The January grotto cave trip was to the Carter Caves Crawlathon held the weekend of January 25th-27th. Carter Caves is located near Grayson, KY and is a great park with lots to do (hiking, eating, caving, socializing). The theme this year was “United We Crawl” (hence the title of my trip report). Three brave and hardy souls decided to go: Jean DeVries, Matt Luckins and myself. Carter caves is about 7 hours from Detroit (not 8 ½ per Mapquest), which is not unusual for us Michiganders, but Jean would not be done with teaching until exactly 3:45 PM on Friday. This meant that we would not leave until about 7:00 PM and arrive at 2:00 AM.
Saturday had us getting up after 5 hours sleep and finding our trips. Matt and I signed up for Pit Plunging and Jean took the Ultimate Cave Conservation trip (she didn’t go, but instead did the socialization trip). My trip was lead by none other than Horton Hobbs the something or other (III?), who led us to two pits that were 70 and 50 feet deep. Horton gave Matt and I some great advice on our vertical gear (I promptly bought some gear at IMO). The tour only took 2 ½ hours instead of the advertised 8 hours. Once back at the lodge, Matt and looked for a second trip and found a trip to Cascade Cave ( a tourist cave in the park), which was well lit and paved , but enjoyable.
That evening after dinner, the program consisted of several presentations and awards. John Tierney was honored for starting Crawlathon and his many years of service to the park. Lee Florea spoke on the newly formed Kentucky Speleological Society (KSS), which started out as KICK 66. Then we were treated to a presentation by the NSS’s current celebrities Nancy Aulenbach and Dr. Hazel Barton. After a few brief comments, we watched the IMAX movie Journey into Amazing Caves (minus an IMAX theater). After the movie, Nancy and Hazel gave a slide show on behind the scenes. This was more entertaining than the movie. We learned that the smallest IMAX camera weighs 50lbs and the film 10lbs for a total of 60lbs., plus the camera only shoots for 3 minutes at a cost of $3,000 dollars! Needless to say, the producers were not thrilled when there was an oops. Another interesting fact is that Hazel had a stand in diver (or is that a swim in?). Hazel did an excellent job on explaining the microbiology of the movie to non-microbiologist like myself
The final official event of the evening was the squeeze box competition. It’s amazing to see just how small of an opening kids can get through. The winner squeezed through 5 ½ inches (which is smaller than my head). The last stop of the evening for Jean and I was to visit some Ohio caver friends of mine, where much catching up was done and planning for the year (convention, rescue training etc.).
All in all, I’ll be back next year as it is a great way to start the year and break the winter blues. Oh, Matt says he be there too.