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Post by tagkaver on Jan 11, 2007 1:32:55 GMT -5
yeah tell me my prize!!!
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Post by tagkaver on Jan 10, 2007 9:08:35 GMT -5
its dinkys
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Post by tagkaver on Jan 9, 2007 19:23:44 GMT -5
#5 stephens gap
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Post by tagkaver on Jan 9, 2007 19:11:55 GMT -5
#4 is either grahams or dinkys
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Post by tagkaver on Jan 9, 2007 11:56:14 GMT -5
# 5 might be cemetary instead
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Post by tagkaver on Jan 8, 2007 15:20:46 GMT -5
am i close to right?
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Post by tagkaver on Jan 7, 2007 20:31:03 GMT -5
#1-cagles casm #2-mandy's #3-snakes 200 #4-gross hole #5-sinkhole #6-neversink
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Post by tagkaver on Dec 17, 2006 21:59:30 GMT -5
I have been caving in TAG for the last 14 years now. I enjoy wet, multi-drop caves the best, but I still enjoy all caves. I prefer vertical caves, and have been to Mexico and done Sotano de las Golondrinas an 1100' pit and Sotano de Sappillo a 414' pit. I have been involved in some surveying, and am still currently learing more about surveying. I joined the NSS in 1994 and am a member of the Cullman Grotto. I try to go caving every weekend if possible and am always looking for cavers to cave with or trips to TAG along on, so if anyone wants to go caving just email me. I am open to any any all kinds of cave trips. C-YA UNDERGROUND!!
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Post by tagkaver on Jan 7, 2007 14:26:15 GMT -5
Saturday morning, 1-6-06, found seven members of the Cullman Grotto meeting at the library at 8am. On the trip was Harold, Richard, Becky, Tommy, Evon, Scott, and myself. Once everyone had arrived we all loaded into Evon's Jeep and Richard's ford truck. I was in the nascar jeep, or at least we all thought we were because our driver thought she was on a race track. We finally arrived safely in Huntsville, and headed up the road to the fire station. When we arrived there were three Huntsville Grotto cavers at the parking area. They were Jack, Fred, and Suzie, I hope I remebered your names right. We all decided that we would combine our trip from the bottom of the first drop. We rigged a rope, and they rigged a rope in this 71' pit, and the plan was they would use our ropes on the other drops, then they were gonna head back out. Tommy and I went down first on opposite ropes, and while Richard and Becky was descending I rigged the second drop of around 30' with the same rope we rigged the entrance drop with. Once the second drop was rigged the four of us went on to the bottom of this drop to wait on the others, and the ropes they were bringing for the next two drops. While we were waiting we took the passage back to see the nice dome room on this level. There are fossils everywhere in the walls in this room. When we heard the others coming down the second drop we went back and headed down to the next drop. We had to climb down through a small window into the room with this drop so we helped pass packs and rope down. I went ahead and rigged this third drop of 60' with a 130' rope, and once it was rigged we decided to wait for everyone to get to this room before we went farther. Once everyone was this far I asked who had the third rope for the last drop, and nobody did. It was left at the entrance of the cave , so Jack was kind enough to volunteer to return to the surface and bring the rope back. While he was gone after the rope the rest of us, except Fred and Suzie, went on down the third drop to wait on the rope. Fred and Suzie decided to go practice vertical skills on the entrance drop. We went ahead and passed gear through the tight passage to the top of the last drop, and Richard, Becky, Scott, and Tommy waited here while Evon, Harold, and I waited at the bottom of the third drop. Jack soon arrived with rope in hand, and I took it on headed to rig. They were going to wait here until it was rigged because of limited space at the lip. This fourth and final drop of around 75' is very tricky to rig. First you have got to belay yourself to a bolt while you reach out over the top of the pit and wrap the rope around a natural bridge, then back the rope off to this bolt. When the rope is finally rigged it makes for a fairly easy lip, just reach out get the rope, rig in, and just swing out and the drop is a totally free drop. Once everyone had rappelled to the bottom I climbed first followed by Jack, then Jack said that he was gonna head on out so we said our good-byes and we was off to get the other two in his group and exit the cave. I stayed at the top of the last drop until everyone had climbed, and de-rigged and followed the others out. One-by-one we climbed the remaining drops, and pulled the ropes up and out of the cave. We all had a wonderful time in this challenging little multi-drop cave. The hike back to the fire station is were it turned a little on the bad side, because you have to make a steep uphill ascent to the base of a bluff, and then ascend to the top of the bluff, and then hike about 1.5 miles back to the station. When we reached the main road we were greeted by Jack pulling up in his vehicle asking if we wanted him to drive our gear the rest of the way to the vehicles for us, and we happily agreed, and Harold even got a ride back as well.
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Post by tagkaver on Jan 2, 2007 15:26:27 GMT -5
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Post by tagkaver on Jan 2, 2007 14:18:09 GMT -5
On December 29,2006 we met at the library at 8am, and were off to Scottsboro for a day of pit bouncing. Our first stop was Scottsboro Mountain Pit because some of the people on the trip had never been to this nice little pit before. Once at the parking spot we made the short walk to the pit and rigged our rope. Richard was the first to descend followed by me then his wife Becky. After we looked around the bottom and took a few pics I got on rope and made my way to the top. Becky climbed next followed by Richard. Once we were all up Harold then went down followed by Arlon then Vic. They spent a few minutes on bottom then they climbed out. We then pulled and coiled the rope and headed to the vehicles, and headed to our next destination. On the way down the mountain we stopped and I showed the group Dr. Sheppard's Crack, but we didn't do the drop. The next cave on our list for the day was Turkey Buzzard Pit, and after a while of trying to located the correct road the cave was on we decided since it was getting late that we would save that one for another day. Then we decicided to head on over to The Diggins Pit, which several on the trip had never done. Once at the parking spot we headed up the mountain to the top of the pit. After the rope was rigged Richard headed down followed by Becky. They both then climbed out, and Richard had an extra passanger with him when he got up. He had found a garter snake crawling around on the bottom, and had put the snake in his pocket and brought him out to safety. Harold then bounced the pit, and Vic, Arlon, and I opted not to bounce the pit since it was almost dark and some of us had prior engagements to get to. After pulling and coiling the rope we all hiked back to the vehicles and headed in our seperate directions. Everyone on the trip had a great day of pitting in TAG and were already planning our next trip. The people on our trip were Harold Calvert, Vic Bradford, Arlon Baker, Richard and Becky Wooten, and myself. C-YA UNDERGROUND!!! ;D
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Post by tagkaver on Dec 30, 2006 12:19:19 GMT -5
sounds like ya'll had a wonderful trip. I carried my 6 yr old son caving for his first time a couple of weeks ago and he was amazed also. after his trip he said all he wanted santa to bring him was caving gear!!!
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Post by tagkaver on Dec 28, 2006 3:32:45 GMT -5
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Post by tagkaver on Dec 28, 2006 2:52:32 GMT -5
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Post by tagkaver on Dec 28, 2006 1:04:36 GMT -5
Caverat and I visited Drake's Pit, a very nice 109' pit on Green Mtn. in Huntsville,AL. After arriving at the parking spot we had a few nice words with the landowner, and started our hike to the pit. After about a 20 minute hike we reached our destination, and I rigged the rope while caverat was suiting up. I was the first down and had a wonderful rappel into this awesome little pit, and it is one of my TAG favorites. Caverat then came down and we chatted and looked around the bottom of the pit for a few minutes. I then started my climb out and enjoyed my climb very much while enjoying the beauty of the pit. Caverat then climbed, and when he was up we discussed going on over to 3 Turkey Plunge but decided it was to late and it was already starting to get dark. We had gotten a late start because we had stopped by the NSS Office on our way to the pit to renew memberships, and I talked with Bill Torode for a while about some caves me and him had gone to a couple of years back. After sitting around the top of the cave for a while, we pulled and coiled the rope, packed up our gear and headed for the car. We had a wonderful day of caving in TAG. C-YA Underground!
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Post by tagkaver on Dec 14, 2006 21:20:15 GMT -5
Vic Bradford and I went to do Dog Collar Pit and Stewarts Well. We arrived at the parking area to find that the usual landowner is not home, so we ask some guys standing on the side of the road where a good place to park to go up on the mountain. They told us that the house across from his house is vacant and that we could park there and go up. We parked and headed up the mountain. We walked for several hours, but could never locate the caves. We decided to call it a day and save them for locating another day. We stopped by Mikes Merchandise in Guntersville on the way home and we each purchased some books there and then headed back to Cullman.
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Post by tagkaver on Dec 15, 2006 9:29:26 GMT -5
Milton Polsky, Aaron Polsky, Caverat and I are planning a trip to Greens Well on the Saturday before Christmas, and we are also planning on going somewhere on the Sunday of Christmas Eve but we haven't decide on a cave to visit that day yet.
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Post by tagkaver on Dec 12, 2006 11:15:47 GMT -5
On Sunday Dec. 10th Milton Polsky, Aaron Polsky, Van Cain, my son Tyler, and myself went to Diggins Pit. This was my sons first time on a caving trip, but him and Milton stayed on top. I was the first to go down followed by Van then Aaron. I was the first to climb, and most of my climb went great until I was about 20' from the lip when my left foot loop broke. I had to complete my climb with only my handled ascender and my croll, but everything worked out fine. Everyone else climbed out, and we pulled the rope and called it a day. My son, who is 6, now only wants caving gear from santa. I had a wonderful time caving with my boy and my other caving friends. I am looking forward to teaching my boy how to vertical cave, and to have many other caving trips with him.
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Post by tagkaver on Dec 4, 2006 10:21:52 GMT -5
Caverat and I did some ridge-walking on 12-3-06 in Smokerise with a very nice landowner that showed us several promising looking leads. Most of the leads were 20-40' drops down to what looks like going walking size passages.
We didn't get to check out the leads because the landowner kept us busy looking at every hole on his property.My thanks goes out to him because I think we may have several new qualifiers to put on the survey.I will keep everyone posted on the developments from our efforts,and will post our finds from our surveys.
C-ya Underground
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Post by tagkaver on Nov 21, 2006 18:10:16 GMT -5
i would be willing in assisting caverat lead some caving trips that week also. i also enjoy hiking and there are several nice hiking trails in the area..
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Post by tagkaver on Jan 7, 2007 16:42:08 GMT -5
Electronic Technician/Volunteer Firefighter/Cavalry Scout w/ Army National Guard
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Post by tagkaver on Jan 5, 2007 19:45:12 GMT -5
thanks brad for the info.
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