Post by Brad Tipton on Feb 16, 2007 21:59:59 GMT -5
A few weeks ago Clay Boydston, Tim Skiba and myself decided to try a little Tennessee caving. I had a few caves in mind but after gathering some info from Buddy we decided on Luminary Cave.
Luminary is a deep multi drop cave high up on Walden's Ridge at the head of the Sequatchie Valley. It was a blistering 20 degrees in Chattanooga when we left Saturday morning and a more pleasant 11 degrees when we reached a good parking area at the approximate elevation of the cave. Thanks to being able to drive up the mountain, the walk to Luminary Cave was level for the most part. Unfortunately, we had to search an active clear cut for the cave entrance. The 11 degree temperature helped us find the entrance as it was blowing a significant column of steam into the blue sky.
The entrance is a rather muddy vertical drop on a mud bank that we rappelled for about 20 feet. Buddy had warned me not to go all the way down the bank but to look for the room to the right of the drop. With all the mud, negotiating this didn't sound like fun so I let Tim go first. I thought it would be a great idea to use a 350 foot rope to rig the 1st three drops. Much cursing followed.
Tim managed after quite some time to wrestle all the rope and himself over to the ledge area that provides a free drop into the 2nd drop which is a 143 foot pit. Once we were all down the mud slope we had some trouble rigging the 143 because of the placement of the hangers on the wall.
After more cursing we finally had a rig we all agreed was sufficient. The rappel into the 143 was quite pleasant. At the bottom of this drop are the bones of a horse with bridle still intact. I hope he wasn't pulling a buggy full school kids...... ;D The 3rd pit is just a few feet from the bottom of the 143. There is a good bolt for a backup and another "older" bolt closer to the pit that we didn't use. The 3rd pit is approximately 27 feet and was a bit drippy. At the bottom of this pit is a large rain dome probably 150+ feet in height with water coming in from different places in the room. This water combined with the water from the 3rd drop made the 4th drop a little wetter.
The 4th drop is only 20 feet from the bottom of the previous drop and we were able to rig the remainder of the 350 footer for this drop with a few feet to spare. I think this 4th drop is 18 feet at best. The pit drops into a tall canyon which leads to a muddy crawl and then a mile of 'Horror" to two more short drops that I heard made Marion cry once.
Sorry folks the story ends here as these boys don't do horror crawls for miles to do a 20 footer at the end of the cave. The bounce trip was fun. The 20 foot mud bank getting out of the entrance took longer to negotiate than the other 3 drops combined. I guess I got payback for tricking Tim into going 1st as I was the poor bastard who came out last after the bank got all trashed up by Clay and Tim. Needless to say I was glad I wore my mud suit.
Although we thought it was pretty nifty that we managed to rig all 4 drops with the 350 foot rope, I wouldn't recommend it. We trashed all but 10 feet of it pulling it out the entrance. The S.O.B. then froze solid before we could even get it bagged. It is still muddy today as global warming seems to have taken the month off. Despite the cold and the mud, we had an excellent trip.
Luminary is a deep multi drop cave high up on Walden's Ridge at the head of the Sequatchie Valley. It was a blistering 20 degrees in Chattanooga when we left Saturday morning and a more pleasant 11 degrees when we reached a good parking area at the approximate elevation of the cave. Thanks to being able to drive up the mountain, the walk to Luminary Cave was level for the most part. Unfortunately, we had to search an active clear cut for the cave entrance. The 11 degree temperature helped us find the entrance as it was blowing a significant column of steam into the blue sky.
The entrance is a rather muddy vertical drop on a mud bank that we rappelled for about 20 feet. Buddy had warned me not to go all the way down the bank but to look for the room to the right of the drop. With all the mud, negotiating this didn't sound like fun so I let Tim go first. I thought it would be a great idea to use a 350 foot rope to rig the 1st three drops. Much cursing followed.
Tim managed after quite some time to wrestle all the rope and himself over to the ledge area that provides a free drop into the 2nd drop which is a 143 foot pit. Once we were all down the mud slope we had some trouble rigging the 143 because of the placement of the hangers on the wall.After more cursing we finally had a rig we all agreed was sufficient. The rappel into the 143 was quite pleasant. At the bottom of this drop are the bones of a horse with bridle still intact. I hope he wasn't pulling a buggy full school kids...... ;D The 3rd pit is just a few feet from the bottom of the 143. There is a good bolt for a backup and another "older" bolt closer to the pit that we didn't use. The 3rd pit is approximately 27 feet and was a bit drippy. At the bottom of this pit is a large rain dome probably 150+ feet in height with water coming in from different places in the room. This water combined with the water from the 3rd drop made the 4th drop a little wetter.
The 4th drop is only 20 feet from the bottom of the previous drop and we were able to rig the remainder of the 350 footer for this drop with a few feet to spare. I think this 4th drop is 18 feet at best. The pit drops into a tall canyon which leads to a muddy crawl and then a mile of 'Horror" to two more short drops that I heard made Marion cry once.
Sorry folks the story ends here as these boys don't do horror crawls for miles to do a 20 footer at the end of the cave. The bounce trip was fun. The 20 foot mud bank getting out of the entrance took longer to negotiate than the other 3 drops combined. I guess I got payback for tricking Tim into going 1st as I was the poor bastard who came out last after the bank got all trashed up by Clay and Tim. Needless to say I was glad I wore my mud suit.
Although we thought it was pretty nifty that we managed to rig all 4 drops with the 350 foot rope, I wouldn't recommend it. We trashed all but 10 feet of it pulling it out the entrance. The S.O.B. then froze solid before we could even get it bagged. It is still muddy today as global warming seems to have taken the month off. Despite the cold and the mud, we had an excellent trip.
So will "Armchair Caving" one day be a reality for many of us cavers? 
