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THE LURE OF THE SUMP By Brian Williams Photos by Brian Williams, Cindy Butler, and Donna Richards It's funny what goes through your head as you swim and pull and drag all manner of gear through the water, mud, and breakdown. Mostly you're just tired and cold and wondering if there really is a sump at the end of this passage. But you also you keep asking yourself, "Why do we do this ?" "Why do we drive 10 hours on these "rocket run" weekends, swim and crawl for hours, just for a couple of 15 minute dives in 55 degree water ? We have plenty of places to dive in Florida and the water is 72 degrees. But standing there at the end of the cave passage and looking into a sump, the blood starts flowing through your freezing extremities and then you remember, yea, this is why I've come. Each time I look at a sump I am reminded of a quote by Nietzsche: If you gaze for a long time into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. When you finally slip into the water and start playing out the line, the thrill of exploration clears your head and all the problems of the world just drift downstream with the flow. Cracking this sump and finding new passage on the other side is the task at hand and now it's time to make it happen. The line spools off the reel and the crayfish come around to investigate. You follow your instincts and listen to the cave. The familiar sound of bubbles no longer hitting the cave ceiling is your first clue. You look up and see that mirror and know there is air-filled passage above. As you break the surface in unexplored territory it hits you... this is why you came... this is why you cave. Stretching out before you in the darkness, the passage calls. It's a room, a big room, you can't see the end. There's a corner up ahead. How far do I go alone before they start to worry back on the other side? You're the first human that has been here and it's silent except for the sound of your own excited breathing. It's so quiet over here you can hear the pounding of your heart. There's no place so far away and lonely yet so fantastic and breath-taking as the other side of a sump. No longer feeling the cold, you ease up the passage in this sacred place. You feel as though you are intruding on some secret ritual in an hidden world. Time continues for the people on the other side who helped get you this far as they wait for your return, but on this side... time has stopped. Rusty's Friday, July 23, 2004. Cindy Butler, Brian Williams and Donna Mitchell headed up to TAG for some caving and exploration and hopefully the chance to dive a sump and add some survey. The original plan was meeting Marbry Hardin and some other hardcore Tennessee cavers for another shot at the Windy River sump. Unfortunately the cave was flooded all the way to the entrance and the sump is close to a mile back in the cave. So the plans were changed, no problem, we're flexible. It's a long drive up through Georgia but we finally pulled into Sues Market on Friday evening around 7:30. The plan was to introduce Donna to some TAG caving by dropping into Rusty's for a quick nighttime trip. It was sticky hot outside and the hike up the mountain was draining us after 8 hours on the road. A dead dog at the bottom of the 40 ft, entrance pit made the first part of the trip a bit putrid, but we headed downstream and gave Donna the grand tour. I've been here many times but still a beautiful place to visit. Lots of salamanders and beautiful formations, in fact, you can't swing a dead dog in here without hitting a formation!!! Back to the entrance and out of the cave we headed down the mountain in the dark getting back to our van around midnight. Called up Marbry and arraigned to meet him in McMinnville in about 8 hours. We grabbed a motel at Kimble, a hot shower and some welcome sleep. 1. Cindy and some goodies in Rusty's cave. 2. Donna and a nice grouping. 3. The Cathedral. 4. Donna negotiates the stream passage.
Hand-Cracker/Camps Gulf Saturday morning we met up with Marbry Hardin and Forrest Wilson for the breakfast buffet at Shoneys in McMinnville. It always best to pile on as much food as you can in the morning so you don't have to waste time on lunch. The plan was to head over to Camps Gulf and check out the sump in a small cave called "Hand-Cracker" located near the main entrance to Camps Gulf Cave. There are many caves in this "gulf" but the hidden entrance near the base of the cliff is seldom visited by cavers since the Granddaddy of TAG caves is just up the hill. A few tight squeezes, a bunch of loose rock, and you drop down into a large room with a horrendous, rocky slope with a small stream at the bottom. Approximately 200 ft. downstream the passage ended at a room and a large green pool of water of undetermined depth. It looked good to us. We knew the possibilities of this sump leading to dry passage were slim, but since it was downhill from the Camps Gulf entrance we knew there was a good possibility that we would encounter a bigger conduit of water, perhaps from the Camps Gulf stream as it flowed underground toward its resurgence. That was enough incentive for us. We headed back to the trucks and loaded up with tanks, rope, and all the rest of the gear needed. After much squeezing, groaning and gnashing of teeth, we finally got it all down to the water. It was Cindy's turn to dive and she geared up, slid through the thick mud covering the banks and down into the water. Mud was intruding from upstream and the previously dark green water was reduced to weak chocolate milk. The flow helped dissipate the swirling brown clouds as Cindy tied off her line and began exploring through the 5 ft. visibility to find going passage. Laying line and following the flow she entered a larger passage with a sand gravel bottom. About 250 ft. in, she tried to swim but wasn't going anywhere. What piece of gear is hung up now? But it wasn't the line or any gear that was impeding her progress, it was the flow. She had intersected what appears to be the main drain out of Camps Gulf - large passage with high flow. There was no time to explore downstream with only aluminum 40's so she headed upstream to a bedding plane that eventually became a tight restriction impeding further forward progress. The worst part is always for the sherpas, the cavers waiting on the surface for the return of the diver. A welcome sight was the faint glow of Cindy's light as she headed back out and broke the surface of the sump pool. Although it's a tight squeeze and a muddy little cave, this passage will be explored sometime in the future with bigger tanks to allow a longer penetration on the downstream side. After we humped all the gear out and back to the vehicles, Marbry and I took Donna for a quick run to Echo Hall in Camps Gulf. Forrest and Cindy waited at the trucks while we showed Donna just how big the caves can be up here in TAG. I don't think she liked the climb up the breakdown mountain but she did enjoy testing the acoustics of Echo Hall. It was 6:00 by then and we still had plenty of time for caving but Marbry promised us a great new Mexican restaurant in town and he really did deliver. Cold beer, margaritas and the best Mexican food in Middle Tennessee! 1. The entrance to Handcracker Cave below Camps Gulf. 2. Marbry and the sump room. 3. Cindy gears up in the mud while Forrest takes a nap. 4. The muddy entry. 5. Cindy returns from the exploration of Handcracker sump. 6. Marbry and Brian return from the land of mud. 7. The magnificent entrance to Camps Gulf. 8. Donna, Cindy and Forrest at entrance. 9. Brian and Donna in Echo Hall. 10. Donna Climbs the breakdown. 11. Tennessee Cave Crayfish.
Snail Shell Cave Sunday we all headed out to Snail Shell Cave near Murfreesboro. Marbry had been to the upstream sump about 15 years ago and thought it had good possibilities. Snail Shell Cave is located on an 80 acre preserve owned and managed by the Southeastern cave Conservancy. The main sink is huge at 100 ft wide, 200 ft long and about 80ft. down to the cave entrance. It's the longest continuous cave in the Tennessee Central Basin at over 9 miles surveyed. Snail Shell Cave is considered one of the most biologically significant cave sites in the Southeastern United States and has been named one of the Top Ten Most Endangered Karst Communities by the Karts Waters Institute. If you'd like to read more about this unique cave, visit the SCCi website and check out the management plan. http://www.scci.org/ Approximately 20 ft into the upstream passage the water gets deep and this is where the fun starts. According to the SCC website information, the upstream is penetrable for 8,400 ft., the first 2000 ft. the passage averages 12 ft. wide and 20 ft. high with water over 10 ft. deep. It also says that exploration is possible only with small boats. Guess no one told Marbry that. We swam it. It's quite a long swim but quite a bit longer when you are also floating and dragging all the gear necessary for a sump dive. We finally reached the first breakdown and solid ground felt really good... for about 3 minutes. Then we were ready for more swimming to so we could float our gear instead of packing it over the breakdown. We got our wish as the passage turned to another swim. Eventually the swimming turned to slogging and walking in various depths from ankle deep to waist deep water. Marbry kept telling us, "only another half a mile"! At one point we reached a breakdown pile and just knew we were at the sump when Marbry announced, "OK guys, were half-way there now" Gee, thanks, any more good news. "Well, there is some small canyon passage and some waterfall climbs, a bit "sporting" perhaps, but... we're getting close!" Over three hours later we arrived at the terminal end of the upstream passage. There was a sand and gravel beach for the sump team to wait on and the visibility in the sump was great at around 10 ft. There was just enough flow to keep the silt moving and Cindy spotted a large overhang just under the water which looked like a promising place to begin the dive. It was my turn to dive and all I wanted to do was get in, find the way through and get back out to a nice warm meal. Marbry and Cindy helped me gear up and I tied off to a small rock on the north side of the passage. I slipped under the water a set a silt screw near the opening. The passage was low but wide. I couldn't see the end and so I began to ease my way through checking out both sides and above me as I went. Laying line through the largest part of the passage, I encountered hordes of crayfish and small school of the southern cave fish. After 65 ft the sound changed as my bubbles were no longer hitting the ceiling. Looking up, I could see the mirrored reflection that told me there was air space above me now. Surfacing in a small sump room, I tied off the line and swam upstream and around the corner. Now I was in a much larger room with a gravel and sand beach to one side similar to where the rest of my group was awaiting my return on the other side of the sump. . "Hello, anybody home?" Silence. Must be in the right place! I continued my swim upstream for another 100 ft. The passage kept going just as it had on the other side only it was a bit larger with some high leads spotted off to the left. Time to go back and report to the group. It's a cold job waiting for a diver to return and I have been on that end also so I reluctantly headed back through and surveyed on the way out. After a quick trip report, I retrieved my camera and headed back through the sump to take a few pictures of the going passage beyond. Back out one more time to the waiting sherpas where we quickly packed all the gear for the long trip out. It never seems as long on the way back, probably because you know where you are going, but that last 2000 ft. swim started to take its toll and Cindy and I began to dream about what kind of food we would be eating that night. We drifted on our backs dragging our loads and starring at the ceiling until our bare necks began to stiffen from the cold. Nothing was a nice as coming around that last bend and seeing the faint glow from the entrance. Our total in cave time for the trip was only 8 hours but it seemed much longer as most of that time was spent submersed in the "wonderfully refreshing" 55 degree stream. Our future plans include a return trip, perhaps this time with inflatable raft support for the first long water passage. Once at the sump we will take a team trough to continue the upstream survey and add to the total known length of this magnificent cave. The hike out of the sinkhole was each persons own private hell as we drug our tired, cold bodies and mounds of wet gear up the limestone walls and back through the woods to the waiting vehicles. No need to pack back up, just throw all the muddy wet gear into the truck and let's hit the road. Marbry took us to town for another great meal, this time Chinese, and then we hit the road for Florida. Another 10 hours and we were home. 26 hours after we had started on the Snail Shell trip, I finally dropped into bed and began to dream of the next opportunity to do it all over again. A final note about the upstream section and the influx of trash noted as we reached the sump. The closer you get, the more trash is observed from beer cans to plastic trash bags and paper products. It's obvious that there is some sinkhole further upstream that is used as a dumping ground and is contributing to the pollution of this natural underground waterway. Hopefully further pushes upstream will reveal the source of this contamination and it can be controlled to prevent further desecration of this beautiful and important natural resource. Captions 1. Snail Shell Sump Team. 2. The Huge sinkhole entrance to Snail Shell Cave. 3. Another shot of the entrance. 4. Cindy and Donna pass by some enourmous flowstone. 5. A beautiful cascade of flowstone. 6. Cindy Butler swimming. 7. Donna Mitchel gets ready to follow the stream under this flowstone. 8. Marbry floats a tank up the passage. 9. Marbry helps Brian gear up while Forrest and Donna prepare to wait. photo by Cindy Butler. 10. The sump room. Tie-off is visible in the back right-hand corner. 11. The sumproom. The tie-off is marked with a directional arrow and the line heads downstream into the sump. 12. Brian Williams prepares to dive the sump. 13. The beach on the upstream side of the sump.
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