It
was such a blistery day. I have no idea how i survive the Utah weather, because I am always cold here! I knew the water in the cave underground would be even colder than outside, so I was thinking some negative thoughts about this whole cave adventure. Our group of 12 was called down to suit up. Our leaders were Zane and Kieran. I was handed a wetsuit that was thicker than your average wetsuit. It was wet before I put it on and it must have weighed at least 10 lbs carrying it into the changing room. The outfit consisted of booties and an overall style wetsuit. For those who needed extra warmth they offered sweaters to wear under the overalls. I obviously took one of these and then put on a zip
up type wetsuit jacket. In order to complete the look I was given some little white gum boots and a helmet with a headlamp. The outfits were oh so flattering. I would have to say this is a pretty good look for me.
We found tubes that suited our hips just perfectly and we
did a practice run by jumping backwards into the water. The water was pretty freezing,
but to be honest it could have been worse. We then hiked about 10 minutes until we found a
small entrance to a large cave. We waded through some water and then were able
to hop and ride in our tubes for a bit. There was a small current in the water
that picked up at points and then calmed down again. It was pitch black in the
cave and as you turned your headlamp off you were able to see all the worms glowing
just atop the cave. They were small green lights that looked like stars in the pitch black.
This experience just reassured me that I love disneyland. With the lights on I could just imagine myself riding on Pirates through the rocky caverns. As soon as our lights flickered out and we rode the current while watching the lights above I instantly felt like I was strapped into Space Mountain!
As we rode we came upon 2 waterfalls. We got in position by pulling the tube up around our butts, then pushing off backwards, launching ourselves down into the unknown black abyss below. As we floated we formed into what they called the black eel. We linked
all of our tubes by putting our feet on the tube in front of us. I was in the front, which I quickly regretted when I realized my feet remained in the water while all others were up on the tube in front of them.
So now the question you all are wondering?
What are glow worms?
Well brace yourself for what you are about to hear.......
It turns out the worms don’t actually glow. I guess they are little
larva that turn into flies, and the glow is their poop. They spin and hang sticky
strings from the ceiling that resemble strings to a spider web. These sticky strings cover the top of the cave. Little insects from the
water are attracted to the glowing lights because it resembles the night’s sky, so they fly up. They then get
stuck in the strings and the larvas eat them up. After a period of time the larvas cocoon in their strings and turn into
flies. These flies are missing one thing....a mouth. Because these flies have no mouth, they cannot survive for
more than a few days because they have no food. The fly then spends the rest of its short life reproducing and then dies. And so the cycle continues on....hmm what an interesting way of life!
We were underground in the cave for about an hour. By the end the cold had finally hit me. I could barely feel my feet or hands anymore! Luckily we were in the home stretch and then we spotted the light at the end of the tunnel!
