Tight spaces add to explorers' challenge at Weaver Cave
Oct. 20—Lisa Attaway, 54, was seen trudging through the woods covered in mud wearing a defiant smile after trying to conquer a tight squeeze in the abyss known as Weaver Cave. Attaway and her husband, Doug, from Covington, Ga., chose the more difficult cave trip offered by the Georgia-Alabama Land Trust that included crawling through a labyrinth of tight squeezes.
The cave won.
"It was very tight and very — it pushed me past my point, I never knew I had limitations and I now have limitations, I could not go through ... I had to take my helmet off, you couldn't hardly move and so I backed out," Attaway said.
Attaway had been spelunking before and had visited several caves and caverns but none where crawling through an unyielding and constricted space was necessary.
"I've been in several caves but not this tight," she said.
Attaway said she will definitely go caving again with an exception.
"We'll definitely go back through a cave but not one that I have to crawl through," Attaway said.
Attaway said she plans to tell her friends of her underworld adventures.
"It was amazing and as long as you don't have any claustrophobic tendencies it would be a great thing to do, it's amazing to see the things everybody can't see, we saw a bunch of bats, different types of bats, the rock formations are amazing, the river running through it, I would definitely tell them to come do it," she said.
Attaway's predicament came during a 200-foot crawl in one of the most cramped sections.
"I think the tight squeeze was only 25 feet, 200 feet of crawling but the tight was 25 feet but it seemed like 100," she exclaimed.
Even though she wore knee pads her knees were sore as her husband Doug noted.
"My knee pads would drag off in the crawling, they would just start going down so you were on your knees," he said.
The Attaways were grateful to the Georgia-Alabama Land Trust for hosting the opportunity.
"We saw the trip online being offered by the Georgia-Alabama Land Trust's Facebook. We thought it would be a fun time so we signed up and here we are," she said. "It's definitely worth the trip, it was a beautiful drive from Atlanta ... it's a hidden gem."
A spelunking club known as the Gadsden Grotto also helped with the cave tours, providing expert guides to keep the explorers safe and sound.
"Got stuck and turned around," Attaway's husband said as they loaded up their caving gear into their SUV and headed back to Georgia.
