5/12/07

Type of Run: Adventure Run at Sam's Point/Ice Caves/Reservoir run around.
Description: Paid $7 to park around 9:00am, then ran up the hatchback trail to the Ice caves trail. We had one good flash light and a phone LED light. From the road we came up on the ice caves were down the hill quite a ways. There were even large washed out dicthes in the semi paved road leading down to the caves. When we got to the caves we decided to all go down the long deep cave. Luckily we found a flash light in the first cave we went in eventually steph Alex and rob chickened out because they are bitches and didn't want to get wet. They explored the other cave 90 degrees adjacent to the one Tim and I explored.
Tim and I went down the cave until we came to a rock we couldn't climb over. But in the process of getting there we had to crawl on our stomachs underneath boulders that were wedged in the cave. then the did it again.most of the cave was made of a fine to course gravel. it hurt our hands a little bit but they were numb from touching the cold wet walls of the cave. When we got to the third boulder blocking our path all we could do was climb over it. Tim managed to climb up the rock to check out the two paths. There were no ways to climb up the rock. So I gave tim a boost. i pushed him up by the feet. There was no way to go further. Even if we did go further there was probably no way to get back up this huge boulder to go to the entrance.
So we turned around We climbed around the adjacent cave a little bit. I gave Tim and steph a brief explanation of the conglomerate rocks called the swangunks. Tim got stabbed in the knee area. Remarkably it was not caused by a sharp rock it was a stick. We fooled around for a bit and climbed up the small waterfall. We made our way down the path and walked over planks cut from logs. WE took a wooden latter up a rock face so we could get into the real Ice caves. It has a door to keep the cold air in longer. Apparently the trail was closed because the wooden path and staircase were frozen over with a very thick sheet of ice. Tim and I dared to brave the horrible wrath of the ice(we did it twice). The other peeps did not even do it once. Tim and I fooled around climbing on shit. We got separated from the rest of the group so we continued to have fun. Made his way across large puddle of crystal clear water with little more or less than a ledge to prop his hands and feet on.He has an adventurers sole. I like it. Tim Tim is not a bitch He is cool. If I was another member of the team (who will not be named I would want to be just like him. So after going around the loop twice Tim and I decided to run around the reservoir. It was pretty cool I wish I had more time to spend exploring everything else around there.

Distance of exploration: To the Ice caves trail from visitors 1.3 miles
From the turn off to the actual cave trail ~0.5 miles
From all the exploring, running, jumping,
climbing on rocks/in the dirt in caves ~1.5 miles
From ruining around the reservoir back to the
visitor center ~1.5 miles
Total distance: ~~5.0 miles
Notes: We also drove up to ellenville launch site. I wante dto show everybod the view. I thought the guys would get a kick out of riding on the outside of the car up the dirt road. Good times were had by all.