Caving: June 1 – 6, 2007
Brent & Luke Wilkins at entrance of Rumbling Falls CaveFriday, 6/1 - SERA
Luke and I arrived at Camp Nakanawa (near Crossville, TN) for SERA Cave Carnival 2007 around 3pm and set up camp next to an Alabama Grotto. We then went up to the vendors to look at cave supplies. I bought a new cave suit and 100’ of PMI 8mm rope (to be used on our Zion Nat’l Park canyoneering trip in two weeks). We met up with some of the ACES to find out what they were planning for Saturday. They were going to pit-bounce so Luke and I decided on going to Your Cave on Saturday morning.
Saturday, 6/2 – Your Cave
Luke and I left camp around 9:30am and headed to Your Cave near Lost Creek Cave on the Lonewood Quad. There were 6 or 7 cars parked at the Lost Creek Cave parking area so we were glad we weren’t headed there today. Instead, we hiked down the road for 0.8 miles and then hiked up a ravine for another 0.4 miles to the entrance of Your Cave. It seems that we entered the cave around 11:30am and exited around 7:00pm. Your Cave is a nice multi-drop, wet cave with over three miles of passage. A wetsuit is recommended, but since the area was in a drought we felt that the water-flow would be lower so opted to just wear our cave suits and polypro. That turned out to be best… we were quite comfortable even in the infamous “Moni’s Groanie” 300 foot flat out belly-cobble-stream crawl.
From the entrance we negotiated a short climb-down, then a 12-foot drop that we rigged with a 70-foot rope. After a couple hundred more feet of passage we came to a multiple drop of 10’, 35’, and 60’ that we rigged with my 250-foot rope. (Luke had another rope that was 150-foot but cavers had recommended that at least a 180-foot rope be used for the multi-drop; thus the 250.) At the bottom of this multi-drop we saw a beautiful blue pool… clear water… with an underwater lead that looked dive-able. (I wonder if anyone has pushed it.) We began to encounter other small waterfalls and pools that had albino crayfish in them. Very neat.
We continued to follow the stream flow through mostly walking passage for another 400 feet or so and then came to the belly-crawl through water known as Moni’s Groanie. The end of the crawl brought us to a 26-foot pit that we rigged with a 100-foot 8mm rope. We set the drop up by tying a figure-8 knot in the center of our rope and dropping the two 50-foot ends off into the pit. We rappelled down with both ropes running through our descenders and later climbed out on one of the two single 8mm lines. At the bottom of the chute we encountered nicely scalloped stream passage with runs for two miles. The water flows quickly through this part of the cave in narrow channels in the floor. Trench is a good word to describe it, or better yet, water-chutes. In spots the passage looked like water slides in an amusement park. We spent about half an hour in this passage before turning around to begin exiting the cave.
Your Cave has been physically connected to Iron Cave and is hydrologically connected to Lost Creek Cave (although I’ve heard from a buddy of mine that “it was physically connected to Lost Creek ten or fifteen years ago by Mike Rogers and friends. If I remember right, the connection is tight, awkward, and grim”.)
That night, back at SERA, Luke and I decided that Rumbling Falls was on the agenda for Sunday.
Sunday, 6/3 - Rumbling Falls Cave
Luke and I arrived at the entrance of Rumbling Falls Cave around 10:30am. A car was parked in the quarry parking lot with Tennessee tags and another car was arriving at the pull-off at the same time we were. The two guys in this car were from Indiana and were just planning on checking out the entrance and dropping the warm-up pit. They were not planning to drop Stupendous Pit that day since they needed to return home.
After gearing up, Luke and I entered the cave around 11:00am(?) and Luke rigged the 70-foot drop. Luke rappelled first and then I followed, carrying the 250-rope that would be used to drop Stupendous 1 ½ hours later. At the bottom of the drop we traveled upstream through a canyon passage that quickly got narrower and smaller. After a few hundred feet we reached the first climb-up… a 15-foot waterfall, which we free-climbed. Shortly after that we came to a second waterfall climb. There was a rope already rigged that Luke used to climb and then traverse horizonally across the canyon. I chose to free-climb this waterfall as well. It was wet, but stable. Yet, as I was climbing up I knew that upon returning later that day I’d probably be using the rope to traverse and rappel.
A couple hundred feet beyond the two waterfall climbs the passage gets more difficult… hands-and-knees crawl… belly crawl… very narrow and long canyon passage, etc. It was at this point we caught up to three cavers from Chattanooga: Ralph Powers, John (WildWolf) and John (Caver86). It was their car that we had seen parked at the quarry that morning. Together, the five of us worked our way and pushed/pulled our packs and ropes through the tight passages. Then, the passage disappeared! No more ceiling. No more walls. And most impressively… no more floor. We were at Stupendous Pit. Stupendous is certainly not the deepest pit in a Tennessee cave, but definitely is one of the more impressive ones. It descends into the second largest cave room in the United States. The Rumble Room.
The Catt.-boys rigged their rope from the closest set of bolts and we rigged ours from a second set of bolts farther out along the pit’s edge. We alternated rappelling. WildWolf went first off their rope. Luke went second off our rope. Then Ralph, me and finally Caver86. We all spent some time at the bottom of the 201-foot rappel. Amazing! What enormity and vastness!
We all roamed around the room. 86 and I went down into the river passage which lies at 336-feet below the entrance and no telling how far below the surface directly above. Rumbling Falls is now mapped at 16.01 miles. Needless to say, we saw very little of it this time around, but what we did see will always be remembered. The return trip out was uneventful. We reached the surface somewhere around 5pm.
Luke and I arrived at Camp Nakanawa (near Crossville, TN) for SERA Cave Carnival 2007 around 3pm and set up camp next to an Alabama Grotto. We then went up to the vendors to look at cave supplies. I bought a new cave suit and 100’ of PMI 8mm rope (to be used on our Zion Nat’l Park canyoneering trip in two weeks). We met up with some of the ACES to find out what they were planning for Saturday. They were going to pit-bounce so Luke and I decided on going to Your Cave on Saturday morning.
Saturday, 6/2 – Your Cave
Luke and I left camp around 9:30am and headed to Your Cave near Lost Creek Cave on the Lonewood Quad. There were 6 or 7 cars parked at the Lost Creek Cave parking area so we were glad we weren’t headed there today. Instead, we hiked down the road for 0.8 miles and then hiked up a ravine for another 0.4 miles to the entrance of Your Cave. It seems that we entered the cave around 11:30am and exited around 7:00pm. Your Cave is a nice multi-drop, wet cave with over three miles of passage. A wetsuit is recommended, but since the area was in a drought we felt that the water-flow would be lower so opted to just wear our cave suits and polypro. That turned out to be best… we were quite comfortable even in the infamous “Moni’s Groanie” 300 foot flat out belly-cobble-stream crawl.
From the entrance we negotiated a short climb-down, then a 12-foot drop that we rigged with a 70-foot rope. After a couple hundred more feet of passage we came to a multiple drop of 10’, 35’, and 60’ that we rigged with my 250-foot rope. (Luke had another rope that was 150-foot but cavers had recommended that at least a 180-foot rope be used for the multi-drop; thus the 250.) At the bottom of this multi-drop we saw a beautiful blue pool… clear water… with an underwater lead that looked dive-able. (I wonder if anyone has pushed it.) We began to encounter other small waterfalls and pools that had albino crayfish in them. Very neat.
We continued to follow the stream flow through mostly walking passage for another 400 feet or so and then came to the belly-crawl through water known as Moni’s Groanie. The end of the crawl brought us to a 26-foot pit that we rigged with a 100-foot 8mm rope. We set the drop up by tying a figure-8 knot in the center of our rope and dropping the two 50-foot ends off into the pit. We rappelled down with both ropes running through our descenders and later climbed out on one of the two single 8mm lines. At the bottom of the chute we encountered nicely scalloped stream passage with runs for two miles. The water flows quickly through this part of the cave in narrow channels in the floor. Trench is a good word to describe it, or better yet, water-chutes. In spots the passage looked like water slides in an amusement park. We spent about half an hour in this passage before turning around to begin exiting the cave.
Your Cave has been physically connected to Iron Cave and is hydrologically connected to Lost Creek Cave (although I’ve heard from a buddy of mine that “it was physically connected to Lost Creek ten or fifteen years ago by Mike Rogers and friends. If I remember right, the connection is tight, awkward, and grim”.)
That night, back at SERA, Luke and I decided that Rumbling Falls was on the agenda for Sunday.
Sunday, 6/3 - Rumbling Falls Cave
Luke and I arrived at the entrance of Rumbling Falls Cave around 10:30am. A car was parked in the quarry parking lot with Tennessee tags and another car was arriving at the pull-off at the same time we were. The two guys in this car were from Indiana and were just planning on checking out the entrance and dropping the warm-up pit. They were not planning to drop Stupendous Pit that day since they needed to return home.
After gearing up, Luke and I entered the cave around 11:00am(?) and Luke rigged the 70-foot drop. Luke rappelled first and then I followed, carrying the 250-rope that would be used to drop Stupendous 1 ½ hours later. At the bottom of the drop we traveled upstream through a canyon passage that quickly got narrower and smaller. After a few hundred feet we reached the first climb-up… a 15-foot waterfall, which we free-climbed. Shortly after that we came to a second waterfall climb. There was a rope already rigged that Luke used to climb and then traverse horizonally across the canyon. I chose to free-climb this waterfall as well. It was wet, but stable. Yet, as I was climbing up I knew that upon returning later that day I’d probably be using the rope to traverse and rappel.
A couple hundred feet beyond the two waterfall climbs the passage gets more difficult… hands-and-knees crawl… belly crawl… very narrow and long canyon passage, etc. It was at this point we caught up to three cavers from Chattanooga: Ralph Powers, John (WildWolf) and John (Caver86). It was their car that we had seen parked at the quarry that morning. Together, the five of us worked our way and pushed/pulled our packs and ropes through the tight passages. Then, the passage disappeared! No more ceiling. No more walls. And most impressively… no more floor. We were at Stupendous Pit. Stupendous is certainly not the deepest pit in a Tennessee cave, but definitely is one of the more impressive ones. It descends into the second largest cave room in the United States. The Rumble Room.
The Catt.-boys rigged their rope from the closest set of bolts and we rigged ours from a second set of bolts farther out along the pit’s edge. We alternated rappelling. WildWolf went first off their rope. Luke went second off our rope. Then Ralph, me and finally Caver86. We all spent some time at the bottom of the 201-foot rappel. Amazing! What enormity and vastness!
We all roamed around the room. 86 and I went down into the river passage which lies at 336-feet below the entrance and no telling how far below the surface directly above. Rumbling Falls is now mapped at 16.01 miles. Needless to say, we saw very little of it this time around, but what we did see will always be remembered. The return trip out was uneventful. We reached the surface somewhere around 5pm.
Luke rigging the 70 ft. 'warm-up' pit in Rumbling Falls
Ralph descending the 2nd waterfall
Luke at the edge of 201 ft. Stupendous Pit
Brent at the edge of 201 ft. Stupendous Pit
On Rope!
Climbing Out of the Rumble Room
Professional Photo of the Rumble Room
by darklightimagery.net
(notice man on rope 50' above the floor)
Additonal photos from our trip taken by John Wolf & Raph Powers:
http://ralph.rigidtech.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=Rumbling-Falls-Cave
by darklightimagery.net
(notice man on rope 50' above the floor)
Additonal photos from our trip taken by John Wolf & Raph Powers:
http://ralph.rigidtech.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=Rumbling-Falls-Cave
Monday, 6/4 - Pyramid Block Cave
Luke and I spent a good part of the afternoon pushing leads in Pyramid Block Cave, which is located off highway 30 near, or in Fall Creek Falls state park.
Tuesday, 6/5 - Camps Gulf Cave
Luke and I spent all morning and much of the afternoon in Camps Gulf Cave. Always a favorite. Our goal was to visit Room Four, which we did. I hadn’t been to Room Four since the early 90’s. We took photos of these odd looking formations in the stream passage that runs between the Expo-Hall and the Rotunda Room.
Wednesday, 6/6 - Camps Gulf Cave
Luke and I spent the morning in Camps Gulf Cave.
Luke and I spent a good part of the afternoon pushing leads in Pyramid Block Cave, which is located off highway 30 near, or in Fall Creek Falls state park.
Tuesday, 6/5 - Camps Gulf Cave
Luke and I spent all morning and much of the afternoon in Camps Gulf Cave. Always a favorite. Our goal was to visit Room Four, which we did. I hadn’t been to Room Four since the early 90’s. We took photos of these odd looking formations in the stream passage that runs between the Expo-Hall and the Rotunda Room.
Wednesday, 6/6 - Camps Gulf Cave
Luke and I spent the morning in Camps Gulf Cave.
