Pain...

Most of you know that my family is into the outdoors! We camp, bike, hike, fish, hunt, etc... From time to time we've also done a bit of caving. So when the opportunity to go caving came up through the boy's boy scout troop, I signed us all up! Not only that, I signed us all up for the hardest cave on the list. No problem, we're the McGuckin's, right!? Well let me tell you, this cave kicked our butts! The first hint of trouble should have come when the required caving gear was a helmet and knee pads. We aren't talking Mammoth Cave with concrete walkways and handrails. I wasn't troubled by the helmet/knee pad business, because we've been in smaller, crawl through it yourself caves. There was talk ahead of time about some mud water and crawling. That talk scared my youngest son, Damon. He opted to go in another cave. So, the rest of my family and another boy from scouts stuck with the original plan. We did encounter water. Water up to our thighs; water in a cave which is only 54 degrees. We did encounter mud. Mud up to our knees. The kind where your shoes get stuck, and which is really slippery when packed down. My husband found that out as he slid down a mud slope and smacked into me sending us both toppling into the mud. And, yes, we did encounter crawling. We did the army/belly crawl for 100 yards, the length of a football field. That's not all. The maximum ceiling height was 11 inches. You had to turn your head sideways, scoot your pack in front of you and belly crawl through the dirt and rocks. If that wasn't bad enough. This was a one way cave. Once we got to the end, we had to turn around and do it all over again. It really wasn't too bad while going through the cave. I felt pretty good. I wasn't too winded, and was actually having fun. It was quite the challenge, and we survived. It wasn't until I got out of the cave that the pain took over. I have bruises all over my body, my ankles, legs, hips, ribs, elbows, wrists, etc... It was then that I decided I really was getting old. My husband agreed and he never complains about anything.