Cold Water Cave

Photo by John Ackerman

Cold Water Cave somewhere in Iowa. I've been caving now for almost a year and the trips have been getting better each time. On Saturday Feb 12 I joined 7 others for a tour of this underground river. Entering the cave was the first indication of how cool this was going to be. In the middle of field sits a black pipe with a locked cover, unerneath is a 184 foot lader inside of a 30 inch dia bore hole, at the bottom is CWC. Due to the fact the cave holds an unerground river had to buy a 7 mm wet suit, neoprene socks and new boots for the trip . The 4 miles ++ that we covered were all in the water that was anywhere from 6 inches deep to shoulder height. Cold water cave lived up to it's name, the water is 48 deg F and when you stop you cool off quickly. My neoprene socks were a bit thin and my feet were very cold the whole time, a small price to pay for an amazing experience. The features in the cave were awesome. The one good pic is near a huge flow called Big Bertha. It was a strange feeling to swim in a cave, I even rolled over to do the back stroke in the frigid water. I would like to post more pics but the cave walls are so dark they suck up the light. The humidity in the cave is so high that when you breath there is a haze everywhere and the pics look like they were taken in a cloud. The cost of the trip was gas money and food. Any one interested in suff like this should check out the Minnesota Speleological Survey, they are your only access to things like this. A membership of 20$ per family per year it has been the best investment I've made in high adventure.