10/20/2026
For the past few years members of our Scout Troop have been asking for an extended campout to be planned. Our regular campouts are Friday night to Sunday morning events with the main activities taking place on Saturday. Our scouts and adults have been looking for more. This year I found an opening over the Columbus Day weekend where we could make such a trip. Though added late to the schedule and coming only the week before our much anticipated Octoberfeast campout. I managed to shoehorn in a four day adventure taking us all the way down to Huntsville Alabama with a stop at two different caves along the route.
Our original plan was to leave on Thursday night because the kids in the two neighboring school districts that our troop draws from were off from school on Friday for a teacher in-service and again on Monday for the Columbus Day holiday. Leaving on Thursday night and staying at a hotel in Indianapolis gave us a jump in the morning giving us the opportunity to spend three hours at Mammoth Cave National Park. The original plan was to tour Mammoth Cave and then continue on down to Huntsville on Friday and on Saturday and Sunday go to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, hike to a hidden waterfall, see a sky show at the Werhner Von Braun Observatory and Planetarium and then tour the Cathedral Caverns located at our campsite, but hurricane Isaias had other plans for us. Isaias came onto our radar on Tuesday, and by Thursday it became apparent that we would need to adjust our plans as the hurricane after making landfall in southern Alabama was tracking dead on for Huntsville. During the afternoon on Thursday one of our assistant Scoutmasters was able to lockdown a campground in Cave City, KY where we could spend Friday night and Saturday night, with the option of continuing on to Huntsville on Sunday morning, weather permitting. With the new arrangements secured, we still lost a half a dozen scouts and adults who feared too much rain, but we continued on with the twenty-seven people remaining.
As I said, we left on Thursday night and drove straight down to Indianapolis and stayed in a hotel near the airport. Early Friday morning we left the hotel and drove straight to Mammoth Cave. We took the self-guided tour and were immediately impressed by the enormity of Mammoth. I remarked several times that it made the two caves we had visited earlier in the year [Eagle Cave (1/31/26), Maquoketa Caves (9/12/26)] look like circus sideshows. We went to our campsite after Mammoth and set up and ate dinner. Afterwards we watched the movie “October Sky” under the stars and discussed our options for Saturday. The two senior patrol leaders decided on a tour of the Lost River Cave in Bowling Green, KY and an afternoon of bowling in Bowling Green to keep us out of the expected all-day rain. This arrangement worked perfectly because it started raining at 10am and continued through the next morning and didn’t stop until we were hours away.
Lost River Cave is essentially a cave that has a river flowing through it. We walked down into the mouth and boarded two boats that steered us through the various chambers of the enormous cavern. It was at the same time equally as impressive as Mammoth and better because of the boats. Just inside the entrance of the cave was a 1930’s era night club established by a local construction magnate. It was very impressive. After the boat tour we ate lunch under a pavilion outside the cave where we were protected from the rain, then we went to a local bowling alley where the kids bowled along with playing some laser tag and riding bumper cars. That evening we ate dinner and sat by the campfire playing games between short intermittent showers. It was decided that in the morning we would pack up and continue down to Huntsville, only a three and a half hour drive away. By the time that the kids were off to their tents it started raining steadily again which spelled the end of the evening for the adults as well.
In the morning the rain gods were merciful and the rain stopped at 6:15 for about forty-five minutes allowing us to pack all of our wet gear into our cars and get out of Cave City. On the way down to Alabama we stopped at the brand new “Dolly’s Tennessean Truck Stop” that opened in July with Dolly in attendance to cut the ribbon. The kids wandered through the gift shop while the adults filled the cars with gas and got some much needed coffee. At 11am we arrived at the U.S. Space & Rocket Museum where we had four hours to walk around, view the exhibits and ride the space themed rides. We only stopped for lunch in the parking lot for 30 minutes before heading back inside. At 3pm we left the museum and headed to our campsite; our final destination. Before setting up camp we took the ninety minute guided tour of Cathedral Caverns. This proved the be the grandest cave of all with chamber after chamber of impressive formations and stalagtites including the world’s largest known stalagmite by circumference. Further in was the titular Cathedral room where the formation created a churchlike layout in front of us. There were columns, a pipe organ and a bell that were clearly discernible. It was an amazing sight and something that I’ll never forget.
There were six scouts in the troop that had been on our previous two cave trips this year. Mammoth Cave, Lost River Cave and Cathedral Caverns made that total five different caves inside of 9 months. Additionally there were many others who had been to Eagle and Maquoketa caves in previous years. A speleological pentathalon.
Our campsite at Cathedral Caverns could only be described as picturesque. We camped under the northern Alabama pines. The campgrounds had showers and a small laundromat so everyone could clean up and dry out all their wet things. It was beautiful, if only for just one night.
In the morning we left our campsite at 7:07 am, stopping at a nearby McDonald’s for a pre-arranged breakfast that was waiting for us when we got there. We had a nearly 10 hour drive in front of us with planned stops at a “Buc-ees”, lunch in Louisville and a few other designated truck stops along the way.
The kids loved Buc-ee’s even just for the 15 minutes they got, the adults tolerated it. We stopped for lunch on the waterfront in Louisville where we all ate Kentucky Fried Chicken in Kentucky (something everybody needs to do once, like bowling in Bowling Green). Apparently the fried chicken was “GAS” and we ate it overlooking the Ohio River. After leaving Louisville we pulled into the church to unload our gear at 7:15 pm.
It was a trip for the ages and filled with stories we will all tell for a lifetime. We did things that most will never do. I have indeed had my fill of caves this year having slept in one and seen four others. I got to see another Apollo moon capsule, my third. We got to ride a simulated rocket launch and experience zero G for a fraction of a second and feel what 4G’s is like for about 3 minutes. We also got to crawl inside a Mercury Capsule, something I’ve only done once before when I was very young.
Alena got to do it all with her best friend, and a group of other friends that all had the best time. I’m so happy that we were able to pull this off and that even after all the effort to get us there the kids actually enjoyed it all. That was truly the best part.
It’s taken me a week to put all this down, but we had another campout only four days later. That’s a whole other story!
