The Spelunker
While planning our van trip, Alabama was always top on my list. I had no agenda except I loved the movie Sweet Home Alabama. In my head, any Alabama experience would be just like the movie, a sweet southern gentleman and lady in a small town falling in love. Unfortunately, I never came across the love story of Reese Witherspoon and Josh Lucas.
Turns out that Grant’s expectations of Alabama were a little different. Instead of finding their love story, I became a spelunker for the day. Spelunking is defined as the exploration of caves, and in Alabama, that is just what we did. Stephens Gap is a 150ft cave with a waterfall that flows down the opening. There are two entrances, a walk down entrance and a rappel entrance. Can you guess which one Grant wanted to do?
What drew Grant to this particular cave was how the sun shined in creating light beams onto a pedestal inside the cave. We planned to be there early Saturday morning to catch the clear skies the weather report called for. Unfortunately, we woke up to heavy fog. The weather report predicted the fog would burn off by 8 am but we all know how accurate those weather reports usually are.
At this point, I was still unsure whether or not I wanted to rappel into the cave. I am afraid of heights, plain and simple. The worst part of rappelling for me is trusting the equipment. I am always hesitant to lean back, usually over of a large drop off, while loading the rope with my weight. After hiking the one mile trail to the cave, I saw the key hole rappel entrance and lets just say my IBS was in full swing. We entered the cave through the larger walk-in entrance where we could see the waterfall flowing into the cave. Grant knew I was hesitant about rappelling but I thought that the shot would be worth it. Being a photographers wife, I experience a ton of Type 2 fun: miserable while it is occurring, but fun in retrospect.
Grant rappelled in first to make sure the rope reached the pedestal. Secretly, I knew I would be disappointed if I didn’t rappel. So I mustered up my courage, put my gear on, and told Grant, “It’s now or never, let’s do this”. The problem was, Grant wanted to wait a bit longer to see if the fog would burn off and if the sun would get high enough for the light beam to happen. Well, that waiting period became a couple of hours and my mood quickly changed. I had talked myself into rappelling but now had to sit in my gear for two hours thinking of everything that could go wrong...I am also a bit of a worrier.
Around noon, the light was the best it was going to be and we began attaching me to the anchor. The entire rappel is around 140ft to the pedestal with the first 40ft inside the narrow key hole and the last 100ft free hanging. Entering into the keyhole was scary. Grant kept reassuring me that I didn’t have to do this and I could only respond with gentle, fearful whines. I leaned back onto the rope hoping the large tree didn’t suddenly give out while I maneuvered through the awkward entrance to the cave. Once I made it through the narrow opening, I began free hanging as I lowered myself to the pedestal while Grant’s camera fired away. Once I was on the pedestal, I unhooked from the rope and hiked out of the walk-in entrance. My mood had completely changed. I was safe on solid ground and had just conquered my fears.
As we discovered, this time of year, the sun does not shine directly through the opening creating the light beams onto the pedestal. Grant did not capture the exact photo he envisioned but nevertheless it was still an spectacular experience. Next time I will try to be more clear about my expectations of a location.
