Early on Sunday (Oct 2, 2016) morning some daring students set off to Georgetown Texas for an active day with SMU Outdoor Adventures. A couple scratches and a whole lot of mud was to be expected, but we didn’t bring sunscreen today since we were spending the entirety of our day underground. For four hours we traveled off the beaten path in Inner Space caverns down tiny tunnels. We held our breath and sucked in our stomachs as we squeezed through narrow paths. We dragged ourselves through mud and dust as we traveled through holes a mere eighteen inches in diameter. We set a new record for most amount of time spent in absolute darkness.

But it wasn’t all hard work, we came across a wide variety of beautiful crystal formations slowly growing among the stalagmites and stalactites. Formations with wild names such as, the wedding dress, three sisters, and spear head. Many of these formations were hundreds and even thousands of years old. We also came across a number of massive fossils ranging from fractured Mammoth tusks and prehistoric American camel bones to the shells of Ammonites.

We even did a bit of swimming! Unlike past caving trips, Inner Space Caverns had experienced an unusual amount of rain fall which turned an atrium filled with mud into a five foot deep swimming pool! We even had a chance to float through a few tunnels that had only been partially submerged. This gave us the great opportunity of cooling off and cleaning up at the end of our tour. Never before has a caving expedition surfaced from Inner Space Caverns looking so clean, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t come out dirty.

When we finally crawled out from the dark we showered off, changed into dry clothes, and snacked on sandwiches. Yet another successful weekend excursion before setting off back to campus do get our homework done and study for those midterms.

Henry Copeland, OA trip leader.