DARK, DARING, AND DIRTY – THE CAVE THAT CAPTURED MANY – FACT 38 OF 50
Dark. Deep. Cold. Rocky. Slippery. These are just a few adjectives to describe the caves that many GMVS alumni remember fondly from their time exploring in the Middlebury area.
A 30-foot entrance is so narrow that it required one to scooch, feet-first, underground until space opened up and darkness set in. Another 30-foot free climb down into greater depths of darkness and cold with no rope, a flashlight typically in hand and only jagged rock to hang onto led the students into deeper darkness. One slip and it was a long fall down, but fortunately, the athleticism of the GMVS student-athletes prevailed.
With headlamps on and flashlights in hand, these explorers would continue on down another 50-60 feet by belay into the cavernous space below. Dark, muddy and cold, students discovered an entire underground world deep in the earth, crawling on hands and knees and finding new places to explore. Covered in dirt, hungry, and perhaps a little eager for sunlight, the Gumbies would then make their way back up the near 100-feet they had descended and, “When you crawled out and saw the light of day, it was a very good feeling” exclaimed Cindy Mumford. She went on to say the whole experience was “cold, muddy, slippery and took a lot of courage.”