We took off fairly early from his place in Atlanta and less than 2 hours later we were at the fee center for the management area.
Tip: Save yourself some money and register online ahead of time. We paid almost as much for the phone registration service fee as we did to enter the area.
After paying, it was a short drive to a parking area labeled Petty John's. Could it really be this easy to find? A 800 foot walk confirmed that we were here. The only caves that I have been to have either been above ground rock formations that you scramble through or ones with lights, tourists, and hand rails. This was neither. It was just a unmarked hole in the ground leading god knows where.
Had Andrew not been there, I probably would have turned back(or continued on for a hike). But knowing why he had come, I decided to go on.
Tip: Pack for 58 degree weather. Standing outside the hole was like an air conditioner blowing on us. Supposedly it stays like this year round.
After changing into long sleeves, putting on our knee pads, gloves and headlamps, we descended inside.
Just entering the cave was a leap of faith as we had to trust that there were no snakes, spiders, bears or serial killers on below. When I say below I mean below. It was a rock scramble down probably 20 feet or so before opening up to a large cavern. This I could handle. After taking a few pictures and turning off our headlamps to get a sense of how pitch-black dark it was down here, we continued on.
We had a vague sense of the lay out of the cave. Down across down again. It seemed to be general gist. So we scrambled down and then up across the cavern and came across a little hole in the ground.
Down again we climbed. It did open up again but to a much smaller room with a choice of left or right. Great-Give Wrong Way Ferreira an opportunity to get lost in a cave.
Cognizant of this, I made sure to have Andrew focus on the directions so we could get out.
Tip:Don't go caving with Danny unless you have a good sense of direction.
We went to the right which got narrower and narrower. The pitch of the rock also got steeper which was concerning because everything was muddy so there was concern about being able to get back up. I'd down-climb a little and then re-climb it to make sure that we could successfully get back out.
This made of slower going but at least I'm sitting in front of the computer writing this instead of sitting in a cave I cannot get out of.
We continued in this manner until we came to an opening that was probably mid shin deep of water and we made the smart decision to turn back to avoid making our already slick sneakers worse.
We climbed/scrambled back up to the junction and proceeded to go the other direction. After a while this way we came across a hole that was so small that I couldn't enter it with my backpack on. We went in a while, but I could feel that wave of panic that I wanted to avoid so I recommended we turned back.
On our way back out, I tried to convince Andrew that we needed to stay left and ascend while he correctly brought us out on the right.
Tip: Don't go caving with Danny unless you have a good sense of direction and know how to ignore him.
We had spent a few hours down there and probably explored about 1/6th of the entire available cave system. It really was an epic(ly frightening) experience, and he and I have committed to coming back more prepared and explore more.
Only 49 more "epic" adventures ahead.
Until next time,
Danny
