Found a light caving

This Saturday I went caving with some friends at a local favorite of mine. Part way in while walking in a stream passage, I saw a foreign object floating in the water. It's common caver practice that when a caver finds trash they pack it out of the cave. But I squinted, and quickly recognized a familiar shape.

It was a flashlight floating in the water!!

I rush over, pick up it, and alas, it was a generic incan dollar store special!! :sick2: With an attempt to turn it on, no light... I open it up to see if it is flooded, and to my surprise there were only a few drops of water visible inside. However, I quickly noticed I was looking at the negative end of the battery. No biggie, it's an incan, so polarity doesn't matter, right?? Then I noticed a physical reverse polarity protection around the blulb base (like it needed it :shrug: ). Shake the top one out, and I see the positive end of the bottom battery. D'oh! They were arranged as seen below in the pic. On top of that, they were not even alkaline, but heavy duty!!

At this point, I could barely stop laughing enough to put it back together to see if it still worked. To my surprise, it DID!!! Sorry, no beamshots...

Well, I asked everyone to turn off their lights, so we could "see the cave through the eyes of a spelunker" (spelunkers are not to be confused with cavers, they are two completely different types of people). Well, my helmet mounted backup E01 put this thing to shame. We all had a good laugh, put the piece of trash in someone's bag to pack out as originally intended, and kept going.

Throughout the rest of the trip I kinda half expected to find the spelunker, ready to receive his Darwin Award.

I guess that wasn't the only light he had or you possibly would have found him floating along side it.:laughing:

Common sense must seriously lack in some people... I knew how to put batteries in a flashlight when I was 4 :shrug:

Maybe they did it purposely, to prevent the light from turning on, and running down the batteries while in a pack. then forgot about it, and when it wouldn't light, threw it away?

Stupid light wouldn't turn on so I threw it down in a huff!

some places sell flashlights with cells installed like that, your supposed to turn it around before using it.

I'm guessing it was bought as a backup, then it lost its way somewhere during its carrying:candle:

Maybe his 'backup' light was even dimmer, and he couldn't see which ways his cells were pointing when he replaced them. Hope that wasn't the case or if it was, he grew night vision really fast.

hey thats mine, don't laugh at me

I'm not a caver and even if I were not a flashaholic I'd never bring someting like that into a caving situation. Hard to imagine someone would go into such an environment with such equipment.:thinking:

Oddjob said:

I'm not a caver and even if I were not a flashaholic I'd never bring someting like that into a caving situation. Hard to imagine someone would go into such an environment with such equipment.:thinking:

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And that's how we know it belonged to a spelunker and not a caver :laughing:

But it shouldn't really surprise me. Of my first wild cave trip, one girl had one of these stuck in her pocket as a "backup".

you probably didnt see the spelunker because he/she left when the light died....

hopefully that leads to a google search of "good quality flashlight" which will lead here.....

Crenshaw

There are a couple really nice caves up near our cabin ( tons actually, but two that are open to the public),
Can't wait to take my "new found lights" in there:thumbsup:

I was in there with a buddy a while back, he had a cheap light and the batteries died. He was way behind me. All I heard was a curse word or two, then his light flying through the air & smacking a stalagtite behind me. Not such a good move on his part:nana:

What the....:laughing:

Nice little find... er... I guess.

That looks like such a fun hobby, I could see myself getting into it very seriously.

Sounds like a group of tourists led by someone who had a real light ("Now everyone be sure to bring a flashlight and a sweater with them...").

Launch Mini said:

There are a couple really nice caves up near our cabin ( tons actually, but two that are open to the public),
Can't wait to take my "new found lights" in there:thumbsup:

I was in there with a buddy a while back, he had a cheap light and the batteries died. He was way behind me. All I heard was a curse word or two, then his light flying through the air & smacking a stalagtite behind me. Not such a good move on his part:nana:

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Wait, how far from Van is your cabin? I've got the itch to go caving now and I need to find some caves!

Finding this pitiful light in the cave was really funny. Certainly the rule is to carry three sources of light while caving, but it is more important to carry USABLE sources of light. The output from this big clunky chunk of plastic was truly laughable.

What do you use caving?

A Dosun H1 or Energizer Hard Case Pro, Fenix E01 backup helmet mounted, and a TK20 for a handheld thrower. The additional 4-5 backups vary and are never required.

I went caving one time with some co-workers. As we passed through a small town on the way the guys started talking about how they needed to stop at a local gas station to pick up a flashlight and batteries, we did.

On the way out I was the only one using a light:nana: and I had an extra light and batteries to spare.

Funny stuff.