Nevertheless, there was a big day of caving ahead, with our particular expedition taking us to Blue Spring Cave in White County, Tennessee. It is now the longest cave system in Tennessee at 38.4 miles and the 9th longest cave system in the U.S. As it turned out, our day long trip would take us in and out of less than a mile of that system (although at times it felt A Lot longer!)
Like the span of the cave, our group spanned quite an age and experience range, from the youngest of five-years-old to the oldest of 69. Having no idea that I would be caving during my cross-country bike ride, I will admit that I was ill prepared with no hiking/caving boots, or even a pair of blue jeans to protect me from the rough terrain.
However, where there's a will, there's a way, so I made do with socks inside my Keens, what "long" shirts and pants I did have with me, my GoreTex rain pants, and nylon riding vest - with its reflective strips making me particularly visible in the head-lamps and camera flashes of my fellow cavers! Randy graciously provided the other essential "personal protective gear": hard hat, gloves, and knee pads, all of which were definitely necessary, as I remember banging my hard-hat several times against the rocks, and needed the knee pads and gloves for the multiple crawlways we had to traverse.
Blue Spring Cave is located on private property, Frank got permission to enter from the land-owner, as well as a local guide, Clinton, to take us through. It was Clinton who happened to "look up" during a re-mapping of one section of the cave to discover very rare crinoid fossils in the ceiling above. The passages where he made the discovery were also our destination for this particular trip. (That's Clinton in the blue bandana and Canadian maple leaf t-shirt.)
Once inside, the cave turned out to be about as diverse as the people gathered to explore it. With typical cave formations at the entrance, to canyons that required a narrow suspended bridge to cross, lots of "break down", to navigate - quite gingerly in my case given my barely adequate footwear, and left knee weakened by an injury I sustained while running my first (and only) full marathon back in 2007. (As you can imagine, the last thing I wanted to do was to get hurt while participating in these "extra-curricular" activities, and not be able to complete my bike trip!) There were crawling passages, as well as a few walls to climb and all of this we encountered, and surmounted, both going forward and in reverse!
And, of course, there were the crinoids...
Where these ancient fossils were probably of the greatest interest to the geologists among us, as a social scientist, I was more amused, humbled, and inspired by seeing eight-year-old Harry, fearlessly scrambling over breakdown, with the enthusiasm so natural for a child that age. His younger brother, Haden, persevered as well, never wanting to stop, or turn back, even when given the option.
Blue Spring Cave is located on private property, Frank got permission to enter from the land-owner, as well as a local guide, Clinton, to take us through. It was Clinton who happened to "look up" during a re-mapping of one section of the cave to discover very rare crinoid fossils in the ceiling above. The passages where he made the discovery were also our destination for this particular trip. (That's Clinton in the blue bandana and Canadian maple leaf t-shirt.)Once inside, the cave turned out to be about as diverse as the people gathered to explore it. With typical cave formations at the entrance, to canyons that required a narrow suspended bridge to cross, lots of "break down", to navigate - quite gingerly in my case given my barely adequate footwear, and left knee weakened by an injury I sustained while running my first (and only) full marathon back in 2007. (As you can imagine, the last thing I wanted to do was to get hurt while participating in these "extra-curricular" activities, and not be able to complete my bike trip!) There were crawling passages, as well as a few walls to climb and all of this we encountered, and surmounted, both going forward and in reverse!
And, of course, there were the crinoids...
Where these ancient fossils were probably of the greatest interest to the geologists among us, as a social scientist, I was more amused, humbled, and inspired by seeing eight-year-old Harry, fearlessly scrambling over breakdown, with the enthusiasm so natural for a child that age. His younger brother, Haden, persevered as well, never wanting to stop, or turn back, even when given the option.
I give the highest "kudos" to the parents, Anthony and Mary, for sharing the adventure of caving with their young children...and, literally, bearing the burden of carrying their youngest son as necessary, so that he could enjoy the full experience with all of us, beginning to end and all points in between. I also give credit to Clinton, our guide, for his patience, as well as the cooperative spirit of the other adults in our group, who were there to guide and lend a hand as needed to both the children and each other. It was a pretty long trip in and back out of the cave for all of us. Often I found myself saying, "Just keep pedaling, just keep pedaling," or "Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming!" ... You get the idea... : ))
Overall though, it was a wonderful trip. There were no major incidents, injuries, or losses of equipment. Frank finally got to take some pictures of me to add to those of his other caving buddies! : ) Randy got to take some more really amazing shots as well, satisfying his growing passion for photography. And I got to enjoy another adventure, within the adventure, of riding my bicycle across the country.
But the weekend wasn't quite over yet...so there's still more to come in Part III...
** Thanks again to Frank and Randy for helping with photos.
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