Saturday, January 26, 2002
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Between a PVC pipe and a hard place
Today I took some of the girls in my troop to an Intro to Caving course. In additon to the normal run-through of safety rules, there were initiatives (games where all the players work towards a common goal using teamwork), relay races using the physical skills necessary to cave, and simulated caves to crawl through.
How do you simulate a cave? First, you get lots and lots of lumber, and build frames. Put irregularly shaped holes in sheets of plywood, space them at weird angles along the frame, and then use humdreds of cardboard boxes to block light, pad the walls with lumps and bends, and create additional crawling spaces. Next, slide in a few (did I say a few? I meant a lot) pvc pipes right in the middle to simulate stalactites and stalagmites. Make sure none of the tunnels is large enough to crawl in or turn around, and cover the whole thing with black tarps to make it completely dark.
For a girl like Sophia, who is no bigger around than a snake and just as flexible, these "caves" were no problem. I am 4 times as heavy as Sophia, and nearly twice as long. I also don't bend as well as I did when I was ten years old. This does not excuse teenage girls from saying, "Oh, you'll never make it, it's too hard for you, Miss Juliet". I didn't mind squeezing and shimmying around when the surface was mostly horizontal, but I wasn't too crazy about squeezing my way up a wall to find out that I would have to go down the other side face first. I suppose it would have bothered me more if I had been able to see where I was going, but since I couldn't figure out how to use both my hands and hold a flashlight at the same time, the darkness was my friend. Years of squeezing myself into jeans that didn't fit any more served me well today. I think I went through openings that would have intimidated my cat. For the record, I did it all, the whole course. Skinny teenagers, beware!
Do I want to do a real cave now? I don't think it would be fun. I think it would be very challenging, and that I would feel a great sense of accomplishment after doing it, but I don't think I would enjoy it for its own merits. Real caves are cold and wet and full of dirt and mud. I really don't need those things to enjoy a full life.
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Comments (6)
do they call it spelunking still? or was that a made up thing?
i think going in a cave would be cool. ONCE. and with a map. and beer
The few times I've been in a cave, I've always had this fear that it would collapse on me. Not my cup of tea.
I didn't make the blog rounds for a few days and wanted to say that was a nice picture you posted on Wednesday.
juliet, i give you props for doing that. awesome ^_^
caving is fun, even with the dirt and the coldness. it's great because sometimes you can slide around hehe and throw mud at people and stuff. it's a good time. the best is when you're standing next to somebody you like a lot (good friend, or whatever) and pick up a huge slab of mud and just smash it in their face. it's great.
i am a very claustrophobic person but i've been caving twice. it's great. when you come out and you look at the tiny hole you just squeezed yourself through, you're like all happy and cheering and stuff. but i'll agree, while i was doing it i was scared out of my wits and i could have cried a couple of times. but i didn't because i was a counselor helping to lead the trip so i had to be brave and calm the other kids down and stuff.
anyhoo - i hope you have fun caving (if you do end up going). ^_^