Day: September 2, 1997

OOOHH, Baby I Like It Raw
Sept. 2, 1997

We pulled out of the Gifford parking lot around 10 o’clock for the ultimate pre-season trip to 3D. With all the rappelling gear we could use (minus the rope) and whatever half-used batteries we could dig up from last year, Steve, John and Rich began to argue about which turn we should take to get to 3D. We had planned for this to be a quick and easy trip considering the number of times each of us had been to this particular cave. Unfortunately, this initial uncertainty was just the first of many. After parking the car, we all began to put on our musty clothes that, as bad as they smelled, didn’t come close to the funk of Ed’s caving suit at the activities fair. Tramping towards 2D through the tall grass and cow excrement, we all had high hopes for our rappel inside 3D. Suddenly, just as we cleared the first hill, we saw a pack of cows and quickly decided to walk around them to the left (way to the left). We ended up walking about a hundred yards past the cave, and then circled around to the front of the cave (I am still trying to figure out how we fount it.)

About twenty minutes into the hike, John screamed out, “It’s so damn hot!! Where’s the stupid cave?” This is fairly indicative of what we were all thinking. We got into the cave easily, quickly found the slant room, and proceeded to tie in about a 25′ crevasse. We each had a couple great rappels with lots of pictures, compliments of John. The infamous fourth dimension was next on our agenda. Rich led to the mud wall and hastily climbed down to check out the fourth dimension. The sound of rushing water is not a familiar one in the back of 3D, and just as he heard it, Rich had a flashback to the six o’clock news weather forecast. He started climbing up the mud wall telling us of how he heard that there was a good chance of thunderstorms this particular night. We all thought the sound of rushing water was not a good one so we quickly exited the cave.

This time the pack of cows had encircled the cave, so we again decided to walk around them-the long way. About a half hour into the hike back, John once again voiced what we were all thinking, “I don’t ever remember seeing power lines around 3D!” Fortunately Rich’s superb sense of direction led us right to the car. After changing out of our cave clothes, we spent around 15 minutes trying to find Rich’s keys, which, incidentally were lying in plain sight in the back of his jeep. We took off around 12:15, and for the final time of the night, John blurted out exactly what we were all thinking, “I don’t remember seeing a red barn on the way here!” We turned the car around and corrected the final error of the night. We dropped the equipment off at Ed’s place, and were all home by 1:00.