right spot.

I'm smiling but just for the camera....it was very cold and difficult to swim, not to mention a little scary... That's humidity in the air not smoke or dust. The entire cave was full of it.

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Now I'm grimacing....we had to dog paddle because the weight and bulk of our clothes made it too hard to move our arms and legs enough to swim normally.

This was Bret's idea by the way....

I only did it because he did... I'm usually the sane rational one...

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These next 2 pictures are not us but this was the way out and up to "dragon's throat" which would eventually lead to the end of the expedition. This was the scariest part of the trip for me. There was a series of ladders staked into the rock that went pretty much straight up about 10 stories high. It was dark and the ladders could only support the weight of one person at a time per section. All of the rungs and sides of the ladders were covered in slippery clay. Many of the rungs butted up right next to the rock so there wasn't enough room to wrap your hands around the sides or rungs and only enough room to put your tippy toes on the rungs. We were supposed to use a 3 point hold system and only lift one hand or one foot at a time but Bret didn't and made it up fine.

I went up very slowly and very carefully with my hands and legs shaking the whole time. I didn't look up or down...too scary....so just kept my light shining straight ahead into the rock and breathed very deeply. This section came about 45 minutes after we came out of the water so we were still sopping wet, cold, and exhausted from the several hours of exploring we had already done. Then as we neared the top we had to transfer to another ladder to the left of the ladder we had just come up. You had to completely let go of one foot and one hand to reach the other ladder while the opposite hand and foot stayed on the first ladder....remember it's slippery, dark and I'm shaking....but there was no where else to go but up---well, actually you could have gone down...way down...and landed on the stalagmites below....nope, not an option so the quicker I got off those ladders the better off I'd be. I had a really hard time letting go and switching in mid air but Clemon was at the top encouraging me and Bret wasn't far behind me helping me get there too. Then we had to sit huddled in the "dragon's throat" with the group in front of us as they had a difficult time squirming through. But we made it out without any problems.

This was our exit out. Up the last ladder to the hot, polluted air.

I think I must have been a bat in a previous life because I didn't want to leave....

Nearly five hours later we finally made it back to the showers and got cleaned up. Although we were very clean compared to the group that came out before us...some of them had their entire faces covered with clay, it was in their hair, and completely covered their coveralls. This adventure was such an exhilarating, and fun experience and WOW what a workout!!!

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