It is through the blood of our earth mother that you and I are connected. You are her future.   - Dr. Jerry  

These were the parting words when, in 1994, I left Nashville after a summer-long stay at Vanderbilt University.

They were scrawled into my travel journal by civil engineering professor Dr.Jerry, which I had used to document my explorations as a fledgling caver.   In that one summer, under Jerry's guidance, I joined a group of students in trekking through several caves in the Nashville area.  

What sunk into me the most about these trips were that we were exploring the amazing geological, chemical, and in some cases, anthropological history of the earth, which we often forget about during our daily coffee runs and pathological sprinting towards corporate elevators, above the surface.   To gaze inward is a little bit like peering into the mystery of Minos, except with more electricity.  

Another part of me thinks it’s a type of legacy chasing, following Ariadne's thread into the deep earth towards Nicolaus Steno, 17th century anatomist, who posed this question: how the fossils of seashells came to be found on mountaintops far away from the ocean. With that, Steno singlehandedly rolled the boulder from in front of the threshold to modern geology.

It is not darkness which cavers seek, I don't believe, nor the trolls nor dragons.  Instead it’s the ability to be in the same room of stones and formations that have existed untouched and unhindered for periods of incomprehensible time.  To shine one’s headlamp onto ancient pillars is to reach a state of silent correlation that graph-theory mathematicians might call being k-linked---a union of two otherwise independent entities who, through simple AAA-battery powered LED light sources, have connected the dots between twenty million years.  Even without us, the formations, borne from a sort of reverse lathe of water, sand, and dirt,  would likely see several millennia more---our inner Steno would just be poorer for the lost opportunity of crafting memories in such a strange kiln. 

I started to look inside again and wondered why the hell I ever left my enthusiasm for the underground back in the Nashville countryside.   I have met some amazing folks at the Dogwood City Grotto, one of the largest organized caving groups of the National Speleological Society's vast network. 

They are contractors, outdoorsmen, sales associates, engineers, convenience store workers, programmers, waiters, entrepreneurs…arterial recipients of the blood of the earth.  

Go caving.

Some of my first lessons in my re-entry into the caving world (And, lucky me, in the world of T.A.G.)

Visit my go caving Store and help support cave and karst preservation!

DISCLAIMER: Caving is NOT a solo activity and caving alone is very unsafe.  Always cave responsibly, at all times taking into careful account the details of personal safety, environmental conditions, and level of expertise.  This online journal is meant as an informational guide to this wonderful excursionary art and not as a substitute for proper training in cave & rope safety.  Nothing can replace hands-on training in both technique and safe practices as taught by a trained professional.  

To paraphrase David McClurg, "Spelunkers" are inexperienced and unprepared explorers who go into caves with one kitchen-drawer flashlight for three people.   "Cavers" are safety-minded explorers and conscientious conservationists who cave softly and safely, with a minimum of three sources of light for each individual person.   Don't be a Spelunker.