The wonder of the 'Ice' Caves

One element of MDH trail that is blatently advertised is that of the Ice Caves where there is supposed to be ice hanging from cave walls year round. Chad and I hit them up as Tony made his way back to the car. The caves are near the end of our portion of the MDH. There was a guy there showing his kids around and I asked if they were ‘cool’ and he said; “Yes, some be about 35 degrees”. The Ice Cave trail is a roughly 100 yard long trail with various cave openings along the trail sides. We checked out a few shallow ones, climbed down, to find it cold but no ice. I found my way to a deep one and started lowering myself down to the core having a feeling for sure that there would be large ice formations at the bottom. Chad remains at the top but can still hear my echoing voice. I turn my headlamp on (it should be noted that I always carry my headlamp with me just in case we get lost later in the day) and continue to push forward into the steadily cooling air. I am sensitive to the possibility of a mountain lion or other creature that might be lurking beyond the next corner. I finally make it to the bottom and yell out to Chad that I’m at the bottom. He is anxious to know what the fruit of my labor has turned out to be. In a loud and focused scream out in response to Chad’s question; “What did you find?” Mike: “An empty beer can!” No ice.