Stories!

[Stuart]

Hey everyone I would like to open this section of the forum up to Mine/Adventure stories!
Please share your tales of gore and conquest.

-Mojave

[Mike]

Crystal Ice Caves

One of my favorite stories came from when I was 16 years old. I was a Venture Scout from the Snake River Council, Idaho. Our destination was the Crystal Ice Caves. The Crystal Ice Caves are a beautiful formation of ice that has seeped deep into the ground over hundreds of years. Every 2000 years, Central Idaho erupts violently. Idaho's last major activity was over 2000 years ago. Lava traveled through tubes underneath the surface, travelling to wherever the pressure seemed to take them. Sometimes, these lava tubes built up large amounts of pressure, causing massive explosions out toward the surface. These explosions would create large holes in the ground that still remain after the ground cooled and solidified. Thousands of years later, we find plains littered with caves caused by this volcanic activity. This creates years of adventure for young scouts as we were.

Crystal Ice Caves were discovered during the early 1900's. Later, they were turned into a tourist attraction. In the 1980's the cave was shut down for multiple reasons. In itself, the cave was very dangerous, its paths covered in slick ice. But by also opening a vent to the cave, it began waming up the interior temperature, causing 1000 year old formations to begin to melt. The cave was boarded up forever. (Thank you, BLM ) However, the original discoverer of the cave had created an air ventilation shaft through a side tunnel of the cave. As scouts, we trained for days learning how to use repelling and ascending equipment in small spaces to prepare ourselves for the cave.

The day came that it was finally time to explore the cave. We drove through the barren desert for hours until we reached our destination. We arrived early in the day and were anxious to get in. After getting harnessed up, we opened the vent cover and slowly crawled to the drop hole. With our leader guiding us, our feet firmly placed against the hole's wall, I leaned back and allowed myself to fall into the darkness. I descended about 100' until I set down on the rocky bottom. We climbed through some small holes to get out of the way of the other scouts. Once we were all down, we began exploring the cave. What we found was amazing! Beautiful crystal clear ice formation cast amazing light from our flashlights and illuminated our passages. We found reservoirs of water, slanted tunnels of ice, stalactites, stalagmites of all shapes and sizes. We would find ourselves sliding down tunnels of ice and having the time of our lives. However, we never really thought about how we were going to make it back up and out of these tunnels. After multiple attempts to scale this 1-2% grade of ice, we found it was hopeless to get back up. Luckily, our flashlights had small sharp notches on them that we could use to dig into the ice. Certain tunnels lead us through knee deep puddles of water. After 6 hours of some of the most amazing underground scenery I've ever seen, we decided it best to head back. We re-harnessed and began the long and tenuous accent back to the surface.

Through all the caves, and mines I've been in, Crystal Ice Caves had by far the most eye candy. It is sad that it had to be closed off to the public, but at the same time, being able to go into something BLM has closed off always give me a thrill. Thanks BLM!

[April2021]

Wow!

Mike that sounds soo fun!
I wish there were ice caves in Utah. You must be quite the tough guy
Too bad I dont have any fun adventure stories cool enough to share

[Mike]

Hey lets get some other Kick A stories in here!

[Crystal]

My "Kick A" story off Frisco is under the Frisco Trip forum. Go read it and respond!
-Crystal

[Jolth]

The only creepy thing that comes to mind right now is when Mike and I were filling up the generator we were using to the film shoot was that the gas cap moved on its own about 6 inches and neither of us moved it, Mike tried to blow on it after it moved to see if he had blown on it before, but it didnt budge at all. Also we had a strange smell of vanilla in this one corner of the machine shop place that we all smelt but none of us was wearing vanilla aftershave. creepy! OOOOHHHOO!! AHH!HAH!!! so anyway that is my story for the now.

[April2021]

Thats creepy

Wow the cap moved on its own? Thats way creepy!

[Stuart]

Shadow in Hell's Shaft

On one of our frequent trips to the sand dunes early this spring we decided to stop into Eureka on the way back and visit our old friend "Hell's Shaft".

Now up untill this point we had not actually entered the tunnel itself so we decided it was time to take a look inside. The enterance is caved in enough that you have to practically get down on your hands and knees to get inside. Being Mojave, I led the way in. I crouched down and shone my light inside, all clear. As I started to shuffle inside I saw a huge black shadow drop from the ceiling and zoom towards my face. Feeling as though satan himself were flying down to destroy me, I turned and ran slipping and sliding on the snow out of the mine sceaming like a mad as it clawed at my back. Mike, fearing sure destruction from a cave-in, turned and fled also.When we got outside we found Crystal laughing her head off. Apparently our attackers were not as demonic as we feared. I turned to see two large owls and a pidgeon flying off into the night.

-Mojave

[Mike]

Ha I love that one. If you could have heard the blood chilling scream Stu let out, you'd have ran too. I though the base of the mine was collapsing and he was falling into a shaft.

[Stuart]

scream

It was my best scream ever. I dont think any will ever compare. Someday maybe some seagulls will attack me in the dark and I can scream better, but untill that glorious day it will remain my best.

[Crystal]

haha

haha.... and I'll be there to laugh at you once more. . . hahahahahhaha

-Crystal