Pryor Spring Cave - Trip Report

[Sharon Faulkner]

A brief report from some of this past weekend's caving.

I had a great time doing the pull-down trip thru Pryor Spring Cave (TMN 129) this past Saturday, August 19. After receiving permission from the landowner, Tommy Royston led a group consisting of me, Jack Fischer, Fred Kilmeyer, Andrew Linsenmeier, Dan Mattle, and Mark Ostrander thru this wet multi-drop cave. This is a sweet little Tennessee cave with three small pits and approximately 3000' of passage.

After hiking maybe a quarter mile up to the entrance, several in the group stood under the small spray of water to cool off before putting on wetsuits. It was a humid 91 degrees Saturday and even with a short hike it was hotter than heck. Climbing down into the sink and shimmying down a log, the first drop is located almost directly inside the entrance. Tommy rappelled in first, followed by me, bringing in a second rope. Once off rope I immediately found a pool of water to sit in and cool off while waiting on the others to enter. The second pit is roughly 150' to 200' away thru wading stream passage. There is a new looking bolt set to the right of what we thought was going to be the second pit. After Tommy went down this and saw the bolt at the bottom for the second pit, we determined this is technically a 10 foot climb down, but seeing as we had already rigged a rope to it, three of us used the rope as a handline before pulling the rope and rigging the second drop of the cave. After everyone had reached the bottom of the second drop, we reassembled, and traversed 200' or so of cave passage before reaching a relatively short, wet crawlway, which rises to standing height before reaching the cave register, and the third and deepest pit in the cave. It was also the wettest pit, though really only getting in water about half way down and landing in a super cool pool of water that filled the entire room. Past this pit is the lower, well decorated stream passage which meanders along until reaching the exit. An excellent cave trip!

Please note: Permission is required from the landowner before entering this cave. There are no exceptions to this access policy that I am aware of.

Here are some photos:

Dan rappelling the second pit.






Signing the Cave Register.

[Sharon Faulkner]

Rigging the 3rd pit.



Look at that handy natural rig point.



Tommy about to rappel the third pitch.

[Sharon Faulkner]

Dan rappels into a nice pool of water at the bottom of the 3rd drop.



Miscellaneous pics from the lower cave passage.

[Sharon Faulkner]

Scenic cave exit.

Photos hosted by Image Shack

[madratdan]

Wow.......excellent trip report Sharon.

The pictures are incredable. I wish we had a through trip cave around here like that one.

[Sharon Faulkner]

Thanks Dan,

Yeah, thru trips are just super fun caving and this trip was no exception. It's a great cave.

[Kelly]

Hi Sharon! I tried to email you, but never heard back. A few of us were thinking about going to this cave this weekend. We saw that all of you guys wore wet suits. Would you say having a wet suit is a necessity? I'm asking in part because my wet suite "shrunk" (along with all of my other clothes in my closet) about 5 years ago, so I don't really have a wet suit. Would you say this is a cave that can be done with out a wet suit? Also, have you recently changed your email address?

-Kelly

[Sharon Faulkner]

Sorry Kelly, my bad for the delayed response. I'm trying to catch up on emails tonight.

Well, I wouldn't say a wetsuit is a necessity for everyone, but the cave is wet even in the late fall. A couple in our group did not wear a wetsuit and they said they were okay. One wore a cave suit over polys. If the group isn't too large and keeps moving it should be okay without a wetsuit. But having said that, I get cold when my trunk area gets wet and would not do the cave without a wetsuit.

If I don't see you, hope you all have a fun trip! It's a great cave!