Blog 5: Thanksgiving at Thanksgiving Ridge.

My Thanksgiving weekend was quite an interesting one if I do say so myself. This year, I did not celebrate Thanksgiving with a turkey and potatoes, but instead was underground in Canada’s second largest cave system. These caves sit at Thanksgiving Ridge, an area near Tahsis on Vancouver Island – about a seven hour drive from Victoria (but we took about nine due to necessary Subway and gas stops).

I was lucky enough to score a spot on this weekend expedition with the UVic Caving Club. We left Friday afternoon, and drove those long nine hours towards a cabin that was to be our home for the weekend. Naturally, the first day was already quite chaotic. This cabin was situated at Thanksgiving Ridge, which is only accessible by logging roads that get harder and harder to access the deeper you go into the mountains. As well, at this point on the road, there is no cell service and only the occasional truck will pass by every few hours. As soon as we turned off the main dirt road and onto another logging road, we realized how bad the condition of the road was. Spring washouts had taken large sections of the road out, resulting in extremely large dips in the road that a car could easily get stuck in. When we arrived at this point of the road, it was pitch black and 12:00 am. Because of these washouts, we had to hike up the rest of the logging road with all of our stuff to the cabin which took about one hour. If you imagine a dozen or so people each carrying four bags – one for each side of them, in the dark with only headlamps and the moon to guide them, that would be us. One of my friends Hailey brought out her speaker, so in the middle of the night, all of us exhausted from school, the drive and the hike, were listening to Like A G6. I can definitely say that it was quite the experience.

On Saturday, we went through a cave called Twist and Shout. Yes, we sang Twist and Shout by The Beatles (the acoustics are wonderful underground), and yes, it was EXTREMELY twisty. If I wasn’t with experienced cavers who knew where they were going, I would 100% be lost. Some of the things I loved about that cave were the different maneuvers that we had to do to get through. There were tons of squeezes where I couldn’t even turn my head it was so thin, lots of sliding down chimney holes, and head first dives into another cave.

We also saw lots of stalagmites and stalactites which were so beautiful. Did you know that it takes 100 years for a calcite formation to grow just 1 cm? We all had to be extremely careful going through the caves to make sure that we didn’t touch or break any in order to not interfere with the growth of the calcite. Leaving a cave is a really strange feeling too. The caves that we were in were 4 degrees Celsius, so getting to normal temperature felt like arriving in a humid, wet rainforest. That evening, we had a big group potluck around a bonfire that somehow included borscht and a roasted ham!? Afterwards, a sock wars was set up. This is where two people are clipped onto two ropes hanging down from one main rope set up between two trees. The goal is to steal the other person’s socks, and whoever gets them off first wins. Here’s a clip to showcase how intense this game is: **Warning, loud music and flashing lights.

On Sunday, we went through another cave called Summer Solstice. This cave had the most incredible calcite formations – at one point we were fully surrounded by these pencil like formations on the ceiling and the floor. This cave was less intense, and we got to explore around, climbing up boulders and seeing huge caverns. The best part was when I found a cave. Seeing the untouched dirt and mud was surreal – it felt like I had discovered something that no one else had ever seen or touched before.

Photo by Wil

That evening, we decided we were going to make a sauna, cause why not? A tent was set up, tarps were wrapped up, and in the bonfire, pieces of metal were heated up. When the metal had been in the fire for a few hours, they were brought in and everyone piled into the tent. We all sat around, someone splashing water onto the metal, and guess what? The sauna turned out wonderfully. Someone threw a cedar frond to mask the smell of 24 cavers sweating inside a tent, and we sang In the Jungle from the Lion King. Sounds wholesome right? It was, and I will definitely remember these moments for a long, long time.

The next day was just packing up and going home. It was a weird feeling, because for the past four days, I had gotten to spend time getting to know these people who I had not known before. Being inside a cave, you get close to people whether you like it or not. Luckily, I only met good people, and created some crazy memories that I hope to remember, forever.