“Just curious who does and where you do it at?”

“Real cavers say "caving"
Non cavers call it by the "S" word.
You must not be a real caver yet.
Me, I've done tons of caving.”

“I haven't done it in years, but I did a lot when I was thinner and more agile.

Real cavers don't reveal their secret spots either.”

“sheeeeeeeesshhhh.

Me no im no CAVER.”

“Ever heard of TAG country? Being from South Carolina, you should know what that means.”

“I have never done IT while caving with other spelunkers.”

“Caves are like, cool, and stuff.”

“"Ever heard of TAG country? Being from South Carolina, you should know what that means."


Hmm nope sure dont know what that means.”

“I typed that before I realized you wern't really a caver.
Lets see if any body else knows what TAG means in relation to caves & cavers.”

“I just got back from Mammoth Cave NP in Kentucky...go there and do the wild cave tour, you will learn what you need to know by experienced professionals. the cost is minimal and they provide you with guidelines on the equipment you will need and also what they provide. 6 1/2 hours, then youcan backpac or canoe the top surface, very cool place.”

“I do all over southern Indiana.But not alot.”

“I used to love it, but a cinnabar cave came down on us and `bout did us in and that took most of the fun outta it for me!”

“Are you fukin nuts? Going into a long dark hole underground that isn't wide enough to turn around in and you get caught and/or it crumbles and you're trapped and no one hears your screams and you die a slow horrifying suffocating death. You gotta be fukin nuts!”

“Slithering like a worm through the earth and that's how you die.”

“Like a worm but you're not. And you go in head first into this long dark narrow hole that's barely as wide as your elbows and you can't turn around or even back up and you get stuck.”

“Fukin nuts.”

“Tell us how you really feel.”

“Well I think it's fun.”

“You see a worm can get out of a hole in the ground. But a human cannot. Not if he has to burrow.

You see a worm can burrow out of the ground. But a human cannot. A human will die. In the ground.”

“TAG = The area around where Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia meets. It's a caver's paradise, with probably the most number of dry caves in the US, many still undiscovered. I believe it's where caving in the US got started.”

“Been there, done a LOT of that.”

“You got it elementalphotos. Have you ever been to a TAG Fall Cave-in Convention? I used to go every year back when I was caving ALL the time.”

“Actually I'm not a caver, in Florida most of our caves are filled with water, and I'm not even open water certified yet.

I knew because just read a book about the making of the IMAX movie on caving, there were mentions of TAG throughout the book. A very good book with beautiful photographs, it's called "Caves: exploring hidden realms".”

“I got to wear climbing gear and go down in a former commercial cave that was being returned to wild cave status. Iowa Public TV was doing a show..... and since I wanted to get involved, I dreamt up the idea of doing a story on all that. heheh...... ahhhhhh the benefits of being a reporter!

TONS O' CAVES AROUND HERE. Fillmore County in Minnesota, just across the border, is well-known for its karst topography. My county adjoins it and has ton more.

What commercial caves have you been in? (since ya can't list wild ones anyway)

1. Mammath Cave, KY
2. Wind Cave, SD (eat your heart out AGAIN< WD!! lol)
3. Spook Cave, McGregor IA
4. Wonder Cave, no longer open, here in my hometown
5. Ice Cave, in hometown
6. Maquoketa Caves State Park, Maquoketa, IA
7. Crystal Lake Cave, Dubuque, IA
8. Kickapoo Indian Caverns, WI
9. Niagara Cave, Harmony, MN
10. Mark Twain Cave, Hannibal, MO

OK, so that is boring. You guys probably all have too many to list!! heehehe”

“That's cool Lizs--I've only been in a couple of caves--not big ones--but anyway it was fun and I would do it again given the chance.”

“If that rock hasn't fallen in a million years, it's not going to fall now.”

“"If that rock hasn't fallen in a million years, it's not going to fall now."

Violin
09:17:22 AM
02/20/02

Last July, about 3000 pounds of rocks fell within 5 feet of a tour group on the Mammoth Cave. Sort of like lightening, you never know just where it will strike, but you don't really want to be close when it does.”

“The only thing that sounds worse than caving is cave *diving*--those people are truly whacked.

I'm with SH on this one.”

“"I don't see lightning like last fall
When it was always about to hit me"

”

“I haven't done any caving since my schooling, yrs. ago. My school had a 'adventure club' that planned about two trips a year. They were either hiking or cavings trips for the most part. The one I remember the most was a this sink hole on the back forty of some oldtimers farm down by RRG. The reason it is remember is because I had to walk past this swollen dead horse laying in the middle of nowhere. But besides that the 'hole' just apppeared out of nowhere in the rolling pasture land. They had rigged up a wooden stairway attach to the wall to the bottom where a little creek was flowing from one side to the other. It was a garden of life within the 'hole', lots and lots of plants.
We all got pretty wet and muddy playin in those narrow caves.

Then on another trip we did some caves over in southern Indiana some wet and dry caves. We actually spent a few evenings inside of those caves even had a boat ride and got to hear cave thunder. Exciting stuff for a youngin like I was.

I would like to tour Carlsbad sometime.”

“Aren't caves amazing? And so varied. As mentioned, some are dry. Like, I was amazed at Mammoth Cave. It was DRY DRY DRY. Whoaaaaa.... I'd never seen a dry cave! Around here they are all wet inside. Some even have streams through them. You take a little boat through Spook Cave.

Speaking of rocks falling, I recall hearing at Wind Cave, near Hot Springs, S.D., that people were in there when a small earthquake happened. They never knew it. I mean, everything was fine.

Below is a link to a cool website. It gives a "virtual tour" of Coldwater Cave, which straddles the IA-MN border. It is not open to the public; it's a "national natural landmark" or some such thing. I've been down a 60-ft., 3-ft. wide tube you climb from the ground to the stream that goes through the cave. But, haven't snagged a trip with cavers yet. You need a wetsuit for this one.

Check this out. It's really cool!!

Coldwater Cave”

“More on it:

"Coldwater Cave is Iowa's largest known cavern. It is a geologic and hydrologic feature representative of the karst topography of northeast Iowa. Water seeping
through the Ordovician age Galena limestone dissolves openings along fractures and crevices. These enlarge, forming chambers and passages, and enlarge even
farther if the rock above collapses.

The linear formation of this cave allows the formation of a stream flowing through the cave for more than three miles. Stalagtites, stalagmites, and flowstone form beautiful displays in several chambers."

It was found, from what I understand, when some guys were swimming in a creek at the foot of a bluff. One found an opening for the stream, went down through it and came back up in the cave. COOL!!

Friends and I scammed the trip to the bottom when a caver gave us permission. We had also received permission to be there from the landowners. Our next stop was the devil worship, partially burned castle that sat on a bluff overlooking a marsh. SERIOUSLY!! It was way cool. (I THINK the devil crap was just kids making grafitti.) I mean, it had a turret you could still go up in.

I don't know the story on the castle, something about a guy with a terminal disease...... maybe lost love??

We saw it, got chased off the land (hehehee, we didn't see those big ole "No Trespassing" signs, no sirree!!! LOL).... and not much later it was bulldozed cuz some doctor built a house and his llama farm there. SHEESH!!!! I'm just sorry I didn't have my camera that last time there.”

“when i visited fall creek falls state park in TN this past november, a local told me a massive cave was recently discovered in and around the park with some rooms "the size of a football field." has anyone heard anything about this?”

“So what does a guy do to get started caving?”

“Find your local Grotto and go to some meetings. They'll probably have beginner trips and gear guides.”

“Well thanks for the llink, but what if one is not near me.”

“I'm having a hard time fitting my hip belt around my local grotto.

Does that sugar busters thing work?”

“Just looked up that Grotto link for Wyoming. It showed 3 caves in WY. I know from friends who are "Cavers" that there are many many more. There is a series of caves on a mountain not 10 minutes from my house. You have to get the key to the gate from the BLM though. There are also caves in the Bighorns, Absarokas, Winds, everywhere.”

“Way cool lizs!!!!!!!!


I want to go there that looks WAY COOL........:)

That has adventure written all over it!!!!!!”

“I've done one cave in Missouri. Gave me the heebie-jeebies crawling and slithering and almost getting lost.
Also did some exploration in some of the abandoned gold mines in the Sierras, (where you are not supposed to go.) Talk about tempting fate. Walking in waist-high water and wondering when the timbers are going to give.
Loved Carlsbad.”

“Element...I'm an advanced diver, and as soon as i get vacation time, and money i'm going to start working on going the route of cave diver...gonna get some specialties down first, more experience and logged dives, and then cavern, and cave....i've done some cavern already...it rawks!!

STEVEHIKER..wanna know whats better than being trapped in a dark hole underground??...when it's filled with water!!!! KICKASS!!!

shesh we have a few cavers..but no divers...buncha pansies..lol”

“That kind of adventure

ROCKS!

”

“I've been in some small caves that you had to do the worm squirm. You just ahve to stay calm and not freak out. Start think about how tight it is and your gone.”

“Thats true!”

“in Bonne Terre Missouri is the worlds largest lead mine that was flooded years ago. They run diving tours there. It has 100's of miles of tunnels that you can dive through. It was rated in the top 100 adventure things to do in the us last year.

Mike...yeah, your right...way too cool...the real adventure...I'm gonna go back to Mammoth this summer and do the wild cave tour...and gonna camp and hike, anybody interested in joining on a multiventure...let me know. I have no dates yet, but I will be there or be square.”

“OPIE: I'm a freediver, I often dive here in a local spring down to 60 feet with a headlamp and a flashlight. In fact, here's a photo of it:
Freediver

The first 60 feet is a cavern, then it turns 45 degrees to a cave entrance that goes down to 120 feet. There's a sign posted at 60 feet warning all open water divers not to go any deeper, I heed the warning. But I've talked to other freedivers who has dove down to 90 feet or more.”

“Man that looks so cool the water looks green....Way neat!”

“I'm guessing the water gets that green color from all the trees around the spring. There's even a big fallen tree right across the mouth of the spring.

The photo is taken at about 30 feet. It is even better at 60 feet, when you turn around and look up, you see this long narrow shaft filled with a green light. When you close your eyes, you hear nothing but the sound of water and your heart beat. You stop moving and let the spring push you back to the surface, it's an awesome feeling.”

“I bet it is.I have been in a cave where I had to craw for a real long time in water and I thought it was cool.Man you are lucky!Green light thats so cool!!!

Adventure the drug for me!”