A night of Caving and sleeping under the stars.

Saturday night after running my 5K I joined a group of people to do some cave exploration, rope work and camping. I met up with the group in the town of Goshen and then we headed off in true follow the leader fashion. First stop was an old train tunnel that you can still drive through if you felt the need (I did)

Then we headed north to a Cave called Hush Hush (at one point this cave was also a mine), the cave required a 25 foot rappel to a 10 foot wooden ladder then a rope assisted 40+ foot climb down a old metal mine ladder. Going down was easy - back up that metal ladder was a challenge of upper body strength and coordination as the ladder was totally free hanging.

I have determined that the reason the Cave is called Hush Hush cave is that in order to get someone to go into the cave you have to be very secretive as the amount of Rat poop and urine is so high that even before you drop in the smell is over powering and you have to wear a dust mask to help avoid getting sick. It was still a ton of fun

we came out just as the sun was going down so we loaded  everything up and headed toward where we would be camping, a couple wrong turns and and hour and a half of dirt roads later we pulled into where we would be camping. I slept next to the Jeep on a cot in the fashion of my friend Mason. The next morning after everyone finally got out of bed we headed to the Pink Lime Pits, did a bit of rope training refresher stuff and then dropped down the hole, only to climb back out again :)

On the climb up out of one of the little holes I came across this little guy.

in the end it was a great trip. I ended the trip a bit before everyone else so I could spend more time with the family.