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Home Back to 2001	Slipping off <> a story about caving
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In my junior year of high school, I led around 6 classmates into Wayne's Cave. Today all the caves in Monroe County Indiana are closed because rescuers were constantly pulling lost and broken souls out of those tunnels. Three young people died in a flash flood at Salamander Cave. Caving is risky business and Wayne's was the toughest in the area. During the outing, a cigarette break was called and we were standing around for a few minutes. John started crawling around on a ledge that got steeper the further he went. After getting to the other side, he couldn't climb up off the ledge. But he couldn't turn around and come back either because the ledge was too steep and there wasn't enough friction on his pants to stop him from sliding off. He was going to slip into the black ink and fall 40' to the boulders below. I was the only experienced caver there. John must have looked our way. He was scared. I called out for somebody to grab John; which required a person to jump across the chasm. Nobody else moved so I stepped around the fellas and gave a long stride across to the other side. I wedged myself behind a boulder and called out for John to hold on. Leaning out from the boulder, John and I locked arms. Just then I noticed that one of the other guys had come across and had a strong grip on my belt. Together we hoisted John to safety. Afterwards nobody said a word and we continued along the way. I forgot the story until several years later when John called and said thank you for saving his life. His call made me feel good. Glad to help.
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