Back at the cars, we discussed our next cave. Nate wanted to visit River Cave to take pictures of the big borehole. The rest of us weren’t so enthusiastic since Tom and I didn’t have wetsuits. We finally made our way to Cave River Valley where our written group size decreased to 3. Despite his enthusiasm to visit River Cave, somebody didn’t think he needed to pay. The road down was worse than normal and I slightly scraped the bottom of my car. We parked and Nate said he didn’t want to go to River Cave which he seems to think was sarcasm but it didn’t really come across that way. We discussed the other options and couldn’t think of any other cave in the valley that was really photogenic. Nate was rather set on visiting River cave so I finally bit the bullet and decided we’d go into River Cave. Nate laughed at me when I put two trash bags on below my polypro. The plastic was itchy on my skin. I hauled my big dry bag of gear up to the entrance and was rather worried it wouldn’t float.
There was a great deal of whooping and hollering as we swam through the icy water into River Cave. The trash bags didn’t really help going through the water but did help me warm up faster once out of it. Once we reached the room with the slide, I shed my synthetic coverings and put on my dry fleece and 2 mid-weight polypro tops. I think I ended up being the warmest person in the group while we were in the cave. I then set up our first shot of Sean atop the rock slide ready to descend. We took a couple bulb shots here and then continued ahead. My focusing, reflector flag was working perfectly. I’m glad I noticed that the infrared beam reflected extremely well off Erin’s PFD reflector. After a little online research how auto focus works, I figured out the perfect focusing reflector design. It did an excellent job.
Anyway, after we took a few shots here we continued ahead and I set up on a flat limestone pedestal and took a picture of Sean atop the next large breakdown rock casting light towards Nate. We traversed farther into the cave and set up another picture looking back at an interesting and large breakdown passage. Sean, Tom, and Nate all stood atop large breakdown masses. Now it was time to photograph the long straight passage. I set up the camera on its tripod and positioned everyone in the passage about 30 feet apart. I had Sean hold the focus flag where I would run to shoot off my flash and then we were ready to do the shot. Given, the longer distance I set the shutter speed to 2 seconds to allow a little more time for communication. Ironically, we got our best shot the first time though we took many others. I adjusted the camera angle so that there was less ceiling blackness but when all 4 bulbs finally fired together the focus was off for some reason. I didn’t know that until today. We shot another 3 flashes further ahead so we could splice that into the main shot. I didn’t place Nate quite perfectly so his first image was deleted in the digital splice. Oh well, the initial shot still turned out very well. The depth of field in all the pictures is excellent thanks to the focusing, reflector flag. From here I traversed ahead to make sure there weren’t any other photo opportunities and then we routed back towards the entrance. I was overheating a bit and had to take off the hat Sean had lent me.
We paused at the tall dome to snap a picture and then continued to the entrance swim. I went ahead of the others so that I could take pictures of them swimming across. Unfortunately, my camera battery was dying and I only got a few shots before it turned off. I gave it a few seconds, turned it back on, and got a few more shots. As I was photographing a bird started flying around and glanced off my helmet. It seemed agitated. I was pretty cold. I waited on Tom to swim across and then quickly headed down to the car and changed. I did an excellent job driving back up the hill and downed a power bar on our way to Bedford. We planned to eat at the Old Windmill but it was closed so we continued to Mr. Gattis. I started calling my friends when I left Mr. Gattis. Nobody was there. Luckily Alan called me back which kept me occupied until Bloomington where I dropped off some headlamps in the IUCC locker.
Brandon called as I neared Martinsville. I got passed by many cops as I drove towards Indy. Something was going down. I was glad the cop that turned his lights on right behind me passed me. I’d been very tired and my eyes kept jumping back and forth as I tried to keep them open. I pulled over in a parking lot off of 31 on the north side of Indy and slept for 2 hours. I figured I’d be sleeping either way so it didn’t matter where I slept. I awoke once and panicked thinking I needed to hit the brake. I believe this is only the second time I’ve had to pull over driving home. Anyway, I awoke again around 2:00 AM and made it home about 2:30. A brief dip in my hot tub and I was out cold in bed.
River Cave
Sean Poses atop the breakdown slide in the first big room of River Cave.
Sean stands atop a large breakdown block casting light towards Nate in the large River Cave borehole.
River Cave
Sean, Nate, and Tom light the large breakdown filled borehole within River Cave.
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River Cave
Brian, Sean, Tom, and Nate all fire bulbs to light up the long stretch of River Cave.
I meshed another picture of Nate, Tom, and Sean shooting off more bulbs further down the passage with he previous picture.
River Cave
Nate looks up towards the tall dome inside River Cave.
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River Cave
Sean clings to the walls as he slowly exits River Cave.
Sean and Nate swim the final stretch heading towards the entrance of River Cave.
River Cave
You can tell that Nate had a great time.
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