Cave Men

 The last day of the year was spent underground, at Spring Valley Caverns, not that there is really anything special about the last day of the year. "G" man, my brother Adam, Steve S, a guy named Wayne and our trip leader Brian did a tour of SVC 1,4,and 5. The caves are all joined together underground as one, but each section has it's own entrance due to the fact that the connector passages are really tough or very tight and /or muddy or filled with water. SVC 1 has it's own building above and is the one most frequented, so that's where we started. My brother was along for his first caving trip, so I was pretty excited to let him get a look underground and get a taste for some real caving, minus a tour guide flipping on light switches and telling you to watch your every step. We messed around this cave for about two hours before heading up top for a lunch break.

After lunch we headed to SVC 5,this entrance was a 44 foot drop straight down a ladder to the bottom. The adults in the group have no problem navigating the ladder, but I made "G" man put on a harness while I belayed him as a backup in case he slipped. This cave was shorter at .55 miles of known passage compared to the previous cave, at 1.25 miles. The entire system all added up is 5.65 miles and would be nearly impossible to traverse in a day. The cave had some nice features and large rooms including a large amount of old trash (broken bottles,cans, tires) that washed in through a sink hole from above.

Coon Crack

Ooh-Ahh

This was just below Ooh -Ahh , It looked like little, rock, bearings floating in water 

Frankenstein! use your imagination 

Looks like something from the movie "Alein"

Are we there yet?

Lastly we headed down another ladder, only 25 feet, into SVC 4. This cave seemed a little more interesting, with features such as Bone Dome,which had a pile of old cow bones washed into a neat little pile.Angel of Light was a really cool stalactite that seems to have been a stalagmite that was broken off and reformed to the ground, off kilter, defying gravity. The Multicolor room was interesting, in all shades of rust from who knows what, an old pipe or just naturally occurring iron ? Frankenstein was our last stop, at a distance the wall seems to have the silhouette of the monster's face.