We are dispatching the away team in the Mercury Gran Marquis shuttle craft to explore deep below the planet surface. Shuttle commander Duc and first mate Kim were up early preparing the shuttle for launch. Soon enough there was activity in the bowels of the Pineapple and all crew were activated and told to report to the away team by 0830. The shuttle detached from the mother ship closer to 0930.
The shuttle headed toward the planet surface and despite a wrong turn that took us past Yogi Bear, we arrived the the cave entrance fairly early. Away team 1 signed up for the 2 mile Historic Tour, while away team 2 decided on the Frozen Niagara tour. Away team 2 departed in short order, while away team 1 took a above ground walking tour until it was time to meet the rest of the subterranean exhibition force. Away team's tour was about 3/4 of a mile and some up and down, while Away Team 1 had a 2 mile subterranean hike.
We descended into the underworld and as we approached the entrance, the 60 degree cold wind swept up into the steamy humidity. Both Lucy and my glasses were fogged for the first couple of minutes below. Our exhibition force was large, numbering around 100 people! Good thing the cave is huge inside. About 200 feet from the entrance is the Rotunda. A huge room with 30-50 ft ceilings and big enough to run traffic through in both directions. As it is a caved carved by water, there aren't the familiar formations you usually see in caverns like stalactites, stalagmites, columns, etc. In fact on the whole 2 mile hike we only saw a couple of small formations. It mostly looked like this:
Having been into at least a dozen caverns and caves all over the US, I was impressed by the size of the passage ways and length of walk between the ranger talking stations. It seemed we'd walk for 10 minutes before the next stop, and some of the areas had amphitheater bench seating!
Tommy got into the act and wanted a photo op
Although we later realized he was contaminated by the cave and would need a biological hose down. There is a fungus called White Nose that affects the local bat population and has decimated several bat populations so all cavers, would need to be processed through a decontamination station prior to leaving the area. Here is Tommy enjoying the decontamination
As the team went deeper and deeper into the cave (we hit 360 ft below the surface), the passageways became more precarious. We crossed the bottomless pit, saw where people had used torches to leave their names back in the mid 1800s, and saw evidence of Native Americans who used the cave around 5000 years ago.
Light was pretty low but managed to get a couple of snaps off
We returned to the surface and met back up with Away team 2 and ate Hot Dogs. We toured the visitor center, got our Park Passport stamps and bought a cool retro fridge magnet. We then returned to the shuttle to return to the mother ship, but not before a trip to the supply ship for more provisions.
Along the way we encountered an independent merchant ship peddling fresh grown corn from the planet surface. Away team 2 went crazy buying up 2 dozen ears of corn.
We returned to the mothership and feasted on our recent supplies.....
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