Ted The Caver | Creep Cast

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Welcome back to Creepcast.

Today marks basically our one-year anniversary.

We've been doing this show for one year, one whole trip around the sun with us.

And to celebrate, I figured that we would take probably still my favorite creepypasta I've ever read,

Ted Ted the Caver, and make it an actual creep cast episode.

You know,

this was originally a video I put on my second channel, Papa Meat.

Um, and it was just a fun video that actually sparked interest into making this a podcast.

So we need to do it right, and we need to actually have it be an episode here on the show.

And I think that with it being, you know, as a one-year anniversary, I think it's time.

And also, just it's been a minute since we read it, and I just love this story.

I love it.

Yippee, one year.

Yay, we did it.

Woo.

Yay.

What do you, yeah?

Yeah.

So our,

when I, we uploaded the first Welcome to Creepcast.

That was November 17th of last year.

So this will be going up like the 10th, right?

Yeah.

Is that right?

10th of 9th, something like that.

So pretty, pretty close.

Close enough.

And if you're mad about it, well, I don't care.

So.

This is the Ted the Caver.

You said it's your favorite creepypasta ever?

I think it might be, but it's just because it's it's just because it holds a very dear place in my heart i mean this is like one of the only ones i've ever read you know on my own i loved it i also just love you know it's i'm i'm very claustrophobic so the the the the these things these choices it has a perfect level of like cheese and fun a nice level of mystery i just love this story Yeah, it's a classic.

As a matter of fact, depending on your definition, this is the first creepypasta because it way, way predates creepypasta in general.

Creepypasta culture kind of took off like 2012 2013 ish um this is from 2001 so the original idea is it was uploaded as an angel fire which i'm sure the majority of listeners have no idea yeah what that is uh basically it was like this early like ring website thing where it'd be like you could set up your own web page that would lead to other pages in tandem.

So it's treated as kind of like a blog.

This is like web 1.0 era.

So very, very different than modern standards.

Someone just decided to upload this as a series of blog posts, assumedly about a real experience that he was going through.

Yeah, to prank his family.

Do I say that again?

It was to prank his family.

Yes,

that's right.

That's right.

You're right.

I completely forgot about that.

Yeah, his family would check in on him, and he, just as a prank, decided to start doing these blogs because they read these, I believe, these cave-diving blogs or some kind of blog.

You know, everybody, that was a big hot craze in the late 90s and early 2000s: people blogging.

And

just as a joke, he was like, yeah, I'm just going to make this the most like fucking curse thing.

And then like, I don't think he talked to him for a bit as like to also kind of keep the keep the joke going.

But I just, it's like the best practical joke that turned into an amazing, fun beginning to how people decide to share stories online.

I mean, by definition of that, too.

This is, I mean, R slash no sleep, it feels like this is something that predates that,

you know, by a decade.

It's pretty pretty crazy to think that a guy just kind of messing around and being like, yeah, hey,

I'm on the internet.

I don't know.

This is just what's kind of going on for people to assumingly, to assume that it's real is just a really,

it's just really special.

I just, I fucking love this story.

I love everything about it.

The backstory is a lost time in the internet.

It's like it's a classic and it holds up very well, as we're going to see today.

So what better thing for our anniversary than to do one, even if you've seen the video that's up on Pop of Meach channel where him and I go over it, we didn't actually read the story together.

So we're going to do that today.

Yeah.

So nothing better for an anniversary, I feel.

Yeah, exactly.

Like we can actually sit down, read the full, the full thing in length.

Cause yeah, I think we broke it up.

Like we broke up the story and we were just kind of like doing certain,

we did like excerpts basically from it

that told the story.

But this is from beginning to end reading all of it.

I'm very excited.

I'm very excited as well.

So we're going to get into it.

Thank you all so much for the support.

Continue to show support, please, on

Spotify, on Apple Podcasts.

Hold on, let me check the score right now.

We're 29.

Not bad.

But this is also like,

whenever we upload, it goes way up and comes back down.

So it's on its way down right now at 29.

But just for full

discrepancy sake, Hawk Tua

is...

74.

So that's all that matters to me.

That's all I care about.

And, you know, as a, if you could do anything besides share this with your friends or just enjoy it with yourself,

consider going to those audio platforms and just giving us a five-star rating on there.

It really does help.

And if there's a way you want to show support, that's just a very easy way to do it.

So we appreciate you so much.

And Isaiah, without further ado, let's get into it.

I want to say that the story prefaces with the date.

So these are all kind of chronologically uploaded.

He puts the date of when, you know, when he makes his excerpts or whatever.

And to see the date 32301 is is just crazy.

Yeah

Way way back so our first post March the 23rd 2001 Hunter are you ready to get into it?

Oh, I'm ready to get creeped.

Let's get creeped.

So here we go I want to take a quick break from the show to let you know that today's episode is sponsored by Babel.

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It really does mean the most.

We are now back to the show.

Due to the overwhelming number of requests I have received to tell about my discoveries and bizarre experiences in a cave not far from my home, I have created this webpage.

I will outline the events that happened to me during the past few months.

Beginning with my journey into a familiar cave in December of 2000 and ending, well, it hasn't actually ended yet.

I'll use my caving journal as the text to tell about my recent experience.

I will give them to you as I experience them in chronological order.

I've included photographs that were taken during my mini trips into the cave.

I've also created a few illustrations to help the reader get a better idea of what things looked like in the cave.

All of the photos were taken by me or one of the few people I went into the cave with.

I want to say that these photos are haunting.

If you have claustrophobia,

I do not see the appeal to cave diving at all as a sport, as an activity.

I just want to say that this guy actually being a cave diver for the story was able to get some very fucked photos.

I just want to say,

I'm in hell.

The pictures are great.

And I think it does a really good job at getting across like the authenticity of it.

Yes.

Because even watching the picture looking at the pictures, I'm like, how did you do this?

Right?

Like, how, how in 2001 did you set up all these narrows?

It had to be a guy that was actually into spelunking.

Absolutely.

Like, decided to add this on, add this narrative onto it.

The photos being authentic of a guy who definitely probably was spelunking in a cave that he just knew, but was able to take some photos of like very weird tight spaces that he knew of.

It's just, it adds to the story so much.

And as you'll see, we'll definitely put them up.

For audio listeners, we'll try to describe them, but for people on YouTube, it's just the photos are just awesome.

They elevate the story so much.

That's why I love, that's also why, not to deviate too far, but that was also why I really liked Gregory 88, is just having those little bits of photos, just like little, little, like just little snippets of some of the visuals from the story is just a lot of fun.

Also, are you familiar with the Ted's Caving Journal on YouTube?

I think you watched some of that with me on stream.

Yeah, it was the stream I started reading out my credit card information, remember?

Yes.

So he's now changed his name to Alex Archives because he started doing different stuff than just Ted's Caving Journal.

But he has a series called Ted's Caving Journal that not only looks incredible, like it was actually inside of a cave, but it is paced so well that for one, at least for the first several, he uploaded them not year-wise, but date-wise, the same dates as the updates from the original angel fire story.

Just a lot of fun.

I mean, like, just like, yeah, he uploads the March the 23rd one on March the 23rd, stuff like that.

And he has paced out the video links.

So when you watch the entire thing, the video progresses at about the same pace you would take reading the story.

Yeah.

Like it's incredible attention and detail and it looks amazing.

I still have no idea how he did half the effects he did.

uh but yeah good at recommended enough we'll link it in the description in fact like yeah very well done if you want to see like a visual adaptation of after you hear the the after you listen to this episode you should definitely go check it out and see just how close it is to the source material it's very impressive very talented creator but anyway back to this so i want to point out a few things before i tell about the events One, most of the pictures were taken with a Kodiak disposable type camera.

I took a better camera into the cave on one or two of the trips.

Pictures on on this side are all original photos and have not been messed with or enhanced other than wear noted.

As a rule, I get my pictures put onto disc at the time of developing so I don't have to scan them later.

This ensures the best digital quality.

Two, I will not reveal the names of the other people involved in this experience.

If you know me well enough, you probably know them already.

Three, I will not reveal the location of the cave to anyone for any reason.

So please don't ask.

I refuse to be held accountable for anyone's life but my own.

I'll refer to the cave as Mystery Cave.

That is not its real name.

If you think these events sound far-fetched, I agree.

I would come to the same conclusion had I not experienced them.

I'll try to finish the site as soon as possible.

Check the date on the main page to see what I've made updates.

To protect myself from people who might want to copy this site, I include the following.

All text on this and following pages are my own words in copyright 2001.

TED.

So that's our introduction on March 23rd.

So he basically lays out the ground rules for what is going to be the series that follows.

Yeah.

So we now move into the discovery portion.

I will divide the text into two colors for the sake of clarity.

The plain text is taken directly from my Caven journal.

The italicized text is my comment as I reflect on the experience.

I will do my best to convey the thoughts and feelings I had during the entire event.

I will not use the actual names of the other individuals involved.

I will include the entire relevant text of my my journal.

Only small parts of the journal will I skip.

This will only occur when the entry has nothing to do with the experience in the cave, such as eating dinner after a trip, getting fuel or snacks, irrelevant details, etc.

My journal is fairly thorough.

I will merely summarize what I am cutting out of the actual entry.

In an effort to present this experience in as accurate light as possible, I will type my journal as I wrote it, Sans Grammar Check.

Please overlook my errors.

My additional comments will help to clarify the things I wrote in my caving journal.

So that's his

That's basically the breakdown.

We are now getting into the journal itself.

And again, he is keeping anonymity for the people he's involved with.

So, for example, B, who we're going to hear throughout the story, is just a pseudonym for whatever.

One of his friends that he's just not going to put his real name.

So you have names like B and that kind of stuff.

Yes.

So December 30th, 2000.

B and I decided to get in one more caving trip before the new year, so we set our sights on Mystery Cave.

Not a spectacular cave, but since neither of us had been caving in a while, it would be nice to go to any cave.

There's a bit of excitement to this trip.

There's a small passage in the lower portion of the cave that I wanted to check out to see if it was possible to get past it.

It had a small opening, but lots of air blowing out of it.

Even though it is way too small to climb through, I had never even checked to see what was inside the passage.

We got our gear loaded up and hit the road by 3 p.m we got to the cave in great time since b likes to drive fast we anchored from the usual tree and began to rappel into the cave i went down first and got my gear together while b came down uh what's the saying with caving if it blows it goes but yeah like if there's like

air coming yeah exactly because it needs because i think it means like oh there's an exit like air is coming through a different side and exiting out here so i think that yeah if it blows it goes or if you just want to get your cock sucked in a cave then you can just say it blows, it goes, which would be nice.

I mean, that's true, I guess.

I would be a little worried about what is doing the action.

Just you and your boys, dude.

Oh, the people you bring in with you.

That's fine.

I thought you would find something in a cave.

Me and B going down to the cave and having a dark suck.

Yeah, I'm kind of worried

for your intentions with me that every story we come across that involves two male characters, you always take in that direction.

I'm going to get you a Christmas shirt.

It's just going to have a giant B on it.

Oh, no.

no.

Hey, B.

All right.

I'll get you a shirt.

It says B in a flashlight.

That's what I'm going to tell you.

I'll get you for

Christmas.

Hey, Hunter, what are we doing in the cave?

Just a little sucking fuck, brother.

Just a little suck and fuck.

Okay.

All right.

My mom texted me the other day.

She's like, oh, I started listening to Creepcast.

And I'm like, oh, no.

No!

Please are screaming.

No, please.

I will refer to B many times.

We've been caving caving together for many months now.

He was injured in a caving accident a few years ago and was told he would never walk again.

Through hard work and perseverance, he not only walks, but can get around very well in caves.

The trickier parts of a cave might slow him down a bit, but he can make it.

He patiently works through an obstacle until he gets past it.

As for the reference to the small opening in the cave, there is a saying among cavers, oh.

If it blows, it goes.

Okay, well.

What I said.

Meaning, if a passage has a good flow of air, it's probably worth worth investigating.

Okay.

After we explored all the usual passages, we climbed down to check out the hole.

Hole's located deep in the cave, near the lowest part of the cave.

It's on the side of a cave wall about three feet from the floor.

To look inside the hole, I had to kneel down and dunk under an overhang of rock.

Oh my god.

Something that's fun about this too, especially on the angel fire version, is all of the pictures are their own URL.

So it says click to see photo of original opening.

I put my glove in the hole for size reference.

So you're like, okay, so there's nothing on page and you click it and then boom, the entire screen is that image.

So it creates this kind of tension where, especially later in the story, you don't know what the image is about to be and you sort of like jump scare yourself.

Yeah.

It's a jump scare.

I would say it's very familiar with people that read any kind of manga, like Junji Ito work or anything like that, where it's, it's that, it's that page turner.

Yeah.

You get the setup and then you page and and then you turn the page into like a very gruesome high detailed kind of like explosive moment and that's what these urls feel like i mean with this photo right here the first he's like oh i found a hole it puts it i mean it you could barely put your hand through it i mean you could put your hand through it but it would be like he just put his uh glove up to it it's a very i would say it's like the size of what like a tennis ball maybe it's about the size of a bald fist i'd say yeah yeah and it's so small and what we find out here is that i love this kind this this mystery that immediately starts is, yeah, we get down there.

We're just kind of doing it because, eh, we wanted to get one in before the new year.

And then we came across this hole.

And now this is where this kind of craze begins to start.

And it turns into almost a weird excavation

journal, you know?

Like they become obsessed with just being like, what the fuck is in there?

I love it.

Yeah.

It's like the first like breadcrumb to where we're going to go.

I used my backup mini mag light and held it inside the hole to see what I could see.

I was excited by what I saw.

The wall around the hole was about three to five inches thick.

It led into a tight passage.

The passage opened up a bit just inside the hole.

It continued back about two to twelve feet in a small crawl space.

After that, it seemed to really open up.

Although, how much we couldn't tell.

This could be a virgin passage.

Obviously, no one has passed through this route, but there could be a way into the passage from the other side.

To even get to the crawl space, we would have to enlarge the opening.

Currently, it's about the size of my fist.

Once we get past the opening, we would have a tight crawl back to where it opened up.

It would be, it would take some work, but we thought we could do it.

We sat down for a few minutes to rest and contemplate our plan of attack.

While we sat there in the darkness, we could hear the wind howling from the other side of the passage.

It was a low, eerie noise.

We could also hear a low rumble from time to time.

No big deal, though.

The cave is in the vicinity of a highway that has heavy trucks drive on it.

We figured the rumble was the effect of the trucks resonating through the rocks.

So basically, it's like you can see through the tiny hole that there's like a crawl space area.

Then after that, it opens back up.

So the idea is no one's ever been here before.

And we know that the cave goes somewhere because we can feel the breeze.

It feels like...

That might be a passage no humans ever stepped foot in, which admittedly is an exciting concept.

You can step where no one has ever stepped before.

Well, yeah, think about being a

spelunker or like a cave diver or whatever, and then to kind of like have a new passage and like it's named after you, or it's like you get to experience it first.

Like it's a weird, probably like a weird sense of pride that I would say that a lot of people have when spelunking, you know.

Journeying into this thing, conquering it, and coming out the other side and being like, we were the first people to ever do that is extremely enticing, I would say, if you're into that hobby.

To me,

I say, you're, it's dumb.

I say no.

But I also would never go down there, but from their point of view, I get it.

Yeah, I can totally comprehend why they find it enticing.

Yeah.

We determined that our best plan would be to haul a cordless drill into the cave to drill into the rock.

Then we could take a bullpin and a small sledgehammer and break up the rock.

It seemed pretty straightforward.

We would widen the hole big enough to squeeze in and see what was on the other side.

The efforts to haul all the equipment down to the hole would be a pain, but we hoped it would be worth it.

I named the passage Floyd's Tomb after Floyd Collins.

Seemed to look like the tight spot where Floyd spent his last miserable days on Earth.

And for those who don't know the story of Floyd Collins, that is the guy that I played in the internet historian video, now infamous internet historian video.

But yeah, the guy who got trapped down there for like three weeks and people tried to get him out and no one could.

That's who Floyd Collins is.

Talking about a red herring.

Yeah, what?

The.

Just that he's like, well, I'm going to call this Floyd Collins because this is where he spent his last miserable days on earth.

It's like uh it's kind of like it just feels like oh, you know, he kind of named it.

He's like prophesizing his own demise almost, you know?

Yeah, yeah, or like the kind of evil that awaits him.

And then he also has, it says, click to see a rough drawing of how the passage looked, and he has a drawing of what he's talking about, which is kind of why I describe for audio listeners.

It's just a little drawing of the like small area that he can see through and then the wider area that eventually leads to like an opening.

Yeah, essentially it's broken up into a couple parts, which is the little hole,

the original entrance, which is about three inches wide.

That opens up into what he calls the wide area, which is what I'm assuming

would be really easy to get in and get your shoulders in.

And it goes down into a very tight spot called the squeeze, which you see that a lot in.

these hellish cave diving videos, but I would assume that's like where you really have to take your time and slowly scoot through.

But then at the very end, this is what I was, I was always creeped out by this when I was younger, was the unknown area where it's like the light,

they have not shined a light in there far enough to see what is in the end of that tunnel.

So it's just blackness there.

Yeah, the darkness eats up the light that far back.

Yeah.

Floyd Collins was a caver back in the early 1900s.

He got stuck in a tight crawl space and was unable to free himself.

It's an amazing story that was detailed in a book called Trap, the Story of Floyd Collins.

I think that was the title.

I don't recall the author.

Calling Our Passage Floyd's Tomb was not only a tribute to Floyd, but a commentary of the size of the passage.

Haha, in retrospect, it's funny how simple I thought it was going to be.

I figured a few hours of work and we'd be in.

Had I known how long it was going to take, I doubt I would have even begun the project.

Had I known what I was going to experience in that cave, never would have returned.

Love it.

We gathered up our gear and headed for the surface.

Normally, I couldn't care less if I ever came back into this cave.

There's nothing special about it.

But now I was psyched about getting back and getting through.

I hadn't even left the cave and we were planning our return trip.

The rest of the journal entry talked about the climb out of the cave, our dinner, and our trip back home.

So we now move into the section where work begins.

And this is dated from January 27th to 28th of 2001.

About a month has passed.

About a month, yeah.

He and I were both excited to get back into the cave and get to work.

I figured with about four hours of work we could be in and see what was on the other side.

We had arranged to borrow a D-Walt cordless drill to bring with us.

We also had masonry bits to drill with, sledgehammers, two, to break up the rock, bullpins to insert into the drill holes, and a few other tools that we ended up not using.

Getting the tools down to the work site proved to be a challenge.

One of us would climb down the rope and stop at a ledge or a good resting place, then the other person would lower the tools.

We kept repeating this routine until we got to the bottom of the cave.

Then we had to drag the tools to the hole.

It took about an hour to finally get to work.

We took the first turn at the hole.

After an hour of exhausting work, we could tell that we were not going to get through in one session.

We kept trading off after we worked ourselves into a sweat.

One would take a break, get some food and water while the other one went to work.

The routine went like this.

To begin work, we had to get down on our knees and do our best to avoid smacking our heads on the ceiling.

Working in this awkward position, we could drill into the wall around the hole.

That was difficult work.

We really had to push on the drill and it was still

slow progress.

Then we inserted the bullpin into the hole and hammered on it until the rock broke up.

Then we would repeat the process.

To give you an idea of how slow it went, the typical size rock that would break off was about fingernail size.

If we broke off a large piece about a third the size of my palm, it was cause for celebration.

From time to time, for variety, we would just well on a cold chisel with a five-pound sledge.

It was slow progress.

The problem with the sledge was that we couldn't take a good swing because of the tight quarters.

Even though we spent many hours and several trips working on the hole, we never did find a better technique for widening the hole.

The drill, bullpin, hammer got the best results for our efforts.

We came up with some crazy ideas for breaking up the rock.

Everything from TNT, never seriously considered, to hauling a generator to the mouth of the cave and running an extension cord down to a jackhammer.

We even thought about using liquid nitrogen to freeze the rock and make it more brittle.

After a couple hours of hard work, we realized that our limiting factor was going to be.

It was about then that our first battery met an abrupt death.

We had a second battery so we swapped them out.

Second battery lasted a little longer because we hammered and chiseled a little more often and a little longer each time.

Finally after about three more hours of drudgery the second battery died and we called it a night.

Phew!

We could tell that we had done some work in the cave, but it was not much.

For the first time since we got in the cave, we sat back, both of us, took a break.

It was nice to check out the results of our hard work.

Then we noticed the howling again.

It seemed to be a little louder than the last time we were there.

We just figured the wind was blowing a little stronger outside.

What we could not figure out was the rumbling.

It too seemed to be louder and more frequent.

This time we cannot attribute the noise to trucks.

The road that the trucks drove on was not very busy to begin with.

At that time of night, it should be dead.

Yet the rumbling continued.

It seemed to be coming from deep within the passage.

B said he could ask some better encavers

what could be causing the noise.

What do you think when he says something like the rumbling or the howling?

How do you picture that sound in there?

Do you picture it sounds more of like an earthquake kind of sound?

Like the rumbling is like,

you know what I mean?

Like something is being shuffled or the earth is shifting?

Or is it something a little more, I don't know, like alive?

I kind of picture it like

a hum almost, like

a heaviness kind of.

Yeah, I see what you mean.

Like there's some kind of like vibration almost happening.

Yeah, which even then, being

and just to reiterate, they are in a cave underground with like lights on their head.

To hear that rumble,

I just feel like I would freak out.

Like I would think that something's falling, something's crashing.

They're very nonchalant, which, to be fair, you know, they're experienced cavers and stuff, but even this howling thing, and you kind of start getting past the justification of, like, oh, yeah, it's probably the trucks.

Now they're like,

that road's not busy at all up there.

I don't know what the hell that is.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, their justification's gone now.

They can't ride it off as cars.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I would assume that a breeze through a tunnel might be like

a whistle, you know?

Yeah.

but there's a howl that they notice it

yeah

because i imagine the howl almost sounds like maybe not someone yelling in the passage but i imagine that it's like it just it isn't that whistle of wind it's it it feels something more like it's a little more devious just the the description of howl always it's just a it makes you clam up a bit it's it's just enough noticeable that they can't just write it off as like cave noises right yeah it has to be something else yeah we did spend a long time admiring our work we still had to haul the gear up and out of the cave actually we left some of it in the cave it was still difficult work what made it worse was that we were both exhausted original plan was to be done with this cave and hit a couple of other caves in the area the next day instead we decided to crash at a nearby motel charge up the drill batteries and go back to mystery cave

So you can click to see a photo of the opening after their first trip and it's the same hole, but it's like

double double fist size now.

I would say maybe six inches together.

If before it was three, I would say this is like maybe six or seven inches wide now.

Yeah.

So creepy, though.

You can kind of see into the hole a little bit more.

Yeah, though, again, like you said, the shots are incredible.

Yeah.

They add so much depth to this.

It makes it feel very legitimate.

My journal goes on at length about the night after we left the cave.

We got a room.

Dinner was excellent.

I didn't sleep good despite the fact I was exhausted, etc.

We both slept in, so we got a late start back into the cave.

Second day, working on the cave went about the same as the first.

Worked until both batteries were dead again.

We were still not even close to getting through.

Howling and the rumbling continued as the day before.

With that, we move on to the next section on caving.

So before I continue with the next journal entry, I thought it might be helpful to the reader to explain a little bit about caving and about the atmosphere in the cave.

As I reread and think about my description of the cave, I notice that much of the language I use in my caving journal and the descriptions or lack thereof assume that the reader has a knowledge of caving and what it's like inside a cave.

In other words, I write my journals for me.

I will take this time to give a more detailed description of the cave.

I will tell about what it was like while we worked in the cave, and I'll summarize our feelings up to this point.

The cave was discovered several decades ago when construction in the area unearthed its entrance.

From that time to the present, it has been visited by mostly locals in the area and avid cavers in the region.

Beer cans can be found intermittently in the cave, mostly in the upper half.

When the cave was first entered, it was probably beautiful.

Dust, graffiti, vandals, pigeons, and regular use have diminished its appeal.

There's still places in the cave where small formations remain undisturbed as a reminder of what the rest of the cave used to look like.

To enter the cave, one must have a good length of rope in order to rappel down into the rock.

A nearby tree serves as a good anchor point.

Once the rope is tied to the tree, about 20 feet away from a small cliff, it can be tossed over the edge of the cliff to a small ledge 15 feet below.

Cavers can then descend the short distance to the entrance.

Once inside the cave, artificial light must be used.

My light source of choice is a battery-operated helmet-mounted light known as a tag light.

Safe caving calls for at least two sources of backup lighting.

For my backup lighting, I have a mini mag light mounted to my helmet and another helmet mounted light in my pack, which I always carry with me.

I also have glow sticks that I carry with me.

These are not considered good sources of backup light by some, but they're good to use for taking lunch breaks.

And they could be used to get out of a cave if the other sources fail.

After a short climb over large rocks, the caver comes to a large pit.

The same rope is used to reach the bottom of the pit.

The drop is only 50 feet or so, but it is not free-hanging.

In other words, you can't slide straight down the rope, which is preferable.

You have to snake your way around sharp rocks as you descend.

The ascent is made more difficult for the same reason.

The pit varies in diameter from about 10 feet to 3 or 4 in a few places.

The walls are lined with a sharp, white rock called popcorn.

Let me correct that.

It used to be white, but is now covered with dust and dirt that was kicked down from above by years of caving.

The popcorn makes it painful to brush against the side of the pit.

My choice of clothing is Levi's, t-shirt, gloves, and knee pads.

I usually leave the cave with a few scrapes, but at least I'm comfortable while I climb around inside.

The temperature is stable year-round.

It feels cold in the summer and warm in the winter.

We have gone in on freezing days, and 10 feet into the cave, it's warm enough that coats are not needed.

It's a good temperature to work in, as we learned.

For this ice drop, I usually use a figure-eight descending device.

For the climb up, I attach myself to the rope using a petzel ascender but I climb up on my own without using the device.

It is there merely as a safety attachment in case I slip.

Other cavers have their own methods of getting down and up.

At the bottom of the drop the caver gets to do some crawling for a while.

There's a small room about 6x6 feet at the bottom that gives the caver a spot to leave his harness and descending ascending gear.

Since there is no more steep drops, the harness is not needed and will only get in the way.

Once the caver gets down to the 6x6 room, he can take a break under a ledge while the rest of the party comes down.

Then he must drop to his knees to negotiate a 10-foot long passage that is only a few feet high.

This is where the knee pads come in handy.

The floor is covered with a soft dirt intermingled with bits of broken rock from above.

The thin layer of dirt does nothing to soften the blow to the hands and knees as the caver works down the crawl space.

As a reward, at the end of the crawl, he gets to drop to his belly and scoot under a tight squeeze.

Not really tight, just something low enough to make the caver scoot along in the dirt.

Once the caver gets on the other side of the squeeze, there are a few feet of crawl space.

Then the cave opens up enough to stand.

For most of the rest of the cave, the caver can stand or at least stoop.

The cave splits off into several passages at this point.

Two routes wind around rocks and crevices and come to abrupt dead ends.

The other two lead to small pools of water.

Each route's fun to explore.

They all lead on for a hundred feet or so in a gradual downward slope.

Most of the time the caver can walk upright in the passages.

Other times he'll have to climb over large boulders or occasionally crawl on hands and knees.

Water is a common occurrence in caves.

I've been told that one of the local residents was one of the first people in the cave and that his cousin dove into the pools using scuba gear.

He said the cave continued continued down for a couple hundred feet underwater.

What they were hoping for, and what happens frequently, is that the passage comes up somewhere else with virgin cave passages to explore.

Unfortunately, I don't possess the knowledge to give more detail about the types of rocks in the cave.

When we were drilling, we could have some parts that were easier to drill than others.

And there were different colors in the rock, referred to photos taken in the cave.

But that's the best I can do to describe the makeup of the cave.

I'll also say, I know people do it in real life the concept of scuba diving in a cave i think is the scariest thing i've ever heard i just my god like yeah what compels people i know people say it's the adrenaline or you know it's like the it's the same reason that you ride a roller coaster in a way of like it's the fear of dying like free falling or whatever else and this is like a on the you know pushing yourself to the brink But I just, my God.

Can you imagine having to also carry a tank, like push an oxygen tank through an underwater cave?

It sounds miserable.

Plus, the idea of both being underwater and

in cramped cave spaces is an absolute nightmare.

Yeah.

It reminds me, there is a real case of someone dying doing that.

I think, if I remember right, Jacob Geller might have covered it in his fear of depths video.

But man, caves are terrifying.

Freaked me out.

Yeah.

At the point, the cave splits into four routes.

The two passages that dead end are to the immediate left of the cavern.

Straight ahead and to the right are the passages that lead to pools of water.

The entrance to the passage on the right is the largest of the four.

The arched opening rises nearly 10 feet in the air, ending a mere foot below the cave ceiling.

As the caver enters the passage, the ceiling gradually lowers until it's about six feet high.

It continues at the same height for the 40 feet that the passage travels in a continuous direction.

This section of cave resembles a hard rock mine.

Its arch nearly perfect and the floor flat and easy to walk on.

It's easy to picture rusty mine cars on rail lines and dust-covered miners with blistered hands gripping dull picks.

The pseudo-mine comes to an end and the caver is once again forced to drop onto hands and knees and get reacquainted with the floor of the cave.

This time the crawl lasts about 20 feet.

The floor is sloping gently downward for the first half of the crawl.

Then it gets fairly steep and slippery.

Able-bodied cavers can still climb carefully down the slippery slope.

When I go with B, I carry the end of the rope that we used to get down to this point.

I usually need to tie another short length of rope to the first rope to make sure he can use it to reach the bottom.

The crawl lasts a few feet beyond the bottom of the slide.

Over the next 10 to 12 feet, the caver slowly begins to regain the standing position.

After walking a few feet and climbing down a short drop-off, the caver arrives at a small level area which has a passage leading down immediately to the left.

Passage in 75 feet later at one of the small bodies of water.

To the right is a rock wall.

Straight ahead is an indentation in the wall which goes back about 3 feet.

On the wall at the rear of the indent is a small hole about the size of a softball.

To get near the hole, the caver ducks under an overhang and kneels upon the rocks that rise above the floor by a few inches.

By the time the caver reaches this point, he's either warm or sweating and the first thing he notices is the cool breeze blowing out of the hole.

It was my recognition of this hole as a potential doorway to unexplored portions of cave that ultimately led to this telling of my experience.

As has been my tradition for all the years I've been caving, the party reaches a point in the cave, usually at the deepest part of the cave, that all lights are extinguished.

Complete blackness fills the eye.

For a moment, the individual caver strains the eye muscles, focusing in and out with the expectation of catching a crumb of light somewhere in the false night.

After several futile moments, caver turns his head at a sound.

Perhaps another caver?

Only to have the other senses return and then hide in.

The sounds, smells, and feelings that have been overlooked to this point come racing to the caver in perfect detail.

The pain of their own beehine sitting on the cave floor.

Smell of dust, sweat, guano.

The sound of modern materials shifting on age-old rocks as cavers attempt to find comfort on this solid foundation.

At the back of every caver's mind at this time is, what if?

What if a person had to climb out of the cave with no light?

Would he make it?

Would he find all the turns and bends which got him to this place?

If not, would a rescue party find him in time?

Yeah, it's pretty.

The depth of darkness recognized at this time is something that is rarely experienced outside a cave.

Many first-time cavers erroneously declare that they have to hold their hand to within two or three inches of their face before they can see it.

The truth is the human eye is incapable of seeing an absence of light.

If they did not hear something coming toward them, they would feel it before they saw it.

Complete and total dark.

This exercise is a great way to remind people.

to take back up lighting.

As we proceeded to work in the cave, we developed a system pretty early and little changed in succeeding trips.

First time in the cave, B took first shift at chipping away at the opening.

After about a half hour, he needed a break, so I took over.

He told me what worked best and I continued doing the same.

We would try new things from time to time to use new muscles, but usually stuck to the same method.

We would use the masonry bit and press on the drill as hard as we could and drill out a hole in the rock.

Safety glasses and dust masks were worn while working.

Then we would insert the bull pin and hammer it into the rock and break out small chunks of the cave.

Then we would drill another hole and repeat the process.

Occasionally the drill would hit a soft spot on the rock and that step would be shortened.

We'd work until we became too tired to continue then B and I would trade.

While one of us was working, the other would remain in the darkness and either eat or drink or just lay down on the cave floor padded by rope bags.

After just a few rotations, we were tired enough to catch a nap while taking our break.

The only light used was the helmet light on the head of the worker.

Since it was pointing toward the hole, the resting person was left mostly in the dark.

This was a welcome benefit, since the resting person was usually, well, resting.

The rest break was also a chance to cool down a bit, which didn't take long in the cooler temperature of the cave.

Fortunately, the temperature of the cave allowed us to work pretty hard and not overheat much.

I remember that I frequently looked at the hole and thought, hey, it's big enough, I think I could squeeze through, only to be disappointed in my attempt.

However, even after the first attempt and failure, I knew that I would keep working on the hole until I got through.

This despite the fact that I knew it would take many more hours of hard work.

It actually became an obsession with me.

I tried to get out of the cave and work as often as I could.

I hoped that the passage led to a larger undiscovered cave that we would be the first ones to enter.

I guess the explorer Emmy wanted to find a new frontier there in the cave.

Since B is such an avid caver, he was motivated by the same desire to find a new unexplored cave.

What we did find was not at all what I expected.

Ugh, I love it.

You know what I love about this on caving part of the journal is one

You get I mean the the one thing is they go into painstaking detail

How they descend descend into the cave, right?

Every process it takes to get down into the cave to where they're going.

It's a long,

long list.

It's a lot of steps, right?

Which is also a great warning for, hey, if something's down there,

you can't just run out.

Like you're going to be stuck with this fucking thing.

You have to go.

Not only do you have to, you have to repel down, you have to crawl down things, you have to take these different parts to where you stand up and then you have to crawl.

Like, it's so many, it's just such a great way of being like, we're trapped is what this entire section feels like, which is so good.

But then also, I love the ending of this part too, because it shows like

he is so excited to get in this hole that even he's like, I just want it to be big enough to where I can squeeze through.

Not so much to where it's going to be easy, where you can get in.

It is just setting up all of these things perfectly to be like.

Yeah, if something's wrong,

I'm fucked.

Like, I mean, we're going to be totally fucked down here.

And I just, I love the setup of that.

And it also, by the time I feel like you get done reading that, you're like, damn, dude, I could probably fucking

feel like I got all the info I need to fucking hop my ass down to a cave and see if I can't just start spelunking around.

You know what I mean?

It goes into such great detail.

It does a great job at like setting out like the severity of how far back this hole is.

That like, even if you want to get away from the hole, it takes a while.

There are so many steps you have to pass through to get back out to the surface.

It does a good job at setting up like all, it sets up the map for where the story goes from here.

So now after that we continue on to our next section which was posted on February the 10th of 2001.

Scarcely two weeks had gone by and already we were on our way back out to work in the cave.

We admit we have become obsessed with the idea of getting through the passage.

That may be a sign of how exciting our lives really are.

It's not that we think there's going to be something great beyond the passage.

We just like the idea of being the first humans on the face of the planet to set foot in a virgin part of the cave although if we found a hidden treasure that would be fine with us you got to throw the hidden treasure stuff in there right of course i feel like that's what that has to be a thing that people don't care about when you were younger when you used to play around did you hope that you would stumble up upon some kind of money like gold or something you know i mean you come across a chest i feel like that

has to be lost in these younger generations dude Yeah, the kids don't know kids with their TikToks and their iPhones looking for pirate treasure.

No, they don't look for pirate treasure anymore.

They're just too worried about TikTok dancing and changing sexualities.

I'll tell you what, Obama's America took it took the treasure maps away from us.

They took the treasure maps away.

They took the treasure maps away and made people want to be dogs.

What has this country come to?

If only McCain would have won the election.

Back when I was a kid, you go out with your buddies and then Jerry gets bit by a copperhead and he died out in the woods like a man yeah back now what you you hook up you get hooked up on dialysis and live for 40 years yeah exactly you either get bit my country you get bit by a copperhead or you and your buddies do some things that you keep some secrets to your grave you you and your buddies go out there you find your dad's moonshine bottle and you make some mistakes like well like good christians

you don't tell nobody except your assistant pastor then you don't go that church no more well we call it mistakes but really they're happy accidents there there's some happy accidents that's what i tried to tell the assistant preacher.

He got me out of that church.

As a matter of fact, he threatened to register me with the state of Illinois.

So that's why I told the family we were moving to

out of Detroit because the business was gone in the region.

That's why we're down here now.

But

look, I'm just saying that that is the kind of heart no one wants to work anymore.

Okay, so that's why that's why this country's brought this to.

Sometimes the cucumber tastes better pickled.

So

My head's like, what does that even mean?

And the other half of my head's like, just don't think about it too hard.

Look, all I'm saying, all I'm saying is that

if it wasn't for the liberals running this country, we would have real men built on work like that.

That's all I'm saying.

This is a random thought I'm having, and this is just completely random, is

how many people do you think when they were palling around with their buddies, look, you know, just walk around a crick, right?

A crick?

Yeah, a crick.

Hoping that they, huh?

What is a crick?

It's a creek, but it's an old term for

a crick.

Yeah, okay, continue.

Walk around a crick.

You know, you're like, oh, is that a, I think I see a coin.

How many times do you think somebody just murdered their friend just out in the

just out by the crick?

I mean,

I don't think it was that many, but over a coin.

No, no, no, not for a coin.

I'm just saying, like,

undiagnosed rage or something.

Oh, you're saying how many, like, murders never got reported?

Sure.

Yeah, but sure.

Specifically, it's like boys just being boys and hanging out.

Right?

I mean, I'm sure, I'm sure that kind of thing happened.

I mean, there are some stories of like, I mean, look at the number of missing kids back in, like, the, you know, 1920s on, right?

It's like, okay, not all of those are actually missing, you know, right?

Right.

Like a few of them had to be like, oh, did Johnny, you want to go, want to go on that rope swing today?

And Bob never comes home.

So kind of scary to think about, huh?

I mean, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I mean,

yeah, it's horrible.

Yeah.

Makes you think, huh?

Hunters, or something you want to tell us?

No.

Yeah.

Anything that happened to you, Hunter.

I like how when I don't do the bit the way you want it, like you do the bit yourself and pretend to be me on the other side.

Is there something you want to tell us about, Hunter?

No.

Okay, okay.

Just wondering.

Yeah,

were you murdered or perhaps maybe molested by a friend when you were?

How crazy would it be if I was actually if I actually got murdered?

You've only ever been talking to a ghost?

That admittedly would be pretty crazy if I was running a podcast with a host, with a ghost.

Like I've been

with your wife.

Ghost host.

And I get to your house one day i'm like i have to go see hunter and like your house isn't there it doesn't exist what yeah yeah what this doesn't make any sense i mean i would be like that would also lead to a very long chain of other questions like okay people have watched this show are they all also seeing the ghost or are all the people a hallucination And if that's the case, we need a meme to start.

Do I have a wife?

Do I even exist?

This is where the meme starts, where now people are like, who is Isaiah talking about?

What is

who is this other person doing?

You're doing the schmoor move thing right now.

Like, this is our new vet.

This is our new character, our new thing for the show.

Okay.

I don't want people to start doing that, so I hope they don't.

All right, we're not doing it.

We're not doing it.

Yeah, just don't gaslight me that hard.

I'm a weak man.

I can only take so much.

Oh, you know, oh man, one of my favorite parts coming up.

We got a late start and drove part of the the way into the dark.

When I tell people that I go cave in at night, they wonder why.

They don't stop to think that it is always night once you're inside the cave.

All the way out to Mystery Cave, we talked about new ideas to speed up our work.

Bea also told me he talked to some caper friends

of his that came up with an explanation about the rumbling noise.

They thought it might be the sound of water deep within the cave.

Possibly a waterfall.

They couldn't really explain why the noise seemed to come and go.

To me, it's just one more reason to get through.

I love that.

It's probably a waterfall that shuts on and off.

Probably.

You know, we have those from time to time around here.

B's like, perfect explanation.

Thank you, fellas.

I'll be sure and tell them.

Incredible.

This trip, we took B's dog, Whip.

Ah, the return of Whip.

Here we go.

Here we go.

Whip, the boy.

She's a Jack Russell Terrier.

I was not at all concerned about taking the dog into the cave.

We've taken her before.

She answers answers the call of nature before we go in and then waits until we get out again.

Also, she is well-behaved inside the cave.

We simply had to lower her via a custom-made harness until she reached the bottom of the main drop.

Then she negotiated the rest

on her own.

She loves to explore, but won't go out of our sight.

She doesn't have a light attached to her, so she has to wait for us.

Another reason I didn't mind bringing whip along was because we planned on putting her into the small hole and see how far into the passage she would go.

Go on,

it's a 14-year-old Jack Rosal Terrier.

Go on, Whip, get in there.

Go get a whip.

Just the idea of shoving it like a.

I think I've made this joke when we first covered it, but like it's an artillery round, like into the hole, just shut it off like

bark twice if you want to get out.

Why didn't it count, whip?

Bar

Get in there, Whip.

That might give us an idea what's on the other side.

How?

We knew.

Go on, girl.

Tell us what you see in there.

What you see in there, Whip?

Oh, my God.

Wow.

It's a beautiful waterfall, B.

If.

If whip comes back, that means it's safe.

If Whip doesn't come back, that means it's not safe.

Oh, shit.

Your 16-year-old Jack Russell Terrier didn't make it out.

Sorry, B.

It couldn't be pinned somewhere, B.

Yeah, you're probably right.

We knew that

if there were a drop-off that we couldn't see, the dog would turn around and come right back out.

Sure.

Yeah, the dog that is blind in the back of the city.

It wouldn't just wile the coyote off the cliff.

Yo!

Yeah, B walks up, falls off, holds up a sign that says uh-oh, just drops.

I like the idea

that, like, if whip doesn't come back, you now have to cut out the rest of that hole really fast.

Exactly.

Well, all right.

We thought we might have to do some work on the hole before even the dog could get through.

What a great idea.

And here's a big, there's a big

fancy whip, and uh, it looks like a crime scene photo.

Whip almost looks like part goblin here.

This looks like a fucking odd creature.

Whip looks way too eager to get it, be in the cave.

Yeah, whip's a cutie, but just because of the setting around whip,

it looks like you'd see this in Documentary's like the last picture ever taken of.

Yeah, this is the last picture ever taken of a Jack Russell Terrier.

I expect something to come around the corner of the rock and grab this tiny dog.

Just like a comedically large bony hand.

Yeah, like the darkness, yeah.

Yeah, like a dancing skeleton comes around and just grabs a whip and runs away do you remember um did you watch the

peter jackson's king kong movie from oh yeah 2000 something oh yeah you remember that scene when they fall down into the bug canyon oh yeah okay do you remember the this is such an obscure reference do you remember the giant like cricket claws that rip out of the wall and are yanking people through the holes in the canyon i don't remember that i don't i don't remember that specific of a detail i remember being a kid and being terrified by that because it's like these giant cricket hands, like pinchers, reach through the cave and grab people and then they rip them through a hole that's like a couple feet wide, right?

I love that movie.

And oh, it's such a good movie.

I love it.

Can I tell you something?

Such a feel of pleasure.

Yeah, go ahead.

I saw that movie when I was very young in the theater on my birthday.

On my actual birthday.

And you got an erection.

No, my mother was with me.

That's a you rubbing off on me.

Okay, my bad.

My mother was with me, and it was the end of the movie when King Kong gets shot, and then you see his face, and he looks really sad, and then he falls to his death, right?

Isaiah, when I tell you I cried would be an understatement.

I believe that.

I was

bawling in the theater.

I mean, like, like legitimately, oh, oh, oh, oh.

My mom laughs a little bit.

And then she's like, you have

your party's in 30, like 35, 40 minutes, whatever.

Because we went to see the movie and we were going to go back home and like all my friends were coming over.

Right.

This sounds like an awesome birthday for a kid.

It was very good.

My mom was very good about birthdays and stuff, but she was cruel in other ways.

But the, but I,

I mean, hysterically crime.

And you would think that the credits roll, and you can kind of like sniffle it up.

You're like, oh, all the way home.

I mean, just bawling the entire way home.

Couldn't fucking process it.

And I tell you what got me through that tragedy, Isaiah, was the PS2

King Kong game, Peter Jackson King Kong game, where at the end

game, where at the end, there's an alternate ending where Adrian Brody, you can be Adrian Brody, and you save King Kong.

And I think you

literally, like, you put him in a harness, you fly him back to the game.

Well, yeah, well, the way you do that is you play as Adrian Brody and you shoot down the other planes, right?

And that saves him, and then he gets to go back to Skull Island.

Yeah.

And I remember playing that, and I felt such a retribution.

Like, I felt so, I was like, that's the ending.

That's what it was.

That's what it was.

That's what happened in my head.

Dude,

that video game was incredible.

Like, the amount of things they did back then.

Oh, yeah.

Like, for the time, especially for like a made-to-there are all these cinematic moments, all these cool things you could pull off.

And it was like a movie tie-in video game.

It's insane.

I will, that's why then I always say if they ever make, if Peter Jackson ever makes a game, I'm playing it.

Because even the Lord of the Rings games for PS2 were very good, too.

Two Towers and Twin the Kings.

Very good.

Very good.

Very, very good.

Very fun.

Anyways, that's my story about me crying like a fucking baby.

So anyway, back to what I was doing.

On my 19th birthday.

Thank you.

I imagine Whip the Dog getting ripped into the wall by

a friggin' hand.

That's where that was going.

Okay.

Easily.

This six, 17-year-old.

I'm glad we got to go on that journey together anyway.

Despite working in the dark of the night, we were able to rig up and get down pretty quickly.

We didn't take as many tools as last time.

Plus, we left some in the hole so we wouldn't have to haul them out and back in again.

I did manage to get two more batteries for the drill for a total of four.

Also, a few more masonry drill bits.

Even with the dog, we made good time getting down.

Then something bizarre happened that I can't quite explain.

The dog began exploring as soon as we let her off the rope.

She was in hog heaven, sniffing and darting about around our feet.

She would run from one person to the other as we made our way back to the work site.

At the point the cave splits into four passages, the dog seemed to run out of juice.

She just stuck right by either Bea or me.

That seemed kind of odd.

As we progressed further into the cave, she would only stay with Bea.

She seemed edgy, like she saw something she didn't like.

As we approached the short drop-off before the hole, she stopped and would only come further after we coaxed her.

The hair on her back stood on end.

Finally, as we got to within 20 feet of the hole, she began to whimper and hide behind B.

Her tail was between her legs and she was cowering down on the ground.

Strange!

That's funny how that's written.

Strange!

I have seen her square off with dogs twice her size, but now she acted as if Satan himself was lurking in the darkness.

I figure there must have been animals that used the the cave as a home and Whip smelled their scent.

Too bad it upset her because there was no way she was going into the passage.

Yeah, right, dude.

Ted definitely tried coercing B into being like, just fucking put her in.

Just shove that dog in there.

Just fucking shove the dog in there, B.

God damn it.

Load it like a gun.

Fire down that hole.

But Ted, she's nervous.

Shut up.

Oh my gosh.

So you know what?

This is why.

This is what happened on that last cave trip.

And you know what?

You're still mad.

You know what?

That's what this is you're still mad we haven't found your we you're mad we haven't found your son yet okay well your son maybe if he had followed what and done what he was told he would have got out of that last cave so maybe whip can actually follow orders like a good boy so here's what you can do b you could put whip up into that fucking hole so we can explore this thing because we've been down here for fucking a month and a half hammering away at this wall Or I'm going to rip up that handicap lanyard you have and you won't be able to park in the handicap spot anymore.

And you have to wobble your ass from the back of the parking lot like the rest of us yep and now now your daughter's going to even be more mad because when you get visitation on christmas guess what you couldn't get that handicapped spot a target and uh you couldn't get her anything for the holidays so who do you think she's going to want to spend the holidays with after that

we decided with this new development the nervous dog one of us would work while the other stayed with the dog a few feet away from where we normally rested We get right back into our routine of drilling, hammering, etc.

With our extra supply of batteries, we were able to really push hard on the drill and not have to worry about using up the batteries.

This did not make our work any easier, but it did speed things up a little bit.

Progress was still slow.

I really didn't mind though.

My journal goes on for a while about the progress we were making.

The entire time we worked, Whip did not move.

She just lay there on a rope bag, shivering.

She'd whimper from time to time.

One thing I didn't think about at that time was that she would not take her eyes off the hole.

We should have been more observant of this intuitive animal.

We were on our fourth battery when the second bizarre thing happened to us.

Bea was working.

He had just finished drilling a hole and was getting ready to hammer the bullpin when he stopped working and looked into the hole.

I was kicking back, almost asleep, and hardly paying attention to B.

He had a light by his side to illuminate the work area.

I could see in the eerie glow a puzzled and intense look on his face.

He looked over at me and shook his head.

I asked him what was up.

He said that he swore he just heard a strange noise emanating from the hole.

No, thank you.

No, thank you, sir.

Yeah, a strange noise.

It's just electric avenue playing at the very end of the tunnel.

We're gonna rock down to electric,

but it's like really vague and like echoey.

Like,

take it.

Yeah, he's like, dude, I hear some strange things in this hole.

What's it doing to me?

I'm feeling something.

He starts dancing, starts twerking.

I ain't felt like this since the divorce.

It makes me want to get up and gyrate.

He said it sounded like rock sliding on rock.

Sort of a grinding sound.

I assumed his ears were just ringing from the drill.

He didn't wear any earplugs this trip.

He assured me he heard what he said he heard.

I didn't have an explanation, so I went back to dozing.

B sat in the quiet of the cave for a long time before we resumed work.

Also, he would stop from time to time and just listen.

B is very grounded and not want to pursue some imaginary sound.

I believe he heard something, but I'm too concerned about what it was.

But I'm not too concerned about what it was.

I assume we will figure it all out once we get through the passage.

What a great outlook.

No, I'm not concerned about what he said because we're going to run into it, whatever it is.

I mean, I hope you know we're going to have to face this thing head on.

All right.

Yeah.

So maybe if you could quit your whining, we'd find out, humbly?

To be fair, though, too, I will say that

if you're drilling in a cave and you weren't wearing headphones, I mean, like, or earplugs, I would also assume you're like, dude, you're just hearing shit.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

I mean, you're in a cave and you're listening to like the drill.

I would also be like, okay.

well imagine like rock hitting rocks you mean like the drilling you're doing you're doing idiot like it sounds like rocks it's like yeah

we're in a cave incredible reporting thank you b I never thought of it that way and if anything yeah fucking whips just having a seizure on the ground even whips seems creeped out like I don't know what the hell's happening with this

curled up on the bag just like

The final battery lasted another hour or or so.

We were sitting around talking about our progress when I decided to see if I could get my head through the hole.

My head easily fit, but there was no way my shoulders were going in.

As I was kneeling there, contemplating how close we were, I noticed something that B overlooked.

The wind had stopped.

In all the times I'd been in the cave, I've always felt the wind blowing.

The last time we were out working on the cave, the wind was blowing worse than ever.

Even earlier, we remember the breeze calling us off.

But now, nothing.

B said he did not know when it stopped.

The rumbling had ceased too.

Bizarre.

Bizarre.

Wow, that's weird.

Anyway, yeah, because that should never, ever happen, ever.

That's, that's, if, if there is a ancient cave that has had wind blowing through it for, you know, since the earth was created, hypothetically, it doesn't just stop, right?

Do you assume that this means that there is something that I, whenever I've always read this, I've always thought that it meant that like something was at the end of that tunnel like looking back at them and it wasn't allowing the wind to come like it was almost like its back was blocking the airflow you know that's possible or uh or something like a uh something has rolled over it right like something

plugged the hole right right yeah Now that's terrifying to imagine that whatever's down in the cave has a face that's big enough it covers up the entrance.

Yeah, just like a body.

Or I mean, like, I don't think it has to be that big.

I think it's just something of something blocking that small passage i would say probably a body would halt that like probably could probably halt that but the idea of something just kind of standing there and you can't see it in the darkness that fucks me you would have to it would have to be big enough to kind of have a seal over it right you would think so it would have to be wide enough well imagine like

oh my gosh it's such a terrifying visual imagine something that is large enough that's just looking back at you that when you shine a light at it it like takes up the entire like all sides of the cave like

god giant face.

Oh, my gosh.

Yeah.

It's like massive.

It's giving me, honestly, it's kind of giving me the whole idea of the stone moving around kind of reminds me of like deep woods, like the cool part of it, like a stone figure walking around.

It's kind of a weird broken face.

Yeah.

This would be a cool way.

This would be kind of a fun merger of if they found like a statue down there or, you know, I mean, like a gargoyle statue down there or something.

Yeah.

Yeah.

This plain old cave was becoming mysterious.

We talked for a long time in the dark at the cave.

We debated what could possibly be causing these unusual events to occur.

I think part of the reason we were sitting in the dark was because we were both too hammered to move.

Haha.

We could come up with no reasonable explanation for the strange things happening in the cave.

After sitting for at least a half hour, slowly loaded up our gear and started for the surface.

Whip couldn't have been happier to get out of there.

Once again, we left some of the tools in the cave.

We just put them in the hole.

Not enough people used the cave to worry about.

Plus, we were too tired to care.

We made a lot of progress this trip.

It helps to have the extra batteries.

We still have a long way to go, but it sure is nice to see how far we've come.

So you can, there's another picture that says click to see progress of the hole.

And I mean, like, it's funny, like,

the past one.

Like, yeah, you can't fit a guy's shoulders through there, but you can definitely fit a head through there.

Yeah.

It's also terrible.

Like, that part where he's like, I put my head through the hole.

If it's just like his head just gets whacked off.

Boink.

Just run it out there.

No, still, they've been down.

I mean, you have to think, too, they've been on this thing for a month and a half.

Yeah, like they've been going at that long, and it's like, I can almost fit my shoulders in.

Yeah.

To have that much, I guess,

to be that infatuated with getting through there

is.

Just shows like the kind of like commitment they have to it because I feel like a lot of people after the first time be like, oh, dude, this is too long.

But I guess guess just the obsession of being like what is in here although i will say what would deter me though is just being like okay there's some there are some mysterious sounds coming out of this i don't know what the hell's happening especially when you do the whole uh you do the whole let's just sit in silence for 30 minutes i love that that's a very that's a very childlike thing you're scared so you just kind of sit there and you don't move and you're just kind of like listening as if that's going to help I've always been afraid of that because I'm always assuming that when I sit there and I try to listen for this horrifying thing.

I'm going I'm going to start hearing something.

Well, I'm going to start hearing something like dead sprinting towards me.

You know what I mean?

That's always such a, in any movie that pulls that, that freaks me out so much.

Oh, yeah.

Like the rubber.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But you're right.

That is like a childish thing.

Like, well, if we listen, we'll be safe because it won't want us to hear it.

Ha ha.

It won't want me, an obese child, to know that I know that he's here.

Don't this will scare him.

Ha ha.

I bet he never thought of this.

The rest of the journal entry talks about climbing out the cave, getting a room at a motel, and crashing.

We were beat.

In retrospect, I can't believe how casual we were about everything that was happening in the cave.

At the time, the only thing we could think about was getting into the passage, everything else was just a minor distraction.

I do recall thinking that it would be nice to get in and see how the mechanics of the cave worked, where the wind was coming from, what was making the noise, etc.

Now, weeks later, I think of my ignorance and naivete and shiver.

So we're now on to our next section called Noises.

And this one is posted from March the 3rd to March the 4th of 2001.

It took us three weeks before we got back out to Mystery Cave again.

Our attitudes have changed a bit since we first started the project.

In the beginning, we looked at the whole thing as a fun adventure.

Since the last trip out, we found ourselves taking a more serious approach.

On the drive out this time, our conversation was a little more subdued than before.

We hadn't talked much since the last trip.

Not for any reason, but scheduling conflicts.

Instead of discussing ways of getting through the passage, we found ourselves talking about rational explanations for what had happened.

Neither one of us had any ideas that would explain the unusual occurrences we experienced on the last trip.

We were amused to find out that neither of us had talked much about the last trip to other people.

That is a complete reversal from the other trips.

It's been fun to report to friends and family about our progress.

It's always fun to tell people about the tight squeeze we are going to have to go through to get into the passage.

Most people have little desire to voluntarily subject themselves to incredibly tight spaces.

Actually, neither do I, but I will do it in order to get to the other side.

Good motivation.

We left town early in the afternoon to beat traffic.

I don't really recall what time we finally got to the cave.

Like I said, the mood was subdued.

We got rigged up and started down.

Obviously, Bea left the dog home this time.

We took essentially the same gear as the last time.

We love some of the tools in the hole to save our backs the agony of hauling the extra weight.

Even with the gear we got down in good time.

We really have a good system for getting up and down.

There was only one minor mishap this trip.

Bea scraped his arm on the descent.

Not real bad, fortunately.

He waited until we got all the way to the hole to patch him up.

It was just a superficial cut.

While he was getting the wound cleaned up, I started working.

We both took notes that the breeze was back and the rumbling present.

We had four fresh batteries and four, or maybe three and a half, fresh arms.

I had high hopes this would be the day.

Started out pretty slow.

When we first started working on the hole, the thickness was about three inches.

As we have enlarged the hole, the thickness has increased.

As a result, our progress has become slower.

Still, we continued with as much energy as we could put into the work.

The hole was big enough, at least, for me to put the hammer into the hole for reference.

Then put the camera into the hole and take a picture of Floyd's tomb.

We have that absolutely terrifying.

Can you actually imagine crawling through this shit?

Fuck that.

For people that don't, for people that are just listening to this or, you know, just not watching here,

I mean, it is such a tight space.

It's smooth.

Like, there's brittle rock all over the ground.

But when I say it's a tight space, it's unbelievable.

And there's a little, like, you can see the hammer in the space as well just for context of size and i mean i would say the hammer almost touches the ceiling it's like yeah that's that that skinny it uh he has with the description of the image it's difficult to get the exact feel of the tomb but the lowest point near the back of the picture is about seven inches high

The width is about 20 to 24 inches.

The hammer is a small five-pound sledge.

Note the abundance of rock on the passage floor.

So yeah.

R.I.P.

Absolutely not.

The abundance of the rock on the passage floor do you think that there's any way that they are they trying to say that something like dug out of this or something like whenever they're like oh look at the amount of like loose rock on the floor because really should there be that much because

it's because where they're hitting inward oh because they keep chipping it back and forth every time they ship the chip goes into the tunnel yeah it's been nice to see the pile of broken rock below the hole get bigger and bigger We've both realized that we were just going to have to put in a certain amount of work in order to get through.

So we just got down to business.

We don't usually talk much while we work, since one of us is making a lot of noise with the driller hammer.

Break times are used to chat momentarily about whatever topic pops into mind.

The breaks take place whenever the guy that's working decides to switch roles.

We both put in some pretty good work sessions.

I have a little more stamina than me, but he gets just as much done in a short amount of time due to his upper body strength.

We still celebrate the small victories we encounter along the way.

Whenever a section we've been working on crumbles, we cheer.

On the rare occasion that a fist-sized rock falls from the entrance we hoop and holler

that's one small chunk of earth that no longer separates us from whatever lies on the other side i still harbor the fantasy that there is a hidden entrance to the other side of the passage and years ago spanish explorers hid their treasures in the cave and sealed up the entrance and it has remained untouched until we find it

He has a more realistic, although more mundane theory.

He figures there's more cave on the other side.

We'll see who's right.

This trip out, I wanted to see if we could speed up the work by using large masonry bits.

I purchased some good-sized ones at a hardware store at a good size price.

One was larger in diameter than all the rest.

The other was smaller around, but longer.

I had pretty much concluded that the big one might be too big, and I was right.

We tried to get it to go into the rock, but progress was very slow.

We tried pushing for all we were worth, and all we got was tired.

The larger bit just created too much friction area for our strength.

It might have worked with a hammer drill but we didn't have one.

The longer bit worked fine with our drill.

We relied on it for most of the work we did this trip.

I thought we were going to be out one bit and a drill and my hand when the bit broke off towards one end.

I was pushing as hard as I could on the drill with the bit few inches in the wall when it snapped.

I nearly rammed the drill through the wall from pushing so hard.

We were able to retrieve the bit and keep using it minus a couple of inches.

It still worked great.

Only once in a great while did we resort to hammer and chisel.

Work was proceeding as normal until about the time we were on the fourth battery.

I was kneeling down and working the drill slowly into the wall at the time.

I had my earplugs in, my safety glasses on, and was lost in my own thoughts.

Suddenly, over the squill of the drill wearing down the rock, I heard a strange noise.

It was loud.

I could hear it over the noise of the drill, even though I had the earplugs in.

At first, I thought it was just the drill bit doing its job on the cave.

It would frequently complain by screeching and whining as we forced it into the wall, but this was different.

It took me several full seconds to comprehend that this was coming from inside the hole and not the bit.

I stopped drilling and yanked my earplugs out just in time to hear the most terrible scream I have ever heard trail off and echo into the darkness of the cavern.

Fuck that, dude.

Oh my god.

You have to imagine, too, it's probably like sounds like one of those fucking Aztec death whistles, whatever.

Like,

yeah,

or something like that, you know?

Yeah.

Just a massive, massive screech coming from the hole that you're drilling into.

And it's so loud that it is louder than a masonry drill bit over your head.

That you heard through your earplugs, too.

Yeah.

Hey, yo, bring Whip back.

We need Whip to walk.

Put Whip in the hole.

Whip's an anaphylactic shock up on the

grass mound up.

He can't make it down.

He's just turned 18 the other day.

Whip's having a rough go of it.

Maybe he should set this one out.

Yeah, just shove him in.

Fuck it.

Seal it back up.

We'll be all right.

B, I told you, if you ever want your daughter to love you, we're putting Whip in that hole.

I stared wide-eyed at the hole.

For several moments, I didn't move, nor did I breathe.

I turned to look at B.

Moments earlier, he had been lying on the rope bag catching a nap.

Now he was standing upright, mouth open with a look of concern on his face.

I turned and looked into the hole again, half expecting to see a demon face staring back at me.

Nothing was different in Floyd's tomb.

I fixed my gaze on the back of the squeeze where the limits of my light reached.

There was no motion, only darkness beyond the reaches of my light.

In the complete silence that followed, I could hear my heart pounding in my ears.

Not another sound could be heard in the cave.

Suddenly, I heard a scrapy noise behind me and straightened up.

I nearly knocked myself out, hitting my head on the overhang.

It was just B moving to turn on his light, but I was so wired it nearly sent me to my grave.

Bea spoke, and again I jumped.

He said to get some rocks and put them into the hole.

He explained that whatever animal had made that noise might be able to get get through the hole.

I immediately grabbed a few rocks and hoisted them through the opening.

Using the handle of the sledgehammer, I slid the rocks as far back into the tunnel as I could reach, creating a wall between us and the other side.

Since the squeeze is so small, it didn't take long.

The entire time I was doing this, however, I was thinking that the noise certainly did not come from an animal.

I didn't know if Bea really thought it was, or if he was just trying to convince himself.

I didn't say anything to him about what I thought.

From the time it happened to the writing of this journal entry, two days later, I have tried to come up with some possible source for such a noise.

To describe it, I would say it sounded like a cross between a man screaming in fear and a cougar screaming in pain.

It sounded like it came from the hole and was roughly 100 feet away.

The horrific noise reverberated through the cave and through my ears.

B estimates the scream lasted 8 to 10 seconds.

My best guess is about 5 seconds.

Three seconds while I was drilling, one and a half seconds to drop the drill and yank the airplugs, and half a second of sheer terror.

It's difficult to tell how much time passes when you're listening to a solo from the depth of Hades.

I mean, even if it is an animal, like still horrifying.

I mean, like, yeah, like a cougar.

Don't go in there.

Yeah,

I don't need to be in a trap in a tight cave with a cougar.

I think

I like, I love how rational B's character is like you can tell he's very level-headed and you can tell i think ted is definitely the more eccentric one he's the one who's probably you know actively pushing for like hey come on let's go back out there um yeah and keep digging

i think that it's interesting to have a character like b here be like hey put the rocks up because maybe there's uh

it's if there's an animal it might be able to get through I like his rational brain, even though I still think it's in an attempt to trick your mind into believing that it's something like remotely from this world.

You know what I mean?

Like saying that you're like, oh, it's just an animal, put it up, whatever, because you're trying to like not psych yourself out.

But I don't see how it would even remotely be possible that you wouldn't just be like, let's just get the fuck out of here.

I don't know what that is.

Let's just leave.

Yeah, I want to get out immediately.

Yeah.

So anyway, after they continue for some reason.

After I filled the back of the passage with rocks, we just sat there listening to the silence.

My breathing was a a lot more rapid than usual.

Neither of us spoke for quite some time.

Finally, Bea suggested we get back to work, but keep an eye out for movement in the hole.

Put a light in the passage that shined to the back of Floyd's tomb.

It was only at this point that we realized the wind had stopped again and the rumbling could no longer be heard.

To say I was nervous would be an understatement.

I didn't say anything to Bea nor him to me.

Back to the drilling.

Bea took over the work, which was fine with me.

I wasn't exactly worn out, but I didn't mind being further from the hole.

Bea would stop from time to time and listen.

I just sat watching him with my light on.

I wasn't close to the entrance to the hole, but I still found myself looking behind me down the passage to the still water.

Every time my light would cast an unusual shadow, my heart would jump.

My imagination was running wild.

Oddly, Bea seemed to be less concerned about the strange noise than me.

After a short time, he seemed to be focused entirely on getting through the passage.

I was still straining to listen to the sound of the drill.

I heard nothing but the now familiar sound of carbide on stone.

As I contemplated the possible scenarios which might play out on the other side of the passage, I found myself strangely getting somewhat excited again about getting through.

Freak.

It might have been fatigue taking its toll on my mind or the thought of something valuable on the other side.

Yeah, that guy's insane.

Forget that.

Well, see, I want to say that you say this, which it is, it is insane, but

I like the way that they do,

they hear these crazy things and then they sit there for a long time, like waiting.

It's just that thing of sitting in silence, waiting for something to attack you, to like rationalize the things that you're hearing.

But if you have this obsession and you're already, if you've put in all this work, it makes sense that they'd be like, oh man, we're just hearing shit.

I don't know what to, you know, I think it's,

I agree, but I feel like the screen puts you at some level of

like

this comfort.

It is, it is insanely horrifying that's just why I said I like the the the bit after them being like we just sat there we didn't talk to each other for a while we just sat in silence it's just that moment of it if it was just like oh that was weird and they immediately did it but you had that reflection period where you're like you're kind of waiting for it to happen again but it's not showing up so it's it once again it just plants that seed of doubt in your mind where you're like I knew I heard something, but maybe it wasn't as crazy.

I agree.

It's insane, but I feel like there would almost be a like a sacrecy to turning the drill back on, right?

Like it's totally quiet in the cave for a while, and then I would be like scared to start up the drill again almost.

Yeah, almost like you're alerting it.

You're like, hey, I'm here.

Yeah, definitely.

But maybe they're trying to find a way of like, well, if I turn it back on and nothing happens, then maybe we were worried for nothing.

I still, me and you are in a cave and all of a sudden I'm like, well, back to work.

Like, what's your response?

Oh, I'm out of there already.

But at the same time, this is coming for somebody who I'm not a caver.

I have no desire to even climb in this hole.

I'm trying to put myself in the mindset of, well, if I'm obsessed with this virgin passage and I want to see what's on the other side and it's been tantalizing me for two months and we've spent two months in this hole working, that would probably, you know, I'm trying to put myself in that realm, even though that would never happen.

Even my fat ass crawling in the hole would never happen.

Yeah, I don't, I would not be in the, yeah, I see no scenario where I'm down here.

No.

I've been on like, I've been on like school field trips to caves, like safe routes, and I'm still like, huh.

Yeah, no, no.

My thoughts were broken when B let out a yell, possibly a cuss word.

He said the drill battery was dying, but he didn't quite, but he hadn't quite broken off a large relative section he was working on.

Set the useless drill aside and picked up a hammer and bullpen.

He started wailing away at the hole created by the bit.

After nearly 10 solid minutes of hammering, he sat back against the rock, sweating and nearly out of breath.

The bullpin was still protruding from the cave wall.

He held the hammer toward me, invited me to take a few swings, held up my hand, and shook my head.

I've been ready to exit the cave for quite a while now.

He didn't press the issue, and without speaking, we both started gathering the gear we were going to take out.

Once again, we stashed some of the tools in the passage.

I was first to start toward the top of the cave.

Several times I had to stop and wait for B.

Not because he was moving slow, I was just more than eager to get out.

Few times have I felt better than that night, stepping out into the chilly night air.

My journal talks about the rest of the evening, our dinner, our decision to get a motel and come back the next day, our lengthy discussion on the strange sounds we had heard, another mediocre night's sleep.

I cannot believe that we were so willing to get right back into the cave after hearing the scream.

Part of the reason I went along with the idea was because B seemed so indifferent to any possible dangers.

Even if it were an animal, which I did not believe, but could offer no better explanation, weren't we possibly putting ourselves in harm's way?

In retrospect, I still have difficulty understanding our thought process at the time.

We were just too eager to discover Virgin K passages.

I now think it could be summed up with one word: testosterone.

See, that's why I like having that character be: if the rational guy in the group is just like, man, seriously, I think it's fine, and he has somehow tricked his brain into doing it, it's going to probably motivate others to kind of

like just

believe in that kind of

confidence or that kind of rationale.

Yep, Yep, there he is equally stupid.

Equally insane.

Alright, so our next entry is from February 13th.

Believe the next day.

It's amazing what a couple of good meals and a little sleep can do for someone's attitude.

Even though we still had memories of the strange noise fresh in our minds, we relit our fire of enthusiasm.

The other side of the passage seemed so close.

We were sure this would be the day.

We got to the cave and started to work our way down to the hole.

Getting back into the darkness of the cave brought back the memories of the night before.

The sight of the circle of rock illuminated by our headlamps, the smell of dirt in the air, the sound we made as we crawl across the rock.

Once we reached the entrance to Floyd's tomb, however, we were once again ready to blaze the trail leading to an undiscovered part of the cave.

We immediately noted the presence of the breeze blowing out of the hole and the rumbling.

The bullpin sticking out of its hole was an obvious sign of where we needed to begin work work for the day.

B took over where he left the day before, took up residence in the same spot I occupied the night before, even though I was already well rested and wanting to start work.

B was making the hammers sing with each blow.

After a mere two or three minutes, he let out a cheer, turned to reveal a handful of rock that used to be attached to the cave.

He was breathing heavily, but had a big smile on his face.

So did I.

For the time, the strange noise had been forgotten.

The vision of success captured our attention and here we have uh it says click to see the size of the opening at this point and uh this is getting like human length kind of yeah I think that they're finally getting to a place where it's gonna be a tight passage anyways this is probably where they can definitely start to squeeze in this is like yeah someone can fit in and crawl yeah

The lower left-hand corner of the hole had been giving us grief because of the thickness of the wall at that point.

We felt that if we could just remove that corner, we might be on our way inside.

Bea now held in his hand the crumbled remains of the corner.

Our excitement consumed us as we examined the hole.

I took the hammer and pounded away at the surface of the hole.

The idea was to remove the jagged edges that would take their toll on my skin.

Size looked right.

Now the moment we had been working for.

We cautiously approached the entrance to Floyd's tomb.

I decided the best way to enter the small hole was to place one arm over my head, turn my head sideways, and slowly work my way in.

Huh.

I see.

You think he means like just, I'm trying to do it here.

So he's saying cheek to floor, basically, first off.

My god, one arm above his head.

So is it almost like a swimming motion, right?

Like your arm extending

like a stroke.

I'm like, hey, yeah, towards the arm.

Yeah, that's what I imagine.

Fuck.

Terrifying.

I soon determined this was not going to work.

The hole was small.

If I was going to make it in without widening the hole anymore, I was going to have to put both arms over my head In a diving position, turn my head sideways, and slip into the tomb.

God.

The width of the entrance was the limiting factor.

The height was sufficient.

The arms overhead position flared my shoulder blades out, but there was still room to get in.

Plus, the arms overhead gave me the best squeeze side to side.

In order to enter straight into the hole, I stood on my feet and bent over to get level with the entrance.

My knees were bent and the the position was uncomfortable, sort of a semi-squatting position, bent at the waist with arms overhead.

Plus, I had to slightly turn my upper torso to the left in a counterclockwise rotation to negotiate the angle of the entrance.

Notice in the last photo that the entrance generally slopes up to the right.

I got my arms through the entrance with minor scrapes.

Next came my head.

By keeping it turned sideways, I was able to get it in.

For the most part, up to my shoulders.

When I got to my shoulders, I could feel the rocks touching all around my shoulders and chest.

It's not stopping me, but I was definitely scraping many surfaces of my body.

I decided to just push through, keeping in mind that I was going to have to come back out eventually.

The pain was not too bad, and I was in.

Well, my upper body was in.

At least I could get a good idea of what the tomb was going to be like.

And here,

oh,

yeah, what a fun picture.

What a great time.

So it says the link says, here's a flattering photo of my best side.

Notice the size of the area we had to work in.

The ledge overhead was an obstacle.

My God.

Yeah.

It's like,

I love this picture so much.

It looks like he's being swallowed.

Yeah.

Well, also, I mean, like, this is, he is a really skinny guy, very tiny.

And that wall is hugging both sides,

both sides of his hips, like both of his side like

there's not any room that his arms could ever come back so now to be through there in a diving pose like just above your head my i i just my claustrophobia and i thought like yeah you're it's rock on your chest and back oh god i mean like scraping hard i mean unbelievable like both sides of you are a hundred percent completely you know locked into place like yeah oh and i guess just for people like once again i'd said that it's for people that are just audio listening he the photo is just him standing and kind of going through the hole but he is fully standing up and half of it his upper half of his body is in the hole the other half is just standing uh kind of to give you an idea of what the hole looks like and how he's getting inside of the hole uh and also there's like subtle attentions to detail i like like for one he has the outfit he described earlier but like the back of the jeans is dusty because he's been setting on the dirt uh you can see like a shovel that's like loosely thrown to the feet in front of him to get the gravel out of the way.

Like it's there's a lot of attention to detail in just this image.

Yeah, it'd be weird if he was just totally clean.

You'd be like, what?

Once inside the tomb, I had a few inches all around me in which to position my body.

This was the largest part of the passage, and it was conveniently located right at the beginning of the crawl.

That gave me a little room to get positioned to crawl further into the passage.

Inside the tomb gave me a whole new outlook of what it was going to be like to crawl through.

Even though this was the largest part of the crawl, it was still small.

I could move my head around freely, but every direction that I turned, I was staring at a wall of solid rock.

When I spoke to B, my voice sounded muffled, like I was talking in a small box.

I could rest my chest on the passage floor, but the rocks were uncomfortable.

I turned my head to look further ahead, but couldn't see past the wall of rocks I had built the day before.

The squeeze toward the end of the passage was closer now, and appeared even narrower.

I didn't know if I could squeeze through or not.

I knew it would be close.

I wanted to crawl further into the passage.

First, however, I had to work to get some of the loose rocks that were lying on the passage floor out of my way.

I was disappointed to find out that most of the rocks that looked loose were actually attached to the floor.

I was hoping to be able to just scrape them out of the way.

I'd pushed a sledgehammer into the passage before me, so at this point I used it to push the rock quote-unquote wall we had made further back in the passage.

Then I dragged the sledge back and forth across the floor to move any loose rocks or break up the solid ones.

By sliding the head of the hammer under the squeeze, I determined that the narrowest part of the squeeze was about seven inches high.

I figured we would have to do some work before I could slip through.

The entire time I had my head in the passage, Bea was just kicking back, listening to my descriptions and progress reports.

At some point, he snapped the photo shown above.

Thanks, B.

Up to this point, the size of the passage was not too big of a deal.

I was in an incredibly small passage, but only my upper body was in, and since it was the largest part of the passage and my arms could move freely, I was pretty calm.

Then it was time for a push.

Ugh, man.

Are you calm?

God.

I slid the sledgehammer up as far as I could reach.

Since my body filled the entrance, I could not slip the tool out, so it was easier to push it ahead.

In order to rotate my hips to the proper angle to enter the hole, I had to lay my upper body on my forearms, use my feet to climb the wall outside the hole, and slowly crawl into the hole.

My hips barely fit.

Once I cleared the entrance, I could relax a bit and get in position to

work toward the squeeze.

I decided to try the one arm forward technique to get through.

The passage was so narrow that whatever position I started with, I would have to stay with through the entire length.

There was just no room to move around or change positions.

I would also have to turn my head one way or another and keep it in the same position.

This crawl was tight.

Moving forward at this part of the passage was relatively easy.

I could use my forward arm, my left arm, to pull and my other arm to push.

At the same time, I would wiggle my body, trying to arch as much as I could to keep my chest off the rocks.

I tried both ways and determined that I would turn my head to the right.

Felt the most comfortable.

I began to learn things as I went.

I determined that a small flashlight in one hand would be nice, then I could shine it ahead and get a better idea of what I was about to crawl over.

This was a difficult maneuver because I had to look overhead since my head was turned.

It became immediately obvious that we were going to have to do some more work removing rocks from the passage.

As I moved along the surface, I was constantly scraping my chest on the rocks.

They were sharp and it was painful.

Occasionally, I would cause a rock to slide along under my chest and actually wedge me between it and the top of the passage.

I would then have to back up and either try to move the rock to the side with my cheek using a sweeping motion with my head or back way out and move it with my forward hand.

My little trip into the passage represented a major milestone in my caving career.

When I began caving, I did not feel overly comfortable going through tight spaces.

Even the little squeeze at the beginning of this cave was an obstacle to overcome.

By pushing myself and forcing myself to try the narrow passages, I've become much calmer about tight spaces.

Still, this passage represented a new benchmark in small spaces.

I've not been faced with anything like this.

I don't remember having to take off my helmet before now.

This passage, it is mandatory.

As I mentioned before, not only do I have to take off my helmet, but I have to turn my head to the side in order to fit.

The journey into the tomb went like this.

After I twisted my hips into the passage, I took a few minutes to stop and work out a game plan.

Most of the length of my legs was still outside the entrance.

They were just dangling in the air.

The tomb was still big enough to move my head around and even move my arms freely into position.

It was larger than the rest of the passage, but not by much.

It was like sticking your head into a box.

Everywhere I looked, there were rocks and not too far from my head.

Any sound I made was muffled and dead.

The narrowest part of the passage was about 10 feet in.

At this point, I was about 3.5 feet in.

At about the 4-foot mark, I would have to commit to whatever position I felt comfortable and stay that way until the 12-foot mark, at which time the cave started opening up.

I went with my left arm forward and head turned to the right.

B had given me a flashlight that I held in my left hand.

As I inched forward, I would try to brush the loose rocks away with my left arm.

This was somewhat successful, but there were a lot of rocks I missed or could not move.

As mentioned, the first little bit of the crawl moved along fairly quickly, since there was a little room above me to negotiate the passage.

Then the walls started to close in around me.

I had a few extra inches on either side of me, but the top of the crawl was getting very low.

At about the 7-foot mark, I could feel the top rubbing my back as I would arch.

After another half foot, I couldn't arch anymore.

I had to just push ahead with my toes and pull with my forward arm.

I decided it would be a good time to see if I could back out.

I tried it and it was pretty easy.

That gave me a lot more confidence.

Still, I had B-tie webbing to my feet just in case he had to pull me out.

And here we see it.

Oh, nightmare.

Last shot before my feet were all the way in.

Note the webbing B-tied at my request.

I mean, his feet are longer than the entrance of this hole.

Yeah.

Good God.

Like he has to turn his feet sideways to fit in.

Yeah.

It's, it also, like, this gives me me what i said earlier about it looking like he's being swallowed like this full like he's fully committed to the monster at this point 100

man it's so it's so it's such effective horror by the way that this even exists so terrifying

my neck was starting to get sore from being cranked to the side my head was getting heavy but to rest it the only option i had was to lay it down on the broken rocks It was painful, but I did it frequently.

I was staring at the wall to my right.

It was a mere four to five inches from my face.

Most of the time, I wasn't watching the wall, either I had my eyes closed, which I sometimes do when I go through a tight spot, or the light wasn't shining in a direction that did me any good.

It was very quiet in the tomb, other than my own breath.

I was breathing heavy from the effort it took to move.

Thankfully, the breeze was present and cooled me off.

By lifting my head and carefully touching the ceiling from time to time, I could gauge the size of the passage that my body would soon pass through.

Much like a cat using its whiskers to gauge an opening in a fence.

At the seven and a half foot mark, I could tell things were about to get real tight.

While light in the darkness, in a passage deep within a cave, one is in a unique position to ponder.

A mountain literally resting on top of me, the entire earth below.

One tiny movement of earth and I would cease to exist.

Or worse, to recognize the fear shared by Floyd Collins as he lay there, trapped for days deep within the heart of Mother Earth, incapable of freeing himself from this earthen prison.

Really great thing that the story does, not to throw something, not to throw out the story too much, but

we have these exaggerated fears of these like demon screams, right?

But then also it just kind of once again plants in the fear that like

that a regular spelunker would have or like a cave diver would have.

That's just like, well, this whole thing could just follow me.

Just the act of it is so scary enough that you kind of forget which one is more dangerous.

Like just like, oh, yeah, there is a demon, but still, I guess, I guess I could just be stuck in here forever and just die.

So much of the horror from this comes from like the real horror of it, right?

Yeah.

Like how terrifying spelunking is.

And it's like, and also there might be a monster.

Exactly.

Yep.

It does a good job at blending the two.

I feel that it's almost seamless.

Picture yourself in my position, lying on your stomach and your left arm's extended over your head.

Your right arm's at your side, having only a few inches in which to move.

Your arms and hands are sore and bleeding from crawling and pulling yourself across the broken rocks.

Your entire body is resting on the rocks.

Your neck gets tired of holding your head up off the rock, so you gently rest your cheek on the rock to rest.

Once you start again, you have to push with your toes to scoot your body forward, sliding across the rocks.

After moving a few inches, you are breathing hard and have to rest.

As you inhale, you can feel your back pressing hard against the top of the squeeze.

It takes several minutes before you recover enough to press forward.

The entire time you are lying there, you think about how you are going to get back out

and

what if?

That's pretty much what I was going through at that point in the passage.

I decided this would be a good time to throw in a photo of the squeeze.

The photo was actually taken on a different trip, but it shows how tight things were at that point in the passage.

Notice my head turned to the side, not by choice, and you can see how I would rest my cheek on the rocks.

You can also see how difficult it is to look look ahead of me.

My arms are also pinned to my side.

Player determined that would be the best position.

There's virtually no space between the top of the passage and my back.

Tight.

Not for the claustrophobically inclined.

Oh my God.

This is such an iconic image now in like the realm of the

culture.

I see this everywhere.

Oh, this has got to be the thumbnail image.

Oh, for all the stories that are about it, yeah.

And people just in general, when they talk about like the horrors of cave diving or whatever, they'll throw this picture around.

so good man what a what a horrifying image i just unfucking believable man if the early pictures look like he was being swallowed this is him in a digestive trap well yeah this is him just exactly in the intestines sliming through yeah when i reached the point where my back was rubbing and i could feel with my head the passage was not getting bigger i knew i was most likely not going to get through Still, I decided to give it one more push.

If I had been in the position a year ago, I would have been in a state of panic, but not today.

I was pretty pumped.

I took a few minutes to rest, then I went for it.

I exhaled completely all of the air in my lungs.

This caused my chest to collapse enough to scoot forward a few inches.

Because it takes so much effort to scoot, I only went a few inches before I had to stop and breathe.

As I inhaled, my chest pressed hard against the floor and my back against the top.

It took a little longer to get my breath back.

Unbelievably, I did it again.

Exhale, scoot, rest.

Again, only a few inches.

Repeat.

I took a few extra minutes to enjoy this position, pinned in this small passage.

Wow, I cannot believe how relaxed I was.

I tried one more time to exhale and scoot.

My back was rubbing too much to continue.

Despite the failed effort, I was psyched.

I took several long minutes to lay there and recover from the effort.

Bea had been encouraging me the entire time.

It was fun to hear him cheer as he saw my shoes go deeper.

deeper into the hole.

Backing out was not too difficult, but did take some work.

I encountered the same obstacles as when I went in.

After I wiggled my hips out of the hole, which took some time, I had trouble getting my shoulders out.

Both arms were overhead at this point.

My shirt was getting caught on the rocks and my shoulders were brushing the sharp rocks.

After struggling to find a good position, I gave up and just pulled my upper body out.

Scrape.

My shirt pulled up over my head and I had some nice scrapes on my shoulders, but I didn't care.

To me, this trip was a success.

I pushed myself beyond what i thought possible i kneeled at the entrance and looked into the narrow passage i had just been in the rock wall was now at the 11 foot mark i had pushed it a little with my forward arm small's point was at the nine foot mark we were close between the work and the excitement i was tired just sat on the rope bag grinning

what a trip and then we see another picture Or this is a like collage of the progress across the yeah it just kind of shows from when it was just the size of a barely the size of a glove and how it's opened up now the amount of work that months has taken for them to get to this point So what I like about showing these pictures too is you really get to see like

I'm really with Ted with the this crazy push that he's doing you would

In a weird way describing this the horrors of me is just like seeing him in this in this position squeezing through and him talking about how his chest is pressing against the floor and his back is pressing against the top.

You almost forget about the demon scream and stuff.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, you forget.

It's so terrifying.

You forget that there's potentially a monster down there.

Yeah.

You forget why he built.

Honestly, the mention of the brick, of the rock wall at the back kind of reminds you like, oh yeah, they built that wall because they're afraid of something.

Yeah, exactly.

Now it's just a little indicator of how far they keep pushing it.

Yeah.

The rest of the journal entry talks about the usual.

Climb out, dinner, trip home, etc.

On our way home, we brainstorm and came up with some ideas that would help us get through.

We both both invented some tools to remove the rock on the floor deep within the passage.

We're both very excited about this trip.

I, for pushing my limits in the cave, and B from his success in climbing out of the cave.

This was the first time he was able to climb all the way out without the help of climbing devices, nor my help.

It was a personal success that showed the progress he has made since his accident.

Pretty cool.

I remained amazed that we could so easily forget the terrifying moment we experienced just the day before.

All had been forgotten, with the strange noise being blamed, in our minds on some rational, harmless explanation.

Next, we move into the section called Success from

April 7th, 2001.

Prior to going back out to Mystery Cave again, we spent a lot of time preparing.

We made a squeeze box, which is a wooden box, the opening of which can be adjusted in size.

Wait, the box can be adjusted in size?

What does that mean?

it's i think it's supposed to be like maybe you can condense it down maybe i'm i'm wondering if you can put the box in and you can adjust its size according to the squeeze maybe height probably

um we would then crawl through the opening and measure to see how tight of a squeeze we could fit through from that we were able to determine that i needed about eight inches in height to get through the smallest portion of floyd's tomb That meant we would have to scrape out about an inch from the floor of the passage.

We also learned that the best option I would need to get through the passage would be on my stomach with my arms by my side.

And of course, my head would be turned one way or the other.

That position allowed my shoulder blades to drop to their lowest point.

In order to move, I would push forward or backward with my toes.

Huh.

It sounds difficult, but felt adequate.

Later, it proved to work sufficiently.

You're basically like worming your way through the tunnel.

Yeah, to get through anything.

Yeah.

The second thing we did to prepare was to construct the tools we invented to work within the cave that's how it's spelled okay i came up with a clever way to chip away inside of the passage without having to climb inside i had my neighbor weld together several links of steel pipe in a manner that would allow us to make it apart to take it apart while we climbed down to the tomb but still have the strength necessary to hold up to a blow from a hammer once it was together.

We made our own tips that we could screw into our pipe to reach the area we needed to work on.

B came up with a cool design for a scraper using angle iron.

He had his neighbor weld it together.

It proved to be an invaluable tool for scraping and removing the rock.

We were both proud of our inventions.

Also made a device to hold my drill that attached to our pipe.

We ended up not using it since B's scraper device worked so well.

And the description for the emerge says, here's a picture of B edited to protect his identity with the pipe we made.

I took the picture facing away from the tomb.

He's sitting on the rope bag that we used as a bed.

Behind him to his left is the passage that leads down to the still water.

Behind him to his right is the last drop-off before the passage.

You can see some orange webbing we used to climb down and up.

So it's a pretty little interesting device that they used to probably put in there so they can start just chipping away at all the crazy shark rock rock that they've had, which will probably also...

I'm wondering if you freed up some of that stuff too, if it would would actually give you some more

like floor space if if there's so many jagged rock like does that actually push your stomach up and your back up against the top of it so if it helps smooth out the floor if it just helps make it like exponentially better to crawl through i um

i figure as much there's something about this picture too that's so like

When I said crime scene photo earlier, this really gives me 100%.

The redacted bars on the eyes does not help.

For those who are just listening, it's basically just B on this floor sitting, smiling, and he just has the

metal pipe tool in his hand, but there's just a redacted bar over his eyes.

And it does look like a crime photo.

It 100% looks like he is going to get murdered.

The brain behind him looks like so menacing.

Oh, my God.

And that's the safe part of the cave, the part they know about.

Yeah.

I took an oath.

I made a vow.

I would not leave the cave until I had made it through the passage.

Conquered Floyd's tomb.

This would be the trip.

It had been a long time since we had been out to Mystery.

We had been busy though.

We had made the tools we had talked about.

It was fun coming up with ideas for tools.

Also, we made a squeeze box to determine the best technique for getting through the tight spot.

Plus, we knew about how much rock we'd needed to remove before we could get through.

We were excited to get back out to the cave to finish our project.

Our climb down to the passage took a little bit longer than usual since we had extra tools to carry.

Once we got down to the passage, we immediately got to work work using B's scraping tool with the pipe I'd made.

It worked like a charm.

We could hammer the pipe on one end and the scraping tool on the other end dug into the rock.

Then we could push the debris all the way through the passage and out of our way.

When we needed to measure our progress, we would turn the scraper sideways in the passage and observe the clearance.

We worked for about two hours before I had a desire to try the tomb.

I just wanted to make sure I was going to make it through on the first try.

Bea made one more sweep of the passage floor, clearing any loose rocks from where I would be crawling, and pushing the wall we had made to the back of the squeeze.

I made preparations for the crawl by fashioning duct tape suspenders to prevent my shirt from sliding across the rock.

I went with a flashlight in my hand, even though my hand would be at my side.

I knew I would need it once I got through.

As an expression of faith, I did not tie a rope to my feet.

I was confident I was going to make it.

Finally, I made the attempt.

Man, that's such a hood.

Just put the rope on your feet, bro.

Just put the fucking rope on your feet.

Since we didn't do any work to the entrance, I had to go through the same dance routine to even enter the passage.

Once I got my upper body through the hole, I shined the flashlight ahead of me to work on a plan of attack.

The passage didn't seem any bigger than last time I was there, but most of the work was done deeper in the squeeze.

I paused for a few minutes, then twisted my hips to get my lower body in.

I slowly inched forward as my entire body slowly filled the the passage.

Before I was completely in, I got into position for the push.

I dropped both of my hands to my side and turned my head to the right and I began to inch forward.

Once my toes were inside the cave, I used them to push forward.

To keep from scraping my body, I would walk using my shoulders, knees, and toes.

Progress was slow but steady.

That was fine by me.

A foot or two before the tight spot, I could already tell there was a little more room.

Even so, I began to touch the roof of the passage with my back.

This time, however, I was able to continue moving forward.

I reached the lowest point in the passage and I could tell it was still going to be tricky.

Even with the work we had done clearing out the loose rocks, I still felt sharp pebbles rolling under my chest as I slid along.

When I could feel my back brushing the top of the passage in several places, I reverted to my technique of exhaling.

Before I began, however, to commit to lay there in the passage.

I could see the glow of Bea's flashlight as the rays of light managed to squeeze past my body.

I could feel the the cool breeze evaporate the drops of dirty sweat on my forehead.

I could feel a thousand sharp edges dig into the surface of my skin.

I felt the twinge of excitement as I realized that the goal we had set out to achieve weeks ago was about to be realized.

This thought alone made me want to keep moving, no matter how tight the passage became.

I breathed in and out rapidly for a few moments, then began.

Exhale.

Scoot.

Stop to catch my breath.

Repeat.

After just a few inches of scooting, I could raise my head off the floor of the squeeze and tell that the passage was beginning to open up.

I relayed this information to B and we both took a few seconds to celebrate.

During the rest of the slide through the passage, B was cheering me on.

Oh yeah, Virgin Passage!

And Neil Armstrong Territory

were the phrases he kept repeating.

I was grinning ear to ear.

Even though the passage was beginning to get larger, it was still slow going.

I had to continue scooting along for another foot and a half before I could slide my arms underneath me to use them to crawl.

At that point, I felt my journey was essentially over.

I was able to sit up slightly and move the rock wall we had erected several trips ago.

Those rocks served as a somber reminder that a little caution would be wise.

I shouted back to Bea that I was through.

We both took a moment to congratulate ourselves on our success.

Bea would likely never be able to squeeze through the passage and see what I was seeing, so I gave him a description of what the cave looked like.

At this point, I only had my mini mag, so I could not see very far into the passage.

The end of the passage made a gentle right turn and seemed to go for a ways.

I was able to do anything at this point but sit due to the size of the passage.

All of the broken rocks we had pushed through Floyd's tomb were around me at this point.

There were no other signs of human intrusion.

I had to wait until Bea passed me my helmet light to get a better feeling for the cave.

Bea used the pole we had made to slide me the end of the rope.

Then I was able to pull all of my gear through the squeeze.

The first thing he sent through was my helmet and light.

After I got the light fired up, I was able to see our new section of the cave.

Hours.

It was an exciting experience to see the results of hours of hard work.

over the course of several weeks.

At this point, we still had no idea what the cave had to offer.

The only thing I could see was the passage immediately following the squeeze.

It was a narrow passage with a low ceiling.

I would easily be able to get through it, but I would have to crawl.

I began taking pictures so I could show B.

Here we have one of those pictures.

Man, just haunting.

Like, just feels like little corridors of hell, doesn't it?

Yeah, it's like...

It's so inhuman.

It's like you're on a different planet.

But it's large enough that you're like, oh yeah, something could be crawling around through here yeah certainly big enough for like an animal to fit in or even like a person or something i'm just saying like it's big enough where i'm like oh i something's gonna be crawling around in here that's fun yeah oh great love that so happy that's happening yeah love that for me thank you the first section of the new this is a description for the picture the first section of the new passage i was almost laying down since the passage was so small my feet are extended in front of me as you can see Notice the broken rock on the floor of the cave.

Passage looks like a dead end, but it turns gently to the right near the end.

Which, for people that are just listening, it's, I mean, it looks like a little corridor.

It's like basically a little hallway.

Like he said, he would have to crawl.

We can see his feet in the frame, so he's definitely sitting.

So you'd have to crawl through here, but it is wide enough that people could, like, the, I would say the edge, like the walls of the rock are relatively smooth, and it just looks like a small hallway.

Yeah.

I asked B how far he thought I should venture into the new cave in light of the strange events that had occurred.

For the first time, he, too, toned down his enthusiasm as he remembered the noises

oh yeah now oh yeah that yeah well it's i the explosive excitement of like holy shit you actually got through to then you're also just like oh oh yeah the mount lion demon i forgot about that oops yeah

he slid the pipe through the tomb with a loosened tip on the end He said I could use it as a weapon if I ran into an animal or

I like the dot, dot, dot, like, or insert demonic entity, here

or maybe an ancient god.

I don't know.

Worm may be the thing that's right behind you.

Yeah.

He also told me to make sure we could hear each other as I progressed into the cave.

Even though we were at least thinking of the possibility of running into trouble, we never really considered the fact that if I got into trouble, B would never be able to rescue me.

And in fact, no one would be able to get to me for many hours.

If I were in serious trouble, as in hurt, there was no way anyone would be able to get me in time.

But, symbolic of the whole experience, we were focused on our goal, and not the potential dangers we faced.

So far, we had dodged the proverbial bullet.

So far.

I strapped on my gloves and knee pads, grabbed my camera, and began my adventure.

I crawled through the passage pictured above, which was about 20 feet long.

At the end, the crawl of the cave bent slightly to the right.

I would have to climb up a gentle slope, but then I would be able to stand by the end of the next section of the cave.

The next section was about 40 feet long.

In addition to having a higher ceiling, the walls were a little wider than the section I had just crawled through.

Both sections were relatively straight.

The floor was covered with a type of rock which crunched as I crawled, and then walked across it.

The walls were basically the same as much of Mystery Cave, except pristine.

It was obvious no one had been there before me.

Upon closer examination of the walls, I found two delicate types of formations.

The first resembled several chunks of grated cheese tied together on one end, with the rest of the cheese just flopping down.

The second formation was just tiny strands of rock, thinner than human hair.

It looked pretty cool.

I found several examples of both kinds of formations.

I was not even through the second section of cave, and I could barely hear B.

Cave passages are not very acoustically friendly.

I shouted to him that I would go for half an hour then return.

He said that'd be fine and to be careful.

Then I proceeded to explore some more.

I could walk nearly upright at this point.

I was on the third straight section of the cave when I noticed a crystal formation on the wall to my right.

It was in several layers on the wall, resembling clear candle wax, and those allowed to melt and drip down the wall.

There were several small stalactite-looking formations formed by these crystals.

The longest was about four inches in length.

There would have been one much much longer, judging by the size of the base, but it had broken off.

I looked to see if I could locate where it ended up, but I couldn't find it.

Okay, so that,

I don't think I thought of that first time, but that is a very interesting detail.

Yeah.

So if this is a never, like, no, nothing has ever been back here.

And if a stalactite got heavy enough that it fell off, then it would be on the ground right below you, right?

But for some reason, something has moved it at some point in history.

That's pretty cool.

At some point

from now to the beginning of time, something has moved that broken stalactite or broken it off potentially.

That's fun.

Yeah, when that was, we don't know, but you in your in your brain, you're probably immediately thinking, oh, something recent.

Yeah, you know, yeah, it just happened.

Uh, we have a picture, it says the crystal formations are right behind the rock in the upper right-hand corner of the photo.

I could walk up right, but I had to stoop on occasions, like ducking under that rock.

Such a pretty, so pretty, so haunting at the same time.

Fascinating.

Well, yeah, just unexplored.

No one's been here, supposedly.

Yeah, you know.

The passages continued on for another hundred feet or so before the cave opened up a little.

It was at the end of a short, straight segment of the cave.

At the very end of the segment, the cave made a bend to the left and opened up into a room.

Just at the point where the room began, There is a round rock that appeared to be leaning against the wall.

This seemed odd, but singular formations are common in caves, so it is by no means unique.

I crawled and stepped over several large chunks of rock that fell down from the ceiling, but this one was more round than the others.

Once past the rock, the room opened up to a height of about 15 feet.

It was about 15 feet in width and about 30 feet in length.

At the far end of the room, there was another passage leading straight out.

As there in the room, I had an eerie feeling.

It was like the old saying that I felt like I was being watched.

Ugh.

Oh, man.

Oh, gosh.

And it's like you're in, you are in a giant room underground that no human has ever set foot in.

Yeah.

And then you feel like you're being watched.

It's like it's like the sensation of

being alone.

Like you hear about space horror stories of being alone on the moon, right?

Like the last man on the moon, but he, but something's there with him, you know?

It's like whatever

the description should not exist.

Even just, yeah, even just the description of this round rock, too, where you're just like, huh.

You plant that little seed right there, and then immediately in the next room, you're like, oh, now I feel like I'm being fucking walked.

Like, it's just setting up.

It's like really just this very slow domino effect.

I love it.

Once again, the excitement of the new find faded.

And the memories of the mysterious side of the cave crept back into my mind.

Suddenly, I felt very alone.

Fortunately for my ego, I was nearly out of time and had to get back to be before my half hour was up.

I took several pictures of the room.

I was going to just get a feel for how long the next passage was when something caught my attention.

On the left side of the room, on the wall at about eye level, I discovered what appeared to be hieroglyphics.

Oh god.

It was a single drawing that almost appeared to be just part of the rock coloration.

It looked like very crude representations of people standing below a symbol.

I was pumped.

This meant that there had to be another entrance to this cave.

Even if the entrance was closed or blocked, it might mean an opportunity to open it and get B into the cave.

I took another look at the drawing to make sure I could describe it to B, and I took some more pictures and headed back to B.

When I got back to the squeeze, I could barely talk fast enough to let B know everything I had discovered.

He was just as excited to hear about our newly found treasures.

As we debated what our next move would be, I began to send my gear back through the tomb to B.

I told him it would be best if we got someone else to come back with me, in case something happened.

He agreed.

Once I got all my gear through, I was faced with the wonderful task of having to negotiate Floyd's tomb again.

Theoretically, a person should be able to get out of a passage he just crawled through by simply reversing what he just did.

If he could torture his body a certain way to get in, he should be able to get into the same position to get out.

In practice, this may not prove to be possible or practical, such was the case with the tomb.

I determined in advance that I would attempt to go headfirst back through the squeeze.

I knew that I would definitely make it by going feet first, but that would mean backing up all the way through the tomb.

That would take a long time and be very exhausting.

My only concern is going headfirst was when I got to the end of the squeeze.

I would have to get through the hole we had made without the benefit of being able to twist my body.

Oh well, I chose to go ahead and first deal with the exit when I got to it.

I started into the squeeze very close to the tight spot, so at least I would have it over with soon.

It turned out to be tricky getting through.

I had to shift my hips to the right a little to get through, but I just kept plugging away at it.

My hands were once again by my side, my head was turned to the right, and I was scooting with my toes.

And once again, I was using my head as a gauge to tell when I was at the tight spot, then when I was past it.

I seemed to get tired a little quicker on the way out.

Must have been from all the work we had done to get through.

I was a little over halfway through when something bizarre happened.

I was laying there taking a brief break when I heard a sound deep within the cave.

It was faint, but distinct sound of rock sliding on rock.

My blood froze in its veins.

I couldn't move.

I just lay there straining to hear the sound again.

Nothing.

I quickly began to scoot toward the exit.

I didn't mention the sound to Bea, but I did recall one of our earlier trips when B said he heard the same thing.

The task of getting out of our hole turned out to be as painful as I thought it would be.

I had to put my arms overhead and forced my shoulders through the hole.

I definitely left some skin behind as I slipped through.

B helped me as I wiggled my upper body out of the passage.

Then I could catch myself and ease my lower body out of the tomb.

I was out.

Bea and I shook hands and began to load up our gear.

I was trying to listen to any sounds coming from the hole, but we were making too much noise gathering our stuff.

As much as I looked forward to getting into the passage, it was a relief to get back out.

That is pretty much how I feel about caves in general.

I love to go in, but I feel good when I get back out again.

Something strange happened with the pictures I took in the new part of the cave.

The pictures I took in the passage leading up to the large room all turned out just fine.

Strangely, none of the pictures taken in the room turned out.

God, dude.

Fuck off.

Can you imagine?

Fuck that.

Oh, it's so good.

Oh, that's so fun that, like, the room you felt like you're being watched in.

Ah, man.

Pictures of the round rock and more importantly, pictures of the hieroglyphics I saw.

Pictures taken before and after after the room turned out great, but the negatives of the photos taken in the room were clear.

Nothing.

I remember what the hieroglyphics looked like, so I drew a picture to give you an idea of what I saw.

Fuck.

God, dude.

Fuck that.

Oh, my gosh, it's so fun.

So the drawing says...

The description says, it's a crude drawing of what I saw, but it's accurate.

First thing I thought when I saw it was Blair Witch Project.

Kind of has the same feel to to it.

Symbols in the center and several figures that looked like people raising their hands were below this.

I'm sure this made people shit their pants.

I mean, this is 2001, so Blair Witch was like so huge at this time, too.

There's also something so haunting about it being alone.

You know, just like,

I don't know, especially on the angel fire when you open it and your whole screen's just the image.

So you have a picture.

It's almost like...

It's like a fucking incantation or something.

It's like something that'd be put up on a pyre.

I almost imagine one time this is like the cave, like an as below, so as above, so below thing.

Like it's almost like a map

of sorts, but

I don't know.

Maybe it is like a symbol of some creature.

Maybe it is a ritual.

I don't know.

But it's just, I love that it's there.

And it being there implies so much, too.

Has a human been there before?

Is it maybe a demon that's drawn this?

Is it maybe some ancient thing?

Was this like...

Is this some lost religion that, you know, has been forgotten to time?

Who knows?

I want to point out, too, that yes, the hieroglyphic is creepy but also he did say that the like the round rock also

the picture of that came out negative too which

i don't know like my i don't want to i i don't want to speculate anything yet but just those two things becoming negative so creepy but especially just the just the the thing of him being like that's that's kind of a weird rock right you can justify you're like oh he's not unique i mean things grow but this thing's kind of like leaning up against the wall like it's just so creepy, dude.

It just works so well.

It's a killer.

Then we have two more pictures.

That's that.

Next one says, This is the last picture before I entered the large room.

At the end of the passage, partially hidden in the shadows, is the round rock that I saw.

So we see the first one, and then the second one says, Here's the same picture with the round rock outline.

You can't really tell from the pictures what you're looking at.

They're the only ones I got of the round rock.

Oh my god.

Which, again, the picture is so terrifying.

Also, just the idea of a perfectly round rock in the middle of the room.

Well, yeah, I wonder

when you're walking through with your headlamp on, right?

Does it blend in a bit?

Well, I guess not because, I mean, he even walked up and he was like, what's strange?

This is just so odd.

If it was perfect, I'm sure it's like not perfectly round, but enough to where you're like, this is

kind of odd, right?

Yeah.

Like, we get, we're already getting some ideas, which not to give away my theory, but you have a rock that is round and you hear the sound of like

rock on rock movements like something is happening in that room but it won't happen in front of him for some reason it's bizarre well that's what makes well yeah that's why i'm wondering if what i'm curious is he never said anything about the position of the rock in the room yeah so it makes me think is the thing moving is it rolling like is there something being pushed out of the way like a lot of things could be happening here oh all right so let's move on to april the 14th and keep keep chugging into this.

So for real.

April 14th, 2001.

Only a couple days elapsed before B found someone who wanted to explore the passage with us.

B told me he talked to a few other people who couldn't make it because of scheduling conflicts.

He said they really grilled him for information about the cave and about the passage.

He would not tell them which cave it was to ensure that we explored it to our satisfaction before we made it known to the public.

Even the guy who ended up going with us did not know which cave until we were very close to it.

And he was warned of secrecy secrecy that he would not reveal the location of the cave to anyone on the planet.

I want to identify him by name, so I will just refer to him as Joe.

Joe, B, and I set out early in the morning to make sure we could spend all the time we wanted in the new passage.

When we got to the cave, we were able to rig up and descend rather quickly.

It helps when you don't have to haul half a hardware store down into the cave.

Joe was impressed by our work.

Even Bea and I took a minute to pat ourselves on the back for all the hard hard work we put in and for the fact that we made it through.

Joe is a rather thin caver who had a lot of experience in caves.

He said this might be the tightest squeeze he'd been in, but it didn't bother him.

I knew that physically he would be able to make it since I was bigger than him and I made it.

He was just as excited as us to get through and get caving.

Maybe more.

He quickly got ready and was waiting to hear what the plan of attack was going to be.

I figured figured I'd send him through first.

Since he was ready, I would follow.

B would pass our gear through and wait for us outside the passage.

B would give us two hours to return.

That was nice of B to go down to the cave and babysit us.

It gets boring sitting there in a cave.

With our plan set, we were ready to roll.

It was perhaps irresponsible of us to not tell Joe about all of the unexplained events that occurred in the cave until we until after he had gone through.

That is so fucked.

That is so

funny.

The word perhaps is so funny.

It was perhaps irresponsible.

It's like, yeah, it definitely is.

Now, here's the thing.

Even if it was just a mountain line or something, like, just tell him that there's something over here.

Tell him, like,

we say there might be an animal.

I don't think you have to be like, yeah, there's like a fucking, we heard a

demon.

Yeah, sure.

Yeah.

Just something.

It was, perhaps, admittedly, are bad.

But what exactly do you tell someone?

How many of the weird things did we need to reveal to him?

We did not feel that we were in any danger or we would not go in the cave ourselves.

So we did not tell him prior to him entering Floyd's tomb.

Of course, we did tell him afterward.

It was too late.

I couldn't believe how easy Joe slipped through the passage.

He said it was tight, but it sure didn't look like it.

Once he got in, we passed him his gear, then I started in.

Even though I knew that I could fit through, it was still a slow trip through the tomb.

You can only go so fast when you're scooting with your toes.

When I reached the tight spot of the squeeze, I had Joe snap a picture of me.

I thought it would make a good photo.

Once I got through, B started to relay my stuff to me.

Then disaster struck.

I'd gone all the way in and turned around to pull my gear through.

I had to kneel down and still crouch down low.

I had just got my helmet, ironically, and light, and was turning around to feed the rope back to B when I smacked my head on the top of the passage.

Human skull versus solid rock.

Rock won.

I told B what had happened, so he sent my first aid kit through.

I was bleeding, but even worse, I didn't feel too good.

I patched myself up, then told Joe I didn't think I'd better continue.

He looked like a little kid who was told that Christmas would be canceled.

Although I didn't like the idea of him exploring the cave without me, for selfish reasons, of course, I want him to at least see part of the cave for making the trip out there.

I told him how far to go and how long it would take.

Then I sent him on his way.

As I laid there, I could hear him crawling into the darkness.

His light disappeared after the first turn.

I rested a minute or two, then began my journey back through the squeeze.

It was disappointing to get all the way to the cave and then not be able to explore it to its end.

Actually, it is killing me.

After I got through Floyd's tomb, which was painful, I sat down and munched on a cliff bar while Bea and I chatted.

I told him I would pay for a motel room if he would stay overnight.

Then we could see how I was doing the next day and make another attempt at the cave.

Felt goofy for having smacked my head on the cave wall.

Bea said he was willing to give it another try tomorrow.

He was just as anxious to put some closure to this cave.

As long as Joe would stay overnight, we determined to wrap things up the next day.

Once this was settled, we just sat back and enjoyed the darkness.

We could hear no sounds coming from the passage.

Silence reminded me of the scraping noise that I heard last time we were out there.

I brought up the subject with Bea.

Since I had not explored the cave completely, I could not offer any explanation of what could be making the scraping noise.

Or the change to the wind strength.

Or the rumbling.

Or that terrible scream we heard.

Suddenly, both wished we had not sent Joe into the cave alone.

Oh, now you realize.

I know the story needed this beat to happen, but just from everything we know about our author, Ted

I don't think even if his head was bleeding

he would have not continued at least to the main room

um

maybe I don't think that he's done anything yet to really put himself in any danger is a thing if he was if he had shown more well here's here's my point if right he is injured enough that he can set in the cave with Ted or with B for two hours he would have continued through to at least to the atrium room.

I mean, I hear what you're saying.

I think that they at least add the good note of being, but I didn't feel good.

I felt weird.

I felt bad.

Yeah.

I think that him, at least being by B, knows that he has somebody there with him.

I think that if he was more reckless earlier on, I would agree.

I still think, too, that he has been extremely eager this entire time, but it does show that, like, I don't know, we haven't shown him being reckless yet.

So I'm not totally bothered by that, I guess.

Okay.

B went to the hole and yelled into it.

Joe!

No answer.

Not surprising.

You just can't hear each other when you're very far apart in a cave.

We nervously waited any sounds.

Good sounds, that is.

Joe-type sounds.

25-minute time limit we had set passed.

Then 25 minutes.

I really had no desire to climb back through the squeeze.

My head was still throbbing and the squeeze looked tighter than ever.

Still, I knew I was going to have to make sure Joe was safe.

Just as I was getting prepared to go back through, I saw a light deep in the passage.

Joe?

I called out.

Nothing.

Joe!

Still no answer.

The light got brighter and I could hear the noise of someone crawling across the broken rock that lined the cave.

You okay, Joe?

No,

was his weak reply.

When he got to the other side of the tomb, he said he was not feeling well.

He quickly took his gear off and put them in the bag so we could pull it through.

As I pulled the bag through the passage, he began to climb back through the tomb.

We didn't even get a chance to question him about what he saw before he was coming back through.

He quickly slipped through the squeeze and the hole and we finally got a look at him.

He looked terrible.

His face was pale and he was out of breath.

Dust that covers the floor of the squeeze left its mark on his face and clothes.

He had numerous small cuts and scratches on his face and arms, probably from his rapid exit from the passage.

His eyes were wide open.

We only had a brief moment to look at the change that had occurred to Joe before he started to head up and out of the cave without saying a word.

While Joe and Bea started for the surface, I took a minute to gather our gear.

Then I stopped to listen into the passage.

I heard nothing, and I felt nothing.

The wind had stopped.

Part of me wanted to get out of the cave as fast as possible, but another part of me wanted to immediately climb back through the passage to find out what made this cave tick.

Then was not the time though.

I still felt a dizzy from my injury.

At that moment I noticed Bea and Joe had made good time getting up the cave passage and I was left alone.

Chills ran through my body as I scurried to catch up with them.

Once we got outside the cave I figured we would be able to find out more from Joe.

But when he got up the final climb he just unclipped from the rope and went straight to the truck.

In the light of day, he looked even worse than in the cave.

Bea and I gathered up the rope and our gear and headed for the truck.

Joe said he did not want to stay overnight because he felt terrible, and we believed him, so we headed home.

We could get no more information from Joe, he just stared straight ahead.

He was shaking like a leaf, and he said he was not cold.

When we tried to question him, his answers were short.

I asked him if he saw the hieroglyphics.

No.

Did you hear his yelling?

No.

Did you see the round rock?

No.

Did he see the crystals?

No.

He said he just went a little ways in and started to feel sick.

Something was fishy about his answers.

He would have had to seen the crystals if he got far enough into the cave that he couldn't hear us yelling.

But why would he not elaborate?

The rest of the trip passed in eerie silence.

Joe didn't say much else.

Gave him a brief outline of the strange events that happened in the cave.

He didn't reply.

As we were dropping him off, we asked if he wanted to go back in the cave.

Shook his head and ran into his house.

Try to call him later in the day and the next day, and only got his voicemail.

I love the ending of this section because I love how they're hiding something from him.

And at the end, he also doesn't elaborate.

Yeah.

Where their whole at the beginning of this passage, their whole explanation is, well, what are we supposed to tell him?

Like, they wouldn't believe us.

Since they did not say that to him, he's probably thinking the exact same thing.

And it seems like whatever it was revealed itself way more to Joe than to Ted.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's like, so my theory,

because I don't think some people look at this and they're like, oh, a giant monster or something like attacked him or whatever stuff.

I think that's a bit much.

I think he probably got the exact same feeling that Ted had in that room, like something's watching me.

And it made him sickly.

And then maybe as he started to make his way out, he heard the round rock right behind him roll closer or something like that, right?

Like something that doesn't immediately tip you off to the supernatural or extraordinary,

but something

very threatening.

I don't know.

I mean, I think that I like your hunch of that it was very similar to Ted.

I think that I think it revealed itself a little more to Joe, is all I got to say.

I don't think it was.

It's nothing more than what Ted experienced.

I agree.

I don't think, I think you're right.

I don't think it was anything abhorrently supernatural, but with the wind closing, it does make me think that the rock somehow is moving and stopping the airflow is what I'm thinking.

Like it seems like that, I, that, that's kind of where my mind is at right now with it.

Yeah, yeah.

All right, so we now move in.

This is the last big entry.

And this is like the big one, the one everyone remembers.

So this is April 28th, 2001.

In this journal entry, I discussed briefly the feelings B and I had at this point.

I would like to elaborate on those feelings and set the mood for this part of my journal.

I hope I can successfully convey our exact thoughts and feelings as we contemplated our next move.

If not, I'm afraid we will appear to the average reader as being ignorant, naive, or downright foolish.

This cave represented to us the culmination of weeks of hard work, complete with an array of emotions.

from fatigue to fear, anticipation to pain, frustration to glory.

To us, we were not standing on the brink of possible destruction, but rather honoring an unspoken commitment, much like a parent of a wayward child.

We were not about to abandon our child out of fear of the unknown.

Like it or not, this cave had become a part of us, and now we must see this adventure to its fruition.

Additionally, for both explanations aside, We were being eaten alive with curiosity.

Despite the overwhelming number of unexplained occurrences we experienced, we had to go back into this cave.

What was making the rumbling noise?

What caused the change in wind strength, etc., etc., all the way down to Joe?

What could have possibly happened to him?

What did he see or experience?

We had many lengthy discussions about what our next move would be.

Kept coming to the same conclusion.

We had to return to the cave.

We could offer no possible scenarios that would solve the many riddles held deep within the cave.

The only way we could hope to complete the puzzle would be to conquer the cave.

We were going back to Mystery Cave.

So

is this a point where you consider them stupid?

No.

And I'll tell you why.

It's because this story does such a good job.

Well, first off, here's the thing.

I mean, like, you can look at it from an outside perspective, knowing what we know and stuff, and be like, what the fuck?

This story has done such a great job of, it presents, it presents creepy things, but it doesn't outright show its hand at all.

And it leads people to be completely enamored with the mystery that surrounds this cave to the point where, well, what did he see?

I mean, I was in that room and I felt weird, but the hieroglyphics, like it keeps dangling this like carrot in front of you, being like, come on, get it.

You know what I mean?

I don't,

and then to that extent as well, even B doesn't fully understand.

Like, Ted is not really fully telling anybody.

I think he's like kind of holding shit to his chest because I think he feels silly for being like, that feels weird, right?

Everyone has experienced their own kind of phenomenon down in that cave, but it's not enough, I think, to

warrant these seasoned cavers

that are entirely bought in by the allure of conquering this virgin passage.

I think that it's just all tantalizing.

I think everybody wants to find out what this is, but they haven't been been shown.

Like, there hasn't been one thing where it's like, oh, I see this deity or something.

Talk to me down there.

That would be different.

A weird round rock, some hieroglyphics, and then being like, my head hurts.

This, they're doing a great job about being like, this is horrifying, but they're also doing a great job by being like, well, I could see someone still like wanting to go in there.

Yeah.

You know?

Yeah.

Albeit, the normal person would probably be like, well, fuck that.

I'm not going in.

But they're also cave cave divers.

Like their hobby already, I'm like, I would never do.

so I just I love this buildup I love it it's so believable to me at least two weeks after our trip with Joe and we were on our way back to the cave to prepare for this trip we contacted the local cave rescue group and got permission to borrow their low voltage two-way phone the phone consists of two transceivers and a long spool of thin wire I would then be able to unwind the wire as I went into the passage and stay in contact with B the entire time.

We also thought it'd be a good idea to take a video camera into the new passage.

I purchased a case that would protect my video camera from dust, as well as sharp rocks.

I was more than willing to pay the cost of the case just to make sure B got to see the entire passage.

My head was doing fine.

I still had a light red line to mark the spot where I tried to break the rock with my head.

I never went to a doctor but it was a very painful experience.

I've thought about what would have happened if I had been able to go in the passage with Joe.

He was a changed man after he came out.

I have been calling his house nearly every day trying to talk to him, but he won't answer his phone.

P called his work and a mutual friend told him that Joe called in sick two weeks ago and hasn't been seen since.

God, God.

He said Joe warned his boss he might be out for a while.

I've stopped by his house twice.

First time, it looked like someone was home.

No one answered the door.

Second time, his car was gone

and there were no lights on.

I hoped to talk to him before this trip, but it didn't work out.

So we were rigging up the rope to descend into the cave.

I felt something for the first time.

I did not want to go into the cave.

It was not a feeling of foreboding.

I was not receiving some premonition.

I just had no desire to enter the underground world of Mystery Cave.

I didn't share this feeling with Bea at the time.

Even though I had no desire to go into the cave, I knew we had to.

So I double-checked my gear and slipped over the edge of the cliff.

Right from the beginning, it seemed like the cave did not want us to be there.

Nothing went smoothly.

Every time we tried to clip a carabiner or tie a knot or attach something to the rope, we had to do it two or three times to get it right.

Fortunately, we recognized this and made sure everything was safe and secure.

As we slowly made our way down, we were continually bumping into the side of the cave or stumbling as we walked or dropping things.

Finally reached a point.

where we stopped to gather ourselves before continuing.

Our load was relatively light, but we were taking forever to get to the hole.

Finally, we made it.

We checked the camera and phone to make sure they survived the trip, tested everything, and I gathered the gear I wanted to take into the passage.

Then it was time.

We looked at each other, said nothing.

Then I turned to face the passage.

As I twisted my body to begin entering the tomb, I desperately hoped it would be the last time I would contort my body to enter this claustrophobes nightmare.

The trip through Floyd's tomb went smoothly, figuratively speaking.

After I got through, we took several minutes to get everything passed through to me.

I got suited up and tested all the equipment.

The phone worked like a charm.

I videotaped the squeeze and then the first section of the new passage.

Since I'd be unable to tape while I crawled, my plan was to crawl to the next section, then stop and film some more.

I could video what I had just been through and then video what I was going to crawl through next.

That way, I could get each section from both ends.

I was starting to feel pretty good about the trim.

I felt a sense of personal satisfaction at being able to provide a way for Bea to see the fruits of his labor.

It was awkward lugging the camera and unrolling the foam wire while trying to crawl.

I knew it would be worth it, though.

The small formations were too small to show up on the video.

With normal outside lighting, it would be no problem, but with my headlight as the only source of light, the effort was futile.

The crystal formations turned out quite nice.

They were easily large enough and made for some pretty good footage.

I took advantage of the film stop to check the phone.

It was comforting to hear someone's voice deep within the passage.

We chatted briefly, then I unplugged the phone and prepared to continue.

The phone resembled an oversized regular phone, more like the ones you would see in war movies.

When I wanted to talk to B, I just plugged the phone into a special jack on the spool of wire.

The power source was on B's end of the phone, so it was always turned on.

The reception was as clear as a normal phone.

I continued forward.

Even though progress was slow, it was steady.

Things were going pretty good until I reached the round rock.

Once again, I got a strange feeling just like the last time.

I looked around carefully, but saw nothing to be alarmed about.

I proceeded to film the entire room.

I got good shots of the round rock from all angles.

I got the walls, ceiling, floor to the best of my ability.

I even got some pretty good tape of the figure on the wall.

It was difficult to make out exactly what it was on the video, but you could definitely tell something was there.

After I taped everything to my satisfaction, I moved toward the end of the room to prepare to explore new territory.

At the far end of the large room was a passage that led to darkness.

The entrance was about a foot lower than my head, and it looked like it continued at that height for as far back as I could see.

I ducked into the ceiling and prepared to see new sights.

The walls walls of the new passage were darker than the rest of the cave to this point.

The floor was made up of the same type of broken rocks.

The ceiling had the same type of near-perfect arch as in the old section of Mystery Cave.

It almost seemed out of place in the jagged atmosphere of a cave.

I could only see back about 30 feet or so when the passage appeared to make a right turn.

I thought this would be a good place Jegan would be.

It took a couple beeps before he answered the phone, but once he did, his voice was still crystal crystal clear.

It sounded like he might have been snoozing.

Had I been gone that long?

He said he was doing fine and that I could take as much time as I needed.

I thanked him and hung up.

His patience has been wonderful during this whole project.

He has spent a lot of time just waiting for me while I explored the passage.

I was glad he was still willing to sit and wait.

I hung up the phone and started to film the new passage.

And then it happened.

From behind me, I heard the scraping noise.

It was loud.

It was close.

It was coming from the large room I had just left.

I wheeled around to face whatever had made that noise.

When I did, I lost my presence of mind and stood up at the same time.

Crunch.

My helmet crashed into the passage ceiling.

My light broke and I was buried in the heavy darkness.

Pain shot through my neck and down into my back.

The helmet had protected my head, but my neck was nearly numb from the impact.

Fear enveloped me and my knees began to weaken.

I slowly and involuntarily slumped to my knees.

I gently set the camera down as I began to see stars from the pain in my upper back.

The scraping noise lasted only a second and now the only sound I could hear was my own panic-inspired breathing.

Not only could I feel the fear thick upon my chest, but the darkness seemed to hold me in place.

I felt like I was vulnerable from every direction.

I wanted to turn and look behind me and to the side of me and in front of me.

Everywhere I looked, I saw black.

Finally, I broke the stupor of terror long enough to reach for an alternate light source, the minimag on my helmet.

I twisted the light to turn it on, and when I did, I nearly cried.

I had forgotten to put fresh batteries in, and now I could barely see more than a few feet.

Still, better than nothing.

I immediately began shining the light with all my might into the large room.

I strained to get a glimpse of any movement in the room.

Nothing.

I was shaking violently as I sat there trying to figure out what to do.

My mind was not thinking clearly.

I honestly thought I was going to die right there in the cave.

For a fleeting moment, I wondered how B would ever figure out what happened to me.

Then it hit me like a boulder.

The phone.

My mind must have been clearing up at the point because I also thought about my glow sticks.

Without taking my eyes off the large room, I felt around in my pack for the glow sticks.

Since I was carrying the phone and video camera, I removed as much possible from my pack.

One of the things I left with B was my backup headlamp.

Thus, I was left with only the glow sticks.

I found one and ripped it out of the package.

I could tell something was wrong by how it sounded.

It has been inadvertently broken and was now useless.

I chucked it onto the ground and searched my pack for another one.

I took my eyes off the large room only to check the passage behind me occasionally.

I found another glow stick, broke it to light it up.

The soft green glow created eerie colors on the walls of the cave.

The stick provides barely enough light to see the immediate area and provided no hint of what lay ahead.

I felt the pack for one more light, again without taking my eyes off the room.

I felt a third glow stick and ripped it out of the package.

After breaking it to make sure it worked, I hesitated, then threw the glow stick into the large room.

The throw was a perfect one, and the stick sailed through the length of the room.

In the brief moment that the light traveled through the room, I saw nothing but cave walls.

The absence of anything unusual did nothing to ease my state of panic.

At the far end of the room, I got a brief glimpse of the round rock as the light bounced on it.

Then the light went behind the rock and seemed to disappear.

I was still shaking, but at least I didn't see anything.

Still, there was the noise.

I used the glow stick to light the phone real quick, and with fumbling fingers, I managed to plug my phone into the jack.

I put the phone to my ear and heard nothing.

The usual beeps to indicate a connection with the other phone were not there.

Terrified, I pulled the phone from the jack and reinserted it.

Again, silence.

The line was dead.

What could have happened?

I just talked to B.

I found myself nearly sobbing with fear.

I knew the only way out of here was back the way I came, but something was there.

A third attempt at making contact with B met with the same results.

I tried to think of another plan, but I could only focus on the memories of the grinding sound that I had heard.

In my weakened state, I slumped against the side of the passage, breathing as if I had just finished a race, never breaking eye contact with the shadows of the large room.

As my shoulder touched the wall, I had a powerful jolt of pain remind me of my convulsion with the roof of the cave.

Despair, agony, terror.

I can't say exactly how long I sat there, but my feet were tingling and my knees were sore.

The pain in my back crept lower, although my neck felt no different.

I resolved to make an attempt to exit this evil passage.

I knew if I waited too long, I would lose what little light I had.

I attempted to stand, but did not have the strength.

I crawled slowly to the near end of the large room, dragging my pack beside me.

Using the walls of the cave, I was able to slowly stand, though not straight due to my sore back.

Still breathing rapidly, I slowly advanced through the room.

I wound up the phone wire as I went.

My eyes were staring straight ahead, straining for any sign of movement.

With every step, my light would cast ever-changing shadows on the wall, keeping me busy trying to look at every one.

My eyes burned as I realized I had not blinked for many minutes.

How many?

How long has this been going on?

The only sounds I could hear were the crunch of my feet on the broken rock and the wheezing of my breath.

As I wound the cord, I could hear the squeak of the wheel, with each turn bringing me closer to the tomb, closer to be, closer to safety.

The short trip through the room took an eternity.

As I passed the crude drawing, it seemed to glow as if offering some sort of warning.

I didn't know what the drawing represented, but everything about this cave seemed to instill fear.

Toward the far end of the room, I could see the round rock dimly lit at the far reaches of my light.

Something seemed different about it, but I couldn't tell what.

When I got within a few feet, I could finally tell what had changed.

It had moved.

That was the sound I heard.

Again, terror gripped my entire body as I realized how close I was to something.

I had no choice but to continue.

Still, it was not easy.

I inched toward the rock, holding the glow stick ahead of me in my shaking hand, using it to pierce the darkness.

I stopped just this side of the rock and wound up the slack of the foam wire.

Then I realized why I'd lost contact with B.

The rock was now sitting on the wire.

I gave it a tug and the thin wire snapped.

My only hope of contact with the outside world ceased to exist when that wire broke.

I never felt so alone and helpless.

Buried deep within the earth, I'd voluntarily descended into my own grave with this casket of solid rock.

With the phone now useless, I set it down on the passage, my gaze fixed on the round rock.

I proceeded forward.

My breath was rapid, with my throat dry and aching and my mouth dusty.

With every crunch of the rock below my feet, my heart seemed to stop.

No movement could be seen in the green glow of my stick.

I got to the rock and peered over the top.

Seeing nothing, I took several rapid steps past it.

When I reached the other side, I recoiled in horror at what I saw.

In the side of the passage near the floor was a hole.

With another passage revealed, it had been covered by the rock, but now it was exposed.

The rock could not have moved by itself.

I backed away from the hole and collided with the opposite wall.

I had not been paying attention to the pain in my back, but now it came back to me in all its fury.

I stared down the newly discovered passage.

It went down at a 45 degree angle and continued straight for as far as I could see.

Several feet down, I could see the glow stick that I had thrown.

It illuminated the passage enough that I could tell the walls were fairly smooth.

The floor seemed to be the same way, unlike the rest of the cave.

The passage was about three feet in diameter as far as I could see.

It would have been an easy passage to explore if I had the least desire to do so.

Right now, I wanted out of the cave and into daylight.

I slowly backed away from the hole toward B.

I never took my eyes off the abyss.

I nearly tripped over the foam wires as I turned to leave this devil's lair.

I noticed my mini-mag was practically dead, leaving me only with the glow stick.

I wanted to sprint to Floyd's tomb.

Just hearing another human would help alleviate some of the fear I was experiencing.

As I turned away from the large rock and the hole, I felt an overwhelming sense of panic fill my soul.

I felt like a legion of demons was about to attack me from behind.

I felt my salvation lie ahead of me in the darkness and Lucifer behind me, trying to keep me from safety.

I found myself moving much faster than I should have been in that cave.

My only thought was to get out as quickly as possible.

I passed the crystal formation, barely even noticing this beautiful creation of nature in the green glow of my light.

Every time I ducked to avoid a rock, I felt my back scream its reminder of my injury.

When I got to the point of the passage where I had to crawl, I flung myself down on all fours, barely slowing down as I stopped.

When my hands came in contact with the cave floor, I felt an electric shock shoot all the way down my back and simultaneously down my arms.

For the first time since this nightmare began, I let out a scream.

I crumpled down and lay there on the rock, with new levels of pain manifesting every time I inhaled.

Whimpering from fear and pain, I tried to listen to any other noise in the cave.

I could feel the silence pounding in my head.

I knew from previous trips that Bea was still out of earshot, but I was close.

Forcing myself to move, I winced as I pulled my body onto all fours and started to progress along the cave.

I still held the glow stick in my hand, but I had ceased checking behind me.

Now my focus was ahead of me.

I reached the point where I could yell to B, but I didn't make a sound.

I didn't want to stop long enough to talk.

Finally, I reached the last stretch of the cave before the squeeze.

As I was crawling toward the beginning of the tomb, I called to B.

He answered back.

I screamed to him to get everything ready to go.

He asked if I was okay.

Since he hadn't heard from me on the phone, he had gotten worried.

I told him no, and to get everything ready to go.

When I reached the rope, I flipped off my helmet and shoved it into the pack.

For the first time, I realized I had forgotten the video camera.

It was a fleeting thought.

I cared no more about that camera than a passenger on the Titanic cared about a hat or a coat.

I tied the pack to the rope and told him to pull it through.

Then I told him to start heading toward the surface as soon as he pulled the rope through.

He asked why, and I screamed, there was something in the cave with us.

My back ached with every move I made.

I knew it didn't matter, though.

I was going to get through the tomb as fast as I could, injuries notwithstanding.

Just as I started into the squeeze, I felt the wind in the passage increase, and with it the most nauseating stench I have ever experienced.

It smelled like damp, rotten, rancid, putrid death.

I almost started to dry heave.

I pulled my shirt up over my nose to shield me from the overpowering smell.

At this point, B smelled it too.

He yelled,

What is that?

Then he yelled at me to hurry up and get through.

I told him I was coming, then I took a deep breath through my shirt and started back through.

B's yelling had intensified my fear and panic, as if I needed any help.

I knew he could sense the urgency in getting out of this place.

Still, as I worked my way through, I yelled at him to start up.

that I would catch up with him when I got through.

He said he would.

He placed my glow stick inside the passage, then began to climb out

this time through the squeeze i had no regard for the tightness of the passage i was scraping my face ears arms and shoulders every inch of the squeeze meant numerous scratches on my body but i barely noticed them my back was nearly paralyzing me with pain once again i felt the rising need to vomit because of the odor being delivered to my nostrils by the breeze halfway through floyd's tomb i took a breath to catch my I took a break to catch my breath.

I was approaching exhaustion and my respiration rate was through the roof.

The top of the passage seemed to rest my cheek, and the floor felt like broken glass on my opposite cheek.

As I paused briefly to recuperate, I heard the scrapy noise coming from deep within the cave.

It continued for several seconds and silence.

I let out a cry which startled me.

I was no longer consciously reacting to the noise.

The cry was a subconscious response to the fear which flowed through my entire body.

In a panic, I began to scoot through the passage.

As I reached the largest part of the tomb, I quickly slid my arms under my body to get into position to exit through our hole.

I grabbed the rope and pulled with all my might.

When my shoulders reached the hole, they lodged and I was stuck.

I dug my feet into the rocks and wiggled my way back into the passage.

Then I turned my body slightly and tried again.

This time I was successful in pulling my upper body through.

Normally, I would carefully work my way out.

There's a three-foot drop on the outside of the hole.

This time I kicked with my legs and pulled with my arms and plop, I dropped out of the tomb right onto my shoulder.

I tried to roll to soften the impact, but was unable to do anything more than take the blow.

Strangely, the pain was focused on my shoulder, apparently not affecting my already sore back.

I rolled over onto all fours, slowly rose to my feet.

The smell was much less intense outside the passage.

I grabbed the glow stick and used it to find my helmet.

I began to head forward the webbing to climb up while strapping on my helmet.

When I got to the webbing, I reached up to grab hold and recoiled in horror.

In the glow of the glow stick, I could see for the first time the injuries to my arms.

My forearms were covered with deep cuts and scrapes.

Much of my arm was covered with blood.

The wounds were not deep enough to bleed freely, but rather oozed the blood.

In that brief moment that I stopped, I noticed that there was silence in the cave.

No sounds coming from the passage and nothing from up ahead.

Once again, the feeling of being alone returned, motivating me to proceed.

Climbing up the little drop-off proved to be difficult in my condition.

Having the glowstick as the only light source added to the challenge.

Once on top, I scrambled to catch up with Bea.

I was impressed with the speed of his ascent.

Although I did not mention any more of my physical condition during my exit, I was hurting.

With every step I took, pain shot through my lower back and my neck.

My arms were shredded, and my shoulder had a nice gash in it.

I honestly believe that, were it not for the terror I felt at the time, I would not have the energy and the motivation to climb out.

I was running on pure adrenaline.

Fortunately, the adrenaline surge was about to end.

I did not see or hear B until I reached the small area at the top of the drop.

He was on the rope and climbing out as fast as he could.

I could hear him moving quickly and breathing heavily.

I called out to him and his startled reaction told me he was nearly as tense as I was.

He told me to get on the rope and start climbing.

We both knew that would be dangerous and not something we would ever normally do, but this was different.

I stood there looking up at where the rope disappeared into the darkness above me.

I danced around as B made his way to safety.

He was out of sight, but I knew he was close.

I knew the rope was my lifeline to the outside, to light, safety.

Behind me was darkness, fear, the unknown.

I had the fleeting thought of a movie scene where the actor had outwitted the monster and had reached the front door of the haunted house.

Jesse reaches for the knob, hears a sound behind him, and turns only to see.

I slid the glow stick into the cord on my helmet and reached for my harness.

Then I thought I would let B get a little bit higher while I pulled the rope up that was stretched down into the cave.

That would make it easier to get out once we got to the top of the drop.

I chose not to wind the rope around my arm since it was sore and bleeding, so I just pulled it into a pile on the floor.

From above, I heard Bea warn me, rock, and I ducked under the ledge as several small rocks landed on the floor near my feet.

I quickly went back to pulling the rope in.

I had about half of it in, about 50 feet, when the rope hit a snag.

Ah, it was solid.

There was no way I was going to crawl back in to release it, so I decided to just forget the rope, get my harness on, and get out of the cave.

I quickly threw the harness around me and started to buckle it.

Before I could secure it, I heard a strange noise at my feet.

My pulse began to quicken.

I looked down at the rope only to discover to my horror that the rope was disappearing into the darkness.

Something was pulling the rope back into the cave.

I let go of the harness and began clawing my way up the rope.

The unbuckled harness fell to the floor.

Fortunately, I held on to an ascender.

At the moment, I could not think straight and began climbing out of the cave without being attached to the rope.

I had climbed out many times without using an ascending device, but I was always attached to the rope just in case.

I was climbing as fast as my battered body could haul me up.

I was in a near panic state again and consequently was scraping, bumping, and gouging my arms and legs.

As I climbed and I screamed to Bea that something was pulling the rope, he yelled back to hurry up.

Luck was with me in that I didn't slip and fall back down into the hole.

If I had, I would have bounced several times against the sides of the cave before smashing to the floor.

The injuries would be fatal.

Without the necessity of having to stop to slide the ascender up the rope, I made excellent time getting up.

I could see rays of light above me coming from the entrance to the cave.

That told me exactly where I was in the cave.

I caught up to be on the ledge below where our relay point was fixed.

I told him to keep going.

It would only take him a few minutes, but every second would be torture because I had to wait for him to get up.

I watched the rope that we had just climbed up.

I expected to see some creature from deep within the earth climb up and make me its lunch.

The rope moved around a bit, am rhythm with bee's climbing, but did not appear to have any tension on it.

As I stood there waiting for B, I kept watching the rope for signs of anything bizarre.

I didn't know my heart could take any more stress.

I could not have been more wired.

I tried to relax a bit to make sure I was thinking rationally, but my poor brain had reached sensory overload.

As B reached the top of the last climb, I got ready to clip on my ascender.

and get my sorry butt out of there.

It was then that I noticed that the rope began to tighten from below.

I could feel the tension on the rope, but it was a steady tension.

I felt like something was climbing up.

Either way, I wanted out of there as fast as possible.

I clipped on and scrambled up the rope.

I didn't notice, but B had kept on moving toward the entrance.

I got up to the last few feet in a hurry.

I just unclipped and kept on moving, leaving the rope behind.

By the time I got to the entrance of the cave and daylight, B was almost up to where the rope was anchored.

I wanted to get up so bad I almost started to free climb without clipping onto the rope.

I could see B was almost up, so I clipped on and started up.

Almost didn't make it up.

I had just started up when I nearly collapsed from exhaustion.

I managed to recover enough to pull myself up the last few feet.

As I climbed, I could hear the tension on the rope manifest itself by the stretching noise in the rope.

I prayed the rope would not break with me attached to it.

The second that I reached the top, I unclicked the ascender.

I could see B kneeling down by the tree, so I limped over to him and collapsed.

For the first time since I went through Floyd's tomb, we could see each other.

We just stared.

I knew I looked pretty bad, but didn't know that Bea was in such bad shape.

He had cuts and scrapes on every exposed surface of his body.

His face was pale, almost white.

His mouth and his eyes were wide open.

He was breathing heavily, almost gasping.

The shock we shared at the other person's appearance was broken when we heard the rope around the tree stretch and the knot be a tied tight end.

I was frozen in place.

Overwhelmed with fright, B seemed to be transfixed on the knot, and in one motion he produced a pocket knife and began to work on the rope.

It's amazing how a person's state of mind can alter the perception of time.

I'm sure it only took four or five seconds to sever the rope from the tree, but it seemed like an hour.

When the rope was cut, the knot fell to the ground, while the end of the rope zipped across the rocks and over the edge of the cliff, the speed of it causing a humming noise as it went.

As soon as the rope was cut, B let out a cry, dropped the knife, and fell backward.

Watching the rope fly over the edge brought the feelings in that passage back to me.

I got up and headed toward the truck.

I noticed Bea was still laying there, wide-eyed, staring at the point the rope disappeared.

I called to him, which seemed to break his trance.

He got up and hurried away from the tree, the cave, the nightmare.

Neither of us said a word all the way home.

It's now four days after our trip to the cave.

It has taken me four days and dozens of attempts to get this entire experience written into my journal.

Every time I started to write, I recalled the terrible feelings I had and couldn't write anymore.

I felt compelled to continue, so as to document the unbelievable events while all of the details were fresh in my mind, I could still feel the pain, still smell the stench, still experience the terror.

Even typing from my journal has taken hours.

I would like to write more, but it'll have to wait.

Even now, several days between me and the event, I can't relax.

I can barely concentrate.

That's all for now.

End of passage.

What a fucking insane passage, dude.

Oh,

I'm on the edge of my seat the entire time.

I couldn't even muster a single thought.

I had some stuff like, I had some ideas of like the rock moving, and you're like, that's kind of weird, right?

It's smooth.

I'm wondering if it's because something underneath it is rolling it open.

Yeah.

And that's what's made it round.

So my second slowly formed that.

Yeah, it's a rounded rock because it's used as like a seal on all these different doors.

That's why sometimes the airflow stops to the cave because

their passage is covered up and it periodically moves around.

And what happened while he was in there is whatever's underneath one of those holes comes out and smells like death.

That's what that 45-degree hole he saw that was smoothed out is because that's like its burrow deep drops.

Yeah, where he dropped some bodies down there.

I'm thinking like that.

I'm thinking it's like a feed pit or something like that.

Which would explain the smell.

Yeah, exactly.

I love that.

What I wouldn't give to fucking hear Joe's experience of seeing something with that as well.

Yeah.

Or just

he probably didn't experience it to that extent, but still enough to where the guy is completely fucked, like, you know what I mean?

Just completely void of being able to contact with anybody, probably relocated.

Because mind you, too, this cave is like close to where they live.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like

it's it's nearby.

It's a place that other cavers are familiar with, right?

And also the idea that there's another passage in that same room implies there's several ways to get down to this place, right?

So who's telling like the access this thing has to the above world, right?

Right.

This is the last passage, too.

Should we just crank through it?

Let's get through it.

So this is the final entry of the Ted the Caver series from May the 19th, 2001.

It has been three weeks since our last visit to the cave.

I want to update everyone as to my condition, my plans for for the cave, and the events of the past few weeks.

I apologize for not returning your phone calls.

I have been getting all of your messages.

Just haven't felt up to calling back.

Stephen Mark, thanks for your words of encouragement on my answering machine.

I know you two are sincerely concerned for me.

You are awesome friends.

Mark, I know you stopped by the house a few times, and I'm sorry I never answered the door.

It really helped me just knowing you dropped by.

Sis, I can hear the worry in your voice.

I'm okay.

Don't worry about me.

Just take care of those nieces and nephews of mine.

I figure if I can get this site updated, I can let everyone know at once about how I'm doing.

A lot has happened in the last three weeks, so I'll do my best to cover everything.

I guess I should start where the last injury left off.

It took several days to get the last journal entry written down.

I was so shaken up from the experience that I could do little else but sit around and ponder what had happened.

Right now, I am on long-term medical leave for work.

I tried to go to work several days after the event, but my boss sent me home.

I couldn't concentrate and I looked terrible.

I've even been to the doctor, but I couldn't tell him about the experience, so I just told him I was under a lot of stress, recommended rest, and gave me a prescription to help me relax.

Hmm, good drugs.

When we left the cave, I was nearly in a state of shock.

I could not think clearly and was having a difficult time trying to understand what had happened.

I didn't eat much, nor did I get any sleep.

I was glad I had the presence of mind to write down my experience while it was fresh in my mind.

As I reread reread what I wrote, I feel like I accurately portrayed what happened at the cave that day.

I wouldn't change anything I wrote, even though it took three days to write it.

When I finished writing in my journal, I felt much better.

I guess it was kind of therapeutic.

Fortunately, it didn't last.

In fact, it was after then that things got really bad.

Bea and I parted company after the trip and I didn't see him again until yesterday.

I didn't try to reach him and he didn't try to get a hold of me, nor did either of us try to contact Joe.

Bea just dropped me off after the trip and I spent the next several days by myself in my house.

I tried to eat but had no appetite.

I was restless but I couldn't find anything to take my mind off the experience.

That's when I determined that I should write it down.

As I mentioned, that helped me think a little clearer and I seemed to be a little calmer, but it didn't last.

I wanted to work the next day but was sent home.

The day after that, I had an overwhelming feeling of anxiety sink into my soul.

I was depressed and confused and had no one I wanted to turn to for comfort.

I was getting all kinds of phone calls from people, but I just let the answering machine take the calls.

I haven't changed the message on the machine to let everyone know I was alright.

I continued in this miserable state, eating and sleeping whenever I could manage until a week after the trip, things started to get strange.

At first, I was hearing sounds in the house that had no explanation.

Footsteps, shuffling noises, creaking doors.

you know the typical horror movie fare only the sounds were not distinct it was as though i wasn't sure i heard what i thought I heard.

I'd be eating or getting out of the shower and stop thinking I heard something.

The sound would not repeat itself.

In fact, if it weren't for the fact that it happened frequently, I couldn't be sure that there were noises in the first place.

Either way, I was scared.

It was as though I'd been caught in a spider web for the last week.

Feelings of anxiety, foreboding, and tension filled my life.

Then came the hallucinations.

I began seeing things in a manner similar to the sounds I was hearing.

Just a glimpse of something in the corner of my eye.

When I turned to look, nothing.

I've been sleeping with the lights on in my room, but now I kept all the lights in the house on the room before dusk after dawn.

When I started to see things on a regular basis, I purchased a gun.

Got it from an ad in the paper so I didn't have to wait for a permit.

I went to the doctor, but didn't mention the details of my life.

Just told him I couldn't relax, and I walked out of there with a prescription.

Fortunately, my wounds and injuries were pretty much healed by this time.

My back still hurt a little, but the prescription took care of that too.

When I was on the medication, I felt great, but I didn't want to walk around high for the rest of my life, so I'd only take it at the end of a tough day.

Fortunately, the severity of the sightings increased, giving rise to a need for the medication.

Flashes in the corner of my eye continued, but then I began to see shapes and shadows.

They would be outside my windows, usually at night.

I still couldn't make out anything solid, so it was hard to pin down what I was seeing.

Soon, I began to close all my drapes and blinds so I could remove the possibilities of seeing something.

Doing so did help in that aspect, but my life was still a mess.

My daily routine was mechanical and empty.

I'd sleep in as long as I could, usually out of exhaustion.

Then I would get cleaned up and try to eat something.

I lost a lot of weight, so I tried to get as much as possible down me.

Then I would exercise a little and nap a lot.

I'd only been out of the house a few times in the last two weeks.

The store, the doctor, the gun purchase.

I didn't watch much TV because I couldn't concentrate.

I spent a lot of time on the internet.

I was doing research on caves and cave myths.

The only story I could find was the caver folklore about the Hodag.

Hodag is supposedly a creature that roams caves.

Two weeks after we went into the cave and a week after I began hearing things, I began to have nightmares.

Extremely lucid nightmares.

No specific theme or recurring events.

Just plain terrifying.

Sometimes I was in my house and someone was trying to get me.

Only I couldn't run because I had no legs.

Other times I was in a vat and someone was pouring a syrup-like liquid on me, filling the vat.

I would stay awake until exhaustion forced me to enter Dreamland once again.

A brutal routine.

It continued for several days until I reached the climax of the sixth day, yesterday.

My dream seemed so real, I had a hard time telling if I was awake or not.

I was beat, really drained of energy and spirit.

I was going from the living room to my bedroom in the early evening when I looked down the hall and saw a dark figure toward the end.

I thought it was a thief and began to back up slowly.

Didn't move.

As I was backing up, the lights flickered off and on.

Every muscle was tense.

I stopped to stare stare at the figure just when the phone rang.

It startled me so bad, I stumbled over the chair.

When I got up, I wheeled around to look down the hall, and nothing was there.

I grabbed my keys and left the house.

Felt compelled to get in the car and drive.

My pulse pounded in my temples

as I got in and started the car.

I wanted to drive to Overlook Point, see the city lights.

I didn't know why I needed to go there, but I knew I had to go.

The closer I got, the more urgent the feeling.

When I arrived at the point, I saw something that at first startled me, then caused me to be more relaxed than I had been in a long time.

Joe was there.

He was out of his car, standing looking at the lights.

We looked at each other.

See from the tired look on his face, he had been going through the same miserable trial that I had been experiencing.

He could tell from the look on my face, he had shared some terrible experience.

Conversation was unbelievably brief.

You've been back?

He began, even though he knew the answer.

Yes.

We need to return.

Tomorrow, good?

Yeah, noon.

He got in his car, and I got into mine.

I haven't even wanted to talk to him about his experience.

Obviously, he didn't want to know mine.

I drove over to Bea's house.

When he answered the door, I thought Bea actually looked like he was doing fine, somewhat happy.

One look at me and his disposition changed.

Our conversation was also succinct.

I ran into Joe, and we're going back tomorrow at noon.

B looked dead serious.

He just nodded his head.

Asked him if I could spend the night at his house.

Eagerly let me in.

Didn't notice until later, but every light in the house was turned on.

Led me to a spare room.

Help yourself.

Thanks.

I washed up in the bathroom, took some medication, and got the first decent sleep in a long time.

I woke early this morning and came home to get ready for the trip.

I thought I would send out this update so no one will wonder what's going on with me.

I suspect that by the time most of you read this I'll be back home and will have a great story to tell.

I promise that if you haven't heard from me by now, you will very shortly.

It is now 10 a.m.

on Saturday the 19th.

We will be leaving for the cave in two hours.

Preparing for this trip will be like no other trip I've been on.

For the first time in my life I will carry a gun into a cave.

I'll also carry a knife, an extensive first aid kit, plenty of food of water, and a camera.

I will take several sources of light and a pad of paper and pencil.

I will have to take all of my climbing rope since Bea lost lost his in the cave.

I will carry a good length of rope with me on the other side of Floyd's tomb.

This is the first time in three weeks that I have heard any reference to Floyd's tomb.

It sent shivers up my spine just typing it.

There are so many things I hope to accomplish this day.

So many answers I hope to find in a tiny passage hidden from view.

Reflecting on the events leading up to today leaves me feeling dizzy.

Is this all a bad dream?

Fortunately, I am wide awake and still in a few short hours I might face my nightmare.

The thought of having another person with me in the passage does nothing to alleviate the fear I feel.

I almost chuckle as I ponder a childish notion that we'll have to consider.

Who will enter the tomb first?

Who will lead the way back in the dark unknown?

Who will decide when to turn back?

Foremost among the questions in my mind, what about the video camera that I left behind?

It is supposed to be able to record in complete darkness.

I left the thing running.

So what might we find on the tape?

Darker questions follow.

What if the camera's gone?

What if it's destroyed?

Though it's difficult to put an exact name on my motivation, I think closure fits quite nicely.

I need to find out a few things about this cave.

The main thing, believe it or not, is to find the end of the cave.

With all the bizarre things I have witnessed these past few weeks, it would seem a bit trite to want, as a primary goal, to get to the end, but that is what I want.

To be sure, I will be seeking other bits of knowledge along the way.

If, however, I find the end of the main to the main passage and an end to the passage hidden by the rock, I will be content to never return to the passage of the cave again.

Never.

It would seem to me that crawling headfirst through a tight passage into the darkness is an unnatural thing, just like crawling up the side of a cliff for recreation, or jumping out of a perfectly good airplane and floating to the ground.

We do these things to satisfy our hugger for adventure.

This subconscious desire to conquer our little avarice.

As Bea is fond of saying,

Caving is is the last opportunity for exploration for the person with a modest means.

True.

Just a short drive from just about anywhere in the country is a cave waiting to be explored.

Even a cave well known among the general public can be approached by someone for the first time as an adventure, something new, something to overcome, because it's there.

Many of you don't agree with my decision to pursue this cave.

I know this from the messages I've received.

I'm afraid I don't have a choice.

If I am ever to experience restful slumber, I must return.

If I am ever to walk the halls of my own home in peace, I must return.

If I'm ever to exit the overworld and enter the subterranean world of a cave, I must now return.

I no longer feel that I have a choice.

I must return.

Love that.

For my family and friends who are reading this, I say, be a peace.

I will conquer this cave.

Then I will return and update this website immediately.

I'll include any photos we've taken the cave today.

And if you stop by the house, I'll show you the video I will have.

I expect to be home later tonight or tomorrow at the latest.

See you all soon with a lot of answers.

Love.

Ted.

I mean, you know what's fucked up about this story?

I mean, this is, I feel like I haven't been this quiet in an episode in a long time.

There's just nothing I love more than this fucking story.

Even after reading it today, I've read the story

five, six times, seriously.

Every time it's surprised, like you just give a little bit of gap between it, keep surprising you every time.

I fucking love this story, dude.

Love it.

Yeah, really.

Love it, love it, love it.

It really does hit all the notes.

Yeah, it's great.

I see why not only is it like the first, but it is one of the best, I feel.

It's a banger.

I mean, it's just ran very well.

Some of the most believable characters.

Also, just like the way that the story reveals information, like at the end, because the whole time you're kind of like, well, this is stupid.

Why are they going back?

Right.

But it's very obvious by the end of it when he starts hallucinating shit that it's almost like the cave itself or whatever's in the cave is kind of tormenting them until they do come and come back until they all kind of collectively or him and Joe, Ted and Joe meet up at the Outlook and you're just like, well, it brought them there together.

Only then did it give them mental clarity and like a peace of mind.

Like it stopped torturing them because it's like, okay, they're coming back.

You know?

Yeah.

My theory is that it's kind of like,

so there's the painting on the wall of all the people people gathered around the symbol i see it as like this is some ancient like supernatural being and that maybe in times past has compelled people to worship it or to come down to the cave for it and even though like our three characters here aren't feeling like a worship sense they are compelled to go back to it to return to it so i think it's some old deity that's calling people in towards it effectively Yeah, I definitely think it's a kind of ritual ground or something that has been summoned that just sits there now.

I kind of like the idea too of like a ritual ground, somebody summoning something, but it can only go so far, or it's like bound to this labyrinth of a cave.

Yeah.

Or maybe even maybe it was sealed off, and now they reopened this evil onto the world.

Very interesting.

For a time, it was just not anymore.

Yeah, like for some reason, they broke some kind of seal or did something.

It's just, I love this story, man.

Yeah.

Just such a good one.

Like, at the edge of my seat the whole time,

the second to last entry of just Ted going through there,

we say it a lot of like, you know, and I think in a lot of ways it can be cheap of not completely telling the audience what exactly is the threat, right?

I think a lot of people can, that can be a kind of cop-out thing, but the way that the story does it, you never really know.

Like it's, it's, but, but because of that too, I like it because at the end, you are just as infatuated with this story as Ted.

Yeah.

Like, I want, I want to know so bad what the fuck this thing is.

And you just get like little driblets, little taste of it, and it's just so sweet.

I fucking love it so much.

Goes hard.

Goes very hard.

Incredible.

Yeah, especially for a story that's almost 25 years old.

Pretty rad.

Pretty fucking rad.

Kills.

What an OG.

What a great one to get the anniversary.

Yeah.

And, you know, it makes sense that this is the story, too, that kicked off this cute little podcast here.

And, you know, well, I can't wait to, I feel bad for the next story that we read.

It is going to, it's going to probably fail in comparison to this.

Yep.

Yep.

So that was a lot of fun.

Very happy for it.

And again, check out the Ted's Caving Journal or Alex Archives on YouTube.

Yeah.

Yeah, we'll leave a link for sure.

Yo, thank you guys so much, seriously, for a year of unbelievable.

stories.

Probably one of the best communities I've ever been a part of.

So supportive.

You guys fucking rule.

And we hope here's to another year.

Maybe many more years.

You know, I'm not going to say many more years.

I don't know what the future is.

All right.

As long as there's fun stories to read, I think we'll read them.

Yeah.

We'll stick with it as far as until we're not sticking with it anymore.

But until then, we're with it.

It's been a year.

I think we got some time.

We got some time left.

I appreciate you all so much.

Once again, check us out on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, all that jazz.

Give us a nice high rating or a thumbs up or a five-star, whatever the fuck it is.

We appreciate you all so much.

Have a fantastic rest of your week and don't go spelunking in places you don't know.

Don't go get creeped while spelunking.

Stay creeped spelunked.

Yeah, that's a good one.

Bye.