100331 - Caving

100331 -Up in the am and I had a bit of paperwork to do. Got that done and then we all loaded up and headed south to the Hocking Hills region. It was a nice drive, D&J watched a movie while G caught a little snooze. Our first stop was the Rock House. It was a nice trail and some amazing cliffs and caves for the boys to explore. After this hike the troops were grumbling about being hungry so we headed in to Laurelville, got some gas and found a local eatery. We sat up at the bar for lunch and had some locals come in and the police, which slightly helped keep the boys under control...

Our next stop was the most famous cave in the region Old Man's Cave. It had very nice easy trails and even better cliffs and tunnels carved right out of the stone. The boys really liked this stop and climbed like monkeys all over. This is a really neat place. I can't believe neither L or I have never been here before. Everyone should see this..

About 3/4 the way through the hike G started dancing funny; the I'm gonna poop my pants dance... And we had to get up the hill quick. He really thought the toilets with no water in them were cool! :-o

We loaded back up and headed to one more destination, Ash Cave. The stop had a very nice flat paved trail leading back to the cave. We had to make one stop where G learned how to cross a stream on a log that had fallen. D&J helped him very carefully and he was very proud. We followed the path way back and then this magnificent cave and waterfall were there. You can see all three boys in the photo, that is how huge this place was. They climbed and ran through the water, what fun they had. L was on them about getting wet and staying clean, but what can you do... nature took over and they were drenched and smiling from ear to ear. It was quite remarkable. G was even so thirsty he was putting his hand in the stream and taking a drink :-o
I was a bit disappointed in the trip in that my phone had no service. This meant no calls or email etc, but that is not what bothered me. I couldn't get to my Roadside America or Geocaching apps :-( Back to the car and we pulled off the shoes and sock, rolled up the pants and Mary Poppins got us home just in time for L&J to rush off to soccer practice. DG&I played some kickball and then ran to the store and brought home Chinese. Dinner at 8pm... All boys cleaned up and to bed. Me too, long day.