Caving Trip

I believe I was a freshman in high school when we went on this particular trip.  We brought our camper with us, and stayed at a local campsite with some "family friends."  To be more specific they were my friend's family and two of they're friend's families, and I'm sure my dad, brother, and sister had a wonderful time talking with strangers about stuff they didn't care about, in a place they didn't care about.  My mom probably did have a wonderful time, filling the semi-silence with her semi-babble.  However the main reason we made this venture was to go into a nearby cave, to climb rocks and explore.

We were each required to bring "disposable" clothing, something to change into, a head lamp, a helmet, a backup flashlight, and backup batteries.  As most caves tend to be, it was dark.  It was all rocks once we got past the first stretch of mud.  I emphasize the mud part, there wasn't much dirt at all actually.  There were also bats, I remember one time, a kid that was about my age saw a bat hanging on a low ceiling so we approached it slowly.  We started to test it, to see if it even noticed us, we even yelled at it and made all sorts of quick movements, yet the bat did not budge.  That same kid who found it reached out to poke it, I think we all expected the bat to freak out and bite him or something, but it didn't. The bat fell to the ground, like it had been hanging there dead for days.  I don't know anything about bats, but either it was a very heavy sleeper or it was stuck to the ceiling when it died.  Being the sadistic child that I was, I laughed at it falling to its misery.  I feel kind of sick to my stomach when I think about that.

I recently went back to that same cave not 5 days ago.  The experience was the same, in that we all came out completely covered in mud (I do not exaggerate, the only part of me that wasn't muddy was parts of my face), and we were thirsty and tired.  It was different because last time I went, I didn't follow the group down into the rest of the cave because there was a 30 foot drop I didn't want to go down.  This time I did go down, and it wasn't very hard at all I have no idea what made me not go the last time.  I am still afraid of ladders and I always will be (ladders are a terrible invention), however I believe I conquered my fear of heights on this latest trip and I'm glad I went back.

Here's a fun fact I learned: don't chug a bottle of water when you're dehydrated.