Hello hello!
I went caving this past weekend! In a place called Clarksville Cave, in Albany, New York. It was led by a member of the Boston Grotto (aka the Boston Caving Club), Rich. I joined the Boston Grotto two years ago as president of the Wellesley Outing Club as I was trying to find more outdoorsy and exciting things to do in the Boston area (or at least with the Boston community). I didn’t end up going caving that year and then I was abroad all last year so now here we are! I’m really glad I finally went. 🙂 What an experience! I think I expected to be walking down spacious tunnels with headlamps and flashlights, because in my mind all caves are huge and cavernous, at least in National Geographic. 😛 But no! Alas, caves can be very tight and tunnel-like as well! There was a lot of crawling and squiggling and squeezing–and inching forward in the really tight spaces. I shouldn’t have brought a backpack–because it only made me fatter and made it harder to squeeze through!
But we all made it. All 8 of us. There was Rich, from the Boston Grotto, and from whom I first heard about the trip, because I’m on the email list and he sent an email out about it. And the other 6 people were actually all people he knew before the trip! Two coworkers and their significant others, and then his cousin and her boyfriend. I was the youngest! Ha. They called me the “fetus” of the group because I was SO much younger than some of them!
Anyway, we all had a blast, and overall we were in the cave for about 4 or 5 hours. Yes I know!! We all woke up super early and convened at Kendall, MIT at 6:30am and then drove 3 hours to New York and were in the cave by like 10 or 10:30am. And took a break in the middle to eat lunch in the forest–by the way, that is the most amazing part of caving in my opinion! Well, one of the most amazing parts–emerging from the cave into a sea of green! It was truly amazing. You’re in the dark for so long and everything your headlamp shines on is brown–but then you look up through the crack/crevice you’re going to exit through, and all you see is a sky of green! Sunlit green leaves! Fresh and crisp and alive and photosynthesizing and it’s just so beautiful! <3 I’d say the other amazing part of caving is just sitting in the peace and quiet and dark. At one point we were all in a (rather) spacious room with a small lake/pond in it, and we all sat down and turned off our headlamps and sat in the pitch blackness. It was amazing! I wonder if that is what it feels like to be blind. It was such utter pitch-blackness. The kind of dark that your eyes will never adjust to, because there is zero–zero–light in that space.
Anyway. Very, very cool experience overall. Would highly recommend! And then afterwards we all had pizza at a restaurant on the way back and it was sooo yummm especially because we were all so exhausted. And then I got home around 9pm! And oh my goodness was I sore the next day. SO sore. But so happy. 🙂
It’s also just so nice to get off campus on the weekends! Really refreshing and also a nice reality check of the world that exists outside this bubble called Wellesley. 🙂 It’s a lovely bubble! But a bubble nonetheless.
Anyway, that’s my spiel for now.
Until next week!
~Emily