Right now, up front, I’ll admit this was a closed, invitees-only, secret, elitist, call-it-what-you-will trip. However, our group had been planning a McFail’s Asia Dome trip for more than six months, and on account of thunderstorm forecasts we had to cancel. Thus we found ourselves throwing together a Surprise Cave day trip Sunday, with the intention of capturing any essence of hardcore-ness we were deprived of from our McFail’s cancellation. So we chose Mystery Dome.

Mystery Dome is a seldom-visited side passage that drops into a 40-foot shower dome. The challenge however is the route in, not the destination. So after entering the cave, we dropped a hand line down the entrance pit and essentially free-climbed our way down. We headed toward the Round Room, the initial Grand Central Station of the cave’s early days. This room is just slightly up, and off to the right, near the end of the stream. From here tunnels depart in many directions, but we chose the upper level, heading West.

We entered the Mud Room or what can be described as a 45 degree sloped slot, with various levels. We stayed high, and quickly crawled and stooped toward the first open Fossil Pits. At the farthest Fossil Pit, which dropped perhaps 10 feet in the floor, we had to traverse its 8-foot diameter to reach the belly-crawl-sized passage heading slightly upward. Inside, the moist muddy ground confirmed Tom’s suspicions that it would be wet. Nasty was Seth’s word choice.

The tube slops for about 60 feet or so, soaking our cave suits, and absorbing the grunts from its trespassers. It abruptly ends, wonderfully widening to a space where 3 people can barely comfortably sit up from their crawl, escaping the drips from the ceiling and beginning the process of gearing up for the drop. But this is not where we drop, for the pit was still more than 20 feet away, with an awkward tiny entry doorway in the upper right side of the little room, and beyond was more belly crawling. This instead was where we rigged, wrapping the rope around a convenient natural arch jutting out from the ceiling.

Now to enter this passage, you have to know that it slopes slightly downward for about 20 feet, abruptly dropping into the 40-foot pit. Being a belly crawl, the most logical method is to enter feet first, from a pushup position on the floor. This bizarre maneuver landed me in what is called Deadman’s Traverse. As I backed down this slot, pushing the rope ahead of me, I get to a point where the space widens enough for me to turn my head and see the pit edge. I am not yet on rope, at least for rappelling. The ceiling had been my guide so far, but noting that the slope gets a little more slick and slants a little more downward, I clamped on my two ascenders. Essentially down-climbing horizontally, I feel my feet reach the edge and my waist teeters over the edge, my feet toeing a slight ledge below. Now leaning over the pit, I rig my rack and drop, quite relieved to be in open space.

At the bottom, I turn the rope over to Tom, and I dart for shelter from the next obstacle - the shower from above. The 20-foot diameter dome is completely devoid of any refuge from the rain above, excepting the small alcove that drains off below across the room. Reaching this dry spot, I contemplate what I noticed on the way down - another room high up to the west. It looks free-climbable, and I begin my ascent above the alcove, cursing myself about half way up for making some sketchy moves that I wasn’t sure I could do on the way back down. Well, I got up just as Tom was coming over the lip of the pit. I poked around in the upper room, noticing the numerous crinoids, many of which were more than 2 inches long, as well as the shells and other fossils. When I returned to the pit Tom was already on the way up, claiming wetness and cold as his motivators, so I made my way down, managing the sketchy down-climb after all.

We made our way out of Mystery Dome, arriving out of the entrance tube soaked, muddy and miserable. Classic Northeast caving, we mused. If not for the work involved crawling out, we would have been approaching cold-quit status, ready to leave. But we persevered, aiming to keep moving to keep warm, and eventually made our way to Heaven, Hell, the Lasso Pit, Ed’s Heaven, and about as far as one can go in that general lower direction. About that time the wetness was reaching into our bones, signaling it was time to leave. A 5-hour trip, a little burly caving and we called it a day.