So Friday I slept in. I went by Guadalupe Mountain Outfitters to get some hiking boots, but the kind I wanted just started using marking soles this year, and the only other kind they had were $180 bucks. So I just bought some topo maps and left.
Eventually, Stan and Liana showed up and we all went to Wall Mart to get supplies. We found cheap synthetic pants (mine had detachable legs, making them insti-shorts; Stan's had detachable legs and swimsuit webbing! three-in-one! only 15 bucks! I get excited about stupid shit), synthetic jackets, belt pouches, knee pads, flashlights, batteries, granola bars, apples, coke, and IBC black cherry.
We swam in the pool and ordered a pizza, waiting for Jessi and Christy to show up. They arrived late, so we went straight to bed, anticipating the 6:00am wakeup tomorrow.
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Sleeping on the couch sucks. And at 6:00am, I was not ready to get up. But the cave was calling to me so I begrudgingly stumbled off the couch and woke everyone else up.
Denny's was, well... pretty much what you'd expect. Note to self: don't ever order the farmer slam again.
The hike to the cave was basically uneventful. We did see an injured Texas Horned Lizard, which was a strange looking creature. It had blood on its head and seemed to be trailing some of its inards. It was sort of gross and sad.
The entrance to Black Cave had the usual infestation of harvestman spiders which we managed to get by without incident. Within the cave, we explored the length of the first parallel passage, then we split up into two groups.
We only had three caving helmets between us, so Jessi and Christy had to wear biking helmets instead. These are less safe, so we would swap helmets depending on who was doing something more likely of bonking their head. Stan, Liana, and I took the caving helmets first and went down a crack at the back of the first parallel passage into a much smaller area below.
Unlike the first passage, which is a long open tunnel, the lower passage is more like a series of rooms connected by small holes. After going through four or five of these rooms, we got to a particularly small hole. Liana stuck her upper-body through and had a look around. It looked like a dead-end and we had been split up from Jessi and Christy for over an hour, so we turned back.
The lower passage connects to the upper one in several places through holes far too small to traverse. We did, however, managed to talk to the other two through the holes on a couple of occasions.
While we were underneath, Christy and Jessi had explored the gypsum deposits in the second parallel passage. When we climbed back up and rejoined them, we all went back outside and had some lunch. Apples and granola somehow constituted lunch.
Returning to the cave, we climbed down the short wall to the third parallel passage, and circumnavigated the small pool. This gave us access to the fourth parallel passage, which Stan and Christy explored while Jesse, Liana, and I looked around the third parallel.
The third parallel passage is the one I had read about sometime ago, having a wide chimney over a deep pool. I wasn't going to leave without trying this traverse, so off I went. In places, it was just a wide chimney, where I was pulling groin muscles in order to keep pressure on the walls. In other places, it expanded to being too wide for my legs, so I had to switch over to having both hands on one wall and both feet on the other. There I was, spread out across this crevice with dark forboding water about 3 meters below me.
Crossing this pool was the most physically challenging thing I'd ever done, and afterwards, I felt like I had been run over by a truck. The far side of the pool, unfortunately, is somewhat disappointing. The passage ends about 3 meters after the pool, but continues back at a higher point, forcing my to chimney up again. This continuation leads another few meters before it dead-ends. There is a possibility that side passages exist in the crevice higher up. The passage is very tall, and I was only high enough to get over the pool safely.
No one else wanted to try the traverse, so I had to return after a short rest. It was painful.
Afterwards, I did a quick inspection of the fourth parallel passage and then we left the cave. We were all exhausted and very dirty. The two kilometers back to the truck seemed to go on forever.
We drove back out of the mountains and over the Sitting Bull Falls. It was a lot more busy than the last time I was there, which takes away from its beauty considerably. We went up to the waterfall and examined the cave entrance behind the water. I shined my flashlight in and looked around. It is much larger than I expected! There is a pool to one side that looks to be very deep, and a passage that goes back at least 20 meters. There are numerous side passages visable from the entrance.
I must get a permit for this cave and explore it! It is very fairy-tale-esque. Cave behind a waterfall, etc.
Now, very hungry an tired, we returned home to eat and swim. What a great day.
Yesterday, we all got up early and I saw everyone off on their trip the Carlsbad Cavern. I stayed home to clean up and prepare for my drive back to Albuquerque. It was the scariest drive of my life. I was so tired and exhausted that I was having a hard time staying awake. I had to stop in every town I passed to find some coffee or cola or something to wake me up. I kept finding myself nodding off while driving. It was creepy. But I survived.
I retrieved John from the airport and we went to have a fancy dinner at "Texas Land & Cattle" in Albuquerque. Huge Cheesecake. Huge.
Turns out there was a puncture in the left rear tire of the truck! It was a slow leak, but it was showing signs of flattness, so we called off our trip to the movie theater to watch X-Men and filled the tire instead. On the drive home to Los Alamos, I was out like a light - despite the thunderstorm all around us.
