Hermit's Basement

So you have flown up Hermit's Cave with ease and consider yourself a cave dominator? Well, let me tell you, all the local Massachusetts caves don't even consider Hermit's Cave a real cave. The real cave they all admire is the buried "adventure" corridor higher up on the same hill. Overall, this "cave" is about 10 feet long (horizontally) with a head-high (6 foot) exit that you have to climb through. If the exit was on a Yosemite Wall, its corkscrew maneuver would probably be given the fearsome rating of 5.9+. My 7 year-old moved through it easily and said it was tons of fun. My much heavier and more portly self crawled through the exit move with alarm and uncertainty - but also thought it was tons of fun. Note: like many "squeeze hole" caves, not everyone can fit through this cave. There is an actual upper size limit for doing this route. The author is 5' 8" and 190 lbs. and could barely squeeze through the exit on this route. Your results may vary. The four-star rating is for the great adventure aspect of the route.

The exit is right in front of a tree, 25 feet due west from the top of the corridor, if you go through the Hermit's Crack corridor and past Graffiti Scrambled. See the photos. You can "downclimb" through the exit, but why go through that needless self-abuse?! The entrance cave is on the west-facing hillside (shown in the photos). Heading up the short hillside, with Hermit's Hideout just to the left, go to the right before the trail gets to the top of the slope. You will pass through some rocks with an overhang. Moving laterally about 20 feet, you will see the cave entrance, which is 5-6 feet high.