On August 23, 2005, a bunch of local cavers got together for the world premiere of the Sony Pictures presentation, “The Cave”. Yea, believe it or not, the Priest Theater in downtown High Springs was the location where crew, family and local cavers were invited to attend this special showing. The movie opened world wide on August 26th.

As far as I’m concerned, Wes Skiles and Jill Heinreth did an outstanding job with their part of the movie. It was great fun watching the movie with a lot of the folks that made it happen and worked so hard on it. Not often do you get a whole movie theater full of cavers, and I doubt you will ever see another movie premiere with the dress code so “relaxed”. Everything from nice suits to tank tops, shorts and sandals.

The movie itself is typical Hollywood monster fair, kind of a Sigourney Weaver goes caving, fights the aliens, etc, but there was plenty in this film that was far from typical Hollywood. The realism of the sets reflected the involvement of real cavers, and of course, the awesome underwater videography of the whole Karst Productions Team.

You just have to go see it for yourself, especially if you want to see the fabulous work of Wes and Jill, some of north Florida’s best cave divers, in some of the best underwater cave diving action ever to come out of Hollywood.

I won’t give the film away only to say this was certainly, “the sump trip from hell” Enjoy the film for what it is folks, and don’t get too wrapped up in the logistics of the trip…..or the flying hodags!

The Karst Productions Team once again proved why they are the best in the business when it comes to underwater videography. It was their direction that made the constructed cave sets and all the underwater action believable. Admittedly some of the main characters had a bit of an attitude problem that would not last 2 minutes on a real expedition, (they’d be beat to hell by the rest of the group). There were also a few lines of dialogue that had us all chuckling. At one point, when Piper Perabo’s character “Charley” goes underwater for the first time in the lake room of the cave, we see a stunning underwater vista as she quips, “Man, this blows away anything in the Yucatan”. Of course, the stunning vista we were seeing on the screen at the time was actually filmed in…the Yucatan!

There were a couple of gadgets that we would love to have in the real world of underwater exploration like the wonderfully simple handheld cave sonar mapper but for the most part, the gear was top of the line equipment available to most cavers (for the right price). Pay attention to the screen when they turn the sonar mapper on for the first time, it says “SkilesSonic” a little inside joke for cave divers. Other gear used included Dive Rite scooters as well as Megaladon rebreathers.

The best part was watching the credits roll and hear the crowd roar for a local bunch of cavers gone Hollywood! The last credits on the film included a line where the entire cast and crew thanked the cavers of North Florida for teaching them to appreciate caves, cave diving and the explorers who go there.

Maybe for the general public, this will do for caving what Jaws did for swimming in the ocean?

(Patty always told me there were cave monsters!)

Jill and Wes address the crowd before the show starts

Outside the Priest before the movie

Wow, check out those sharp-dressed cavers!

Sean and Becky looking good

Jitka Hyniova, Florida Fish and Wildlife Science Diver… and stunt diver in the movie

Bill and Karen Oigarden

Patty and Brian play dress-up

Hanging out after the show

Birdsall gets snagged for an interview

By Cara L Gentry
Photos By Simon Nielsen

The rain was pouring down and I was frightened. It was my first night out on my own. I’d been kicked out of the home I had known since I was born. I was cold and wet and had no place to go. A large boom and crack of lightning shook the ground and made me run deep into the dark woods, rain stinging my eyes as I fled. A second ground shaking boom and I was falling. I let out a scream and grasped at the air but caught nothing. For a moment the rain seemed to stop in mid air. The scenery was moving but the rain and I were staying in the same spot. I hit the ground with a wet thud, but the landing was soft. I missed a large rock my mere inches and landed in some leaves. Instinct brought me to my feet and in a panic I tried to scramble up the rock wall. I was deep in a pit with no way out. I could feel my nails digging into the soft rock leaving a tell tale sign of my struggle. If I died in this pit, at least someone would know I fought hard to escape. Suddenly I remembered the rock I almost hit during my fall. I turned and climbed to the top to see if it would get me any closer to escaping this prison. jp domains . My nails dug in to the walls, but the pouring rain cascaded down like a waterfall making climbing out impossible. Eventually exhaustion overtook my weary little body. My fur was soaked with rain and my paws were raw from scratching bedrock. I found a small hole in the rock under some logs, climbed inside and fell asleep, dreaming of my nice warm nest with my mom and five siblings. We all got booted from the nest the same day, and I wondered how the rest of them were doing. When I awoke, the rain had stopped and the sun was shining into the bottom of the pit. A strange animal climbed into the pit, took a look around and left again, but never saw me. A few minutes later two more came down into my prison. This time one started walking my way. I backed into my little hole, keeping nothing but my nose out to sniff this intruder. web archive She jumped back and peered into my hiding place. Our eyes met in a long intense stare.
Mike and Kitty with Miss Rupert

“Hey Kitty! I think I found what made those scratches on the walls”. Our Sunday morning cave trip to Jennings just got turned into a mini rescue. There was a young opossum trapped at the bottom of the 30 foot pit entrance to Jennings cave. It was alive, but scared and stared at me with a gaze that would not leave my mind for days. Simon started snapping photos as Mike and Kitty were up top emptying an extra cave pack to use for the rescue. Kitty insisted we give the possum a name. Simon suggested naming it ‘Rupert’ after the 10th planet and I agreed. For those not keeping up with astronomy news, there has been a debate the past few years over an object discovered in the outer part of our solar system which is larger then Pluto. This object is called UB313 and there are many more similar objects in that area of our solar system. The debate is whether we should include UB313, and any others discovered, as planets or drop Pluto as our ninth planet since it resembles these outer objects more then it resembles any of the other eight planets. Years ago, before the discovery of UB313, Douglas Adams wrote in his Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy that a 10th planet would be found in our solar system, and it would be named Rupert. Since UB313 would be a bad name for a possum, we named it Rupert after the 10th planet. Mike donned some work gloves, Kitty held open the cave pack, Simon took photos, and I watched as Mike reached into the alcove where Rupert was hiding and pulled the possum out by its tail. He held it up for the photo shoot and announced to the world that Rupert was a girl. With a frightened, and possibly embarrassed last stand, Rupert grabbed at the cave walls in an attempt to escape but Mike and Kitty got her in the cave pack. Kitty then climbed back out of Jennings to free Rupert in the woods, far from the entrance pit while the rest of us started checking out Jennings Cave.

The gate was in good shape and did not look like it had been tampered with since the last visit. We checked out the cave and are sad to report there was new graffiti in the passage leading off Danny’s Hole. The water level was low in the water room and we did not see any crayfish. By the time we left the cave, the rain had started which made the climb out slippery.

Before heading back to Mike’s we checked out the entrance to Deathtrap to see what it was like in the pouring rain. A large rotten log about 8 feet long and 2 feet in diameter had become wedged in the entrance and was working well as a plug to the water attempting to drain. This will have to be removed to help lessen flooding as the hurricane season rains are upon us. We also stopped by Scotts Spring where the water level was encroaching upon the deck. All in all it was a good Sunday with a relaxing cave trip, some pouring rain and a cave rescue involving one scared little female opossum named Rupert.

Danny's Hole

Cara and Mike, waiting for the train.

By Brian Williams

August 6, 2005: Windy River Cave, Van Buren County, Tennessee.

Attempting to make a cave connection through a sump is difficult at best, but it’s even more difficult to find (coerce) the right cavers (anyone breathing ) to drag gear over a mile through cave passage alternating between long swims and breakdown climbs, only to reach the destination where they finally get to sit and freeze while waiting for the diver to come back. The first few times you ask for help you generally get a few enthusiastic folks, and most cavers are always good for a trip they haven’t been on. But try talking them into coming back, same cave, same tanks, same long cold swim… different day and well, let’s just say you have to wait a long time for the sherpas to forget about the last trip before they are willing to do it all again.

This was not the first Windy River sump trip. Previously we had multiple teams consisting of at least 15 cavers to carry gear for a simultaneous upstream and downstream push (click here for trip report.) The subsequent trips were progressively more difficult to muster volunteers willing to make the push downstream through the 55 degree water hauling tanks and gear. So we really thought we had waited long enough for the horrors to subside and we would be able to “wrangle” enough sherpas for another assault on the upstream sump. Guess 2 years isn’t long enough !

August 6, 2005, found a grand total of 5 cavers willing to make the 1 mile trek to the upstream sump in WR and attempt to make the connection to Black Rock River Cave. Marbry Hardin from, Murfreesboro, TN was once again trip leader and he has dedicated much time and energy to the survey of this system. We also had the “infamous” Forrest Wilson; Georgia, Me (Brian Williams); Florida, and Becky Dettorre, and Mark Wenner: both from Nashville, TN.

On a previous trip, Tom Johnson was able to lay 225 ft of line in the upstream sump. He explored another section that turned out to be a loop around a large breakdown room using up much of his line. Maximum depth of 25 ft. Having used quite a bit of line in this loop, he had the unfortunate experience of running out before he ran out of passage. Tough break but it happens, that’s part of exploration. (I think TJ may have even taken off his boot laces to get some more line to lay.)

The plan for this trip was to head upstream and try to make the connection and get the survey data through the sump. Additionally, a new, knotted line would need to be run through the passage to facilitate the survey. We needed two divers. One to go re-lay line and the second to make the final push and try to get as much survey as possible, and hopefully make the connection to BRRC. That was the successful part. We had 5 cavers to get all this gear upstream to the sump… that was the frustrating part.

Gear for the trip consisted of: 4 AL 30’s rigged sidemount, two harness systems, 8 lights, 2 exploration reels, 2 safety reels, 4 sets of regs, assorted back-ups, tools, silt screws, fins, 20 lbs of weight, and all the usual personal gear including food, water and extra polypro. This is a lot of gear for 5 cavers to move through a mile worth of difficult passage.

Fortunately we were able to drive the bottom of the valley which shortened the hike considerably but we still had a long way to the cave entrance. The plan was for Marbry to make the first dive and try to crack the sump. I would make the next dive and try to get some survey. Things don’t always work out the way you have it planned, but this is where the biggest asset of a caver comes in to play – flexibility. Making last minute changes and still getting the job done. Upon unloading the gear Marbry discovered that he had forgotten his harness. The plans quickly changed and now it was down to Forrest and me for the dives. No problem, we’ll make it work.

After a couple hours of swimming and scrambling over breakdown, we arrived at the staging area some 800 ft before the sump. This is the last dry ground to gear up on and it’s all swimming after this point. I drew the lucky straw and got to dive first. To me, every dive is a survey dive, so I decided to lay new line as replacement for the old line which was not survey line, and then get as much survey as I could. Forrest could come in and continue the exploration after that. Marbry and Mark swam up to the terminal point with me then headed back to the staging area as I tied off and proceeded into the sump, running new knotted line in as I went following the old line left by TJ. The passage ceiling fell away in several places and I surfaced 3 different times in fissures approximately 40 to 50 ft long and between 10 and 20 feet high. After 225 ft, I left a loop on the end, turned the dive and surveyed out. Total dive time was 45 minutes, max depth = 19 ft. Arriving back at the staging area I gave a quick report about the going passage and it was time for the next diver. Tired muscles stiffen up nicely while waiting for the returning diver and Forrest had decided not to dive. I was still “motivated”, so we switched my rig over to the remaining 2 tanks and back I went.

This time I wanted to make the connection if possible, so I ran straight to the end of the line, tied off and started exploring on. TJ had described a gradual slope where he had run out of line and after I tied in, the passage did begin to trend upward. Continuing on for another 55 ft., I found my way up through the breakdown and into a large air-filled room with a huge mud bank tumbling down to the sumps edge. I had never been in the pit room in BRRC, but this seemed to be similar to what Marbry had described. Caution is required in all forms of caving but even more so when you are the only one on the other side of a sump in unknown passage. I slowly made my way up this muddy slope, crawling and digging steps as I went. Upon reaching the top I could see that the room was approximately 50 to 60 ft to the ceiling, and 30 to 40 ft wide with a bend around to large breakdown. I chose not to go further as the mud made the conditions slightly “technical” and any misstep would mean a long fall with a questionable outcome. After finding a protrusion to tie-off on, I left a line arrow for a survey marker and proceeded to slip and slide my way back down to the sump. Everything was covered in mud and I even had to scrap my boots off before getting my fins back on. This was going to reduce visibility back through the sump to 0 so after I eased into the water I set a silt screw on the bank at waters edge and made one final tie-off. Still needing to get the last of the survey, I made my way to the first station and took a quick backsight before being engulfed in silt. The trip back out was uneventful and the silt cleared near the end due to the flow.

Arriving back at the staging area one hour later, I found a cold group of sherpas ready to route for the exit. We quickly repacked and began the long trip out… dreaming of Mexican food and Dos Equis awaiting us in McMinnville.

The Windy River Cave system is rich in aquatic cave life including schools of Blind Cave fish and of course a myriad of cave adapted crayfish. The Cumberland Plateau has some of the most diverse and rich ecosystems of any caves I have ever seen and it’s fortunate that there are cavers willing to chart these passages and turn over this data to the State which allows informative decisions to be made regarding the protection of watersheds and natural recharge areas associated with these cave systems.

These are not your average caving trips and could not be possible without a dedicated group of cavers willing to make the hard trips in the name of exploration. Special thanks to The Tennessee Central Basin Grotto and all the cavers that have been involved with the mapping projects in this area over the years. Thanks!

Captions

1. Cavers assemble before making the drive into the valley
2. Crossing a dry stream bed on the way to the cave
3. A lake room at the entrance, the swimming starts here
4. The passage alternates between swimming and walking
5. All the gear must be packed to float
6. Typical passage in Windy River
7. Tennessee Blind Cave fish (Amblyopsidae)
8. Brian prepares to make the first dive in the upstream sump
9. Mark Wenner congratulates Brian Williams after a successful connection
10. The Windy River to Black Rock River connection Team
11. Map of the sump