Waynes's Cave 1967

Junior year, a bunch of guys at school wanted to go caving.
I had enough lanterns, and knew the caves.
Jim Beeler?, John Hickman... and others whose names escape me. Jim Beeler or Beechler... I cannot remember his name exactly.

Somehow we chose Waynes Cave ... a tough cave... 1/4 mile crawl... big passages, multi-levels... dangerous place but well known ... it was ok, we had enough guys.

I think there were 6 of us... we fit into Beeler's car and he drove like a maniac almost hitting some guy head on... the cigar dropped out of the guy's mouth... couple guys in our car laughed, then we narrowly missed hitting the railroad underpass next to the airport.
We almost made the newspaper that day.

We'd been in the cave for a while and at one point, a couple guys wanted a cigarette break.
We were walking around up on the third level, probably the highest point.
The passageway continued through on the other side, divided by a deep crevice.

John Hickman randomly led us up there because I hadn't seen those passages before, even though they were well worn, and John had never been in Wayne's cave before either.

On the right side there was a wide hole with a sloping ledge that curved around the crevice over to the other side.
It looked like a funnel ... onlt cut in half.
Over on the left side the crevice was two foot wide ... it was an easy jump-step to the other side, but not where John was.

John started leg-crawling, where you half-lay on side and elbow and use lower leg to lift and move your body forward.
Friction from your weight stops you from sliding off.
There were no handholds. Just a damp dirty stone ledge that sloped downward at fairly steep angle and dropped into blackness.

Below was a drop down to the 1st level.
I remember looking down. The lights would not illuminate. You couldn't see the stream, so we were probably 40 feet above that.
Someone falling would hit the side and ping pong down to the streambed and embed themselves in the gravel.

The terror scream wouldn't last long ... but it would end my caving.

I thought later that maybe John was emulating his brother, Leo, who was among the organized group that explored and mapped Waynes after they dug open the crawlway years before. John was same age as us. Leo was older.

The ledge got steeper the closer John got to the other side.
I was watching him.
Finally he couldn't go further because the ledge was too steep.
When he lifted his leg, intending to flip over and leg-crawl back.... suddenly he started to slide off.
He quickly put his leg back down and stopped sliding ... there was no space left.
He couldn't go back... Leg-crawling lifts you each time, so the same movement in reverse pushes you downward.
John was scared.

He was reachable if somebody was on the other side, but we'd have to move fast.
I stood behind the group... and yelled... somebody grab John.
Everybody stood there.
I went around the guys with my big heavy boots and jump-stepped over the crevice.
Leaning out over a big smooth stone that was angled downward from the wall, John and I locked arms... each with one arm bent with other hand grasping the wrist...we were connected like 2 links on a chain.

It was uncertain if I could pull John up over the big stone without both of us slipping to the right and John dangling into the crevice.
Unseen by me, one of the other guys jumped across behind me.
I don't know who this guy was. He was not a large guy. But I remember he was quiet and smart .... He grabbed the back of my belt and started pulling. It was the exact right move.
Together we quickly lifted John up off the ledge.

Since 3 of us were now on the other side, the cigarette break ended, the others jumped across and we continued onward.
Nobody said anything.

Years later, 1979 ... somebody called about my flyer for odd jobs, and asked if I could build cages for bats.
I was wondering what for, and then it was John.
He was pranking ... and he thanked me for saving his life.
His call caused me to remember the story.
I would have forgotten it.


Gene Haynes