ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 26, 1996 TAG: 9602280022
SECTION: NEWSFUN PAGE: NF-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: NANCY GLEINER STAFF WRITER
It was midday, but I was surrounded by darkness - the blackest darkness I had ever felt.
I could hear the noise of water dripping, small drops that seemed larger because the sound was magnified. The air was damp and cool. Beneath me were rocks, then a 40-foot drop, the guide warned.
The world surrounding me was like nothing I had ever seen before. It was beautiful, but it felt as if I were on another planet, in another time. It was a perfect setting for a prehistoric creature to leap out of the darkness.
This wasn't a make-believe place. I was really in a wild cave. If you've been in Dixie or other caverns, you've been in a developed cave, one that's been scooped out and made into a tourist attraction.
A wild cave is just the way nature made it, over eons of time. There are no paths, no stairs, no lights. Every step has to be taken carefully.
It felt like walking on the moon might feel, but instead of being surrounded by stars, I was surrounded by stone and mineral formations that had been created slowly - really, really slowly - over thousands and thousands of years.
The climb up the hillside, over dirt, rocks and tree roots, had led to the mouth of the cave - not the bear-sized opening I expected, but a 3-foot-wide space between earth and stone. Then, it was down, down, down.
``Move low and slow,'' said Marion McConnell, an expert caver and one of my guides. ``It can be slippery.'' She wasn't kidding.
I turned on the headlamp of my helmet - if you've seen pictures of miners or rescuers searching in the dark, that's the kind of hard hat I was wearing. Everyone in the group wore them and carried a battery pack, extra batteries and a flashlight. A cave is no place to be unprepared.
Almost everything around me, except the people, of course, was thousands of years old. Newly formed soda straws, the beginnings of stalactites, stuck out of the ceiling like upside-down drips of water frozen in time.
Near me was a huge dark brown stalagmite, about 15 feet high. ``The other side of that is pure white,''said Dan McConnell, another guide and cave rescue expert. ``When people touched it, the dirt and oil from their hands stopped the stalagmite from growing on this side. It could be hundreds of years before it starts growing again.''
Dan explained that if someone touches a growing formation, the oil or dirt from his fingertips will form a coating on the stalagmite, soda straw or drapery (which looks like ribbon). When water hits it, the water will run off until it wears away the oil or dirt. Only then will the formation start growing again.
``It might take 25,000 years for one inch of a stalactite or stalagmite to grow,'' Tom Clarke, outdoor specialist with Roanoke Parks and Recreation, had explained to me earlier.
A stalactite is an icicle shape that hangs from the roof of a cave. It's made by the evaporation of dripping water that is full of minerals. A stalagmite is a cone shape that builds up on the cave's floor by water dripping, drop by drop, sometimes from a stalactite overhead. If the two come together, they form a column.
Time to move on. ``Always keep one hand on something,'' Dan warned. My only choices were rocks or mud.
I started to climb up onto a narrow ledge. I began to wonder if I was crazy to do this.
``I'll be right beneath you on this shelf [a flat area of dirt],'' Dan said. ``I'll push on your feet if you slip.'' Somehow, Dan made me feel safe.
Underneath Dan was nothing for a long way down. My feet slipped on the slick mud and I went down on my knees.
I made it across the ledge. The dirt became drier and easier to walk on. We were in a large ``room,'' as open areas in a cave are called. A small church could have fit inside, steeple and all. We were also 70 or 80 feet underground.
We might have been under someone's house. Caves can be almost anywhere - under a hill, a house or even a school. Virginia has about 4,000 caves, but a lot of them are secret. Spelunkers, as cavers are called, take very good care of the caves. Cave environments are delicate, it would be easy for people who don't care about protecting them to destroy them.
We saw names scratched in the walls, wax from a candle and litter no one had bothered to carry out. All of this is against the law in caves in Virginia. The trash could pollute the water in the cave and the heat from the candle could disturb the bats.
Oh, yeah, there were bats. A few here and there, in deep sleep - hibernating for the winter. We were in their house, though, and they weren't creepy at all. If a bat is awakened before spring, it might use up its stored energy looking for food. Probably, it would die.
A bug whizzed by my cheek. ``Wow, I just felt a bug on my face,'' I said, amazed there were any bugs in the cave.
``That wasn't a bug, it was a bat,'' Marion said.
Something had awakened it. Maybe our noise. Maybe it had been the candle.
We came to a narrow opening that led downward. It was dirt on the bottom, rock on the top, no more than 2 feet apart. ``How do I do this one?'' I asked Dan.
``Head first, on your back,'' he replied. I slithered through.
After a picnic in ``the moon room,'' we started to head back. I had not realized that we had gone in a circle. Sometimes it's hard to tell direction in caves. People can get lost easily.
I climbed back over the ledge, this time hanging on to thick nylon webbing, like a rope. Dan let me go solo. He wasn't under me as a safety net. I was scared.
Climbing up toward the light of the opening was pretty slippery, but I made it, mostly on my hands and knees. When Marion had warned I would get muddy, she wasn't kidding.
Seeing daylight again was a great feeling. Not because I was safe, but because I had had an adventure in a totally new world.
``Kind of makes you feel like Superwoman,'' said Molly Miller, Marion McConnell's 9-year-old daughter.
``Kind of does,'' I agreed.
If you're going, go prepared
How to go caving:
Don't try it on your own. Caves can be treacherous if you are not well-prepared and have experienced cavers to guide you. Most caves are on private property and cavers must get permission from the owners.
Call the local parks and recreation department for information on caving trips or the Blue Ridge Grotto (989-7693), local chapter of the National Speleological Society.
LENGTH: Long : 123 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: TIM VAN RIPER. 1. A group of cavers gets its first goodby CNBlook at the formations inside a Giles County cave. The cave measures
about 1,000 feet long and 80 feet deep. 2. Three young cavers (left)
head deeper underground in a Giles County cave. 3. Molly Miller and
stepdad Dan McConnell (above) set up a light to mark their position
in the cave. 4. Molly Miller peeks inside the cave opening. color.