Caves

Yesterday, was amazing. My roommate, princess Aurora, and I got invited to go to the ice caves. They are about a 40 minute drive north of town. I had never been there so I didn't know what to expect at all. We met the Hulk and his roommate, Lashes, at their apartment. They had invited other people, but no one could come so it was just the four of us. Somehow we ended up driving two cars. I went with Lashes, and Princess Aurora went with the Hulk. It's not that I didn't want to ride with the Hulk, I just see him all the time since he is in my group for a class. Lashes on the other hand, I don't see very much, and I wanted to take this opportunity to get to know him better. I very much enjoyed talking to him on the drive down to the caves. He was easy to talk to and I didn't get bored or uncomfortable. After about a half hour of driving we turned onto a dirt road. It had just rained so it was incredibly muddy. Not only that, but there were gaping ditches and crevices in the road, filled with water. Driving on this road was more like off-roading. Luckily we were in a jeep, and the Hulk drives a truck. I was bouncing around crazily in my seat, but it was okay with me! I was laughing and smiling. It was like riding a roller coaster (only for ten minutes straight)! At one point my phone beeped loudly, telling me I got a text message. I realized that my phone had flown off my lap and was now between the seat and car door somewhere. I couldn't find it at that moment becasue of all the crazy bouncing.

Finally we pulled over to a grassy-ish area and got out of the car. There was this huge crater in the ground. When we walked over to it, I looked down. There was a straight drop maybe 30 feet high (that isn't accurate because I am horrible at height estimation). The Hulk pointed out the carcus of a cow at the mouth of the cave. He said that in the Fall it had fallen off the edge, and it's been there ever since. We went around to a spot that was easy to climb down, and walked to the cave. The smell of the cow was terrible, but we stopped to take pictures. The entrance of the cave appeared to be flooded with water. It looked deep, but the Hulk threw a heavy rock across the top and was saw that it was thick ice with only a few millimeters of water over it. When we walked across it, it looked like we were walking on water! A little way into the cave, the ground becomes solid ice, and the ceiling was low enough that we had to crawl. we could slide over the ice like penguines in order to go deeper. The only light we had was the light of our flashlights. The walls glittered when our lights hit it. It was beautiful. The further in we got, the more graffiti was on the wall. Finally, we came to the end. A mass of ice was there; perfect to slide down. there were foot holes and a slide carved out of the ice, from where, possibley, thousands of people had walked up and slide back down the iceburg.

I think my favorite part in the ice caves is when we almost got stuck. There is a point on the way back out of the cave, that is hard to get back up, because you will get so far only to slide back down again. It wasn't even very long; just slippery. The Hulk went first. He got up okay, because he had done this several times before. Princess Aurora went next. She had more trouble, so I braced myself on a rock with my foot and she pushed herself off my hands. The Hulk pulled her up the rest of the way. I tried to get up on my own with no luck, because I was laughing so hard at myself. I kept getting halfway, only to slide back down. I even kicked Lashes in the head a couple times. Oops! Finally, Lashes gave me a foothold with his hands, like I had done for Princess Aurora, and the Hulk hauled me up the rest of the way. It made me realize the importance of teamwork, and traveling with a buddy. It was really refreshing to go out into nature and get soaking wet, dirty, and tired. I'm glad they invited us to go with them.