WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.520 --> 00:00:05.759 For decades, people have disappeared in the woods without a trace. 2 00:00:06.519 --> 00:00:10.279 Some blame wild animals, others whisper of creatures the world 3 00:00:10.359 --> 00:00:14.160 refuses to believe in, but those who have survived they 4 00:00:14.199 --> 00:00:18.679 know the truth. Welcome to Backwoods Bigfoot Stories, where we 5 00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:22.879 share real encounters with the things lurking in the darkness bigfoot, 6 00:00:23.199 --> 00:00:28.239 dog man, UFOs, and creatures that defy explanation. Some make 7 00:00:28.280 --> 00:00:32.280 it out, others aren't so lucky. Are you ready, because 8 00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:34.640 once you hear these stories, you'll never walk in the 9 00:00:34.640 --> 00:00:38.920 woods alone again. So grab your flashlight, stay close, and 10 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:41.840 remember some things in the woods don't want to be found. 11 00:00:42.520 --> 00:00:46.240 Hit that follow or subscribe button, turn on auto downloads, 12 00:00:46.439 --> 00:00:48.399 and let's head off into the woods if you dare. 13 00:01:02.759 --> 00:01:05.319 I get a lot of emails. Some of them are short, 14 00:01:05.640 --> 00:01:08.840 a line or two, a name, a state, a thank 15 00:01:08.879 --> 00:01:11.359 you for the show. A few of them ramble, and 16 00:01:11.400 --> 00:01:14.799 that's fine, because rambling is sometimes how a person works 17 00:01:14.840 --> 00:01:17.719 their way around to the thing they actually want to say. 18 00:01:18.560 --> 00:01:21.000 Once in a while, though, an email comes in that 19 00:01:21.079 --> 00:01:22.760 I have to sit with for a couple of days 20 00:01:23.079 --> 00:01:25.840 before I can even answer it. The kind where you 21 00:01:25.879 --> 00:01:28.200 read it through and then you read it through again, 22 00:01:28.879 --> 00:01:31.159 and then you stand up and walk around your house 23 00:01:31.200 --> 00:01:33.560 for a minute, because the air in the room feels 24 00:01:33.560 --> 00:01:35.879 a little different than it did before you opened it. 25 00:01:36.640 --> 00:01:39.120 This is one of those. The man who sent it 26 00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:41.439 asked me to read it on the show. He said, 27 00:01:41.480 --> 00:01:44.000 his name is Keith. He said he's been a listener 28 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:46.719 for a few years now. He said he debated for 29 00:01:46.760 --> 00:01:49.719 the better part of several months whether to send anything 30 00:01:49.760 --> 00:01:52.719 at all, and that when he finally did, he wrote 31 00:01:52.719 --> 00:01:54.840 it in one sitting at his kitchen table at about 32 00:01:54.879 --> 00:01:57.640 two in the morning, because that's when these things tend 33 00:01:57.640 --> 00:02:00.760 to come up out of him. He didn't ask for anonymity. 34 00:02:01.079 --> 00:02:03.799 He gave me his real first name. He told me 35 00:02:03.799 --> 00:02:07.120 where he lives in general terms, and where this happened 36 00:02:07.400 --> 00:02:10.159 in general terms, and he asked me not to be 37 00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:13.400 too specific about either, because there are still two other 38 00:02:13.439 --> 00:02:16.400 men in this story, and one of them isn't doing well, 39 00:02:16.879 --> 00:02:19.719 and Keith doesn't want any of this landing on his doorstep. 40 00:02:20.479 --> 00:02:22.840 I'm going to honor that. I'll tell you up front 41 00:02:22.879 --> 00:02:26.639 that I cannot verify what Keith experienced. I haven't stood 42 00:02:26.639 --> 00:02:29.280 at the mouth of the cave he describes. I haven't 43 00:02:29.280 --> 00:02:31.759 met him in person. I've talked with him over the 44 00:02:31.800 --> 00:02:35.280 phone twice for about an hour each time, and I'll 45 00:02:35.319 --> 00:02:38.080 say this, he doesn't sound like a man trying to 46 00:02:38.120 --> 00:02:41.240 sell me anything. He sounds like a man who is still, 47 00:02:41.560 --> 00:02:44.759 almost a year later, trying to talk himself into believing 48 00:02:44.759 --> 00:02:48.000 what his own eyes saw. Keith and his two friends, 49 00:02:48.080 --> 00:02:53.240 Josh and Caleb are experienced spalunkers. That part matters. They 50 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:55.800 aren't kids who watched a video and decided to crawl 51 00:02:55.800 --> 00:02:58.879 into a hole on a Saturday. They've been doing this 52 00:02:58.919 --> 00:03:01.280 for the better part of two days decades. They know 53 00:03:01.360 --> 00:03:05.319 about bad air, about flash floods, about cold water sumps 54 00:03:05.319 --> 00:03:08.319 and rotten rope, and the slow trick of fatigue. At depth, 55 00:03:08.960 --> 00:03:12.439 they know what they're doing underground. What happened to them, 56 00:03:12.560 --> 00:03:15.120 if you take Keith at his word, was something none 57 00:03:15.159 --> 00:03:18.240 of their experience prepared them for. I'm not going to 58 00:03:18.280 --> 00:03:20.159 tell you what to make of it. That isn't my 59 00:03:20.280 --> 00:03:23.520 job tonight. My job tonight is to read his email 60 00:03:23.840 --> 00:03:26.400 the way he wrote it, with his permission, and to 61 00:03:26.520 --> 00:03:28.520 let you sit with it the way I've been sitting 62 00:03:28.520 --> 00:03:32.400 with it. So pour yourself something, turn the lights down 63 00:03:32.400 --> 00:03:34.840 a little. If that's how you like to listen and 64 00:03:34.879 --> 00:03:39.439 settle in. This is Keith's email, Brian. I want to 65 00:03:39.479 --> 00:03:41.719 start by saying I never thought i'd be the guy 66 00:03:41.759 --> 00:03:44.560 writing one of these. I've heard enough of your shows 67 00:03:44.599 --> 00:03:46.840 to know what kind of email lands in your inbox 68 00:03:46.919 --> 00:03:50.199 most weeks, and I always thought, well, those are fine 69 00:03:50.240 --> 00:03:54.199 for them. Those are other people's stories. I'm a project manager. 70 00:03:54.560 --> 00:03:56.960 I run a small crew. I have a wife and 71 00:03:57.000 --> 00:03:59.039 a girl in middle school, and a dog that thinks 72 00:03:59.039 --> 00:04:02.840 he's people. I do not have a story except now 73 00:04:02.840 --> 00:04:05.520 I do. I want to tell it the whole way 74 00:04:05.560 --> 00:04:08.520 through because I think if I tell it once, all 75 00:04:08.520 --> 00:04:10.400 the way to the end, I might be able to 76 00:04:10.400 --> 00:04:12.080 put it down for a while and go to sleep 77 00:04:12.080 --> 00:04:15.400 at a reasonable hour. Again, my wife would appreciate that, 78 00:04:15.919 --> 00:04:18.160 so would I. So if you'll let me work my 79 00:04:18.199 --> 00:04:20.920 way into it, I'll get there. I have to tell 80 00:04:20.920 --> 00:04:24.279 you about Caleb's grandfather first. There's no way around him 81 00:04:24.800 --> 00:04:28.439 without him. None of this happens without him. The three 82 00:04:28.439 --> 00:04:30.519 of us don't drive seven hours into the kind of 83 00:04:30.519 --> 00:04:33.560 country where the gas stations have hand lettered signs and 84 00:04:33.600 --> 00:04:36.079 the cell service drops out about an hour before you 85 00:04:36.160 --> 00:04:39.480 mean it too. Without him, we never find that hole 86 00:04:39.519 --> 00:04:43.160 in the rock at all. Caleb's grandfather was named Hollis. 87 00:04:43.639 --> 00:04:46.560 Everybody called him Pap. He was a coal man for 88 00:04:46.639 --> 00:04:48.879 the first half of his life and a carpenter for 89 00:04:48.920 --> 00:04:51.839 the second half, and somewhere in between. He was a hunter, 90 00:04:52.240 --> 00:04:55.040 a trapper, a fiddle player, and the kind of man 91 00:04:55.079 --> 00:04:59.000 you didn't sass twice. He was born in Letcher County, Kentucky, 92 00:04:59.279 --> 00:05:02.279 and he died there about fourteen months ago, eighty six 93 00:05:02.399 --> 00:05:05.360 years old, in his own bed, which he had asked for. 94 00:05:06.199 --> 00:05:08.879 Caleb was the one who found him. He'd driven down 95 00:05:08.920 --> 00:05:12.319 that morning to bring him groceries. Caleb and Pap were close, 96 00:05:12.319 --> 00:05:15.480 in the way that grandsons and grandfathers sometimes are when 97 00:05:15.480 --> 00:05:18.279 the father in between has gone missing. Somewhere along the 98 00:05:18.279 --> 00:05:22.839 way Caleb's dad left when Caleb was five, Pap stepped 99 00:05:22.879 --> 00:05:26.000 into the gap. He taught Caleb how to fish, how 100 00:05:26.040 --> 00:05:28.519 to clean a rifle, how to set a trot line, 101 00:05:29.040 --> 00:05:31.680 how to shake a man's hand without making it a contest. 102 00:05:32.480 --> 00:05:34.079 He taught him how to read the weather off the 103 00:05:34.079 --> 00:05:36.879 way the leaves turned their backs to the wind. He 104 00:05:36.959 --> 00:05:39.680 taught him one hundred small things that fathers are supposed 105 00:05:39.680 --> 00:05:42.759 to teach, and once in a great while, when the 106 00:05:42.759 --> 00:05:45.240 bourbon was out and the porch light was on, and 107 00:05:45.279 --> 00:05:47.720 the cicadas were doing their slow work in the woods 108 00:05:47.759 --> 00:05:50.240 behind the house. He taught him about the places in 109 00:05:50.279 --> 00:05:53.399 those mountains a person should not go. There were a 110 00:05:53.439 --> 00:05:56.360 few of them, according to Pipe. There was a stretch 111 00:05:56.399 --> 00:05:59.759 of creek up pass Sergeant that he wouldn't fish because 112 00:05:59.800 --> 00:06:01.839 some happened to a cousin of his there in the 113 00:06:01.920 --> 00:06:05.360 nineteen forties that he would not discuss. There was a 114 00:06:05.360 --> 00:06:07.720 stand of old timber up the ridge from his property 115 00:06:07.720 --> 00:06:10.439 where he wouldn't hunt, because he said the deer wouldn't 116 00:06:10.439 --> 00:06:12.519 bed down there, and a man should pay attention when 117 00:06:12.560 --> 00:06:15.279 the deer tell him something. And there was a hole 118 00:06:15.319 --> 00:06:17.199 in the rock on the north face of a ridge 119 00:06:17.199 --> 00:06:19.839 maybe twelve miles from his house, in the middle of 120 00:06:19.879 --> 00:06:22.959 a piece of national forest land, that he warned Caleb 121 00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:25.959 about more than once, in a tone that didn't allow 122 00:06:26.040 --> 00:06:29.560 for follow up questions. Caleb told us more than once 123 00:06:29.639 --> 00:06:32.439 over the years the things Pap had said about that hole, 124 00:06:33.199 --> 00:06:35.720 He'd say. Pap told me when I was nine that 125 00:06:35.759 --> 00:06:38.319 if I ever found myself up that draw by accident, 126 00:06:38.639 --> 00:06:40.480 I should turn around and walk out the way I 127 00:06:40.519 --> 00:06:43.399 came in, and I should not go back, not for 128 00:06:43.480 --> 00:06:47.079 a dropped pack, not for a wounded dog, not for anything, 129 00:06:47.800 --> 00:06:50.240 he'd say. Pap told me he knew two men who 130 00:06:50.319 --> 00:06:53.079 went in there before the war, and only one came out, 131 00:06:53.439 --> 00:06:55.720 and that the one who came out never spoke a 132 00:06:55.759 --> 00:06:59.120 full sentence again for the rest of his life, he'd say. 133 00:06:59.439 --> 00:07:01.800 Pap told me once, when I pushed him, that he 134 00:07:01.879 --> 00:07:04.439 himself stood at the mouth of at one time when 135 00:07:04.439 --> 00:07:07.000 he was about my age, and that whatever was in 136 00:07:07.040 --> 00:07:08.959 there made the hair stand up on his neck so 137 00:07:09.079 --> 00:07:11.680 bad his teeth hurt, and he turned around and went 138 00:07:11.720 --> 00:07:14.519 home and never went back. That's the kind of thing 139 00:07:14.639 --> 00:07:18.199 Caleb grew up hearing. You have to understand. The three 140 00:07:18.199 --> 00:07:20.360 of us have been caving together since we were nineteen 141 00:07:20.480 --> 00:07:25.240 years old, Caleb, Josh and me. We met our first 142 00:07:25.319 --> 00:07:27.600 year of college at a little outing club that met 143 00:07:27.600 --> 00:07:30.800 on Tuesday nights in a basement that smelled like old carpet, 144 00:07:31.120 --> 00:07:36.720 and we've been at it ever since. Indiana, Tennessee, West Virginia, Alabama. 145 00:07:37.240 --> 00:07:41.000 All the big systems, plenty of small ones. Caleb's the 146 00:07:41.040 --> 00:07:43.560 most patient of the three of us. He's the one 147 00:07:43.560 --> 00:07:46.120 who'll spend twenty minutes finding the right line through a 148 00:07:46.160 --> 00:07:48.800 breakdown when Josh and I are already trying to muscle 149 00:07:48.839 --> 00:07:52.399 through it. Josh is the strongest. He was a marine 150 00:07:52.439 --> 00:07:54.839 for six years before he came back home and went 151 00:07:54.879 --> 00:07:57.519 into welding, and his shoulders looked like he's been doing 152 00:07:57.519 --> 00:08:00.720 pull up since the womb. And I'm the cautious one. 153 00:08:01.399 --> 00:08:03.920 I'm the one who packs the second backup light and 154 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:06.639 the third backup and a my lar blanket I have 155 00:08:06.759 --> 00:08:09.759 never used. I'm the one who annoys the other two 156 00:08:09.800 --> 00:08:12.000 by reading the survey notes out loud in the truck 157 00:08:12.040 --> 00:08:14.800 on the drive in. I want you to hold all 158 00:08:14.839 --> 00:08:16.519 of that in your head as you listen to the 159 00:08:16.560 --> 00:08:21.279 rest of this Three grown men decades of experience between us. 160 00:08:21.920 --> 00:08:25.480 None of us drinks underground, none of us take short cuts. 161 00:08:25.800 --> 00:08:27.519 None of us has ever been the kind of person 162 00:08:27.519 --> 00:08:30.439 who sees what isn't there. Whatever you make of what 163 00:08:30.439 --> 00:08:32.480 I'm about to tell you, it didn't happen to a 164 00:08:32.519 --> 00:08:36.039 couple of weekend warriors. It happened to the three of us. 165 00:08:36.399 --> 00:08:39.120 I'd put my reputation on Caleb and Josh in any 166 00:08:39.159 --> 00:08:42.000 cave you want a name. They'd say the same about me. 167 00:08:42.840 --> 00:08:46.399 Pap died in early September of last year. Caleb went 168 00:08:46.440 --> 00:08:49.279 down for the funeral. He stayed for two weeks after 169 00:08:49.559 --> 00:08:52.320 because somebody had to start sorting through eighty six years 170 00:08:52.320 --> 00:08:55.440 of one man's life, and Caleb's mother wasn't up for it. 171 00:08:56.279 --> 00:08:58.440 Pap had a workshop behind the house that hadn't been 172 00:08:58.480 --> 00:09:01.919 touched since the Reagan administration. He had a hall closet 173 00:09:01.960 --> 00:09:05.039 full of paper, grocery bags full of receipts. He had 174 00:09:05.039 --> 00:09:07.399 a shoe box full of black and white photographs of 175 00:09:07.399 --> 00:09:10.200 people whose names had died with him. And in the 176 00:09:10.240 --> 00:09:12.559 back of a drawer in the kitchen, underneath a stack 177 00:09:12.600 --> 00:09:15.879 of old utility bills, Caleb found a folded piece of 178 00:09:15.960 --> 00:09:20.279 graph paper. It was a map, hand drawn in pencil 179 00:09:20.799 --> 00:09:24.200 on paper that had gone soft. Along the creases, there 180 00:09:24.240 --> 00:09:27.159 was a stretch of road on it. Caleb recognized there 181 00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:29.879 was a creek, there was a contour line that meant 182 00:09:29.879 --> 00:09:32.600 a ridge, and on the north side of that ridge 183 00:09:32.639 --> 00:09:35.720 there was a small black circle, And next to the circle, 184 00:09:35.799 --> 00:09:40.240 in perhaps tight square handwriting, there were two words don't go. 185 00:09:40.919 --> 00:09:44.120 That was it, no date, no name for the place, 186 00:09:44.879 --> 00:09:47.840 just the map and those two words. Kept in the 187 00:09:47.840 --> 00:09:49.840 back of a drawer in a man's kitchen for who 188 00:09:49.879 --> 00:09:53.200 knows how many decades. Caleb didn't tell us about it 189 00:09:53.279 --> 00:09:55.799 right away. He sat on it for about a month. 190 00:09:56.639 --> 00:09:58.840 He told me later that he'd found it on a Tuesday, 191 00:09:59.159 --> 00:10:00.879 and that he'd put it back in the drawer and 192 00:10:00.960 --> 00:10:03.559 gone outside and sat in his truck and cried for 193 00:10:03.600 --> 00:10:06.080 the better part of an hour. He said it felt 194 00:10:06.080 --> 00:10:09.120 like Pap had left him a question, not an answer, 195 00:10:09.519 --> 00:10:13.159 a question the kind of grandfather leaves a grandson when 196 00:10:13.159 --> 00:10:15.679 he's run out of time. He brought it up to 197 00:10:15.759 --> 00:10:19.000 us in October. We were all three at Josh's place 198 00:10:19.039 --> 00:10:22.399 for one of our Sunday cookouts. Josh's wife had taken 199 00:10:22.399 --> 00:10:25.519 the kids to her sisters. Caleb went out to his truck, 200 00:10:25.879 --> 00:10:27.759 came back with the map, and laid it on the 201 00:10:27.840 --> 00:10:31.039 kitchen table between the bowls of chili. He didn't say 202 00:10:31.039 --> 00:10:33.799 anything for a long minute. Then he tapped his finger 203 00:10:33.840 --> 00:10:36.080 on that little black circle, and he told us what 204 00:10:36.200 --> 00:10:40.080 was on it, PAP's stories, the two men before the war, 205 00:10:40.679 --> 00:10:43.879 the hair on the neck, the hand drawn warning. And 206 00:10:43.919 --> 00:10:46.159 then he asked us if we'd go with him. I 207 00:10:46.200 --> 00:10:49.600 said no, I want to be clear about that. The 208 00:10:49.639 --> 00:10:52.080 first thing I said sitting at that kitchen table was 209 00:10:52.639 --> 00:10:56.320 no I said, Caleb, your grandfather was a smart man, 210 00:10:56.600 --> 00:10:58.559 and he told you not to go, and that ought 211 00:10:58.559 --> 00:11:00.799 to be the end of it. I said, you'll regret it. 212 00:11:01.320 --> 00:11:03.120 I said, if it's so bad, he wrote a warning 213 00:11:03.159 --> 00:11:05.080 on a map and hit it under the gas bill. 214 00:11:05.519 --> 00:11:08.919 What business have we got there? Josh took the other side. 215 00:11:09.440 --> 00:11:13.480 Josh said, with respect. Pap was an old countryman. He 216 00:11:13.559 --> 00:11:16.279 had stories about a lot of places. He had stories 217 00:11:16.320 --> 00:11:19.120 about that creek where his cousin drowned. And there's nothing 218 00:11:19.120 --> 00:11:22.639 wrong with that creek now except a little erosion. Those 219 00:11:22.639 --> 00:11:25.519 old men told a thousand of those stories. Most of 220 00:11:25.559 --> 00:11:28.639 them are about a moonshine still that somebody didn't want found. 221 00:11:29.480 --> 00:11:32.000 If there's a real cave up there nobody knows about 222 00:11:32.320 --> 00:11:34.799 in the middle of a national forest, that's a once 223 00:11:34.799 --> 00:11:37.919 in a lifetime thing. We owe it to ourselves to 224 00:11:37.960 --> 00:11:41.360 at least look at the entrance. And Caleb, and this 225 00:11:41.440 --> 00:11:44.279 is the part I keep coming back to, Caleb said, 226 00:11:44.639 --> 00:11:48.039 I have to know. He said it quietly. He wasn't 227 00:11:48.080 --> 00:11:51.600 pushing it. He was asking. My granddad spent his whole 228 00:11:51.600 --> 00:11:54.120 life trying to keep me from that place, he told us. 229 00:11:54.600 --> 00:11:57.039 And now he's gone, and I don't have anybody to 230 00:11:57.080 --> 00:11:59.320 ask anymore, and I have to know what he was 231 00:11:59.320 --> 00:12:01.879 trying to keep me from. If I don't go look 232 00:12:01.919 --> 00:12:05.120 at that ridge once with my own eyes, I'm going 233 00:12:05.159 --> 00:12:07.399 to think about it for the rest of my life. 234 00:12:07.480 --> 00:12:09.600 I would rather go with the two of you than alone. 235 00:12:10.440 --> 00:12:13.320 That last sentence was the one that got me, because 236 00:12:13.360 --> 00:12:16.200 I knew, sitting there at that kitchen table that he 237 00:12:16.279 --> 00:12:18.960 was going to go either way, and I knew Josh 238 00:12:19.120 --> 00:12:21.399 was going to go with him either way, and I 239 00:12:21.480 --> 00:12:23.759 knew that if I didn't go, I'd spend the rest 240 00:12:23.759 --> 00:12:25.720 of my life trying to live with the version of 241 00:12:25.759 --> 00:12:29.000 this where they walked out without me and something happened 242 00:12:29.240 --> 00:12:31.840 and I wasn't there to make it not happen. So 243 00:12:31.960 --> 00:12:35.279 I said yes. We picked a weekend in early November. 244 00:12:35.559 --> 00:12:37.919 The leaves would be down by then, which would help 245 00:12:37.960 --> 00:12:40.039 us see the lay of the land, and the snakes 246 00:12:40.039 --> 00:12:43.600 would be sleeping, which would help with everything else. We 247 00:12:43.679 --> 00:12:46.320 told our wives we were going caving in eastern Kentucky 248 00:12:46.360 --> 00:12:49.679 for three days. That part was true. We didn't tell 249 00:12:49.720 --> 00:12:52.799 them the rest. I'm not proud of that. I'm just 250 00:12:52.919 --> 00:12:55.720 telling you the way it was. We took two trucks 251 00:12:55.759 --> 00:12:57.919 because Josh's place is a couple of hours out of 252 00:12:57.960 --> 00:13:00.840 the way from mine and Caleb's. We met up at 253 00:13:00.840 --> 00:13:04.799 a diner outside London, Kentucky, on a Thursday morning. I 254 00:13:04.840 --> 00:13:07.559 remember Josh ordered biscuits and gravy and ate the whole 255 00:13:07.600 --> 00:13:09.919 plate in about ninety seconds, because he wanted to be 256 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:12.960 done before I started telling him about the survey reports. 257 00:13:13.159 --> 00:13:15.120 I had not actually been able to find for this 258 00:13:15.240 --> 00:13:18.519 cave because there were no survey reports for this cave, 259 00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:21.960 because as far as the official record was concerned, this 260 00:13:22.080 --> 00:13:25.200 cave did not exist. There's no entry for it in 261 00:13:25.279 --> 00:13:28.360 any of the Grotto's files, there's nothing in the Federal 262 00:13:28.440 --> 00:13:31.480 land surveys we could find. It's a hole in the 263 00:13:31.559 --> 00:13:34.480 rock that, as far as I can tell, only Pap 264 00:13:34.519 --> 00:13:37.200 and a few other old men ever knew about, and 265 00:13:37.279 --> 00:13:40.360 most of them are dead. That should have told me something. 266 00:13:41.440 --> 00:13:43.919 We drove the rest of the way that afternoon. The 267 00:13:44.039 --> 00:13:46.960 road got narrower, and then it turned to gravel, and 268 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:49.480 then it turned to a dirt track that pretended to 269 00:13:49.519 --> 00:13:51.960 be a road for about a mile before it gave up. 270 00:13:52.759 --> 00:13:54.960 We pulled the trucks off into a little flat spot 271 00:13:55.080 --> 00:13:58.720 under some pines. Caleb walked a slow circle around them, 272 00:13:58.919 --> 00:14:01.840 hands in his pockets, looking at the way the trees grew. 273 00:14:02.639 --> 00:14:05.080 This is the place, he told us, This is where 274 00:14:05.120 --> 00:14:08.360 paps map ends. We had the truck set up as 275 00:14:08.360 --> 00:14:11.399 a base. We'd hike in from there, sleep in tents 276 00:14:11.440 --> 00:14:13.720 at the foot of the ridge that night, hike up 277 00:14:13.759 --> 00:14:16.000 to the entrance the next morning, and be in the 278 00:14:16.039 --> 00:14:19.639 cave by mid morning Friday. The plan was to do 279 00:14:19.759 --> 00:14:22.720 a long surface day on Friday, get a feel for 280 00:14:22.759 --> 00:14:26.159 the system, come back out before dark, and decide that 281 00:14:26.279 --> 00:14:29.440 night whether to push it harder on Saturday. That was 282 00:14:29.480 --> 00:14:32.559 the plan. We made camp in the last of the light. 283 00:14:33.120 --> 00:14:37.200 Caleb cooked, Josh got a fire going. I sat against 284 00:14:37.200 --> 00:14:39.600 my pack and listened to the woods the way I 285 00:14:39.639 --> 00:14:42.799 always do for the first half hour. I always do that. 286 00:14:43.759 --> 00:14:45.320 You can learn a lot about a place from the 287 00:14:45.360 --> 00:14:48.279 way it sounds. In the first half hour. I'll tell 288 00:14:48.320 --> 00:14:51.320 you what I noticed. I noticed I couldn't hear any birds. 289 00:14:51.919 --> 00:14:54.600 It was already coming on toward dark, so that wasn't 290 00:14:54.639 --> 00:14:58.720 necessarily strange. I noticed I couldn't hear any deer moving either. 291 00:14:59.440 --> 00:15:02.759 That was a little strange. It was November in Kentucky. 292 00:15:03.200 --> 00:15:05.399 There should have been dear moving. Stay tuned for more 293 00:15:05.440 --> 00:15:11.039 backwoods Bigfoot stories. We'll be back. After these messages, I 294 00:15:11.120 --> 00:15:13.720 noticed I couldn't hear coyotes once it got full dark. 295 00:15:14.519 --> 00:15:18.519 Not one yip, not one howl the whole night. I 296 00:15:18.559 --> 00:15:20.679 told myself I was looking for things to be wrong. 297 00:15:21.320 --> 00:15:23.799 I told myself I'd been spooked by Caleb stories, and 298 00:15:23.840 --> 00:15:26.559 I needed to get my head right before we went underground. 299 00:15:27.279 --> 00:15:31.559 I drank some coffee, I went to sleep. I slept fine. 300 00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:34.480 Friday morning, we hiked up. The ridge was steeper than 301 00:15:34.519 --> 00:15:38.080 the contour lines made it look they always are. We 302 00:15:38.120 --> 00:15:42.200 took our time, We gained elevation slow. When we got 303 00:15:42.200 --> 00:15:44.080 to where the map said the entrance ought to be, 304 00:15:44.600 --> 00:15:47.360 we spread out and worked the slope in a line. 305 00:15:47.440 --> 00:15:51.080 Caleb found it. He whistled that low two note whistle 306 00:15:51.120 --> 00:15:53.480 he does, and Josh and I made our way over 307 00:15:53.519 --> 00:15:56.519 to him. The entrance wasn't a yawning mouth in the 308 00:15:56.559 --> 00:15:59.600 side of the mountain. It wasn't dramatic. It was a 309 00:15:59.639 --> 00:16:02.279 slot in the rock, about four feet high and maybe 310 00:16:02.320 --> 00:16:05.320 two feet across at the widest point, set behind a 311 00:16:05.360 --> 00:16:07.679 cluster of mountain laurel that you would walk past if 312 00:16:07.720 --> 00:16:10.279 you didn't know to look. There was a little bit 313 00:16:10.279 --> 00:16:12.519 of cool air coming out of it, the way air 314 00:16:12.559 --> 00:16:14.919 comes out of a cave that's connected to something bigger. 315 00:16:15.720 --> 00:16:19.200 There was a faint, faint smell on that air. Not bad, 316 00:16:19.759 --> 00:16:23.639 just earthy, the way a root seller smells. Nothing alarming. 317 00:16:24.519 --> 00:16:27.039 Caleb stood there for a long minute. He had his 318 00:16:27.120 --> 00:16:29.679 hand on the rock above the slot. He was looking 319 00:16:29.679 --> 00:16:32.399 into the dark. I couldn't tell what he was thinking. 320 00:16:32.919 --> 00:16:34.679 He's not a guy who tells you what he's thinking 321 00:16:34.759 --> 00:16:37.480 unless you ask, and even then he takes his time 322 00:16:37.519 --> 00:16:43.440 about it. After a while, Josh said well, Caleb said yeah, 323 00:16:43.480 --> 00:16:46.279 and we went in. The first hundred feet were a 324 00:16:46.320 --> 00:16:49.120 stoop walk. Then it opened up into a low room 325 00:16:49.159 --> 00:16:52.039 maybe thirty feet across, with a sandy floor and a 326 00:16:52.080 --> 00:16:54.559 smooth ceilinged passage going off the back of it to 327 00:16:54.600 --> 00:17:00.600 the right standard limestone, clean, dry, a little cool. We 328 00:17:00.639 --> 00:17:02.960 stopped there to put on our helmets and check our lights. 329 00:17:03.559 --> 00:17:07.359 I remember Josh laughing about something. I remember Caleb checking 330 00:17:07.400 --> 00:17:10.400 his watch the way he does, marking the time. We 331 00:17:10.519 --> 00:17:13.920 entered eight forty seven in the morning. We had told 332 00:17:13.960 --> 00:17:17.279 ourselves we'd be back out by four. The passage off 333 00:17:17.319 --> 00:17:19.559 the back of that room ran for about four hundred 334 00:17:19.559 --> 00:17:23.319 feet more or less straight, with a slight downward grade. 335 00:17:24.039 --> 00:17:26.799 We walked it in a loose line, Caleb in front, 336 00:17:27.200 --> 00:17:30.519 Me in the middle, Josh in the back. Caleb was 337 00:17:30.559 --> 00:17:33.759 reading the cave for us. Watch your step here, this 338 00:17:33.880 --> 00:17:37.640 rock's loose. The ceiling drops in about ten feet. There's 339 00:17:37.640 --> 00:17:40.200 an old mud floor here. It's been dry for a 340 00:17:40.240 --> 00:17:43.519 long time. The kind of running commentary you're glad to 341 00:17:43.559 --> 00:17:47.079 have when you're in unfamiliar ground. It was good cave. 342 00:17:47.759 --> 00:17:51.000 I want to say that the first hour, hour and 343 00:17:51.039 --> 00:17:53.720 a half we were having a good time. The system 344 00:17:53.799 --> 00:17:57.680 was clean, the formations were beautiful. We came through one 345 00:17:57.680 --> 00:18:00.480 little chamber that had soda straws hanging from the ceiling 346 00:18:00.559 --> 00:18:03.079 so thick and so long that Josh said it looked 347 00:18:03.079 --> 00:18:06.599 like a chandelier somebody had forgotten to turn on. Caleb 348 00:18:06.640 --> 00:18:09.880 took pictures. We were quiet, the way you get quiet 349 00:18:09.920 --> 00:18:12.720 in a cave because the air swallows your voice, and 350 00:18:12.759 --> 00:18:15.799 after a while you stopped trying to fill it. Around 351 00:18:15.799 --> 00:18:18.720 two hours in we hit the first pitch. It was 352 00:18:18.720 --> 00:18:21.519 a vertical drop of maybe thirty five feet into what 353 00:18:21.640 --> 00:18:25.319 looked from the lip like a much larger room. We'd 354 00:18:25.319 --> 00:18:29.319 brought rope, of course, we'd brought rope. Josh set the anchor. 355 00:18:29.680 --> 00:18:33.680 Caleb went down first. I was second. Josh came down last. 356 00:18:34.200 --> 00:18:37.000 The rope ran clean. The room at the bottom was 357 00:18:37.039 --> 00:18:39.960 a real room. I'd put it at two hundred feet long, 358 00:18:40.279 --> 00:18:43.119 eighty feet wide, ceiling maybe forty feet at the center. 359 00:18:43.799 --> 00:18:46.720 There was a stream running through it, and honest to God, 360 00:18:46.839 --> 00:18:51.599 underground stream three feet across, clear and cold and fast. 361 00:18:51.839 --> 00:18:53.920 There was a sandy bank along one side of it. 362 00:18:54.440 --> 00:18:56.640 There were formations on the far wall that looked like 363 00:18:56.640 --> 00:19:00.599 a frozen waterfall. I have to tell you that room 364 00:19:00.680 --> 00:19:03.480 was beautiful. It was one of the most beautiful rooms 365 00:19:03.519 --> 00:19:08.200 I've ever been in in any cave anywhere. We stood 366 00:19:08.200 --> 00:19:10.519 there for a few minutes with our lights off, all 367 00:19:10.599 --> 00:19:13.119 three of us, the way you do sometimes in a 368 00:19:13.160 --> 00:19:16.599 place like that, just to feel the dark. It was 369 00:19:16.640 --> 00:19:18.559 while we were standing there in the dark that I 370 00:19:18.599 --> 00:19:22.039 heard the first thing. It was a sound far off 371 00:19:22.359 --> 00:19:25.839 that I cannot describe to you exactly. The closest I 372 00:19:25.880 --> 00:19:28.599 can get is to say it was a low, slow exhalation, 373 00:19:29.559 --> 00:19:32.200 like a man letting out a long breath. But it 374 00:19:32.279 --> 00:19:35.240 was not a man, and it was not close, and 375 00:19:35.319 --> 00:19:37.359 it was a long enough breath that no man could 376 00:19:37.359 --> 00:19:40.480 have made it. I thought I had imagined it. I 377 00:19:40.519 --> 00:19:43.519 almost asked the other two if they'd heard anything. Then 378 00:19:43.559 --> 00:19:46.319 I told myself, you're standing in the dark in a 379 00:19:46.359 --> 00:19:49.519 cave you've never been in. Of course, your brain's making 380 00:19:49.599 --> 00:19:52.799 up sounds. And I let it go. I didn't say 381 00:19:52.799 --> 00:19:55.279 a word about it. We turned our lights back on. 382 00:19:56.039 --> 00:19:59.359 Caleb pointed at the stream. We can follow that. He said, 383 00:20:00.039 --> 00:20:02.839 streams going somewhere. Let's follow it for an hour and 384 00:20:02.839 --> 00:20:06.960 then turn around. So we followed the stream. The passage 385 00:20:07.000 --> 00:20:10.039 downstream from that big room was lower ceiling, but it 386 00:20:10.079 --> 00:20:13.880 was wide and the floor was good. We walked, We 387 00:20:14.000 --> 00:20:17.559 kept walking. After about twenty minutes, the passage made a 388 00:20:17.559 --> 00:20:20.200 sharp turn to the left and the ceiling dropped to 389 00:20:20.240 --> 00:20:23.799 maybe six feet, and the air changed. This is the 390 00:20:23.799 --> 00:20:26.759 part that's hard to put into words. The air changed. 391 00:20:27.279 --> 00:20:30.960 It got warmer, not by a lot, maybe two degrees, 392 00:20:31.640 --> 00:20:35.359 but in a cave, two degrees is something Caves don't 393 00:20:35.400 --> 00:20:38.759 change temperature. The temperature in a cave is the average 394 00:20:38.799 --> 00:20:41.839 annual temperature of the surface above it, and it stays 395 00:20:41.920 --> 00:20:45.960 there more or less forever. You feel two degrees in 396 00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:49.279 a cave, you feel it on your skin. The three 397 00:20:49.319 --> 00:20:51.920 of us all felt it at the same time, because 398 00:20:51.920 --> 00:20:54.079 all three of us slowed down at the same time, 399 00:20:54.880 --> 00:20:57.400 and there was a smell on the warm air. It 400 00:20:57.440 --> 00:20:59.880 wasn't a strong smell. It wasn't a hit you in 401 00:20:59.880 --> 00:21:03.400