Thursday, December 15, 2011

Caving in Southern AZ

Chris from the Arizona Hiking Shack
at the top of a climb 
Caving is a strange activity. We are creatures of comfort, creatures of light. Everyone, I don't care how tough you are now, we all were terrified of the dark when we were little and there's probably a good reason that instinct exists. Plus it's humid, tight, rough, and absolutely exhausting to travel through any cave, and the best ones doubly so. And yet we do it. Yesterday a few of us, friends and employees of the Arizona Hiking Shack and Desert Voyagers, went digging deep to see what kind of adventure we could find in the deep places of the earth.

Now mind you, I am not as young as I once was. Sure I caved somewhat regularly a decade ago but I am 25lbs heavier now. That and spending the last year paddling and guiding people on the river often is great for general fitness, but does nothing for the flexibility and full body strength required for such pursuits. If you have never been, imagine those tube style jungle gyms at McDonald's or other places. You know, the ones kids can spend all day crawling though... Now image that those tubes get smaller, they are jagged, rough, have unprotected 100 foot drops, and just for fun, have someone smear slick mud all over the place. You can see a bit of scale in the picture just above. Keep in mind that is a huge, wide open space though. There simply isn't room enough to get out my camera in the squeezes.

Lunch, thank god at least the bread is clean!