Watch Your Head! Caving in West Virginia + The Drive West

After the 12 day New England Expedition, our group returned home to Kroka. The next ten days were spent de-issuing our gear used in New England, re-issuing gear to go out West, contra dancing, making leather journal bags, and welcoming our families for Parents Weekend. It was a very special experience to have our families join the Kroka community. Before we knew it, they had gone and it was back to preparing for expedition. The last two days of basecamp were filled from morning to night with expedition prep until we all finally settled into the Boathouse the night before our first day of travel. We set up our sleeping pads and bags on the upstairs of the Boathouse, since all of our dwellings were taken down for the winter and we planned to be up by 3:30am the next morning. We laid in our sleeping bags and, and while Dave read us to sleep we could finally breathe a sigh of relief. We fell asleep, eagerly awaiting the early morning drive. 

And then we were off! After awaking long before the sun and shuffling our final things into the van, we set off to Ithaca with Nathan and Emma. Hours passed, the Sun rose, and we made it to the Elizabeth Anne Clune Montesorri School in Ithaca, New York. We worked with the 7th and 8th graders, shared our semester skit, and headed over to Cornell to see the beautiful gorges and the art museum on campus.

We silently walked around the museum, taking in the art before having a yummy dinner on campus. Our final task of our first travel day was camping at the Ithaca Eco-Village, hosted by Jim Hodges.

In the morning Jim gave us a wonderful tour of the village. It was an incredible thing to see so many people working and living so closely and harmoniously together. We did a block of service work and learned all about Biochar. We spent time processing and burning wood to charcoal to make a product which aids the Eco-villages’ compost.

We then zoomed over to Wide Awake Bakery and worked with their draft horses, in their gardens, and in their log yard–a small act of reciprocity after enjoying their bread for the previous 24 hours.  After a long day, we were gifted a beautiful community dinner at the Eco-village with many laughs and stories. And that’s a wrap on Ithaca.

Another early morning–now with Ezra, Zoe, and Emma–and off we headed, south to West Virginia! It felt like we traveled back in time. The Sun’s warmth penetrated our skin and the leaves were so much greener than when we left New England. We set up camp for the next two nights at the Blue Bend Campground on the Anthony Creek, a tributary of the Greenbrier River. We had a beautiful swim in the blue water and settled into our tents, nervous about our first cave the following day. 

For the large majority of us, it was our first time caving, and we had no idea what to really expect. We suited up in our rubber boots, knee pads, coveralls, gloves, and helmets, and we set off to our first cave: the Persingers entrance of Benedict Cave, a very large, well-known cave owned by the West Virginia Cave Conservatory.

For a group of non-cavers, the entrance was daunting. We had to crawl and wiggle through a small little hole until we finally popped out into the first walking passage. This first cave had it all: big caverns, small pinches, and lots of crawling passages.

If you were really skilled, you’d roll through those passages. This cave was filled with different colors of clay and lots of little water sources. We finally got to our lunch spot in the cave and our first, and only, vertical caving spot. We scarfed down lunch and threw on our harnesses while Ezra set up a single rope. We took turns descending into the biggest cavern we had seen yet, the Turkey Passages.

There, we explored in pairs, looking at the different colors of clay and rocks and singing in complete darkness. It was then time to ascend, which we did using a frogging technique. It’s a slow process but we all managed to get back up the rope safely. After that, it was time to head back out the way we came. “3, 2, 1, go!” Ezra yelled and we started “speed caving” as we all followed at a sloppy sprint. We squeezed out of the cave dirtier than we had entered and excited for the next four caves to come. 

The next day came with the next cave. We packed up camp, which is now second nature to us, and drove to Pierces Mill, a privately owned cave with water rushing through it. This cave was incredibly different from our first. There was a stream running one to two feet deep through one of the main passages of the cave. We trudged through the cold water all the way to the end of the passage where we found an awesome mud hill which, within minutes, turned into our own mudslide.

We took turns dumping water out of our boots and sliding down our homemade mudslide. We didn’t care how much mud we were covered in and kept trying different ways to go down the slide. We filled the cave with laughter. We then headed back down the stream to the second passage. We dumped the last bits of water out of our boots and climbed up the slippery rocks to a large room full of ancient cave formations. There were amazing crystal covered stalactites and stalagmites with a few that had met, making huge columns. There was so much flowstone drapery, which looks like fabric flowing off the walls and ceilings.

Then we finally entered the last room filled with stair steps of water pools containing the most beautiful blue water. In the last room we spent time painting aspects of the cave using the water in the pools for watercolors. It came time again to leave the chilly cave. As it was very slippery, we made our way slowly out of the cave and packed back into the van, headed to the Yew Mountain Center. We set a beautiful camp for the next four nights and headed to sleep. 

The morning arrived and we were tasked with an almost impossible task: to help teach 50 kindergarten students. It just so happened that the Yew Mountain Center was hosting a “Gruffalo” field trip and we were tasked to help out and get to know some of the kids. It was a blast!

After the kids had gone we decided that we deserved a nap. Later, we had a forest ecology class with Erica, the Executive Director at the Yew. We learned all about the native plants and forest farming, which helped develop our knowledge of Appalachia and its culture.

At night we played music and had a beautiful community potluck with the folks at the Yew. 

The next day, another cave. This time we biked to it. This one was a lot different from the previous two, as it was an old saltpeter mining cave. It was on the dryer side, with mostly large caverns and lots of soot on the walls from previously used explosives. At one point in this cave, we turned off all headlamps, our only source of light, and had to navigate silently out of a small cavern in complete darkness. We were not so silent, to say the least, and had to briefly turn some light back on. Again we met the sunlight and biked back to the Yew Mountain Center.

We finished our day with cleaning our caving gear and swimming before tucking into our tents. Our last day spent at the Yew was filled with preparations for our mini bike expedition, lots of academic work, and some service work to thank the Yew for letting us stay on their land. 

The following day was spent bikepacking 25 miles through beautiful West Virginia and along the Greenbrier River Rail Trail. We sailed down some beautiful hills and stopped at an awesome Amish Bakery where we got the yummiest autumn cinnamon rolls and some delicious fresh vegetables. We camped on the Greenbrier River Trail at mile 28.5, eager for the coming day of caving.

After another chilly night we were headed off walking to the next cave. But, our 2.5 mile walk was more than just a walk: it was a deep time walk and with every step we learned in years how the Earth came to be. Before we knew it, we arrived in the present day and at Bone Cave! Bone Cave was another cave unlike any we had entered before, and named ‘Bone Cave’ for being bone dry. We entered, explored, sang, and then the brave few were challenged with the Devils Pinch, a tight pinch section the cave is known for. 

“To enter a cave is to willfully entrap yourself in a foreign world where you don’t belong. Crawling through a cave past stalagmites and draperies and bats that have developed over tens of thousands of years gives the same sensation as walking the streets of a city countless miles away from home where you don’t speak the native language. In both scenarios you are likely to feel cramped, out of place, perhaps intrusive. In neither scenario can you directly communicate or relate with the beings and constructions around you; you must simply watch and regard them with awe.” – by Oscar, an excerpt from his Creative Cave Writing 

The last misty morning on the river trail was spent having class with Emma on ballads in the Appalachian area.

Our group was then tasked with a solo day of travel: 16 miles of biking through West Virginia without instructors. We headed off on the river trail and within miles we faced our first side quest. On the side of the river trail we spotted goats! Before we knew it, we were welcomed by the Greenbrier Goat Man, Aaron, who made us bacon and gave us apple cider and cowboy coffee at his shelter just a few feet off the trail. After learning lots about him and his pack goats, we had to continue on. We had a wonderful rest of our biking day, stopping in a nice couple’s yard for lunch and finally hooting and hollering when we saw Zoe, Emma, and Ezra down the hill at camp. We successfully made it through the day as an independent group and were stronger than ever. 

We set up camp at Bill Baulfour’s house, a professional geologist and caving extraordinaire. The following day we walked across Bill’s property to the Wild Cat entrance of the Culverson Creek Cave, a 20.1 mile cave system under Bill’s property. We descended into a culvert and entered the rocky, wet, and muddy cave. This cave was supposed to be our “wet cave”. This cave can be entirely filled with water, but with the lack of recent rain, we stayed fairly dry with the exception of descending a small waterfall which pools at the bottom. The unlucky few of us took one wrong step and went for a nice chilly swim. Since the cave is pretty wet, it was incredibly muddy and slippery. We were challenged with Mud Everest and Mudderhorn, two giant mud mounds we had to climb to keep advancing in the cave. We left the cave, headed back to Bill’s house and tucked in, appreciating our last night in West Virginia.

Our first driving day was filled with learning. We first stopped at Appalachian Headwaters, a non-profit dedicated to re-wilding West Virginia. We were taught all about the wild seed collection process and were shown the re-wilding happening on their campus.

Our next stop was the Beckley Coal mine. We explored the old coal miners’ houses, schools, and took a tour into the retired coal mine, rode in underground coal trains, all guided by a former coal miner. We hit the road after a long and super interested day and camped at Twin Knobs campsite in Kentucky. 

Our 4AM driving expedition mornings began again and on this morning we were headed to Missouri. After a couple of stops for food and a lovely hike we arrived at Higgins Farm, Nalia’s Dad’s ranch just 7 miles off our route. There, we were warmly welcomed with cider and pie and shared a lovely dinner with Steve, Nalia’s dad.

We all slept in the warm living room and before we knew it we were back on the road headed to the Great Plains. After driving and driving through flat Kansas, we entered the town of Goodland. There, we explored the Great Plains Museum, did some academic work, and then were utterly surprised when Ezra and Zoe told us we were going out for dinner. The excitement was overwhelming to get to eat food and not worry about washing dishes!

We walked through the windy town of Goodland to a nice little restaurant called Krazy R’s. We were blessed with burgers, sandwiches, and fries. And OH MY GOSH it was delicious. Tummies full, we drove to our campsite. Seeing the sunset on the right side of the van and the almost full moon rising on the left made Kansas more beautiful than we could’ve ever expected.

Our last 4AM morning headed to our final destination of Moab, Utah. We took down our windy tents and headed for the Rocky Mountains. Stopping in Red Rocks, Colorado, right outside Denver, we had a beautiful breakfast followed by a lovely hike in the high elevation.

We continued our drive with the last few gas and bathroom stops until we finally arrived in Utah! Finding our campsite was a bit of a challenge but we made it just as the Sun had set. We were warmly welcomed with a high wind storm that later turned into a full blown thunder storm. The first rain of the past few weeks greeted us in the desert! Who said the desert was dry? We may or may not have needed to lay on our tents while setting them up so they didn’t blow away and had to master the art of sailing while setting up our tarps! A very eventful evening turned into an even more eventful night’s sleep with a small amount of flooding in everyones’ tents. The following day finally cleared by the afternoon and we started our layover prep and academic work.

As we pack and unpack things for our next journey on the Green River, we can still hardly even believe we’ve made it out here. We are all terribly excited to get canoeing and canyoneering, and as we approach halfway through the semester, we feel our group spirit really becoming one. We’re looking forward to our righteous adventures to come and are so grateful for the ones we’ve already had. 

Until the next, 

Your Scribe,

Kaia