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Jim, our guide for most of these trips is a customer service representative for a local company. Jim is a former tour guide for a local commercially operated tourist cave who actually met and married a woman he met on a cavern tour. The wedding ceremony was performed in the cavern with the bridal party all wearing lighted caving helmets. After saying “I do”, the newlyweds repelled over the brink of a 100’ underground chasm together. (Talk about taking the plunge!) Unfortunately the marriage didnt last but the caving helmets the bridal party wore did...you can see us all wearing them in many of these adventures.
Thanks for the cool gear Jim!
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John, is the premier antique plumbing repair and refurbishment guy in the country. His favorite saying is “You want it done WHEN???” followed by maniacal laughter. (When you’re the best at what you do, you can get away with that.)
John managed to overcome his fear of heights to be able to rappel into caves. We simply told him that you can’t fall off a cave. We didn’t mention anything about falling into them. What he doesn’t worry about won’t hurt him, right?
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Preston is the 18 year old “gofer” for an antique plumbing company, which is a polite way of saying he’s the kid they hired to haul heavy stuff and clean the old toilets. “Head Turd Chaser” just didn’t seem dignified. Given his age, the hard hat is probably just a formality but he’s a nice guy who is good to have along, even if he does do disgusting things like jog up 100’ bluffs without breaking a noticeable sweat and has this annoying habit of talking as if he isn’t the slightest bit winded while ascending nearly sheer faces.
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Tom is a seasoned world traveler, and adventurer in his own right. Tom is alleged to be 60-something years old but we can’t be sure because he never stops moving long enough for anyone count his rings. Tom is also a local fire chief who is trained in rope rescue and EMT techniques: not a bad guy to have along when you’re doing things like rappelling down 100’ cliffs and tromping around in rattlesnake infested limestone terrain that is especially famous for producing twisted ankles and broken bones.
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Guy Starbuck is a chronic adventurer, hiker, and desert rat with an impressive website of his own numerous travels.
When Cat, proprietress of Ripley’s Ghost Town Adventures (a long-time bookmarked favorite of mine) noticed in email correspondence that Guy and I lived in the same county, she was quick to get me in contact with Guy and his wife Alysia.
Both are incredibly nice people that share the same bizarre caving, ghost towning, hiking, off-roading, and mine exploring affliction that affects all of us shown on this site. We’re happy to add Guy and Alysia to the incurable ward and hope to continue treatment with several doses of cave exploring this summer.
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Bart That’s me.
I’m the guy that has to arrange the electrons to tell the story while my wounds from bouncing off sharp limestone heal.
I’ve been caving on my own and with other friends for many years; Jim and I discovered a common interest here which spawned these current outings.
Special thanks to Preston for rotating the camera about 10 degrees to make it look like I’m scaling a dangerous cliff. (Actually there was a pretty hairy drop here but not as bad as it appears in the picture.)
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Disclaimer: All photos on this site our property of offroadexplorers.com. Unauthorized use will cause us to employ our team of flesh-eating lawyers to sue your ass off. Off-Road and desert travel carries with it inherent risks. Pack plenty of water, spare gas and a lot of common sense. If you break down 75 miles from the nearest point of civilization, don’t come whining to us! Respect the roads and artifacts you might find off-road. Leave everything where you find it so your children and grandchildren might have something to see in the future. Above all, tread lightly & pack out your own frigging trash.
No electrons were harmed in the making of this website; only cruelty-free voltages are used in maintaining this site
which is guranteed to be low-carb, fat-free, phosphate free, and 100% American Made.
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