Adventures Underground

April 14-15

I’d been keeping watch on the weather forecast which had been warning about high winds and heavy downfalls—rain south, blizzards north—for the Midwest.

I didn’t make plans beyond Richmond and Fort Boonesborough and kept my options open. One plan was maybe to go to Chattanooga for a couple of days. Mammoth Cave was another option. So was heading east to the Carolinas to escape the heavy weather.

As of Friday, hey, ho, the wind and the rain were on their way directly toward the Carolinas. That put a literal damper on one option.

The rain was on its way to Kentucky, though not in a form as dire as originally predicted. Chattanooga had a similar short-term future.

An indoor activity seemed to be in order, so Mammoth Cave became Plan A.

One of the things I did on Friday was to set up the Mammoth Cave leg of the trip.

Saturday morning I took the route out of town that passes the Richmond (Ky.) battlefield. 

In August 1862, a Rebel army invaded Kentucky from Tennessee. Not knowing at first whether it was a raid or a full-scale invasion, the U.S. Army sent a force of about 6,500 men to the area around Richmond.

According to information posted on the site of the battle, most of the Union troops were untrained. Many had enlisted only a couple of weeks earlier and then found themselves in boxcars going to Kentucky.

Fighting lasted two days. The Union army lost more than 5,300 men, most of whom were captured.

There are several buildings from the time still standing, including the house that is now the visitor center. Farther down the road is a brick church, Mount Zion Christian, which was used as a field hospital. Beyond that is a large brick house with several outbuildings.

I didn’t get the name of either house. The wind was really kicking up and rain was imminent, so I didn’t stay long.

The route to Cave City, which was the day’s destination, took me through a town called Berea, named for a Greek city mentioned favorably in the Acts of the Apostles. 

It’s home to Berea College, which was established in 1855 in a one-room schoolhouse and was the first coeducational and interracial school in the South. Probably one of the few in the world at that time.

The college’s website has an account of its early history. Its founder, the Rev. John Gregg Fee, set out to create an institution that, as he put it, “would be to Kentucky what Oberlin is to Ohio, anti-slavery, anti-caste, anti-rum, anti-sin.” 

The original Cassius Clay (not Muhammad Ali, but the Abolitionist) was involved. They were run out Kentucky by slavers and didn’t come back till after the Civil War.

The school is tuition-free. According to the website, part of Berea College’s mission is “To provide an educational opportunity for students of all races, primarily from Appalachia, who have great promise and limited economic resources.”

After I checked in at Days Inn in Cave City, I took an exploratory run to the Mammoth Cave park visitor center. It’s easy to find. You follow one road, which changes its name from time to time, until you come to Mammoth Cave Entrance Road.

That intersection is a short way past Little Hope Cemetery. 

It’s not a comment, but rather the name of the church that once stood there, before the federal government bought the land. The congregation meets these days in a different building outside the park.

I had surprisingly good Mexican food for dinner at a place called El Mazatlan, about a half mile from the hotel. Th menu offered a flight of enchiladas—one bean, one ground beef, one chicken, and one cheese—and a side of rice. They were excellent with the sauce, lettuce, tomato, and sour cream. 

The beer selection was typical. Throwing in that slice of lime makes lagers like Modelo and Dos Equis taste better.

For dessert, I picked up Country Boy Cliff Jumper IPA. That’s the same brewer that makes Cougar Bait.

Another culinary surprise came the next day at lunch.

I had a ticket for the 3:15 tour called Frozen Niagara, named for the flowing rock formations, at Mammoth Cave and so left the hotel a little after 12. 

The exhibits in the visitor tell you more than you want to know about sinkholes, rainwater, karst formations, limestone, eyeless fish, and other fascinating details of the geology, flora, and fauna of the area. 

It also has a restaurant where I tried an appetizer of fried green tomatoes. 

I expected two or three slices of something like tomatillo sauteed in oil. No, they were huge slabs of vegetable Dixie fried. Duh.

They were not segmented, as I’d expect a tomato to be, and they were almost hard.  Had to slice them with a knife. They were good, but pretty heavy.

I had that with a bowl of cheese and potato soup, which I had expected to come in a cup.

Needless to say, I was ready for the ramps and stairs inside the cave.

The tour was fascinating. The bus driver told the rangers that there were 29 ticket-holders. I guess they’re careful about the head count to make sure nobody gets left behind in a crevice.

The bus dropped us off at a man-made entrance to the cave. It looks like a cinderblock shed built into the hillside.

That opens to a route of narrow passages with low ceilings that look like rough plaster, but they are indeed natural limestone formations.

The cave leaks all over the place. That’s what shapes the limestone.

With all the rain over the past couple of days, there were puddles on the floor, drips from the roof, and generally lots of real cave fun. 

There were creatures all over the walls that look like spiders, but as we learned later, are crickets. Their antennas are very long and help them find their way in the dark. They leave the cave periodically and somehow bring stuff back that feeds many of the other small creatures that don’t get to forage outside.

The tour gets its name from the cascades of limestone in this part of the cave. According to our tour leader, Ranger Elaine, when rain falls, it picks up CO2 and becomes acidic. It flows directly underground through sinkholes, and dissolves the limestone.

As the water loses its CO2 content, it deposits the limestone solution, which hardens into flowing forms of stalactites, stalagmites, columns, and various illusions.

Domes and pits are covered with natural decoration. Some formations look like lace.

One resembles a turkey, so the chamber where that was found is called the Thanksgiving Hall.

I tried to photograph some of them, but the light is so dim that it takes a long exposure to resolve an image. Too long for me to do it holding the camera in my hand. Here’s a fuzzy shot of an overhead formation.

One particularly ornate section, called the Lace Hall or the Tapestry Hall or something like that, is 49 stairs down, which means it is also 49 steps back.

Yeah, I can do that. I used to stay in a fifth-floor walk-up in New York before I retired. This would be like reaching the street and having to go back up to get something I forgot.

I did all right. Ninety eight steps round trip and I made the first 86 with no strain. I was proud of myself. 

The last dozen made me humble, though. At the top, I stopped to catch some breath, smacked myself on the chest, and didn’t pass out.

The tour included a blackout—brief and intentional, mind—to demonstrate what total darkness is. 

The bus came back to a place by the park hotel where we had to walk on a mat saturated with some kind of cleaner. The caves are infested with a fungus that causes white nose syndrome, a disease fatal to bats.

Walking on the mats disinfects our shoes so we won’t carry the fungus to bats somewhere else.

I went to a local steakhouse, the Sahara, for dinner, mainly because I wanted a side of green vegetables and wanted something that goes well with red wine instead of beer.

The steak, a sirloin, was cut very thin, but they still managed to send it to me rare. The green beans were done the way I like them, cooked to death.

I bought a bottle of wine at the local liquor store. The selection wasn’t very broad, mostly California wines. I chose a pinot noir from Cupcake Winery.

It turned out to be rather sharp and acidic. I’ll finish the bottle, because I always do, but doubt that I’ll buy anything else with that label.

So that was it for the day. 

Be well, all. Don’t underestimate those steps, and keep the lights on when you’re underground.

Harry

April 17

Harry, sounds like you're having fun.

I wanted to tell you I've been watching “Peaky Blinders” because of your recommendation, but wish it had subtitles because those are some thick-ass accents.

Karl