Howard's Waterfall Cave - Trip Report

[Sharon Faulkner]

On October 7, 2006 Brent and Nancy Aulenbach led a caving trip to Howard's Waterfall Cave. This was a planned youth trip led from the TAG Fall Cave-In and our group consisted of five children between the ages of 3.5 to 11 years old. It also included nine adults, with at least one adult that had never caved before. We left the Cave-In campground a bit late Saturday morning, due to my failure to take into account that darn Central/Eastern time zone difference, but arrived at the cave near Trenton, Georgia without further incident.

All the children were raring to go and after a briefing on caving guidelines we were off. This SCCi owned cave is a frequent destination for newer cavers and with the exception of a couple of places where we spotted the youngsters is very user friendly. Three of the group had to leave early to return for staff duties at the Cave-In, but the other 11 of us continued on just past the short crawl prior to the cave register before turning around and heading out. We had a fun trip! Here are some photos from the trip. I did not get everyone's name on the trip or I'd list the participants, but you may recognize some of them.











continued below....

[Sharon Faulkner]

Note: I know that some of you already know this bit of the cave's history, but for those who may not have heard it, I will give a quick overview. I think it was back in the sixties (before my time), that a group of boy scouts and their leaders were touring the cave. Unbeknownst to them or anyone else, an underground gas tank from a nearby gas station had leaked fumes into the cave and when the boy scouts reached what is now known as the Disaster room, their carbide lamps caused an explosion. It was a tragic situation that caused multiple deaths and injuries. Rusty Mills, a local caver, upon hearing of the situation, rushed to the scene to assist. He did manage to save the lives of others, but it cost him his life in the end. He had just discovered a pit on Fox Mountain (now an SCCi cave preserve) and it was named Rusty’s Cave in honor of him.



See Sunday's trip to Sauta Cave

Photos hosted by Imageshack

[graveleye]

cool:) I am surprised Shan and I didnt run into you guys there. We didnt go far because her hernia surgury was starting to bother her, but it was a lot of fun regardless.

[Sharon Faulkner]

There were at least two other groups in the cave when we were there, but I didn't pay enough attention to know who was on the other trips. Just give us a shout and go with us sometime Kevin.