By Bill Walker
Photos By Corey Bressalier

Here are a collection of photos from a trip that Adam, Corey, and I took up to TAG on 4-5-08. We dropped Neversink one day and did Gourdneck Cave the next. Gourdneck was in flood stage, which was an unbelievable experience, but we didn’t want to bring a camera in, so we unfortunately we don’t have any photos from

inside the cave.

By Adam Scherer and Bill Walker

On Labor Day weekend, Sept. 2-4, 2006, Bill and Caitlyn Walker, Corey Bressalier, and Adam Scherer drove up from Florida to Pupfest IV. What an awesome time! Pupfest is a relatively small event put on by Mudpuppy and the rest of the Sewanee Mountain Grotto. After a late start on Friday night we all drove up in Bill’s X-terra and arrived early Saturday morning. Bill drove all night and was still up for caving on Saturday morning while Corey and Adam got some much needed sleep.

Bill and Caitlyn went with Mudpuppy, Bonnie, Nick, Angela, and Boll Weevil to the new “ladder cave.” On the way to the cave, 11 year old Caitlyn was asked if she had been caving before. She replied, “Yeah, I went to my first cave when I was like 3. It was a 30 foot pit…” After hiking down the mountain, we checked out some of the lesser caves in the area before hitting the

“ladder cave.” This cave has some neat pretties in it – flow stone and loose popcorn. The cave has some tricky traverses like a giant step over a 30′ chasm. Caitlyn was a little hesitant, but she was in the company of some very experienced cavers that helped her through the tricky spots.

Bill and Caitlyn arrived back at camp around 2pm to find Adam still sleeping! After waking him up, we all drove back to Kimball for some Mexican at “Los 3 Amigos” which, in our opinion was just average Mexican, but the colors are really vibrant! After lunch we went to the fireworks store near Signal Light Pit. Caitlyn and Corey went wild in the store, buying all manner of pyrotechnics. Corey came out with a big brown bag full of fireworks and I’ve never seen him so excited! We hiked up to the pit and Adam and Corey bounced the pit a couple times before we all headed back to camp

at Maureen’s. However, while we were up on the mountain two trains came by and were stopped on the tracks. This made for

an interesting train hop, especially for the fearless Caitlyn. We enjoyed the nice fire back at camp and mingled with old friends and a few new ones. Corey even ran into his old roommate from Gainesville who isn’t even a caver. He just happened to be there for the party!

Adam and Corey got up early Sunday morning for a trip to The Levels, led by the Pupster himself. The Levels is a typical cold and wet stream crawl that opens up into a really nice canyon filled with lots of goodies. There are also a couple of small drops at the entrance to the scenic sink.

While Adam and Corey were caving, Bill and Caitlyn went to Waterworks to join in on the cleanup. When they got there, the cleanup was already complete! Sewanee Mountain Grotto is becoming very efficient in their cleanup skills. Bill showed Caitlyn the sink and the cave entrance, but because they didn’t have vertical gear, they couldn’t go in the cave. Fortunately Anne Grindle was leading a trip into nearby White Cricket Cave, so they hooked up with her and Dave from Tennessee. White Cricket is a stream cave with a few rooms and some interesting side passage. The most notable feature of the cave is the white crickets – actual cave crickets encrusted in calcite. Thanks Anne for getting us underground and showing us this neat cave.

Everyone meet up back at Maureen’s and into town we went to Wally World to pick up some provisions. Adam made an interesting observation that, in the last year, he’s been to the Wal-Mart in Kimball more times than the Wal-Mart in Gainesville! On the way back we made a short stop at Cedar Ridge Crystal Cave. We had the key and were driving right passed it, so we had to take an opportunity to pop in (in our shorts and sandals!) We hurried back up to the mountain anticipating the Sunday night feast. When we say feast, we mean feast! Everything

imaginable was served, complete with venison and pie made from wild Maine blueberries. Afterwords mudpuppy and Maureen did a great job as auctioneers for the grotto auction. Corey scored big, getting over 120′ of new PMI rope for only $26.00!!! Way to go! Everyone enjoyed the Sunday night festivities and the event as a whole, and we’re all looking forward to next year.

Misc Campground

1. Early Saturday morning
2. Caitlyn
3. Adam setting up his hammock
4. Caitlyn setting up camp
5. The field early Saturday
6. Pup’s dog Spot and Jason’s dog Molly
7. Corey and his long lost roommate and his old roommates friend

Pup’s Ladder Cave

1. Caitlyn in the entrance of a small nearby cave
2. Caitlyn
3. Caitlyn
4. Caitlyn, Nick, Angela, Boll Weevil, Bonnie, and Mudpuppy
5. Formations in Pup’s Ladder Cave
6. Caitlyn near formations
7. Caitlyn climbing down the first ladder
8. Mudpuppy climbs while Boll Weevil watches from above
9. Caitlyn and Mudpuppy pose for
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   a pic after her climb

Signal Light Pit

1. Caitlyn and Corey at the fireworks store
2. The “Fashionable Caver” and the “Delicate Caver” pose near the entrance to Signal Light Pit
3. Adam and Corey rig the pit
4. Adam drops the pit
5. Adam drops the pit
6. Adam climbs out of Signal Light Pit
7. Caitlyn displays the drop pops we threw at Corey as he rappelled
8. Bill shows off the biceps “Uncle Rico” style
9. Caitlyn hops the freight train
10. Corey, Caitlyn, and Bill pose with the train

The Levels

1. Adam and mudpuppy at the entrance to The Levels
2. Adam in The Levels
3. Adam takes a self portrait and amazingly frames Corey in the shot too
4. Corey in The Levels
5. Mudpuppy climbing out of The Levels

Waterworks and White Cricket Cave

1. Caitlyn in the Waterworks sinkhole
2. Caitlyn in the Waterworks sinkhole
3. Caitlyn takes a shower in the waterfall
4. One of the white crickets
5. The same cricket from the opposite perspective
6. Caitlyn posing
7. Caitlyn in the stream passage
8. Caitlyn again

Cedar Ridge Crystal

1. Cheech and Chong
2. Caitlyn Walker, Corey Bressalier, and Adam Scherer
3. Random formations

By Bill Walker

On 3-10-06, Adam Scherer and I drove up to TAG for a long weekend of caving. The most interesting aspect of the trip is that we had no plan for the trip. We didn’t know which caves we were going to do. We didn’t know where we were going to stay. We didn’t even know what state we were going to.

We just started driving north.

For some people, this deliberate lack of planning would cause massive amounts of anxiety. Those people are called planners. Adam and I are not planners. Sometimes people can plan all of the fun out of an adventure. There is a certain joy and freedom in not being restrained by a plan or even a set notion of what you’re going to do. Flying by the seat of your pants and making decisions as they come is the ultimate in freedom.

When we got into middle Georgia, we had at least decided where we were going to stay – the valley at Moses Tomb in Alabama. When we got there, we set up camp and headed up the mountain to bounce 235′ deep Moses Tomb. Later that evening we drove over to nearby Talley Cave. Talley cave is an interesting cave with a culvert entrance. We spent a couple of hours poking around in here. This was our Alabama cave.

The next morning we woke up and the owner/discoverer/caver of Moses Tomb was on the property with a small group of cavers, including Mudpuppy – who we had never met before. They were going to Byers Cave, so we tagged along. Byers is a TAG classic and it’s been called a “cavers cave.” It has a little bit of everything – big booming horizontal, vertical, formations, waterfalls, streams, and very tricky and dangerous climbs. This was our Georgia cave.

After the trip we still didn’t know where we would go for the rest of our weekend, so Mudpuppy invited us to stay at his house over in Tennessee that night. The next morning – still not having any idea what we would do, we just happened to hook up with some other cavers that lived on top of the mountain – Anne Grindle and Monty Keel. We traveled with them to Crownover Saltpeter Cave in Tennessee. This of course would be our Tennessee cave to complete the trifecta for a proper TAG caving trip. Crownover is a large, dry cave with some interesting side passages. After Crownover we hit Sherwood Mountain Pot which is located on the side of the road. This is about a 90′ pit and Adam and I dropped it several times, trying to climb as fast as we could. Using my new Petzl Pantin, I frogged out in just under a minute.

The next day we got up and decided to drop Cagle’s Chasm before the drive home. Cagle’s is a massive 190′ deep open air pit near South Pittsburgh, Tennessee.

The best part of the trip was that everything just seemed to work out – without any planning at all. We did six caves, found a place to sleep each night, and met a bunch of new lifetime friends.

Captions

1. Adam Scherer in the culvert entrance to Talley Cave
2. Adam Scherer at the bottom of the culvert in Talley Cave
3. The walk up and over Fox Mountain to Byers Cave
4. Bill Walker rappels in the 80′ pit in Byers
5. Mary Hibblebottom gets off rope at the top of the 80′ pit in Byers
6. Bill Walker and Adam Scherer at the entrance to Crownover Saltpeter Cave
7. Bill and Anne Grindle in Crownover
8. Adam and Anne cross the street to find Sherwood Mountain Pot
9. Adam Scherer drops Sherwood Mountain Pot
10. Adam Scherer at the lip of Cagles Chasm (note the awesome placement of rope pads!)