Caving while kilted

[macneighill]

Well, as some of you may know (from previous posts), I am a caver. I am a member of the National Speleological Society (NSS). I am also the Vice-Chairman of a local chapter of the NSS, the Louisville Grotto. This weekend, we held our annual chili cook off where, our members bring their best of the best recipes out for judging. Hopefully, by the end of the weekend, someone new goes home with a trophy and, bragging rights.

At any rate, our cook off is held on our 67 acre property (a caving preserve). And, on our property, there are 5 caves. Well, I was asked to give a tour of one of our caves. And, since I've been dying to get "underground" in my kilt, I thought "well, I couldn't have asked for a better excuse" :mrgreen:. So, I decided to give them the tour of our biggest cave. I was a little hesitant at first, considering cave mud doesn't come out (it stains clothing). And, having a kilt on, I took my time moving about. But, this cave is a huge horizontal cave and, no crawling, climbing or scooting necessary. So, if I had mud on my kilt, it was from me sitting down (which I decided against it).

Here are some photos of our trip. The captions are above the photos:


posing in front of the entrance (my group behind me, in the cave)





Just right inside the entrance





The lowest point of the cave, about 750 feet in and, only about 4 feet from floor to ceiling





Trying to look serious :mrgreen:





My youngest son coming back down from the breakdown





There were only about 50 or so bats in the cave (mostly, little pips, a couple browns, 1 gray)





One of the people on my tour had their dog with them. Here, my oldest son "babysat" the dog for them.





Here I am helping my youngest son traverse a passageway at the top of a mound of breakdown (about 65 feet up). Notice the mud on him and, none on me (hehehe). He's a boy, he found it amusing sliding down a very muddy bank, LOL.

[sdc]

Interesting, but a bit muddy and cold for my liking, kilt or no kilt :-) Be safe.

[Standard]

Cool pictures, looks like fun. ith:

[Highlander31]

Nice photos. Thanks for sharing. BTW, what was the wining recipe?

[macneighill]

Nice photos. Thanks for sharing. BTW, what was the wining recipe?

I'm not sure what he put in it?? I never had a chance to try it either. But, I had to give up the trophy this year .

[Jack Daw]

Jiminy, five caves! My neighbor's dog dug a hole under my fence is all I can claim - LOL! Great pics!

[macneighill]

Jiminy, five caves!

Yes sir. 2 of them don't really amount to much. We usually use those for kiddo trips (they're easy).

We have one pretty good sized cave, our saltpeter cave (the one in the photos) and 1 pit that is a virtual classroom for fossils that opens into a room with a 30' ceiling (with fossils embedded in the walls) and, the other is a short passageway that, tightens up really fast.

[filman]

Great pics ,, I have never thought to go splunking in a kilt as you said at the end of your story to muck crawling sliding and dirt. agien nice pics

phil

[Riverkilt]

Memories of my days in the mines as a lad.

Not sure even a UK Workman's would work in the mines...thinking of when the air lines to the drills come unhooked and snake around blowing gravel like bullets, or when a man has to slide through the dog holes.

If they ever make a UK natural white Workman's again you could wear it caving and let it be colored by the cave mud. Then you'd have a true caver's kilt.

Ron

[A Hay]

Thanks for the pics.
Brought back memories of my college days in Rolla, MO. My roommate was a geology major and we both belonged to the college Spelunking Club. I don't think I would have tried any of our caves in a kilt though.

Tom