Ridge Walking Tn style

[tncaveres]

Got to join Lynn & Dr Beaner for a ridge walking trip today.
It was awesome. We ended up finding 4 new caves & visiting 11 more today!! I love living in TAG ;D
I did not take my camera but Lynn did so maybe she will post some pics later.
Up until today the most caves I had been in for one day was 5. Now it is 3 x that! Did I say that I like living in TAG country? ;D
One of the new caves we found had a 20 ft pit in it. I was the first & only person to make the drop. Pays to have your gear with ya
It had a 6" lip & nothing but free fall the rest of the way.
Trip back up was a beeze until I got back to the lip.
Once I got my climbing system up to the edge of the lip. I had to tie a looped knot in the leg part of my frog system to make it short enough to allow me to get my upper body over the lip. Wish I would have tried that at the begining .
On another cave we had to stradle a crack that was about 2 1/2' wide & atleast 25 ft deep. The crack ran for about 60 or 70 ft & then got to wide to stradle. We then had to shimmy our way down the crack to the bottom to finish out the passage.

It was funny . No matter how many caves we went in today we could always find something that was neat or different from the last cave.
Over all had a great time.

[Brian Roebuck]

Hi TnCvRes,
Lynn and I had a great time too! It was fun hiking around finding new caves and visiting a few we found 8 yrs ago or so. That area is so full of potential it is scary. You did really well in the pit and that was a nasty lip for using a frog system. I have problems with frog systems on lips too so don't feel bad. You did fine and used your head to solve the problem. I am going to relax awhile and sooth sore muscles. I haven't crawled and climbed that much in months. It was good to get out and cave though!

[L Roebuck]

Good trip report tncavres! Today's trip was to field check the known caves for the TN Cave Survey data, GPS the coordinates and of course a few new caves were discovered. It looks like we will be going back out to the karst plain next weekend too.

Unfortunately, I tried out a different camera lens today. I'm not sure that's why many of the photo's turned out bad -- but it is highly suspect. Anyway, here's a few of the better photo's.

Field Checking a known TCS cave.

l-r Steve, Robert, Terry, Brian, Paul and Roger

tncavres drops the pit in Nutty Knot Cave. If you want to know about the caves name ask tncaveres

Our new caver word for the day, " Bullnss " ;D

[tncaveres]

Yeah I wish I could go next weekend. I will be on shift next saturday though. I could go on Sunday though

Dr Beaner, I have not been this sore in sometime myself.
I think the other most used word was " You Suck" ;D

[Brian Roebuck]

I'm even more sore this morning! The briars weren't too kind to us either. What doesn't kill you makes you tougher they say. Yes the affectionate use of the "U Suk" phrase was quite appropriate due to the discoveries made by the lucky few of our group! ;D I am sure there are more discoveries out there for the rest of us. Time will tell. Heal up and let's get back out there and survey some of them!

[tncaveres]

You are right about the briars.
I did not notice all the cuts on my arms until this morning. Looks like I was in a fight with a cat

Here is a pic of the entrance to Nutty Knot cave.


Here is one that Bull took of me before making the first drop



Here is one of the Bullnss him self ;D

[L Roebuck]

Ouch! Oh yes, the briar's were kind of rough -- but at least we didn't encounter any ticks or chiggers yet.

[Azurerana]

Wow. You people rappel on BIG rope.

15 caves in one day. Man, I've got some good liniment for you folks.

But it ain't cheap! *|:-)

[L Roebuck]

azurerana said:

15 caves in one day. Man, I've got some good liniment for you folks.

But it ain't cheap! *|:-)

We were "Pudholing"! ;D ;D

[madratdan]

We were "Pudholing"!

;D ;D ;D

[Sharon Faulkner]

Great trip report and photos you guys! Sounds like an excellent day of caving.

Looks like everyone was out caving this weekend. I saw your trip report last night, but was just exhausted....we started up the mountain at 9 AM yesterday morning and did not get back to the truck until after 6 PM last night.

[L Roebuck]

Thanks Sharon! It was a fun day in a fascinating geologic area. From what we saw many new small caves have opened up since we first began exploring that area 10 years ago. WOW! ;D

Where did you go caving? We will be waiting to see your trip report and caving pictures!

[tncaveres]

azurerana said:

Wow. You people rappel on BIG rope.

Yeah that was 11m.
On pits that small I usually use 8m.

[paul snook]

ya ya you got to scoop virgin pit and passage, rub it in why dont ya


bullnss

[tncaveres]

Welcome Bull!!!
Yeah I will have to rub it in a little ;D
I am going to try & catch the landowner & ask him about a trip to Rippy ridge . Might be able to set it up for 2 weekends from now.

[Brian Roebuck]

cavebull said:

ya ya you got to scoop virgin pit and passage, rub it in why dont ya


bullnss

Welcome bullnss!

Your only choice is to make him pull lead tape through the horror when you survey the thing. Afterall he did scoop it! ;D

[Tony Anders]

Great trip report and pictures.

Darn your hides, making me want to get out and hike, camp & cave again. Dag nab it. I have to work this weekend too...

Nothing like finding those new holes to explore. That is for sure.

[Sharon Faulkner]

ya ya you got to scoop virgin pit and passage, rub it in why dont ya

bullnss

Sometimes you have to drag people back out by their feet and crawl over them so you can be the first to booty scoop. ;D ;D

Welcome to the forum Cave Bull.