Brian Williams and Sean Roberts recently visited Orange Lake Cave to collect a crayfish specimen for a University of Florida study. Here are some

photos that Sean took in the big room of the cave.

A Visit to Becky’s
Story and photos by Brian Williams

3-12-05

Many of you may know a good caver friend of mine, Becky Dettorre (we call her Becks). She recently moved to Nashville, TN to a new job at Vandy and some new friends at the Nashville and the Central Tennessee Basin Grottos. Although she abandoned us here in Florida to live the good life of a TAG caver, we still love her, and wanted to visit her at her new house. (Really just one more excuse for a TAG trip)

Becks’ old roommate, Renuka Bisht, wanted to visit her also, and even wanted to do some caving. She had been in a couple Florida caves but nothing up in TAG. This was a good time to get together with old friends and let a new caver experience some of the good stuff. We had decided to meet Becks at Fricks Cave for the annual “Open House” held by the SCC so cavers get a chance to visit this important endangered Gray Bat roost. The plan was do Fricks then some more caving on our way up to Nashville.

But wait…there’s more. Another friend of mine, Jeff Holloway lives just south of Atlanta. In addition to being another friend I got hooked on caving, he also has 600 acres just up the gorge from Sequatchie River cave. Bonus ! We had first investigated his land about 4 years ago just after he purchased it. At that time we had discovered several new possible leads on his property, including one stream passage cave that we dug into and found over 800 ft. of nice walking stream passage replete with bats, salamanders, cave crayfish and even some formations. The end of the passage had a 15 ft waterfall that we have not climbed yet to check for further passage. This cave has sat virgin since that day 4 years ago, waiting for us to return and start a survey. Since then, Jeff had discovered several new blowing leads he wanted me to check out.

So with a big plan for the weekend and truckload of gear, Renuka and I hit the road at midnight Friday heading north. At 8:30 am Saturday morning we were taking a nap in the truck in front of E.T. Davis’ house and the entrance to Frick’s Cave. As we were shaking off the cobwebs in our head from a long road trip, and talking to Buddy Lane, we spy a familiar aqua-colored Feista rambling up the gravel drive. “Becks is hear, yippee! ” After we finally got through our hello hugs, we suited up to check out the cave. E.T. came out and introduced himself and Buddy had said no one had been in yet that morning so we were anxious to check it out for any signs of the Grays. Saw lots of little browns but no grays, which was good, because we did not want to disturb them if they were in residence at the time.

The cave is set back in the ridge in front of a beautiful little stream. The entrance is a big tilted square opening. It’s a wonderful little stream passage cave and we were immediately in the water once inside the cavern area. The stream was at normal water levels so we got wet only up to our knees in the deepest place. About 1500 ft. back the stream passage turns into a huge breakdown pile. Climbing this mini mountain you are rewarded by piles of Gray bat guano and a few very nice formations. We continued on past the main hibernacula and into two more large chambers. Upon our exit we encountered many cavers coming in and the closer we got to the entrance, the more cavers we met. This must be the big family gathering for the year up there because I saw some of the tiniest little cavers I’ve ever met. They all looked like they were having a great time….I just didn’t know you could get caving coveralls that small. The youngest kid I saw was 1 year old and his proud dad was taking him into his first cave… cool as hell!

When we got back to the field and changed clothes, we stretched out on E.T.’s flatbed trailer and took a long nap in the warm Georgia sun. Waking up we were surprised to find the field packed with caver vehicles and even more caver families. What a great way to spend a lazy afternoon. Soon we loaded up and headed north looking for another cave to show Renuka and some grub to quiet our growling stomachs.

After fueling up and getting up the road a ways, we decided to stop at a good ole standby, Cedar Ridge Crystal Cave. It’s really a treat to take a new caver into this cave, and I always find something I haven’t seen before. We did mange to find at least one cave salamander and of course you can’t “swing a dead possum in there without hitting a formation”. (Since we forgot to bring any possums in with us, we managed to keep from hitting any formations. ) Renuka was duly impressed and at each new discovery we heard her exclaim, “Oh my gosh” “Oh my gosh”. You know, it’s really cool when you take someone new to a neat cave and they appreciate everything from the tiniest helectite to the most massive columns. Just one of the great things about caving.

 

Next we hit the road again and decided to not stop till we reached Meca, better known on this trip as Becks house in Nashville. We enjoyed some nice hot showers then it was off too chow at the local Tex-Mex restaurant and bar.

Next day we got up early (early for TAG anyway) and hit the road south to Jeff’s land. We had to cross over at Monteagle and head east to Palmer, TN where we met Jeff and his dog Doby at his hunting camp near one of the many creeks on his land. He had the fire going and a big slab of tenderloin that smelled wonderful. We took the girls down to the creek to show them the swimming hole and when we came back the tenderloin and coffee was ready. Even though Becks and Renuka are mostly vegetarian, the smell of that grilled pork, the cold bite of morning air, and just being out there in the woods, enticed them to have a small portion of the meat. It was delicious and Renuka was still talking about it the next day.

We all piled in my truck, including Doby the cave dog, and set out to explore the gorge. Jeff took us on the grand tour and showed us Pap’s Point (named after his dad) where you could see for a couple of miles down the gorge. Next we were treated to the site of a new waterfall that he had just discovered last year. He has a total of 4 major falls on his land and this one was another beautiful set of falls, cascading down a moss-covered slope and plummeting 100 ft. to the base of the bluff. The gorge on his land has a large creek running through it and beautiful pools of aquamarine water and many smaller shimmering waterfalls and cascades. Oh yea, there’s lots of potential for caves too!

After the waterfall we parked the truck one final time and grabbed our packs to head off down into the gorge proper and see what we could find. Ridge–walking in TAG is strenuous to say the least but we covered a good bit of ground up and down that gorge, passing bluffs and rockfalls, smaller caverns looking for anything that might be a lead. Jeff took us to a fissure cave high on the bluff. He had a dig just above it that had been a blowing lead. The lower entrance was a wet cavern with titled slabs of rock and a small fissure going back and getting smaller with each foot. This was “Green Salamander Cave”. There is some potential here but lots of better leads closer to the bottom of the gorge so we moved on.

Jeff showed us some old Indian rock shelters with evidence on the ceilings that fires had been used inside. We also spent some time just enjoying the bluffs and walking through all kinds of boulders and cliffs. We discovered several smaller caverns but nothing exciting…until we headed to the lower elevations. First thing we stumbled onto was a small pool of water flowing from under a large rock outcrop. Jeff had been up and down this creek many times but had overlooked this entrance. After walking closer to the creek and looking back it was evident why he had never seen it. The entrance pool was hidden by a small rise and you literally had to walk right up on it before you noticed it. As Jeff was checking out above the cave and I was getting a GPS coordinate, Becks was busy changing into her polypro for a quick dip in the pool to see where the water was coming from. One thing for sure…that water was cold!!!!

The entrance was a duck under with just one small room where the water came from a passage about 1 ft. high by 1 ft wide. This was going to be a digger. We checked the area around it and two more similar entrances with water pouring from the side of the ridge. All these we got GPS for and left them to another day of digging.

We headed further downstream to check a lead at the very bottom of the ridge and right next to the creek. This was a vertical fissure where the creek separated and a portion flowed into the entrance. I had checked this lead out several years ago and found a fissure 15 ft. deep, then managed a squeeze into a small room with two boulder chocked pits. Jeff checked this lead out last year and discovered the same thing but removed some of the boulders. At the time we were there, the water flow was too high to enter so we took a power bar break, a few photos, then headed upstream. One more going lead was found that we worked on with the rock hammer until I was able to squeeze down to the frigid water and look far enough up the passage to decide there was no way I was going to belly crawl through 45 degree water today to see if it went. This location was also GPS’s and saved for the next trip.

As we headed upstream, Jeff took us on a quick tour of two more of the beautiful waterfalls and peaceful pools that grace his land. The hike was fantastic and the company was outstanding. Jeff invited us back to do some digging and begin survey of the cave we found 4 years ago. We decide on sometime in June after spring turkey season was over. Ridge-walking up and down that gorge is not so bad, but being mistaken for a turkey and possibly getting an ass full of lead while bending down too check out a going lead… well… we’ll just wait till June.

The trip home to Florida the next day was brutal. Traffic stopped on 75 as far north as Cartersville. We jumped off the highway and hit the back-roads. Thirteen hours later we were finally back in Gainesville. This is why I try to only travel only between midnight and 8:00 am on a road trip to TAG. A long trip can be tiring but it also can be a learning experience. Renuka is originally from India and great company for the long drive. Being diametrically opposed on political issues, we try to avoid that topic. But we got a CD player and even though she knows quite a bit about American culture… still has a lot to learn about country music, Jimmy Buffet, parrot-heads, hillbillys, and rednecks!!! Next trip, we’ll explore more cultural phenomenon including the all night fireworks and beer store and maybe even a bowl of grits!

October 13, 2004 – 65-acre tract. Present were Peggy Young, James Brown, William Walker, Stephanie Juiliano, Sean Roberts, Rebecca Roberts, Brandon Roberts, Thomas Feeney, Rebecca Dettorre, Brian Williams, and Buford Pruitt, Jr. The tract is a pasture grazed by water buffalo.

We met the landowners at their house on Levy County in the morning to look for caves and assess for cleanup several sinkholes on the 65-acre tract. The purposes of today’s trip were to see if any caves could be found and if there were any sinkholes that needed trash cleaned out.

This tract is mostly open pasture with occasional scattered trees and clumps of trees, fringes of trees along its east and south sides, and a wider band of trees along its west and north sides. We found numerous small sinkholes but no caves. Several relatively new sinkholes were centrally-located within the open field, containing clear aquifer water (the water table here is the top of the unconfined Floridan Aquifer), steep to vertical sides of dirt, with some limestone visible.

There was a promising sinkhole next to the County Road that had been used as a field rock dump. We moved some of the rocks and determined that it would require a lot of dirt removal to go any further. This sink has nicely defined solution pipe walls. It also contains farm trash (steel cans, fence wire, etc.).

Near the middle of the west edge of the tract is a limestone “well.” I cannot tell if it is a natural solution pipe or if it was dug out by residents. It is about 20ft deep and goes to water, and has an old board platform around it that I guess people used to stand on to fetch water.

A little to the north of the well is a series of three 15ft+ deep, 50ft+ wide sinkholes oriented roughly N-S in a line appx 300-400ft long. Much farm trash has been dumped in one (?) of these sinkholes. Betty was especially interested in getting the trash hauled out of that sink. We told her that the county might bring in a dumpster, and if so the FSS might be willing to clean it out for them.

————–

October 13, 2004 – 80-acre tract. Present were William Walker, Stephanie Juiliano, Sean Roberts, Rebecca Roberts, Brandon Roberts, Rebecca Dettorre, Brian Williams, Adam Scherer and Jen. Thomas Feeney was present but spent the whole time lying sick in his van from the strange
illness he had contracted several weeks before in Blackfoot Cave (Alachua County). The tract is a pasture grazed by water buffalo. The purposes of today’s trip were to see if any caves could be found and if there were any sinkholes that needed trash cleaned out.

After looking over most of the property, we located Ann’s Cave. It was one-third full of water, and I was the only one willing to get wet up to my thighs exploring it. After leaving Ann’s Cave, the landowner drove up. We

were not expecting to see him and he was not expecting to see us, even
though I had told him several times that we were going to visit that tract when we were through with the 65-acre tract. Several members of our entourage panicked and ran when they saw his car, which, coupled with his

surprise at seeing us there, caused him to become anxious and unhappy, and
he chewed me out royally. I want to thank Brian Williams for the kind sympathy he gave me afterward. Bill and Sean and I succeeded in calming the landowner down, but by that time we were peeved and decided to leave the property. I believe there are no other caves on this tract, and there are no sinkholes needing cleaned out.

By Cindy Butler & Brian Williams

Swimming close to the edge of the wall, Marbry knew he was nearing the end. The passage was running out of air and there was nothing left but water and rock. The way forward was blocked by a sump. There had to be more cave here. It was the perfect river cave in the perfect unexplored ridge. The ground above provided little clues in this stretch of woods. There had to be more cave here, but this sump had to be cracked if any more passage was to be found.

Marbry Hardin is what some call a cave river rat, to others, he’s more of a cave trip “pimp”. He needed some help with this cave and he knew how to get it. Marbry and his crew had mapped all of the known passage in this new river cave and it lies so close to Rumbling Falls and Camps Gulf that the potential for new big cave was there. Both upstream and downstream passage ended at a sump. More help was needed, divers to crack the sumps. Marbry had previously been in contact with Forrest Wilson for help. Forrest in turn was able to bring his knowledge of sump diving along with his own team of Cindy Butler, Tom Johnson and Brian Williams to try and take a shot at cracking the sump. Last month the cave had been sumped at the entrance due to unusually heavy rains and we spent a TAG trip checking out other leads and caving in mapped passage. This week Marbry let us know that the cave and sumps were ready to be explored and he planned to have a large contingent on hand to hump gear both downstream and upstream.

I am in the process of training on rope with Brian and this seemed like another great chance to do some caving, diving and exploring. Brian and I met up at my house and we hit the road early Friday morning headed north. We were trying to meet up with Forrest and TJ in Atlanta but Brian and I were so busy telling cave stories we missed the exit. A few cell phone calls later we met up with them at a gas station. Back on the road and to our first stop of the weekend to drop into a small pit entrance to a cave called Signal Light. A little “warm-up” for the next day’s activities.

Signal Light is a 70 foot pit with a nice sized cave for us to explore. TJ told Brian this was his first climb on rope but he was an experienced rock climber and knew how to rappel. Brian rigged a double rope just in case of any problems. Brian went first and I followed soon after. It was a nice drop and I enjoyed looking around and watching the others come down into the pit. We spent a couple of leisurely hours exploring the cave that had some nice dome rooms, breakdown, technical climbing and fissures. Not a lot of decoration but very roomy and a good beginner cave. We finally gave into our growling stomachs and decided to leave. Forrest and TJ went first with TJ using an older model rope walker borrowed from Forrest. Forrest thought TJ was fine and went on up and out. TJ started having a little difficulty getting his ascenders to grab the rope and was trying to climb and not getting anywhere but exhausted fast. Brian was able to climb up, coach and assist him out. Just before heaving up his power bar, TJ was nice enough to warn me to look out below as I waited on the bottom for my turn on rope. Which brings up a question, “Is it proper to yell rock if what is really falling from the top is only vomit ?” Brian then rappelled down to climb up next to his student (me). I was using his rope walker and he ‘frogged’ up the rope. It was a lot more enjoyable for me. We both made sure and let TJ know not to give up because of his bad experience and that with the right gear and training he would really enjoy climbing. Ready for a 200 footer TJ?

Captions

1. TJ, Forrest, and Cindy at the edge of Signal Light.
2. TJ drops the pit
3. Some pretties behind the cavers

The next morning we all met up with Marbry in McMinnville and after a short drive we pulled into the well known meeting area by the bridge near Camps Gulf to meet the rest of the team. I have to stop here and mention the names of all the cavers involved in this expedition as they were a fantastic group of people. They are: Marbry Hardin, Carol Cady, Camille Lloyd, Mark Wenner, Doug Strait, Janey Leaderer, David Cole, John Fred Hutchinson, Hal Love, Joel Buckner, David Parr, Pete LaRue and Pat Yentsch, Forrest Wilson, Cindy Butler, Tom Johnson and Brian Williams. Marbry took a little ribbing from his friends about the persuasion he used to convince his friends and fellow cavers to hump gear for this trip. We are not sure what he actually promised but I think I heard the term “Cave Pimp” more than once. We all jumped into four wheel vehicles for the trip to the cave. The group was gearing up in the hot afternoon sun and Marbry was busy dividing us up into two teams for the simultaneous upstream and the downstream push. We kept hearing Marbry say, “This is your diver, you stay with this diver and carry what ever they need carried”. TJ and his team had the longer haul through the cave. The plan was that TJ would dive a short sump to try and make a connection to a known cave that lies 200 ft. on the topo survey from the upstream sump. He would check for survey stations and leave a marker then survey on the return trip. Forrest, Cindy and Brian had the shorter trip to the downstream sump but there was a lot of swimming to get there. Marbry hoped this sump would connect to more dry passage possibly leading to another cave that had been connected by dye-tracing and is about three miles away. Potential for huge passage between the two caves is high. Forrest planned on doing survey if the sump did go to dry cave so I was along as the second diver and possible survey buddy. What we were really afraid would happen was that the cave would stay underwater too long or would come up in passage too low to make exploration feasible. Luckily, we were wrong.

Leaving the warm sun after gearing up and entering the cold water at the start of the cave was a bit of a shock. We are used to that nice 72 degree spring water. At 66 degrees I was glad I wore double everything! We started down the passage in water about waist high. Further down, the water ended up well over or heads and we all had to swim. All of our gear did well floating except for two of the steel tanks. Lesson learned. Make sure all tanks have adequate flotation. Part of the problem was we were not sure of how much swimming we had to do and did not prepare all the tanks accordingly. One of our team members started having trouble through the swims. Maybe it was that 55 lb steel tank with no flotation strapped to his back. At a low swim through that was about 15 ft deep, with no hand holds, he could not keep his head out of the water any longer. Exhausted, we assisted him and we were able to get a life jacket on him and get us all to an area where we could get on some dry land and rest for a bit. A tank was lost in the struggle when Brian jettisoned it to hold up the struggling caver. At the next breakdown area we all rested and reorganized. I geared up and with Brian’s help did an underwater and above water search for the tank without success. No luck finding the tank and we decided to push on. Although this was a set back and we did “loose a piece of the pie”, we decided that having the caver with us was much more important than saving the other tank.

After a couple more areas of swimming and wading, we came to a muddy area Forrest thought was the waiting area Marbry had suggested for the final approach to the sump. We were all getting pretty tired by then. We had to make a decision about the altered plans with only 3 tanks between us now. Forrest pointed his finger and said, Cindy, you are diving the sump, you are the most current”. I have to admit I didn’t put up a fight. Cool, my first chance at cracking a TAG sump. Fate and Forrest had dealt me a winning hand. Forrest and the group of cavers settled down for the long wait ahead. Since the sump was a downstream siphon we decided that keeping the group back a little way would help the visibility. We all agreed that since we were down to one diver I was to find a way through the sump, check and see if there was going cave on the other side, then return to report. We would return with more tanks if needed on the next trip.

As I geared up for the dive, Brian swam downstream to find a place to tie off and stage for the final push. He came back to report that we were still a long way from the sump and there was some swimming and crawling left to go. Brian and I headed downstream while the other cavers settled in. It took us almost twenty minutes to find the terminal sump. I was getting a little anxious about the time factor as I geared up for the second time. One of the regulators had a slow leak at a hose fitting and had become slightly clogged with mud. Another piece of the pie slips away. Now I’m really not liking this much but I decided to try a short dive. Brian reassured me that he would keep track of the time and it was up to us now to make that decision. Out of excuses, I started swimming. There were several blind albino crayfish, and schools of small bind cave fish that looked almost like guppies. I always thought fish schooled to protect them from predators so I noted this behavior for my biologist pals back home. I had about 3 feet of visibility in the sump pool. I found the small opening at the bottom of a breakdown area Marbry had told me to look for. It was a duck under leading into a large water filled cavern area. Most of the room had breakdown rocks on the floor and the water had amazing visibility of about 10 feet. More crayfish and several more schools of the tiny fish. I followed the trail of air pockets to a couple of small air bells across the roof of the cave. Found another duck under and back into a pool and dry cave. Well that was pretty fast! Then I heard Brian and realized I had made a circle!

One more check. Back into the underwater passage I found the area where I had doubled back. Dropping to the floor I followed the wall to another small duck under. I passed through this and found air above me. At the surface there was a large pool of water that was at the end of a cave. No sound or sign of human movement. The cave was huge! Doubly so after going through the small sump. It looked four times the size of the cave we had been in. Big bore-hole cave with water- sculpted walls. There was a bank with breakdown and clay on my right, the rock of the cave wall on my left and a winding creek passage stretched out before me. I went around a couple of corners drifting in the creek and could not see an end to this room. Mission accomplished, time to head back. Back at the pool I tied off on a rock and cut my line. I took a compass heading out. I took one more look around, the absolute isolation and stillness, the huge size of the area and realized I have not ever felt this alone before. It was a little unnerving. I also felt pretty elated because I realized this was exactly what Marbry and his friends were hoping for, huge going cave to be explored!

I returned to Brian, gave him a brief report, we snapped some photos then dropped my tanks and headed back to the group of cavers waiting on us. We had been gone almost an hour and Forrest had come down to check on us. He met me half way and went on back to help Brian with the gear. I continued back to the group of waiting cavers with the good news. The waiting team was very happy. It was exactly what they wanted for Marbry and the cave. We all packed and left without incident.

Back in the sunlight and warm air we had a short wait on the last team. TJ, Marbry and upstream group returned to report that TJ had laid about 600 ft. of line, had done some survey, but hadn’t found the expected connection to the other known cave. Although expectations were higher for the upstream connection, the cracking of the downstream sump was proved to be the most exciting accomplishment. It took a while to get packed and cleaned up out in the hot sun. The chiggers found some of us, or we found them. A couple of group photos later and we were off for Mexican Food and a celebratory beer…. or three.

I need to take a pause in the action for a moment and comment on this fantastic group of cavers that Marbry put together for this push trip. I have not been ‘dry caving’ for long but I must say that the humor, strength, professionalism, kindness and ability of all involved really made this trip work. Not once did anyone think of quitting when things got muddy and bad, I never heard a sound of compliant. These wonderful folks proved that cavers are happy to have any excuse to be underground, even humping gear through a cold river cave. One time I remember that I stood tired, open mouthed in awe at the ceiling of a breakdown room that had to be 60 feet high that had mud and sticks stuck in the ceiling from the huge flow this cave takes in a flood. I said something like “this cave is totally awesome”. One of the cavers carrying my tank looked up, straightened his back and said ‘your right, but it might be a little more awesome if I didn’t have this heavy tank!’ He smiled and pushed on! I saw a lot of that going on. I would go into a cave anytime and anyplace with these cavers.

Captions

1. The August 2003 Sump Dive team
2. Marbry motivating the team.
3. Is my light on?
4. Cindy getting close to the terminal sump
5. Cindy returns from cracking the sump
6. Happy diver after succes!
7. Time to pack up and leave
8. Some members of the “downstream team”
9. Doug, TJ and Carol with empty reels.
10. A caver favorite!

 

Part 2 – Sunday at Big Spring

Sunday Morning we again met Marbry for another type of cave dive. Not far away was an area that had a possibly unexplored spring. It was Forrest’s turn to do some underwater exploring and maybe lay some line. I decided that I would be support sherpa and then go caving with Marbry.

While Brian, Forrest and TJ geared up, Marbry and I decided to check out the river for more springs. Spotting a couple of places to check that looked like dry cave on the bank I returned to Big Spring. This spring lies at the base of a 100 ft. vertical rock face with a small fissure opening into a pool of “Windex blue” water. There were two small boils at the surface and around to one side of the rock face there was a partially air filled cavern that Marbry and I planned to explore. He had been told there was a cave there that ended in a breakdown room.

Brian has been to the “speed gearing up class” and was the first in the pool. TJ soon followed. As Forrest entered the water both the men came up to report that the openings into the system were blocked by breakdown. The three men decided to try and dig in, not wanting to give up on this spring. Marbry and I donned wet suits and slid into the opening to the right side of the pool. We found the cavern led to a small pool that had several openings in the limestone. Marbry swam into one low area while I followed. The water was about thee inches below the ceiling of the little cave here. Marbry turned over on his back, took a few breaths and started into this area holding his helmet for light. “Don’t make any waves,” I heard him say as he slipped under a low air space and deeper into the cave. Don’t make waves ? What was that all about ? No regulator to breathe from and we are supposed to cave through this stuff ? I was not too upset though when Marbry returned to report the cave ceiling met the water and it was a no go without tanks.

Turning back to the small pool, Marbry made a comment about how he was a little disappointed and thought the cave might go just past the fissure he saw on the floor. Fissure? I swam over and looked underwater at a deep blue fissure that looked like it would go. How did I miss this before? Crawling back out we called over to the divers to check it out. I’m starting to think like a caver now instead of a diver. I was hunting air filled passage and passed right over a water filled passage!

Brian was the first diver to make it over to the area and brought in one tank in case the fissure was too tight. Forrest and TJ were still busy digging but had just about given up on the spring head. Brian dropped under the water and slipped down the fissure to find going underwater passage. He wanted Forrest and TJ to come over and check out this lead before the vis went south. Let’s let Forrest lay some line today. TJ went down next to the big room Brian had found at the end of the fissure. He tied off the reel and came back out. When Forrest arrived, the plan was made for him to go in, pick up the reel and continue on with TJ second. Brian knew it would probably be too tight for more than one or two so he swam down to the tie-off in the big room to wait. Forrest turned after another 35 ft. and they came out to re-evaluate the plan. Forrest reported that it sloped down but was getting tight. TJ went back in alone and managed to find his way down the slope and under a couple of tight duck-unders to a point where the silt was at least 3 ft. thick on the floor. No visibility at all at this point but he did stick his feet through a hole in the floor while turning the dive. Looks like there may be a way through, but not this time. He tied off after a total of about 120 ft. of line and a depth of about 27 ft. Brian went in once more to check out the tie offs and the last drop down. He came back and cut the line at the reel and tied it off at depth inside the fissure to avoid any possible swimmers or other divers trying to follow the line in although Marbry said that would not be a problem at this remote location.

While the boys were checking out the underwater fissure I asked Marbry to give me a lesson on how to check out ‘dry’ caves and to let me know if the openings I found in the creek bank were caves. The first one we checked was a creek undercut. The second was blowing cold air. Oh, that’s how you tell?! Marbry slid in and said ‘it goes’. We crawled about 200 feet in a small muddy cave with one little room you could stand up in. I noticed that Marbry was marking the floor of the cave with his boot and using his body length for measure. I hadn’t thought of that one. We found a salamander and a couple of crickets but the cave pinched off, with cold air still blowing. Marbry had several suggestions on a name for our new cave. He seemed pleased that I had found my first ‘dry cave’. We decided on CSH. (Cindy’s Slimy Hole)! You can guess the other suggestions were just as rare.

Back at the spring we joined our three successful cave divers. Repacked gear and headed out of the woods. We all went to town for more food. Florida cavers seem to do BBQ, but in Tenn. they do Mexican. Either way I end up eating anti-acid! Parting from the group, Brian and I headed home. A short stop at a cliff we spotted off to the side of the road with openings in the side. Couldn’t resist, had to stop. It looked like a great place to do some rappelling. Too bad the caves didn’t go. The climb at least got our blood pumping again and we were able to make good time on the trip back home. Stay tuned for the next installment when we head back to crack the upstream sump and start the survey on the downstream virgin borehole.

Captions

1. Big Springs
2. Gearing up for fun
3. Looking for some leads
4. Tj hovers above the fissue in the cavern area to the right of the main spring
5. Laying new line
6. Forrest prepares to dive the fissure

Cindy Butler
Pics: Brian Williams

A report from TAG. The weekend of July18 – 20th, five cavers converged in TAG to hunt down new possible sump dives and maybe a resurgence or two. Cindy Butler, Brian Williams, Matt Vinzant, Forrest Wilson, and Marbry Hardin put in a lot of miles on the road, made some new contacts, found some leads for future exploration, and even managed to get in a little caving.

Brian, Matt and I met at the Waffle house in Alachua to begin the weekend’s adventure. Brian actually showed up on time even after he lectured me on how cavers are notoriously late for anything. He gave me a radio to use on the trip to communicate with them and we hit the road. Traffic was ridiculous and it seemed like there was a highway construction site every 50 miles. After a couple of long single lane jams we decided to take a break on a short side trip to Rockhouse Cave. Brian followed directions given to him by Eric Amsbury and Brian said as usual the directions were right on the money. The cave was interesting and a held a nice arched entryway with a 15 ft. nuisance drop just after the entrance. We did not bring down the rope to the cave and didn’t feel like trusting the line that was rigged there by the locals so we scouted around till we found the other way down. This was not much better with a 20 ft. slippery climb down into a small room with passage leading off in 2 directions. Brian and Matt explored through to the waterfall drop while I played in the entrance area. It’s in shaded woodland area that makes for a pleasant stop to wait out the traffic.

Captions

1. Looking out from the creek entrance to Rockhouse Cave
2. Looking into the entrance of Rockhouse
3. The skylight

We were hoping to avoid the Friday afternoon mess in Atlanta, but we ran into more construction zones full of workers propping up shovels, resting in trucks, and generally having a great time watching the traffic they had backed up for miles. We arrived at the TAG house late in the afternoon with just an hour of daylight left. We quickly geared up and headed up Sand Mountain to find some small pits to practice on. After a short search of the area we found Kelly’s Sandstone Monument, a small 70 ft. pit that was perfect to get some vertical practice on including change-overs. My gear turned out to make this impractical and my practice turned into more of an assist after climbing 10 ft off the bottom of the pit, Brian helped me back down and out of my “eBay” rig. Matt loaned me his rope-walker and he climbed out on a “frog” system that he had brought as back-up. I was able to exit the pit without incident. It was a very pretty little pit by the way, with some nice water-cut winding passage down to a second pit and some lower level passage. It was dark by the time we made our exit and we took the “scenic” tour through the woods on the way back to our vehicles. Lessons learned; Ticks have to eat too and a GPS is a wonderful thing when you finally turn it on and use it. We made it to Trenton, GA after midnight only to find that all the hotels were booked! We headed up to Kimball, TN, got a room at the old reliable Budget Inn and finally settled down for a nap.

Up early the next morning we grabbed breakfast and beat it back down to Trenton to meet up with Forrest Wilson and Marbry Hardin. Forgot that we were eating breakfast on Tennessee time and we had to meet in Trenton on Georgia time. Oh well, cavers are never on time anyway, right? Our trip had originally been planned as a sump diving trip to middle Tennessee, however the cave we planned to dive had high water all the way, and even the entrance was sumped so plans were changed and it was decided we would to try and push a connection that we were not sure had been made yet. We thought we’d check on Howard’s Waterfall and locate the entrance to the cave that was the shortest distance to the sump. This was also known as “Run to Howard’s”. We were unable to drive close to the entrance so we parked at a variety store and did a bit of brush-whacking and ridge walking that included barb wire fences, high weeds, briars, barking dogs, a smoke bomb tossed into the woods by some kids, trash piles and a hot hike through the woods. Our party became separated during the search. Brain, Matt and I found a couple of cave openings that we checked out. The agile and willing Matt wiggled his way into one squeeze in a sinkhole cave that obviously took large amounts of water and trash with each rain. The passage kept going but we had to find Forrest and Marbry who had hiked farther downhill and found what they believed to be the opening we were looking for and the spring emergence. However, it became apparent that access was nearly impossible and tank and gear carry without a bulldozer would have been brutal, not to mention the fact that Forrest had crawled about 100 ft. down the passage only to find a sand sump that needed digging before it would be passable. We all met back at the vehicles, tired, hot sweaty and ready for lunch and a new plan. After lunch we spent the usual amount of time trying to decide what to do next, Brian suggested trying to access and dive a spring emergence he knew about on the road to Gourdneck Cave near South Pittsburg. Marbry knew the spring also and said it looked like it had possibilities since all the water from Gourdneck probably came out at this spring. So we loaded up and headed north.

The spring was at the base of a nice rock face and fed a small run led down to the river. The area had completely changed since the last time Marbry and Brian had visited the site. We found the local land owner had converted the spring area to a roadside park and picnic area. There was a nice place to park and a welcome sign. Determined to find some new passage somewhere, we all spent a couple of hours attempting to dig out the fissure that ran down the length of the rock face underwater in hopes that it might expose enough of an opening to allow someone to slip in with a no-mount rig. We all got a kick out of watching the “Amazing Marbry” as he pulled giant rocks out of the fissure and spent at least 45 minutes in cold spring water without any wetsuit for protection. He seemed quite happy and determined to get us in one way or another. We finally gave up after it was determined that the only thing getting in that system today was a trout, maybe… a small trout.

Captions

1. The spring resurgence off Gourdneck road
2. Cindy Butler prepares to check out a possible entrance
3. Looking down from above
4. Marbry Hardin, Forrest Wilson and Cindy Butler
5. Cindy waits as Marbry goes down for more rocks
6. Forrest gears up, Marbry is still underwater digging
7. “That looks painful” Cindy’s face, Marbry’s feet

Unsuccessful at our efforts but determined, we re-grouped and spent another 30 minutes deciding where to go next. Marbry suggested Salt River cave. He said it was not too far from here and it even had a sump we could check out. It turned into one of those “you can’t get there from here” trips and after an hour and a half of driving we arrived back in Alabama via Monteagle, Tennessee and some roads that made us wish we had taken our dramamine. Imagine our surprise when we pulled up to the streambed entrance only to find a huge sign posted in red letters, “No Caving”. It would have been much funnier if it wasn’t such a long drive back. We all had to jump out and take pictures of the sign. Marbry said, “It wasn’t there 3 years ago!” Our next idea was to check out a possible dive site and resurgence that Brian knew of just about 5 miles from where we currently were. Of course you can’t get there from here so we had to go back 10 miles to get to the road. The vans were just not happy with the rutted dirt road and after we got Forrest stuck in the dry river bed, we abandoned them for a trip up the hill in “Rodeo Bob”. We did find an amazing pool of water at the resurgence that you could tell really pumps some water at certain times. By now it’s too late to dive and most of our gear was back down the hill in the vans, so Matt threw on a spare mask and fins and swam around the pool shining his light down a tempting passage that we vowed to return too later this year. Back to Monteagle we drove for a late for dinner of Mexican food and another long drive. Marbry headed home to Murfreesboro and we headed back to Trenton for the night, with visions of going passage and plans for another sump trip in August.

 

Captions

1. “Rodeo Bob” crosses a stream pouring from a small cave
2. Checking out a lead in “caving sandals”
3. Marbry says, “It wasn’t there 3 years ago”
4. Matt Vinzant braves the chilly waters to shine a light on a good lead

The next morning we decided to try Bible Springs cave on Fiery Gizzard road. This was a wet one and after a few feet in the stream passage it was apparent we had made the right choice by caving in full wetsuits, brrrrr. It turned out to be quite nice little cave with formations, winding passage, cold water, salamanders, and crayfish. A few areas of low air space crawls were intersected by some bigger rooms with plenty of places for Forrest to take a nap while we took pictures. The last big room ended in breakdown with a crappy little crawl that Brian came back from to report that it was not worth going to the end. Good enough. On the way out we checked out some side rooms and Matt and Brian lured Forrest and I up a climb and into a big room that was highly decorated and well worth the climb. As we were gearing up before entering the cave, one of the local land owners stopped to talk. Brain talked with him a bit about allowing us to access his property up the road with several caves on it. A stop over at the farm house after proved fruitful and provided a new contact for some future caving trips.

Our final stop was on the way back home at a spring Forrest knew about. He wanted to see if he could get us permission to explore for a future trip. Brain, Matt and took a nap in the parking lot of a country church while Forrest headed down the road to talk to the owners. He was able to obtain access for the next trip up. We seemed to spend more time talking and driving than caving but it will be worth the effort for future trips. We did check out three possible sites, dropped one pit, and explored one very nice cave. It was great to meet new people and make contacts that will lead to more adventures in the future and hopefully more exciting dive/cave trip reports.

Captions

1. Group shot at the entrance to Bible Springs Cave
2. Forrest at the waterfall climb
3. Stream passage
4. Matt in a decorated stretch of stream passage
5. Sally-Mander
6. Matt comes out of a low, wet crawl
7. Cindy climbs the waterfall
8. “Cave Gnome”?
9. Brian thinking that the wetsuits were a good idea!
10. Taking a break
11. Cindy acting like she’s not cold
12. Matt demonstrates his great strength on a breakdown block
13. “Forrest Fire”
14. “Forrest Nap”
15. Matt with some goodies
16. Brian at the entrance to Bible Springs.