Some Caving Photos
This is still a work in progress...
These photos are of my second caving trip to Tumbling Rock (a.k.a Blowing Cave). This cave is located near Scottsboro, AL. If I remember correctly, this trip was made in late summer of '95.
Sorry if these images are huge. I run a high resolution on my monitor and they looked about right on it, but not everyone runs 1600x1200. Click on any of the images to get an even larger image. The large image was scanned at 200 dpi. The "thumbnails" on this page are 1/4 size.
This photo is of our brave little band of underground adventurers. From left to right we have: Tim (me), Ryan (Jim's oldest son), Jim (who is the guy who got me started in this and who knows the cave much better than me), Daphne (a coworker of Jim and I), Kimberly and Jennifer (daughters of a coworker). Kimberly and Jennifer's mom, who didn't go with us on this trip, took the photo.
Here is a photo of me standing on the "Floating Rock". If you look carefully, you can see that it's only attached on two corners. A couple of feet below is the stream which runs through the cave. When you jump onto Floating Rock, it makes a deep, resonating thump!
This is me coming out of the tight part of Suicide Pass. Someone had spraypainted a sign just to the left of me that says "Slow 15 M.P.H". Ha! I bet you couldn't go 0.1 M.P.H through there! (Never pollute a cave with graffiti, even if it's funny!) You can tell from my red face and arms how much work was involved in getting through that passage. The glowing red eyes are only the result of a cheap camera, though! No, really!
Here is me at the Sand Pit (the back of the cave unless you count Grant's Tomb) taking a drink of water. I was laughing because everyone was making fun of the Cookie Crisp water bottle I was using which came from a box of cereal. (Yes, I carried more water in than that. That was just "snack" water.)
Here is a part we call "Sand Crawl". We had just crawled through the opening the ladies are looking at. It is filled with damp sand.
On a recent trip, I accidentally found a different way to get to this spot where you don't have to crawl through the sand. It's very tight, though. You have to remove your pack and exhale as you pass through one spot. You still wind up scraping your belly and back. Needless to say, most folks would rather go through the damp sand!
Here is a spot (in Suicide Pass, I think) where you have to go up a smooth rock and through a tiny hole. If you slide off the rock, you'll land in the water! This is Ryan going through the hole.
This is the same spot as the last photo. Jim is passing a backpack to Ryan. We do a "bucket brigade" of the backpacks through this section, since it would be nearly impossible to go through here while trying to carry a pack.
I've still got quite a few photos to scan in, but this is a start. Let me know what you think!