It seems that Branden has been in Idaho most weekends this month. It's thrown me for a loop. At first I didn't know what to do with myself. The first time he went out of town, I spent all of my time making a quilt. And I really enjoyed it. People said it wouldn't be possible to finish a queen sized quilt in a week, but I've learned that I don't listen to reason when I want to get something done.
Turns out that the weekend of the 17th, Branden and Kelly finally got their leases in Idaho finalized and had to go up there to get their tents set up and their employees hired. So, I decided to go camping and caving without him. I was a little (extremely) nervous about it. After almost backing out, Aaron went with me.
We left around 9:00 pm on Friday evening. Aaron and I crammed ourselves in the back of a silver pickup, and headed towards Walmart. Good thing was, I wasn't the only person who needed stuff. Everyone got their own snack foods, and I got myself a sleeping bag. The bag for it is ripped to pieces, so I got a 10% discount, which I needed. Because the sleeping bag has a warranty, I'm hoping that I'll be able to get it taken care of.
To give you a little background... I don't camp. I'm scared of wild animals. I don't hike. I'm scared of slipping on loose ground. I'm basically scared of things I haven't done before (though not all things).
After a nice drive, we made it out to West Desert. Aaron was falling asleep in the car, and I think we passed an oil drill or something. There were bright lights beside the road that I had never seen before, and when we got closer there was a furry of activity all around. Once we got to our spot, Seth and some other man got the fire going, and I tried to help unpack. I always feel totally useless in these situations, because I don't know exactly what people DO when they go camping. Nor do I know what people need. I think I carried my sleeping bag and two tarps from the cars. We sat around the fire for a few hours just talking and enjoying s'mores. Aaron was the first to go to sleep.
I sat for a few more hours and enjoyed the company of people who were mostly complete strangers. I definitely gained a lot of respect for everyone there. They were so nice. And, mostly everyone there spoke Spanish, which gave me something to talk about. Megan let me sleep on her tarp that night. So, when I decided that I needed to get some rest before my first rock climbing experience, I was the second one to get to bed. I slipped into my new sleeping bag, praying that it really had never been used before, and headed off to dreamland amongst the chattering of everyone around the campfire.
That may have been the very worst sleep that I had ever had. I woke up about a million times, and one time in the middle of the night, I discovered that there was something large almost sitting on my feet. I sat up in a panic before I realized that it was "Sam," the faithful golden retriever, curled up between my ankles. I have no idea why Sam chose to sleep with me, of all people, that night, but it reassured me that nothing would be attacking or eating me without Sam warning me first.
Sam got up with Aaron around dawn. I slept until the sun came up over the hills and started cooking me. Seth got breakfast cooking (delicious by the way) while we all scooted our camp chairs up the side of the hill to stay in the shade. After getting everything packed up we jumped back into the trucks and headed out to "Hush Hush."
Whenever I head about caving, I always imagined something in the side of a mountain that you walk into. This was NOT like that.
I ended up being one of the people who shared equipment. We were short one head lamp and one harness, so when we got to a safe and flat spot, we would switch up the stuff to get everyone inside. Rappelling has always been something that I enjoy doing. However, this time, I wouldn't be able to walk around a trail to get back up. I'd have to climb out.
We rappelled down into the initial descent. Then we went down the black hole that you can see in the picture. That lead into a dusty room. I must have sat there for about a half an hour. The floor sloped down away from the sunlight streaming into the room towards a hole at the base of one of the walls. We filed down into the abyss. It was a small area, about big enough for one person to stand up in a crouched position. That opened into another "room" that was basically a ledge above the biggest drop. It was big enough to be comfortable so that you don't worry about falling over the edge.
This was perhaps the easiest rappel. It was mainly a free-rappel, but by this time I had finally gotten used to it again (after doing it for two and a half drops). Also, there was a mining style ladder that had been set up from the ledge above going down into the main "room." I basically ended up straddling the ladder, but it was nice knowing that there was something close for me to grab onto.
Some people took off their harnesses as we got off the rope and went to explore more of the cave. Someone before us had put a series of ladders around the cave, and I expected them to be halfway dependable--but when we found one with a rung missing, it made me feel even less secure about the situation.
I didn't really move in an upwards direction beyond that ladder. I was terrified of slipping. I'm not quite sure why, but I've ended up terrified of slipping as I'm hiking down a mountain (it scares me to the point of tears). At the top of the ladder, there was a very cool room. I think we got some awesome pictures, but I didn't take them on my camera, so I don't have them. It was so neat. There were 8-10 of us total in our group. As I looked up i could see everyone's headlamps as they explored around the column. It was a very pretty (and very unreal) sight. We also ended up seeing a bat that was hanging up on the ceiling.
When it was time to go back down that broken ladder, I was just about in tears. Fortunately everyone helped me figure out where to go. We headed back towards the main room of the cave. On the trip back I was able to see a bunch of large cracks (not cracks in the rocks, but between them) that I hadn't seen on the way there. I was probably about the 3rd person to head back. I sat on a rock and waited for more people in the group. Being in a cave isn't that intimidating when you're with 7 people with headlamps. Being in a cave is terrifying when the only headlamp that you can see is yours. As I sat there and waited for other people to catch up, our bat friend decided to fly around my head about 4 times (he really wasn't that close to me).
Once I had people around me that I trusted, I headed up the old silver mining ladder (the pictures inside the cave aren't mine, but I got them from another website. Check it out here). For some reason, I trusted that ladder more than anything else in the cave (I also don't know how to tell if a rock is sturdy enough for me to use it or not). It was especially nice to be in the in the harness and on the rope.
I chilled at the top of the ladder with Aaron waiting for more people to come up. It was cool knowing that I would be getting out of the cave. I was sitting somewhere that I felt comfortable, and I now know that I'm glad that I didn't volunteer to be one of the first people up. As I was sitting up there helping throw the rope back down for everyone, I heard the lovely news from above me that a snake was wandering around in the next "room." I waited a little while for a few more people to come up. After the snake got out of our way, I headed up to the room with the sloped floor. (remember how I'm scared of hiking?) Well, Seth's girlfriend let me grab onto her foot to help me climb up the sloped floor. Once I got back to my spot where I had been waiting the first time, I sat and waited again. We were no longer on the rope, and I was a little scared of climbing up the ladder and getting up to the ledge to climb out (where you see everyone standing in my first picture of the cave).
I climbed up the old ladder and waited at the top until someone could help me figure out how to get onto the ledge. I stood there for what felt like so long that white fear started to consume me. I my arms and legs started to quiver. That's when I closed my eyes and said a prayer. I reminded myself that being scared about it would only make it more dangerous than it was. After what felt like an eternity, I climbed from the ladder to the rock above it. After I got on the rope and started the upward climb, everyone was really nice and gave me suggestions of where to put my hands and my legs. They taught me some things about rock climbing that I hadn't even thought of. I was hating every minute of it, but it was my first time rock climbing, and more than anything, I was scared of it, because I didn't really have another option. I had to get out of that cave.
Once I got up I basically rolled over the edge and onto the ground. I laid there for a few minutes before I stood up. I was so thankful for it all to finally be over. I still want to thank everyone who helped me. It was pretty awesome. While I was in the cave, I was so terrified and worried that I didn't enjoy even five minutes of it.
We packed all of the climbing stuff up and headed back home. I was so exhausted that I fell asleep in the car. It wasn't until I looked back on it that I truly appreciated the interesting and neat nature of what I did that day. I accomplished something that I hadn't even hoped to do before. Caving was never on my plan of things I want to accomplish before I die, but on that day, I did it. I did something despite my fears, and I kept myself from crying, although my tears just about slipped out. Now, I want to say Thank You: Aaron, Seth, Rishann, Phil, Megan, Taylor, Beth, and Ryan. Thanks guys for being so patient with me and showing me something entirely new and interesting that I could have never done on my own.
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