Was there a 3rd choice?

Was There A 3rd Choice?

By Keith Finn

Jennifer (the keeper of my heart) is a leader of a Girl Scout

troop. The scout troop decided one day that caving sounded

like something they ought to try. I am an occasional caver,

so Jennifer asked if I could take the troop caving. Ay yi yi!

I managed to deflect my role to that of assistant cave guide,

since I was able to convince Jennifer that Dave Seslar would

be a much better choice to lead the expedition. Dave is a

much better choice for cave guide, but he chose a cave

where much of the system has the same cross-section as

my torso. We were going to Jarvie Rourke cave in Kentucky.

For reasons I never have been able to understand, I cannot

find my way around Jarvie Rourke with any reliability. I

don’t get lost in the classic sense; I just don’t know where

I am! I can always find my way back; I just can’t follow the

cave map to a goal.

At the cave entrance we split into 2 groups. I had 1 adult

and 4 GS; Dave had 2 adults and 4 GS. The scouts had to

choose the leader they wanted to cave with: Column A - Go

with Dave and get stuck but not lost (Dave is 6’2” and 140

lbs - he can fit through a 7.5” gap) Column B - Go with Keith

and get lost but not stuck (Keith is 5’10” and 330 lbs - he

MAKES his own gaps!) After some hemming and hawing, they

asked if there was a 3rd choice! Whadda bunch of babies!

Anyway, off we went with our victims, er...scouts. Dave’s

group took the high road, and I took the low road. We

tromped along a stream passage for a while, clambered

over some rimstone dams, straddle walked a crevice in the

floor, then settled down for some crawling. I had chosen a

destination on the map, and we had 200 feet or so of crawling

to reach it. It wasn’t bad, hands and knees in single file,

but after a while it seemed like we had crawled longer

than we should have. When we came to a wide spot, I would

have everone examine the map, agree that we seemed on

course (consensus is good when trying to explain things to

a search party). After two more consensus building sessions,

I decided that once again, I was lost. I think I was in

a passage named “Endless Crawl”, and it was aptly named. I

decided to backtrack, climb a level and look for Eagle Pit.

After backtracking, climbing and wandering around (in which

the scouts had a great time investigating diverse nooks

and crannies), I ran into Dave and his group. Much to my

chagrin, he told me I was nowhere near Eagle Pit - I was in

the Registration Room. But my group didn’t feel so bad

about being lost after the horror tales of where Dave made

his group go! Once I was oriented, we made a quick exit (I

can always find my way out) and waited for the others to

catch up. All in all, the scouts found it a worthwhile excursion.

They even let me take them caving again - as long as it

wasn’t back to Jarvie Rourke!