Joining the underground

You know how they say golf is a great way to ruin a nice walk? Well there's something about caving that makes me think of that exact sentiment.

A few months ago, I walked through Spring Mill State Park near Mitchell, south of Bloomington, the sunlight cascading through an old-growth forest of white and black oak, pignut hickory, beech and maple. At my feet were birdfoot violet, hoary puccoon and blue-eyed grass. People rode mountain bikes past me, or hiked through the brush on their way to the old grist mill, or perhaps some grassy meadow for a picnic. They enjoyed the mild temperature of an early summer breeze in light clothing, breathing in the outdoors.

But I was headed indoors, wearing a wetsuit, jeans, a dry-weave top, rubber gloves and a helmet with a lamp. I entered the cave mouth, its breath muggy and pungent with the stink of minerals. The stream at my feet was freezing. I saw spiders, salamanders, albino shrimp and little blind fish, my surroundings veering between cavernous and claustrophobic. To traverse them I had to variously crawl, climb, slide and swim.

At least my guides were strong. Elliot Stahl, an 18-year-old Fishers native, caving nut, IU geology student and talented underground photographer, was with me, as was his fellow Central Indiana Grotto member Sam Frushour, an expert in caves, soil mechanics and geotechnical testing with the Indiana Geological Survey.

Stahl and Frushour spoke enthusiastically about their obsession, explaining how the cave was a feature of the Mitchell Plateau. It's a region in which surface streams from the East Fork of the White River once eroded former bedrock of limestone, shale and dolostone, infiltrating surface fractures that now make up the cave.

And they kept me out of harm's way. Almost.

Toward the end of our 90-minute through-hike -- which eventually deposited us in a gorges (pun intended) grotto area -- I succumbed to one of the risks of any caving adventure. I slipped, and my left foot plunged down a hole in the center of a deep puddle. The sharp edge of the hole scraped hard against my shin, leaving a superficial cut and a deep bruise. It's been almost 10 weeks since I went caving, and I still have a lumpy calcium deposit on that leg. But it could have been worse.

On the July 4 weekend of 1985, two men entered this very cave wearing only T-shirts, shorts and running shoes, flashlights in hand -- poor planning for such an unforgiving environment. Heavy rainfall flooded the cave, a torrent built and swept one of them up and out of the cave -- minus his clothing -- skin cut to shreds, a bone in one elbow chipped. The other fellow spent 57 hours on a high ledge awaiting rescue.

Climb into caving

For more information on caving in Indiana, visit the Central Indiana Grotto at http://cig.caves.org or the Indiana Karst Conservancy at http://ikc.caves.org