Darby Wind Cave

Another great day with the kids hiking.

We hiked up Darby Canyon Driggs, Id to Darby Wind Cave. Seth & Troy drove Seth's truck with the "girls" and dog in the back and Wind & Blue following behind.

Seth, Wind and Jessica took off immediately.  Jessica surprised us up the trial, coming out from a different direction, "I went the wrong way" she says.  We didn't catch up with the boys till the first little creek, where they were waiting for us.


There were so many people hiking the trial AND WITH THEIR DOGS.

" WONDER DOG"

 The Beginning!

  Me, "What are you doing?"

Troy, "I am holding nature"

(Look in this corner)

 You can see the Darby Wind Cave in the top left corner of this picture, the slit with water pouring out? 

Troy asked me, "Do you think we are hiking up to that cave?"  "NO, that is too far", I said.

That is exactly where we were going.

Look who pooped out on us again!

"Wonder Dog" isn't feeling so Wonderful anymore.

"Where is Jessica?" I am guessing this is about when Jessica took a wrong turn in the trail 

 

 And there was Jessica!

 When I saw everyone resting at this creek, I thought we reached our destination.

"That wasn't so bad!"

"Is this it?"

"NO! we aren't there yet"

 The water was so refreshing, 

I couldn't drink enough before my hands were too frozen to cup more water.

After a brief rest and drink, 

the boys and Jessica lead us on up the trail.

 

 I looked up and yelled, "Troy, we did hike to that cave we saw!"

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 This is the bottom half of the falls.  I couldn't believe we had hiked all the way to the caves we saw across the canyon. At this point the trail got real steep, the boys went straight up, cutting the switch-back trail.    

                                                                                                                                                                   

 The cave was massive!

 We made it, but we still weren't done.

Seth crossed the river and looked back to us.

He didn't say anything, but the look in his face did.

There is more, come on!

 I  followed, dog and all!

Hang tight Zeus!

 We were soaked from crossing the river, I am surprised we weren't freezing

after getting wet once we were in the cave.  I think we were too excited to explore to think about it.

After I crossed the river, Seth asked, "Why did you get all wet?"

"I couldn't help it, didn't you?"

"No"

I wasn't worrying about staying dry, just getting across without falling and being washed down the river and over the edge.

 Sundi was so excited and really enjoying the herself. She wished that she was sharing the experience with her boyfriend, Robert.

 

The river was moving fast

Zeus didn't know what to think so he pulled deep into the backpack and we just zipped him up so he wouldn't fall out and wash down the river. We didn't see him till we were back out of the cave.

It was dry up farther into the cave and later I was thinking how I didn't remember the river ending.

After looking at the pictures I then remembered that the water was coming out of the cave wall.

 

 When we started heading farther into the cave, Troy sat down facing the opening to the cave, looking out

over the canyon. I asked if he was coming, "No, I am going to just sit here, today would be a good day

to die". We all left him and found him later out of the cave sitting in the sun waiting for us.

 

 We came to a hole that we had to get on our hands and knees to crawl through.  There was a girl with 2 guys standing by the hole debating going in.  Seth and Wind have gone all the way through the cave before and was telling them what to expect; water to the waist, freezing temperatures and repelling out the other end. We all decided to go through the hole.  We had one small flashlight and it wasn't putting out much light and we had to put our hand up over our head to make sure we didn't hit our heads on the ceiling of the cave.  The three hikers had a lantern, so we were trying to stay close.  I finally had gone as far as I wanted to go, so all of us turned back while Seth and Wind went on ahead farther with the three hikers. Seth let us have the wimpy flashlight that was dying and used his cell phone light to catch up to the Wind and the hikers.

 

You can see the tiny flashlight we had in Sundi's right hand.

I hit my head twice on the ceiling coming out, it did not feel good.

You can barely see me standing at the top of the river flowing out of the cave.

 

 

 Jessica said we should just start heading down the trail, that Seth and Wind would catch up.

Sure enough they did and Seth ran ahead to the creek, waiting for us.

 

 Everyone headed down the trail at their own spend. The boys and Jessica were fast being the first to be back at the trucks. I think Jessica made it back first. Troy said if he hiked much longer he wasn't going to make it. His feet were hurting. Sundi, Zeus and I finished at the end.  The best part is visiting while hiking.

 

 Troy waiting for us at the end!

 

Jessica's wild flower bouquet!

 

These guys were hitchhiking back to town after hiking to the caves.  The one is from Kansas working at Yellowstone and the one with the Poodle looking hair is from Iowa just being a bum. They had just met at some party and decided to hike to the caves.  They rode in the back with the girls and I back into town.  They were nice, but a little strange.  The guy with the glasses couldn't believe how nice everyone he met was. The other one was sliding all over the back as we went around each corner, I think he had smoked a little too much of something.  We dropped them off at the Spud Drive-In where the Wide Spread Panic was playing. 

It was quiet the day, full of adventure.  We ended it with fireworks and Sobie Bombs.

A few weeks ago I saw Blake Baker, a kid Wind's age, in Malad at the Pizza Stop. I chatted with him for a minute and he says, "I was hiking in Driggs and saw Wind".  

"In the mountains? What was he doing?"

"He was running the trail for exercise"

I just thought it was interesting that someone from Malad would run into Wind in the "mountains".

I asked Wind about it, he said he was bored one day and decided to hike the trial for exercise.