Mammoth Cave National Park Trip Review

May 2010:

After 4 days with 5 or 6 miles of crawling through caves and 23 miles or so of hiking on muddy trotted-up horse trails with 40 lb packs on our backs in 85+ degree mostly humid weather, we decided to come home from our trip a few days early to relax and give our muscles a break.

Trip Recap:

Sunday: drive down to Kentucky (8 hours from our apartment). Stop in the Visitor Center to pick up our backcountry permit and pick out the campsites we'd stay at for the week. The first and second night were supposed to be at the closest site, 1 mile hike from the car, so we could get up early for our cave tour. That site was taken. We got the next closest site, a 3 mile hike in; it took 1:22 to hike in (stopping to take pictures and mark trail crossings with the GPS). The Green River was just down the the hill/bluff from us. We couldn't find a good way to get down to it to refill our water supply.

Monday: Got up at 5am, took 1:09 to hike back to the car (without all our gear). Back to the Visitor Center to check in for the Wild Cave Tour, which was the best part of our whole trip. 6 1/2 hours of crawling around in a nice cool 55 degree cave while it was 90 and humid outside. The first half of the trip was in dry parts of the cave. The "Bare Hole" was our first test - no chest sizes bigger than 42 inches could fit through it. We got to have lunch in the "Snowball Dining Room". The second half of the tour was a little wet. They had a major flood on May 2-3 and a few of the tunnels were closed off at that time because there was only a few inches of breathing room left above the water line. Most of the water had receded by now, but we learned how to "Canyon Walk" on the ledges to bypass wading through some water holes and rivers. "No Name" passage was the lowest ceiling - crawling on our stomachs with our heads tilted to the side until it was wide enough to roll through. 6 1/2 hours later we're done with our tour, back out in the heat, and hiking back to our first site again. 1:12 hike time this time. Fell asleep to the sound of wild turkeys running around and flying up to their trees.

Tuesday: Woke up to the sound of deer calling to each other down by the river. Saw 2 of them. Packed up our gear, had a quick cereal/granola breakfast, and studied the map. 8.5 miles to our next campsite. We started off slow. My pack seemed REALLY heavy after crawling around in all those caves yesterday, not to mention the extra water bag I filled up so we'd be sure to have water today. We hike for 2 hours and reached a trail crossing at Good Springs Baptist Church. It was only 11:15am, but we decided to stop here for lunch since they had picnic tables next to the graveyard. The church building was open so we took a look inside. Very plain, but it was built in 1856 (or so) and was in the middle of the woods. Saw my very first multi-colored lizard (orange yellow at the head turning to a blue tail). Rested for an hour and then continued on with the hike. Right after lunch I had more energy (or so I thought at the time) and our speed picked up a bit til we got to the bridged river crossing. Then the trail split again, and I chose to go the longer way. Thought maybe it'd be more scenic. It might have been, but we never noticed it. Our gaze was fixed on the horse-trodden trail and how to avoid getting stuck in the mud or how to avoid stepping in the horse poop all while trying to stay out of the brush to avoid poison ivy and ticks. Oh, the ticks. What a pain! The worst part of the whole trip was the lack of anywhere to sit or stand without ticks. It was a constant battle trying to keep them off us. There weren't picnic tables at the backcountry campsites, so it was either standing, sitting on the tick-crawling logs, or hanging out in the tent. Back to the trail: the longer way was not a good choice. There were a few fallen trees over the path. One spot in particular had one tree that took out 3 other trees, all of which converged onto the path at slightly different angles blocking any way to get around easily. We had to go through them - not a fun task with a 40 lb pack. Eventually we made it to our next campsite (6 1/2 hours total hike time). There were ticks. We made dinner, set up the tent, and looked at the trail map. Decided our muscles wouldn't take another 3 days of 8-10 miles of hiking per day with 40 lbs on our backs. Calculated the mileage of the shortest route back to the car to be about 4.5 miles. Check for ticks and pulled off a few (none were "buried"). Fell asleep to the nearby spring/creek babbling over the rocks and the light of an almost-full moon.

Wednesday: Woke up early. Ate breakfast in the tent to avoid the tick re-infestation. Packed up as fast as week could and headed out to the short trail. The first mile was uphill - up to the ridge line, where the next trail connected to it. That section was great - double wide, gravel, and dry. But it was only 1/2 mile of that before it got back to the horse-trodden muddy tick-infested trails that we were used to. 4.5 miles, 2 hrs 20 minutes later, we were at our car, headed for the shower building, and smiling with Cracker Barrel breakfast in our mouths. Hit 3 spots of slow traffic on the way home, but still made it home in under 9 hours. Ivory was sitting in the window meowing at us when we got home. The bed felt really nice on our sore and tired muscles :)

Lessons learned from this trip:
1. Try really hard to pack less than 40 lbs into your pack if you plan on hiking with it for more than a day.
2. Spray clothes with Permanone before trip to help avoid the constant fear of tick paranoia.
3. Be sure to bring enough water to the first campsite in case you can't get to the water source.
4. Don't try to do a 6 hour cave tour and a multi-day backpacking trip in the same trip.
5. Find out if the hiking trails double as horse trails BEFORE getting to the trails.


Pictures will be posted later.

Artists Wanted!

Are you and artist or know anyone who is?

Cascio Interstate Music is looking for artists to display their work in The Piano Gallery, located in their Retail Music Store on 138th & National, New Berlin, WI.

Sound interesting? Here are the details...

~ Art must be music related.

~ Art must be pre-approved digitally by Casscio Interstate Music, either by website or email. No additions, no exceptions.

~ Cascio Interstate Music will take a 20% commission of any sold pieces.

~ We would liek to display the art for a period of two months. If pieces sell quickly, we can always adjust.

~ Artists must hang the pieces (gallery has drywall walls and some wood columns that may be used).

~ Anyone interested can contact Brian Bott at bbott@interstatemusic.com or 262-957-4531.

Testing out the Gear

Did my first lengthy bike ride on the "new" Trek 1.1 road bike. 32 miles in 2:15:30. Adjusted the aerobars a bit before I headed out. Left arm rest still needs to be adjusted a bit. Short-sleeve Smartwool jersey worked well at wicking sweat without stinking. The Honey Stinger bar was easy to open and eat while still riding at a good pace. Still need to work on getting in to the clipless pedals at stoplights. Overall a good ride in cool weather with minimal wind.