03.2023 | WELCOME BACK! Hello friends old and new! I'm so excited to welcome you all back to SITW! I've made some changes to the plot and added the ability to play supernatural charcaters! So come and check it out! I can't wait to jump back into this little town with all of you!
A strange history surrounds the town, it is a place where mysterious and supernatural things have been known to happen. The reputation of the town reguarly draws in visitors and newcomers alike. While some residents avidly believe in the supernatural, others are far more skeptical. What do you believe?
The following is a place for epsiodes of Mikey's radio show written as listeners would hear them. Please feel free to reach out on discord if you have ideas or want to have your character intevriewed by Mikey.
The sweetwater community college radio like many college radio stations is run by a small group of students. Mikey dj's a portion of the late night listening block.
He hosts a show in which he talks about various legends of colorado, cryptids in general and talks about caving. The show is followed by a selection of mostly rock and indie music.
Except for Tuesday. Tuesday is techno night.
I have linked a spotify playlist for ambience as well but it does not include tecno night.
Well here we are- *sounds of mic being bunced* opps Bear with me. First of all, welcome to any local sweetwater cryptid critters tuning in. This is Mikey, your new Sweetwater community college radio host! If you're burning the night oil and manage to catch this show good luck with- Whatever it is you're doing.
A big welcome back to my returning cave junkies. I know it's not my usual opening…..or tone. I didn't really give too much explanation for that recent hiatus…but here I am! Back in Sweetwater! Most of the station's content will stay the same but in the late late night I'll be broadcasting tales of colorado legends and some of my own adventures in our own caverns. Of course for those unrelatable few of you that somehow aren't nightowls the shows will still go up recorded to the usual place.
For our first episode back I thought I would revisit the thing that started it all. A nightmare tale from our very own sweetwater shadow caverns. What an ominous name, right? With that kind of name it makes you wonder who would be stupid enough to try going in there. Well this is the story of a rookie caver that nearly lost it all.
On top of the scary name, on this day it was also the perfect weather for a scary story. It would be a dark and stormy night…only this idiot, our idiot didn't know that when they were planning to head in. It was only a light rain around midday when they checked into the ranger's station. Put a pin in that for later.
I'm sure we've all had times when we wanted to be alone. In that kind of headspace there isn't a much better place if you want to be reeeeeallly alone. So somehow they decide to head into the caverns alone and drive out to the pine lake park.
They parked at one of the mountain campsites and hiked their way up the mountain. They had decided to use one of the openings a little lower down the mountain than the main entrance used by the wildlife rangers for tours. This particular opening is known for being beginner friendly and has a fairly direct path to an underground waterfall. The rain had gone from a drizzle to steady enough that the path was muddy and slippery. Their boots left prints all the way up the ridge to the opening.
The opening is at an angle of the inward slope of a cliff face looking over the lake. Maybe they had planned to watch the sun go down over the lake. Normally it's a somewhat popular spot but because of the weather most people had already made their way back down the mountain. There wouldn't have been much of a sunset to see through the cloudy horizon. They set up a line outside the entrance before descending into the cave. The initial climb into the cave from the opening is a gently sloped shaft with a bit of a squeeze.
For the mapped path of this section of cave the underground waterfall is more or less a straight shot beyond a few passages most of which didn't require much ducking or crawling. The ease of which is a blessing and a curse. As this series of passages descends down into the mountain below ground level. Inexperienced cavers likely won't realize just how far down they are climbing. The last bit of the passage is U shaped. The shape of the bend requires you to repel down a nearly vertical shaft a few feet, then crouch to cross the bottom of the U and then climb up a few jagged formations. The top of which opens into a large cavern with some interesting formations and the underground waterfall. Emitting from an opening near the top of the cavern opposite the entrance they took.
While they took their time looking around the cavern it continued to rain outside. Deep into the cave as they were they couldn't hear the rain. Only the drip of water from the stalactites and the gurgle of the waterfall streaming down over the rocks. There were one or two paths leading off from the cavern which they took some time to explore. At some point they came back to the main cavern and must have noticed that the steady stream coming from the waterfall was more of a torrent. Unbeknownst to our foolish adventurer the combination of the unusually high summer temperatures and the heavy rain had caused storm surge conditions. Sending mudslides cascading down the mountain and a surge in the source of the water feeding the waterfall. By the time they decided to leave it was too late. Water had backed up in the passage enough to be visible up to a foot under the lip of the cavern side of the U. Which meant they were trapped for however long it took for the water to subside. Even if they had been a strong swimmer the chances of being able to hold his breath long enough to make it to the other side of the U was slim. While they debated on trying the U the passage filled with more water. The cavern floor itself was filled with overflow from the waterfall up to their ankles.
They knew that their best chance of making it out was to try to climb to a higher part of the cavern and wait out the storm. They settled on a ledge formation near the mouth of the waterfall. It took several attempts to reach. The rocks were of course madd slippery and smoothed by the nearby waterfall. Once posted on their perch all they could do is wait. It was then that they realized just how cold it was. While it might have been a record high summer outside the cave, here deep underground in the cold wet dark it was only 40 degrees. It is for this very scenario that cavers often include mylar blankets in their supplies. As the cold slowly leached the strength from their bones they were left to wonder if anyone even knew that they were down there.
They hadn't stopped in at the rangers station to properly obtain the permit to enter like they should have. They hadn't planned on staying overnight so they hadn't put their name down for any of the campsites either and worst of all they hadn't told their family where they were going. This far underground there was no way to call for help. They turned the flashlight off to conserve battery and waited. Time stretched on meaninglessly while they listened to the rushing water and the dark played tricks on their mind. It's hard to describe with words how truly dark an underground cave is. It is a void without a single light like a night sky with no stars. They periodically turned the flashlight back on to check the rising water. It was still creeping up the cavern enough for them to be grateful that they had climbed up so early while avoiding the thought of what they might have to do if it actually reached this high. Attempting to climb into the only higher opening the mouth of the waterfall felt like even more of a death sentence. Sitting with their back to the cavern wall they silently prayed to any deity that would listen to not let this cave become their tomb. somewhere in the long night they passed out. They woke up some hours later only to find the nightmare still real.
Eventually after what felt like a millennia of waiting the sounds of water had calmed. The waterfall was considerably less rapid so they made an attempt to climb down and check the entrance to the U. Their heart dropped as they discovered that not only was the passage still filled to the brim but the cavern itself was still about shin high with water. The shape of the passage and the relatively few offshoots meant there was nowhere for the water to dissipate to. Cold and exhausted they were faced with the same decision as before. Try the U and maybe drown, or wait in the cavern and maybe starve. They built up as much nerve as they could and plunged into the U. Unfortunately their frantic escape attempt isn't the end of the story. They barely made it to the bottom of the U before struggling for air. Knowing that they wouldn't be able to turn around in the horizontal stretch if they ran out of air they were forced to turn back and swim back up to the vertical shaft for air.
They pulled themself back up onto the cavern floor even colder and exhausted than before. They dragged themselves to a slightly drier part of the cavern and entered a mild state of delirium. The countdown to hypothermia had started a long time ago.
Meanwhile outside of the cave our own sweetwater wildlife rangers were in a nightmare of their own. They had evacuated the campgrounds of any remaining visitors when the weather became severe and then evacuated themselves. Now that the rain had cleared and things were looking stable they had returned to the station to gear up and take a survey of the damage done to the mountain by the mudslide. Only to see a lone vehicle still parked in the lot. That didn’t belong to any of the rangers. They checked the roster of campers first calling in to anyone on the list to see if they had left a vehicle in the scramble of the evacuation. No one had. Then they called the sheriff to see if there were any missing vehicle reports. There weren’t. Each call increased their urgency, just who had left the car and were they caught in the mudslide? Luckily the car for some reason had been left unlocked. They were able to look up the registration found in the glove box and call the family. It was a local but seeing as this idiot hadn't told their family where they were headed the rangers didn't have any clues where to look in spite of now knowing who they were looking for. They brought out the search dog and did their best to search for the missing person with the scent of some personal items left in the car. The search was slow and difficult. The mudslide had blocked some of the normal paths and the heavy rain had washed away the boot prints and the scent.
After hours of searching the mountain side one of the rangers clearing a path to the cave entrance our idiot had spotted the line tacked up outside of the entrance.
This discovery brought dread along with hope. The entrance was filled with enough water on this side that they would need to bring dive gear up to even attempt a rescue. Without knowing the conditions inside the cave they had no way of knowing if this would really be a rescue…or a body recovery. The head ranger donned a suit and an oxygen tank then began the long rescue effort of following the line into the cave down into the watery dark.
When they found our idiot their body was cold as ice, the color had completely drained from their face but miraculously they were alive. They took some time to warm them up out of their lethargy before helping them clear the U whilst buddy breathing.
The good news is that our idiot not only lived but they made a full recovery. How do I know? Because I am our idiot.
I thought Maybe re-telling this story will dissuade some would-be adventure seekers from making a fatal mistake. Should you decide to try even the novice caves located on the mountain make sure to check the weather, obtain the proper permit with the rangers and bring or rent proper gear.
Next week our guest will be my hero one of sweetwater's own rangers to tell us some tales of their own and go over sweetwater wilderness safety.
That's all for this episode now back to the music-
Songs fade in and the radio station returns to playing Mikey's dj set.
last edited Apr 10, 2023 6:39:03 GMT by Mikey Royce