Post by L Roebuck on May 10, 2006 12:17:06 GMT -5
Convention of Cavers coming to Hart
"Once I got muddy, I was in love." -- Shelly Wolf, chairwoman of Speleofest 2006
Wolf's infatuation with caving began in 1987 during a tour of Mammoth Cave.
"The passages that we were walking through were awesome, but the ones that caught my attention were the little holes on the sides of the passage that we weren't allowed to go into."
She was given some contact information for local members of the National Speleological Society, who invited her to come along on a few short wild cave trips.
On Memorial Day weekend in Hart County, Wolf, a resident of Brown County, Ind., will direct the 35th annual Speleofest for novice and advanced cavers from all over the United States who will gather to explore some of Central Kentucky's wild caves.
Profits from the $20 registration fee and other income are used to support Lone Star Preserve, a 67-acre protected cave area in Hart County owned by the Louisville grotto of the National Speleological Society.
The five caves on the preserve are used for teaching cave conservation and safe caving for Scout groups and for showing new recruits the fascinating and challenging sport of caving.
"We have people get into it just for the photography," Wolf said. "There are things down there you'll never see on top of this Earth. We used to lay on our backs in this one passage that was about 18 inches high -- and there'd be hundreds of bats that would fly over us and never touch us. But the sound of the clicking and the wind off their wings was a magnificent moment."
J. Pat Stephens of Louisville, a founding member of Speleofest, got interested in caving as a youngster when he read about a cave in a book of short stories that his grandmother gave him.
By age 9, he had discovered Eleven Jones Cave on Beargrass Creek in Louisville and had begun exploring the cave with friends. As they grew older, the group began exploring other caves throughout the region.
"We finally wound up doing 90 percent of our caving in Meade, Hardin and Breckinridge counties," he said.
Some 200 to 300 cavers are expected for this year's Speleofest, May 26-29, which will include two days of cave trips. For more information, e-mail J. Pat Stephens at: jpatcaver@hotmail.com, or phone him at (502) 558-5619.
Byron Crawford's column appears on the Metro page Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. You can reach him at (502) 582-4791 or e-mail him at bcrawford@courier-journal.com. You can also read his columns at www.courier-journal.com.
Courier-Journal.com
"Once I got muddy, I was in love." -- Shelly Wolf, chairwoman of Speleofest 2006
Wolf's infatuation with caving began in 1987 during a tour of Mammoth Cave.
"The passages that we were walking through were awesome, but the ones that caught my attention were the little holes on the sides of the passage that we weren't allowed to go into."
She was given some contact information for local members of the National Speleological Society, who invited her to come along on a few short wild cave trips.
On Memorial Day weekend in Hart County, Wolf, a resident of Brown County, Ind., will direct the 35th annual Speleofest for novice and advanced cavers from all over the United States who will gather to explore some of Central Kentucky's wild caves.
Profits from the $20 registration fee and other income are used to support Lone Star Preserve, a 67-acre protected cave area in Hart County owned by the Louisville grotto of the National Speleological Society.
The five caves on the preserve are used for teaching cave conservation and safe caving for Scout groups and for showing new recruits the fascinating and challenging sport of caving.
"We have people get into it just for the photography," Wolf said. "There are things down there you'll never see on top of this Earth. We used to lay on our backs in this one passage that was about 18 inches high -- and there'd be hundreds of bats that would fly over us and never touch us. But the sound of the clicking and the wind off their wings was a magnificent moment."
J. Pat Stephens of Louisville, a founding member of Speleofest, got interested in caving as a youngster when he read about a cave in a book of short stories that his grandmother gave him.
By age 9, he had discovered Eleven Jones Cave on Beargrass Creek in Louisville and had begun exploring the cave with friends. As they grew older, the group began exploring other caves throughout the region.
"We finally wound up doing 90 percent of our caving in Meade, Hardin and Breckinridge counties," he said.
Some 200 to 300 cavers are expected for this year's Speleofest, May 26-29, which will include two days of cave trips. For more information, e-mail J. Pat Stephens at: jpatcaver@hotmail.com, or phone him at (502) 558-5619.
Byron Crawford's column appears on the Metro page Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. You can reach him at (502) 582-4791 or e-mail him at bcrawford@courier-journal.com. You can also read his columns at www.courier-journal.com.
Courier-Journal.com