On Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:44:36 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch
wrote:

Must be just too old fer this kinda thing cuz my knees seem to be
gone. Can barely bend em after 4 days of caving even though I worked
out for a month and a half before going.
Went to the annual Tennessee-Alabama Georgia Fall Cave-In on Lookout
Mountain in Georgia with my two daughters and older daughters bf and
friends. Lots of rain, everything was soaked, camped anyway.
Thurs, did a VERY muddy stream passage cave near intersection of I-59
and I-24 in Tenn. Maybe a 4 hour trip.
Fri. A 9 hour trip to the back of Tumbling Rock Cave North of
Scottsboro, AL. Lots of climbing and scrambling up , down and
crawling through rocks. Enormous rooms whose size defied
comprehension. Got to 200' high Mt Olympus in the back of the cave.
Got back at midnight with steady rain.
Sat. 4 hour trip to Stephens Gap pit, the cave in National Geo a few
months ago with a pic of a person standing on a rock. Included a
nasty hike up the mountain over tiny narrow trail with drop off into
rocks below. Trail was VERY slippery. Much more rain Sat night.
Sun: Short hike to a natural area with big rocks to practice
rapelling and then a 7 hour drive home.

My boots got so trashed in the muddy cave on Thur that I did the
remaining trips in my Teva water shoes and was amazed they worked
"OK". They were better than sneakers cuz they do have good tread
although I will look for some with more aggressive tread. Twice I
nearly suffered from twisted ankle due to lack of ankle support. I
really felt the lack of support in not being sure of my footing.
Still, Teva-like caving boots is an interesting idea cuz I did a lot
of walking thru stream passages.

My girls did very well with younger daughter Katie showing what seemed
a nearly photographic memory about what passages we had taken to get
in. I was almost astonished about how well she knew the way out and
every detail of all the rooms and passages. Her ability seems almost
unnatural.

The younger people outdid me in endurance but the tight crawls up,
down and every which way in tiny rocky passages is where I did
better. The old feeling of minimal energy caving came back and I felt
myself becoming snake-like instead of bashing into the rocks as they
did. Unfortunately, my old age need for drinking extreme amounts of
water is my limiting factor as I simply cannot carry enough.

Good job! Sounds like all went well, and safely. Now, when will we see
some pictures? Either here or there.