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Yeah, they're downright nasty!!

“

Mystery Cave: Reporter goes �digging for the dirt�

It was quite possibly the dirti-est, nastiest thing I had ever done� yet I felt no remorse. In fact, if anything, I was quite proud.

No, I didn�t claw anyone�s eyes out to get ahead at Phillips Publishing. And no, it certainly wasn�t some tawdry centerfold shot. (Geez, magazines want to attract people, not scare them, right?)

This was literal dirt. Caving.

About a month ago I saw a special hike listed for Forest-ville/Mystery Cave State Park. You had to sign up for it in advance. The description said it would travel the lands above Mystery Cave, showing surface �clues� that might lead to cave passages below.
It also said there was a �cave dig.�

I was intrigued. Cave dig? I had just been on the National Forest Service�s �Passport in Time� program�s archaeological dig in the Shawnee Forest of southern Illinois. I had to do the cave dig, too.

So I signed up myself and my friend Steve (who, by the way, must think I�m nuts half the time). Only a certain number of people from the hike would be allowed on the cave dig.

We found out a couple days before that we were among the lucky (?) ones to sign up early. We re-ceived a call telling us what we needed to bring.

The hike made for a wonderful Saturday. We met the group of around 20 people at 10 a.m. at Mystery Cave. Warren Netherton, cave manager for the park, showed us maps of Mystery Cave and proceeded to take us on a quick tour of Mystery. He pointed out where a cave radio had been used to verify that exact location in the cave with one on the surface above.

He took us into an old passage no longer used on the commercial tour, explaining that due to earlier shenanigans in the cave (my word, �shenanigans,� not his), a big crevice in this passage had been filled in. They were now in the process of cleaning it out.
Five-gallon buckets lined the passage, some with mud remain-ing in them.

This appeared to be what a �cave dig� involved. My thoughts jumbled, �Do we really want to do this?� (In fact, �this� isn�t quite what it was. The location for our cave dig was much smaller and tighter.)

Then our attention turned to the surface as we wandered the hillsides above Mystery Cave. Netherton pointed out a sinkhole and ravines.

We wandered into the South Branch of the Root River to see a �disappearing river.� With a lack of summer rain, the river drops into the ground in various areas. We got our feet wet and explored a few �sinks.�

Netherton also explained there is likely a cave system on the other side of the river. Two sinkholes and small caves are being explored there.

He took us to one of them. This was the site of our cave dig. I look at the hole into the ground and thought, �Sheesh!�

I went to the other side of it to look down and see the actual cave entrance. It looked to be around 3 ft. wide by maybe 2 ft. high. We�d be crawling into the earth just like a wild animal. As I recall, I think it was called Groundhog Cave.

This is where the mind starts pumping thoughts of all types: �Won�t this be fun??!? Wow, can I fit in there? Are there cool features once you get in? Can I really handle those heavy, 5-gallon pails full of muddy muck? OH MY GOD, WHAT AM I DOING???!!?!?!�

You get the idea.

Netherton had us rig up a pulley system to dump the buckets full of mud away from the cave entrance. Then, after having to stand there and sweat it for maybe 20 minutes, it was the moment of truth.

Netherton called for four gals to go in. First up was a 13-year-old. What a trooper! She did all that was asked of her and more. I suspect she might even have en-joyed it. Then two more gals, 20-somethings. Finally, it was my turn, the oldster.

Was anyone claustrophobic, Netherton asked. I didn�t think so. But as I got on my belly and started crawling into that hole, I was reconsidering fast. Oh yeah, I remembered � on my way in � that I�d had a couple panic attacks in younger days. What the heck was I doing??!?

We crawled through this small, muddy passage, on our bellies, for 25 feet, including a turn. The next �room� was perhaps 4 feet in diameter and maybe 7 feet tall. There was Netherton to greet me.

The other gals had gone into the next room. Three of them were about all it could hold. They were digging mud into the buckets and handing it up to me. I tried to empty out the buckets into a pile, to later be shoveled into a green container and pulled back through the passageway.

Now I know what miners feel like. In the 20 minutes or so I was there, I thought I might go stark raving mad. But then again, that wasn�t a good idea, so I just did my job -- and a lot of deep breathing.

Steve made it in. Then the idea was to have some younger kids �run� the green container through. But they had decided by this point they�d had enough.
Meanwhile, the three gals in the lower room said, �Umm, we�re coming out.� Music to my ears!!

Steve headed out and I followed. I never did see the back room, where I understand there was water and you could see another passage over a short wall. That�s OK. I didn�t want to be the last one out of there.

The crawl out didn�t seem as long as the crawl in. However, it was possibly tougher. I could see �literally in this instance � the light at the end of the tunnel. It was a battle not to hurry toward it, in which case I would have been flailing and probably freak-ing out. A couple deep breaths and a slow-but-steady crawl. I was out!

The requisite pictures were taken of our muddy selves and we later sat in the river to clean the worst of it off. The clothes even came totally clean after two washings.

It was a great experience, in retrospect. Fun to do some of the �grunt� work of caving. And a great test of will.

I�d like to personally thank Netherton for the time spent. He has a quiet, absolute enthusiasm for caves. It�s catching. I still like caves� although I probably won�t be back in Groundhog Cave anytime soon.”

lizs
11:15:24 PM
8/07/03

“LMAO...wow, I never had a whole post be a link before. SHEEYAT!!!”

lizs
11:18:36 PM
8/07/03

“YOU GO GIRL!!!! :~ )”

trekkngirl
11:48:57 PM
8/07/03

“LMAO lizzy, you big dorkus amongus!

photos are cool, but i expected to see at least ONE pink thingy! ! !”

stratdewd
12:11:39 AM
8/08/03

hmmmmmmmmm...

“I got no link...bummer...

LMFAO!!! funny...way cool, you are the coolest.”

stikmon
1:18:52 AM
8/08/03

“kewl tr...

speaking of lost caves....take a look at a topo of the ground over and around the Flynt/Mammoth system sometime.....in particular try to account for all the islands in the Greene river....there are some interesting politics going on in both the speleo and bureaucratic worlds....”

jeffers
3:41:32 AM
8/08/03

“Thanks lizs. That brought back fond (?) memories of my one and only spelunking expedition with three friends in western Virginia. Yeah, dust, mud, tight passages where you had to make like a snake to get through and push your gear ahead of you, scraped knees and elbows, ... what a fun time.

But it was an adventure, and two of us made it to a waterfall in the deepest part of the cave, ... somehow. That was worth the effort.

But I've never had a desire to do another one, other than the tourist ones.”

Geobeet
7:21:12 AM
8/08/03

“very very cool

I like the Christmas 2003 photo. LOL”

mapleleaf
7:28:50 AM
8/08/03

OMG

“I will ride the biggest...fastest roller coaster.... jump from a plane.....and have babies naturally.......but I will never......ever go caving.......you go girl.........I am impressed......”

divinity
7:28:52 AM
8/08/03

“oh YEAH baby! LOL! you're nuts.

i mean for real, that sounds scary. and "Mystery Cave"? can we call you Nancy Drew?
;-)”

lyra
7:35:23 AM
8/08/03

“"but i expected to see at least ONE pink thingy! ! !"

if thats not a double entendre, i dont know what is.....”

2scoops
7:38:25 AM
8/08/03

“Just your description made me claustrophobic. Way to go, lizs, you dirty girl.”

skiracer
7:47:56 AM
8/08/03

“lizs, congrads, but a real caver would not be as nearly as clean as you were coming out! ;)

I miss my caving days with the Smoky Mountain Grotto of the NSS.”

StoveStomper
8:10:47 AM
8/08/03

“Nancy Drew

LOL”

mapleleaf
8:14:15 AM
8/08/03

“Bye the way, you look very cute in your "dirty" pictures.”

StoveStomper
8:32:44 AM
8/08/03

“Reading that story gave me the willies. I almost had to do deep breathing exercises at my desk to keep from freaking out.

Glad you had a good time, lizs!”

bitpusher
8:37:44 AM
8/08/03

“Dang! You really do get down & dirty.”

vIoLiN
8:40:31 AM
8/08/03

“LOL, Maple! i used to read those things like they were crack. or something...anyway, i'd get through one in a day! very frustrating how Nancy and Ned never got it on.”

lyra
8:41:43 AM
8/08/03

“Hmmm, I got no link either? What's the deal?

Great report. Sound like a blast. I've explored caves for as long as I can remember.”

Indiana John
8:46:13 AM
8/08/03

“Great pics, lizs! I can't believe you crawled down that rabbit hole!”

aero
8:51:51 AM
8/08/03

“The entire post is a link because lizs forgot to close her tag.”

skiracer
8:52:07 AM
8/08/03

“Since I screwed up, the whole underlined story is a link. Just click on it anyfreakin'where! lol

Yeah, it was really bizarre. I was glad I'd had to crawl through ROCKS (not mud, but rocks) to get to that waterfall at the cave on the Buffalo National River trip last winter in Arkansas with Stikmon and Crazy Mike. I remember looking at that and thinking, oh nooooooooo!!! And it was NOTHING like this one was (as in 1000 times worse!! lol)

This will be the 4th time I've been in non-commercial caves. At one we had to rappel down maybe a 45-degree slope maybe 25 ft. long. Or, I should say, they let me down. So it wasn't too bad, although I think that stressed me out at the time.

I surely discovered how out of shape I am. On Sunday and Monday I felt sore stomach muscles I haven't felt in 20 years!!! lol... I think I'll patent some kind of crawling-through-narrow-passages program for working those abs!!

Stikmon, I know you can really relate to DISAPPEARING RIVERS!!! LMFAO!!!

And as to the "pink thingy"... were ya been???!?!”

lizs
8:56:49 AM
8/08/03

“Your report doesn't show up as a link for me. None of it is underlined and it doesn't work as a link.

Are you people trying to mess with my head?”

Indiana John
8:58:48 AM
8/08/03

“Hey, I just looked at this on my iMac at work. It's not a link here either. So let me get you one. (It had been awhile since I'd done a link. I f*ed up!)”

lizs
9:20:20 AM
8/08/03

“Caving photos”

lizs
9:23:39 AM
8/08/03

“Looks like great fun Lizs! I haven't done any serious "shpiel-lunking" since I was a teenager.”

pedxing
9:40:56 AM
8/08/03

“OK, that link worked. Maybe its a Mac thing. I'm on a Mac at work too.

Nice pics. Looks like fun.”

Indiana John
10:01:50 AM
8/08/03

“Nice write up. Good for you for crawling into the stomach! Sounds scary but fun.”

Twinkle Toes
11:20:37 AM
8/08/03

“I was deliberately misled.”

Buddha Bear
2:57:47 PM
8/08/03

“Rick: I came to Casablanca for the waters.

Captain Renault: The waters? What waters? We're in the desert.

Rick: I was misinformed.”

bitpusher
3:01:15 PM
8/08/03

“"Caveholeme"???? Is this some kind of sexual innuendo that you young people are using these days?”

Dunadan
3:42:12 PM
8/08/03

“"LOL, Maple! i used to read those things like they were crack. or something...anyway, i'd get through one in a day! very frustrating how Nancy and Ned never got it on."
lyra
08:41:43 AM
08/08/03

Maybe you should have been reading Nancy Blew. Or the Hard(y)Boys?”

stickmanwalking
4:20:23 PM
8/08/03

“Wow, Lizs!”

nowslimmer
4:29:39 PM
8/08/03

“LOL to Buddha (me thinks I smell a lawsuit from the HMWHC!) and Dundan (I wondered how people would like my photo labels, if anyone actually looked)!!

Nowslimmer... I think they said in 3 weeks they would get some real cavers down there. WHEN are you heading this way???? LOL”

lizs
4:40:31 PM
8/08/03

“You have mail.”

StoveStomper
2:03:26 PM
1/14/04

“HEY.... I remember this thread.

Bamboozled again!”

Tilt
2:06:06 PM
1/14/04

“lizs, are you posin nude again??”

ScorchFire
2:06:37 PM
1/14/04

“No, just posing dirty again...”

Ghost of bitpusher
2:07:35 PM
1/14/04

“lizs is a dirty girl. ;-)”

StoveStomper
2:11:21 PM
1/14/04

“wtf is this ghost of bitpusher?! lol”