from time to time, I like to set up a event that allows other people the opportunity to experience and be apart of something they never have thought they would ever do or knew how to get involved. I remember when I was starting off to look for activities that were fascinating to me based on the experience that I had, I was not able to find many activities that involved Caving and Canyoneering.  There were groups of divers and some rock climbers but I wanted to see more of what is out there on this fascinating planet we live on. Illinois may not be the best place for looking into these kinds of activities but I am a firm believer of creating your success so I started from the ground up.  Along the way, I have been able to meet some incredible people and have someone very special in my life.  We all get to experience some of the most interesting places on the paths we have created so now I get a chance to bring these experiences to people that may not have ever known where to begin to look for something like this or that it even existed in a trip set up to introduce people into caving.

That drive down to Indiana is starting to wear on my soul but I always get a little excited when I see the massive windmill farm a couple hours south of Chicago and Flying J's pizza is arguable the best and the worst pizza money can by...gotta get the meat lovers....the grease hardens before dripping on the plate and there is a defibrillator on standby when consuming this heart attack on dough.  Rounding the turn in Indianapolis and making it down to Bloomington in the wee hours of the night almost feels like a monthly affair for us karst maniacs.  This time we were able to stay on this beautiful property surrounded by sinking ponds and karst topography.  This lot of land had tall thick grass and morning dew thick enough to create a micro weather system in some of our tents as the sun lifted above the treeline. Regardless, 17 of us woke up early to head over to Mitchell to meet up with Bill Grnwld and Mark Campbell to visit Eversole and Coon Caves. Mark and Bill gave us a presentation on the land in the area, basic conservation, and preservation before heading out to coon cave. I wanted to make sure we went to visit coon cave as this will be more of a crawl and everyone is as energized as they will get for the day,  so I figured a muddier, lower crawling cave would work better as the first and than go to the walking stream cave as it is a bit easier and can clean off clothing a bit. One by one, we entered Coon Cave after a group shot and worked our way down a small climb down and through a hands and knees crawl to the first room where you can stand up in.

It was almost like a human centipede with all 17 people going through this small crawl cave. It felt like Chicago rush hour traffic with the stop go stop go traffic as we crawled on hands and knees to the flowstone room.

This was where the formation room was with its small rimstone dam formations and flowstone flowing down the ceiling walls.  We continue on to check out some of the crawls and other small areas until the cave was fully observed by the sweaty super baggy pants wearing cavers.

We back track into the junction room and went down a side passage towards a spider room and on to a small dome room where water has cut its way through the limestone.  The newbie cavers had a blast seeing all of this for the first time which was nice to see. For me, I thought it was interesting to see Phil climb down a mud downclimb, nice!!!!

We traversed back and people were scattered all around the cave.  I got a shot of Brandon and Stacy taking a break in the connection room.

Afterwards, some of the group made a wrong turn which is the only wrong turn in the cave anyone can ever make.  confusion set in as the learning lesson of being "turned around" was realized and it important to look behind where you came from so you know what it looks like on the way out. We all eventually popped out of the rusty gated fence like ground hogs back into the sunlight.

After a lunch break we headed over to Eversole cave which had a nice walking entrance and a mossy perennial stream flowing out of the cave. Slowly the cavers converged at the entrance and proceeded to walk into the cool temps of eversole cave.  The passage is mainly a walking passage with one small duck under and one climb over break down section.



Typical passage in Eversole Cave Indiana

 We did a lights out where we put our hand on the shoulders of the person in front of us and walked through the cave for a few minutes but my zebra's glow in the dark reflector cheated and allowed some light to enter my field of view....After crawling and climbing up three active waterfalls in thunderhole with no lights I get how it works

 

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