Moaning Cavern - September 23-24, 2010

It's been a while since I've blogged; I've been held captive in the debug lab.  The boss tried to sweeten the fact that we were going to be slaving day and night by holding an overnight teambuilder near the end of September at Moaning Cavern, which was located halfway on the road to Yosemite.  In fact, we passed near this place when Babe and I headed to Yosemite for Labor Day.

Thursday afternoon, the team headed down to the town of Arnold, meeting up at the Timberline Lodge.  We rented two "bunk house" suites, each consisting of a living room area with a double bed and a separate bedroom with 3 bunk beds, sleeping a maximum of 8 people.  Each suite had a large bathroom with two sinks, and thankfully two separate toilet areas and two separate showers.  Six people at a time could use the bathroom in some way.  The price wasn't terrible either; I think it came out to $140/night plus tax per suite.  Not bad if you're planning an outing to the area with a big group.  The lodge also had a courtyard area where you could hold a small gathering.  It was convenient for us to grill up some burgers (on my Weber grill...it's the bomb!) and drink beer, then walk a few steps to the suites.

When drinking is involved, fun stories are told, but as everyone knows, whatever happens in Arnold stays in Arnold. ;)

The suite wasn't luxurious, but was clean and comfortable.  It was interesting to spend a night with co-workers.  Fortunately, no one snored loudly, and people were kind enough to tell me that I didn't snore. (liars!)  And most fortunately, I wasn't staying in the adjoining suite, as I heard thunderous snoring coming from there through the wall!  Someone-who-must-not-be-named was apparently relegated to the double bed in the living room with the bunk bedroom door shut, but it was a futile solution.

The next morning, the team headed over to Moaning Cavern to do ziplining and a cavern tour.  I've ziplined before in a rain forest in Costa Rica with many lines to ride between trees.  At Moaning Cavern, there was only one set of twin ziplines (side by side), 1500 feet long, hung between a launch tower and a landing tower.

We had to suit up with ziplining gear and helmets.  Not exactly fashionable.  I was also wondering about the cleanliness of the helmet.  Lice?  Dandruff?  And why was my helmet white?  Was it to distinguish females from males?

Groups of us were driven up to the top of the launch site in an old boxy Jeep.  We "raced" each other down the twin ziplines.  The ride was short, but exhilarating.  In Costa Rica, there were "brakes" on the line that you could apply to slow your speed when you reached the end.  In this case, there were no such brakes, but an "emergency stop"...a contraption strapped near the end of the zipline such that when you hit it, you'd stop like you hit a brick wall and due to the laws of physics, swing upwards like a pendulum.  Then an employee uses a hook to catch you as you swing back down.  I wasn't excited about the idea of stopping cold like that, nor trusted the employee to catch me, but I survived.  A couple of the guys came in too fast and couldn't be caught, and they ended up rebounding back up the zipline, eventually stopping a ways from the landing tower.  The employee had to strap onto the cable and shimmy out to pull the rider back in.

Ziplining was expensive...$39 for one ride.  Some of us went again, and it was $24.  If you went again a third time, you have the option of going "Superman"-style, head first, but we were short on time to do the cavern tour, plus we were running out of spending money.  Everyone received a "frequent zip-liner" card marked with the number of rides taken.  That means the next time I do ziplining at Moaning Cavern, I can try  "Superman"-style right away.

Next, we went on the cavern tour.  It was odd that the entrance to the cavern was inside the gift shop.  There were several sets of narrow, steep stairs leading down into the cavern, along with a spiral metal staircase.  The cavern is very tall...supposedly the Statue of Liberty could fit in it.  You could hear dripping water, but no moaning.  Apparently the cavern stopped moaning after it was expanded for tourism.  The coolest part about the tour was when all the lights were turned off.  It was pitch black, with the sound of water slowly dripping off the stalactites.

An interesting formation was the "chocolate waterfall".

There wasn't too much else to do at Moaning Cavern.  It may be worthwhile to return and do the rappelling or adventure tour inside the cavern.  But I wouldn't drive 2 hours to this place unless it was on the way to something else.

Seven long working weeks needed to pass to get to the next trip...Karen's 40th birthday bash in Vegas!  Details next time!