The Walk To the Cave Entrance

I am having problems posting pictures so there will be none until it gets fixed. You can still see them all at photobucket, there is a link to the right.




It was a small trail off of a road in the middle of nowhere. We walked up and down this fairly easy trail; I had no idea how far we had to walk. One person said just over the hill and another said like 2 hours. We came up to the base of a mountain where the trail started to wind up at about a 35 degree angle. It looked like fun especially due to 90 degree weather and the high noon desert sun. Before we headed up the trail there was a sight to see. They called it a “hole.” It was a large hole about half the size of a football field that looked down onto the river winding through the cave. It was probably 200 yards down to the rocky bottom. At the bottom was the place where we were to have breakfast the next morning. It was quite the sight.

We finally started to head up the trail, it was OK at first but the sun and heat started to set in and then I felt a little hangover come on. I really didn’t get drunk but I did have quite a few beers before and during lunch so I became very dehydrated regardless of how much water I drank. I was feeling shitty and tired but I had to-keep-on-keepin-on. We would stop every 100 meters or so to catch our breath and take a drink, this was hell. Imagine walking up a 35 degree incline, stepping up and down rocks, the high desert sun, bugs all over, hung over, my new boots were creating calluses on my big toe (common for new boots), and my legs were burning from the workout. I remember thinking “what the hell did I get myself into.” I swore to myself that I am never doing this again, that’s how shitty it was. They kept saying “10 min, then we start walking downhill.” It wasn’t until about a half hour until we finally started downhill.

The downhill hike was a little easier, mostly due to the help of gravity, but there was an increasing amount of shade, cooler temperatures, and moisture. You could definitely tell that we were entering a river basin because the terrain was getting increasingly greener. Next thing I knew we were in a jungle type setting with big green leaves, vines hanging down from the trees, and really outrageous bird noises. Then we could hear the river, but before we were to get there, we had to shimmy down a 100 meter drop straight down. There was a metal cable similar to the ones that you see supporting the telephone poles on the street corners. It was nailed into one rock and that was it, it was tied in sloppy knots and did not look sturdy at all, but it did the job and I had to do it without thinking about it. We went one by one right after another, going slow because there were some tough spots that some people had difficulty getting passed. About halfway down we had to switch from the cable to a wobbly ladder. At this point we were actually at an angle more than 90 degrees, the footing was bad because there was rocks poking out on top of the rung for the ladder, and the weight of the gear didn’t help much either. I made it down with no problems and it was just a hop skip and a jmp to the cave entrance.

The view was amazing, the river ran through some rather large boulders similar to the size of a cement truck that seemed to be covered in bird shit, but it turned out to be guano. The only reason I knew what guano was is because of the second Ave Ventura movie, bat shit. The river ran along a steep side of a mountain and cut into it at the mouth of the cave. The river was about 10-20 meters wide with about 5 meters of rock and sand on either side. The mouth of the cave was about 30 meters wide and about just as tall. You could see the different layers of rock, and the stains where the water reaches its top height during the rainy season.

This was a resting place before we took the journey into the pitch darkness of rock and water. We double checked our gear and people were doing their last preparations before entry, which consisted of taping the tops of their boots to limit the small rocks and sand getting in and making sure the gear was tight and sleeping bags were nice and sealed. This time was also used to teach the newcomers how to float and swim with the gear on. Basically we got into the water and were told to lean back, the water wasn’t that bad. I was a little chilly and you didn’t want to be in there for long but nothing like I had expected. That was about it, and then you can just move your feet and arms to direct yourself. This was no problem for me but some of the others couldn’t get the idea, if you didn’t lean back your gear would push your helmet off and then your face would go into the water. I took this opportunity to snap a few photos. Then we were off.