Alex expidition blog

The group went caving in a big cave. We went into the cave and walked really far into it. The first really cool thing we came to was the fox’s den. The fox’s den was a small hole on the inside of the cave. It is not a cave in a cave because a cave must be 30 feet wide and 60 feet deep or more. The fox’s den is only about 7 feet wide, 3 feet tall and 5 feet deep.

            The next really cool place we came to was the devils staircase. The devils staircase is about 7 feet tall and hard to climb, but we all got over with no problem. I did the staircase with a backpack full of water bottles. A few others and I spotted the rest of the group while they got up. After the staircase we had to climb up a little.

            The third really cool thing in the cave was a room in it that had a tunnel in the floor that went in one place and came out the other. I went through the tunnel and saw water in the bottom of the tunnel.  The person before me went through the tunnel without getting in the water. I could not do that even if I tried really hard. Also in that room was a little room right next to the bigger room with the tunnel. The little room was just cut off because a rock over hung one side.

            At the midpoint of the cave the group went down into an underground river that was really deep in the cave and led most of the way out. On the way out we saw a crawdad in the water and looked at it. I took some pictures of the crawdad with my camera. The crawdad was white and very hard. It was hard because the cave was healthy and the minerals hardened its shell. If the cave was unhealthy the bad minerals and bad stuff like oil would soften its shell. At the end of the underground river we got back onto the way we came in and walked out.

            The group went white water rafting on the New River. It was really fun because we went on class 3 and 4 rapids and maybe one or two 5’s. A really nice thing was the lunch on the raft.  It was a really good lunch and it made me full. On calm places we pushed people out and swam.  The water was really cold. One time I swam a rapid with a few others that we were allowed to swim.

            The last really cool thing was rock climbing. 3 others and I were the first SOAR group to reach the summit. We were able to do that because we got up to the rappel spot before dark. We went back down to the rappel sight and rappelled 245 feet down to the bottom. I spun all the way down. Over all I had a really fun time this expedition.