I've been exploring caves, caverns, culverts and other
small dark spaces for years, throughout the United States and Mexico. This
is great fun and a continual challenge, but
it's not a sport for the timid.:-)
Want proof? Here's a lovely picture of the bruise I got from
the ascending contest at a Texas Caver Reunion...
Click the photo to see a larger version
What's in a name?
In Texas and other parts of the world, you're not really considered
a serious caver until you've been given a nickname. I got mine after a little
incident when I led a team into a previously unexplored cave, descended first
to a ledge and then further...into some seriously unbreatheable air. Took quite
some time to catch my breath after That experience, and ever since I've been
known to Texas cavers as "Gasp."
I continue to cave because I love the challenge of caving as
well as the beauty and peacefulness, and because it's a small-people friendly
sport.
Caves in Danger
Many caves are harmed through careless exploration or deliberate
destruction.
The photos below were taken in Flowing Stone cave on Pigeon Mountain in Northwest
Georgia.
The cave is on a state natural heritage area but, due to a legal loophole,
Vulcan material has a mineral lease to quarry 800 acres of land;
Flowing Stone cave sits in the first 120 acres to be quarried!
We took these pictures to raise awareness of what is at stake,
and to try and
gather support to prevent the Georgia
Environmental Protection Department from
giving Vulcan the permit to quarry and destroy this beautiful cave.
Thanks to Alan Cressler for the use of the photos below;
click on any photo to see the larger image.
If you'd like to help in the fight to save Flowing Stone cave,
please
write Georgia Governor Roy Barnes through his webpage at http://www.ganet.org/governor/contact.html
