We started our trip by meeting at Karen Perry's house on Friday the 13th at 4pm. As usual, R.D. was fashionably late, arriving at 5:30. We loaded all our gear and food in Karen's truck, and left around 6pm. The trip to New Mexico was uneventful, of course with the obligatory stop at WallyWorld in Carlsbad.
We arrived at Texas Camp, near the Forest Service's watch tower, at about 4:45am TX time. We quickly set up camp, and were all in bed by 5am. We were to meet with Ransom Turner of the Forest Service at 9am at the watch tower. We got there a little before 9, and so did Ransom.
Our plans were to go through Cottonwood Cave's 2nd Parallel on Saturday, followed by Cave of The Bell (CotB) and Black Cave on Sunday. While we were reading and signing the permits, another vehicle had pulled up, and Karen went out to see who it was. It was a couple of cavers going to Gunsight Cave. While talking to them, Karen noticed a steplog, but didn't notice a permit. She told Ransom about them, and he didn't find anyone listed on his list that was permitted for Gunsight Cave on that day. So Ransom decided he needed to go check and see if they had a permit. Since CotB was in the same general area as Gunsight, it was decided we would go to CotB first, and we would do Cottonwood Cave on Sunday.
We loaded Ransom's gear into Karen's truck, and went off in pursuit of the other two cavers. We got to a campsite where they parked about 20 mins. later, and they had already started hiking towards Gunsight. Ransom decided we could go thru CotB, and we would probably get back to the campsite before they did, and then he would wait for them to return. We took off hiking towards CotB, which was about a mile away.
When we arrived at the cave entrance, we paused for a bit to take some pictures, and Ransom explained to us about getting all plant seeds off of our clothes, so we wouldn't carry them into this sensitive cave. Ransom unlocked the gate, and we all climbed in one-by-one, meeting up at the bottom of the initial slope, which also happened to be the cave's twilight zone. We spent the next hour or so working our way to the back of the cave, admiring the formations and taking photos along the way. In one spot, there was a skylight up above, about 50 feet or so. We stopped to look at some bones marked off with tape. They looked like they were bat bones.
When we got to the back of the cave, we stopped to eat lunch and rest for awile. Then R.D, Karen, and I went one at a time into a low passageway where we had to belly-crawl thru sand to admire the many stalactites and other speleothems. Near where we ate lunch, Karen and I took some photos of capstone on the floor, to be used for comparison at a later time. We then started heading back to the entrance, taking more photos along the way.
It wasn't until after I exited CotB that I realized it was a very dry and dusty cave. I didn't see any water at all in the cave, and all the speleothems looked to be dry and dormant. But there sure were alot of formations for such a dry cave!
When we got outside and locked the gate, Ransom and R.D. took off up the hill, and headed back to the campsite where we parked. Karen and I both made the climb and hike back a lot slower. We finally arrived back at the campsite, and R.D. and Ransom were sitting there resting. I asked Ransom about the other cavers, and he said they had left about 15 minutes earlier, and that yes, they DID have their permit. (It was issued at the admin. building late the day before.)
We then headed back to camp for a short time, and then headed to Black Cave. Karen had talked Ransom into going with us, so we all piled into her truck, and drove part of the way there, and hiked about a half a mile to the entrance. I was very, very tired by this time, and so I decided to stay outside the en- trance while the other three went thru the cave. On our way back across the ridge, we stopped to snap a few photos of a beautiful sunset, up in the clean, clear air of the High Guads. Once we got back to Texas Camp, Karen and R.D. fixed dinner. They then took Ransom back to the cabin at the watch tower, and I went off to bed.
During the middle of the night, it started raining... and raining... and raining... By the time we got up in the morning, we decided we better get on out of Texas Camp and head out to Carlsbad, since the only road out, thru Dark Canyon, is prone to flooding. We hurriedly packed up our gear, and stopped off to pick up Ransom on our way out. We stopped to eat breakfast in the tiny town of Queen, at the little convenience store/restaurant that's located there. As soon as we walked in, we were told that the road to Carlsbad was flooded, we wouldn't be able to get out until maybe late that afternoon. We spent about an hour or so there, eating a delicious breakfast and chatting. We then took Ransom on down to the Forest Service admin building, and decided we would go as far as we could. If nothing else, we could at least take pictures of the flooded road, and wait until the water receded.
Along the way, we had to go across several water-crossings that were about eight inches deep. At each crossing that looked pretty deep, R.D. would get out and wade across to see how deep it was. We finally came to one spot where the water crossed a wide swath of the road and looked really deep. We waited there, for the water to go down for about an hour and a half before R.D. went across. This time it was knee-deep! Karen slowly and carefully drove across, and her truck made it across without complaining. There were 3 more high-water crossings, with the last one being the worst. We waited there for about 30 minutes before R.D. finally waded across. This time it was again up to his knees, but he said the current was also faster. Every step he took, he could feel the water trying to push him sideways. Karen decided to go ahead and try crossing, and once again, her little Toyota pickup made it across just fine.
At this point, you probably expect me to say that the rest of the trip home was uneventful. But wait... there's more! We were a few miles West of Abilene on I-20 when we noticed an 18-wheeler driving erratically up ahead of us. I called 911 on my cell phone, and they put me through to Texas DPS. I explained the situation to the dispatcher, and she found out that there was a trooper just off the freeway about 6 or so miles ahead of us. I continued to stay on the phone with the dispatcher, reporting what the driver was doing, and we followed him until we came upon the trooper, who was now waiting on the side of the freeway. Both us and the truck passed the trooper, and within less than a minute, the trooper came flying past us and pulled over the 18-wheeler.
After that, *then* the rest of the trip was uneventful! We arrived back at Karen's house about midnight, seperated our gear, and went our seperate ways.
As a footnote: Karen and R.D. are now certified trip leaders for Cave of the Bell. (Some caves in the High Guads require certified trip leaders for permits. See Karen for more info.)