I've become curious about how many spelunkers are out there. One of the hobbies of me and my friends that very few people know about is cave exploration, or spelunking as it's called in the United States. It's a hobby that traces itself to my grandfather; he had a job post-WWII where he would venture into caves because there was a fear samurai were hiding in caves all across the Pacific. This turned into cave exploration skills which he passed onto my friends (less so me, I can "technically" do it for the visual enjoyment and do certain aspects better but consider it a safety red flag). I usually sit by as "reinforcements" outside a cave even though I do sometimes fancy some visuals.
There are a number of caves where we are, as it's one of the most erosion-rich regions in the world if not the most. Sometimes my friends discover things, either they take pictures or set them up for analysis. The activity can be so fascinating, caves are the opposite of open books and it's fun to "leave a mark" as you go, if that makes sense; it's like playing a video game in real life. Everyone talks about urban exploration, which is less insightful/legal and always involves places that were once sprawling anyways. Nobody talks about spelunking.
Any of you spelunkers out there? What caves have you been to? What's the most you've ever done, and what things have you discovered or brought back? And what did your experience involve?
It’s been about 15 years since I’ve been spelunking. I did it a lot in the scouts. Started with Bear Caves in Blairsville, PA (just a name, not actual bear caves). Those were fairly easy and well explored. Nearby there is Lemon Hole cave which involved rappelling 80ft into the cave. That was a lot of fun.
But probably my favorite cave would be the loyalhanna creek cave in Ligonier, PA. If you ever travelled from Ligonier to Latrobe via US-30 you’ve passed this cave. I passed this cave weekly growing up but I never knew it was there until I was 16 years old. It’s right off the side of the road but there’s a ditch hiding the entrance and even that doesn’t look like an entrance. You get to squeeze under the hillside into a 1’ gap and the wiggle your way for a few yards on your back to get into the actual cave itself. Then after you get in, it starts to sink in that you have to do it again to get back out. Probably the tightest spot I’ve been in. I’m laying on my back and my stomach is scraping the ceiling. I was a skinny little fuck back the too. Couldn’t wear a hard hat because it wouldn’t fit. Had to slide it beside me.
Totally unrelated website to that story has some pictures of the cave but it’s a really unknown cave so there’s not too much info on it. Definitely a fun cave though for anyone in the area.
https://mountaincatgeology.wordpress.com/2009/04/22/loyalhanna-creek-cave/
I may have to recommend that to the friends. There's a cave near us like that, it looks highly unassuming but it's so large that, had it not filled up with water following a mishandling during mining, it would count as the world's largest natural bombshelter.