18 May 2016, Wednesday

It rained pretty hard all night long. We finally convince ourselves at
about 6:45 am local time (7:45 for us easterners) that the pattering
on the tent fly is from the trees, not the clouds. We emerge from the
tent and find we are correct. We have breakfast cooked and eaten, and
dishes washed and put away by 9.

Off we go to the visitor center. We have tickets for the Cleaveland Avenue
tour at 10:45. That leaves us enough time to explore the visitor
center and watch a video about the cave system. As of this past July
(2015) 405 miles of cave system have been mapped.

Most of Mammoth Cave is dry cave, meaning no slow drips to form stalactites
and stalagmites, although there are some sections where “decorations”
can be seen. This cave was formed by water seeping down through
sinkholes which penetrate the protective sandstone and shale cap overlying 500-600 feet of  limestone. The slightly acidic
water eventually carved out tubes for underground rivers which form
canyons and crevices underground. Eventually the waters make their
way to the Green River which flows through the park.

Cleaveland Avenue is a huge, underground dry stream bed. It is named after a
professor of geology at Bowdoin College in Maine. We descend 183 steps and
then walk into the cave for one mile along the river bed. Our guide, a ranger
stops to point out features along the way. This part of the cave is
known for its gypsum formations, squeezed out from between the layers of limestone and making “snowballs” and flowers. Unfortunately many of
the prettiest formations were broken off and carried away by visitors
before the cave was protected as a national park. The ranger also
points out pre-park graffiti. Early slave guides would earn tips
by writing tourists’ names on the cave walls and ceilings using
candle smoke. Stephen Bishop, a world-renowned early cave explorer,
guide and slave, earned enough money to buy the freedom of his wife
and son after he, himself, was freed seven years after his owner’s
death. (Bishop learned to speak multiple different languages from
foreign tourists who visited the cave, and also taught himself Latin.
Unfortunately, he did not live long after being freed, dying at age
37 – cause of death unknown.) Mammoth Cave was used during the Civil War for
R&R by both Union and Rebel soldiers, who toured the caves
together while out of uniform. After our tour, we spend considerable
time wandering the museum. We also go on a brief heritage walk above ground.  

We return to camp for an early supper and drink our bottles of Black
Toad Ale and Gaelic Ale, acquired earlier at Trader Joe’s in Knoxville. Dinner
dishes done, we walk over to see the natural entrance to the cave, and
then proceed down a gravel path to River Styx spring, where one of
the underground rivers emerges into daylight and flows a short
distance into the Green River.

On our way down the path we hear a racket in the trees off to the right of
the trail. Looking up, we see the fuzzy, but distinctly red head of a
baby pileated woodpecker poking out of a hole in a tree. As we watch,
mamma returns to feed the baby. The baby appears to probe her chest
with its beak and then seems to vigorously probe her open mouth with pecking
motions as it feeds. We resolve to return during a brighter time of
day tomorrow with my good camera in hopes of getting a photo or video of the
feeding process.. We make careful mental notes of the location of the
tree along the trail.

Now we are back at camp. It has grown quite dark as I write, and I am now
using my flashlight to stay on the lines. Time to turn in for the
night.