Post by graveleye on Nov 27, 2006 9:03:28 GMT -5
With nothing to do but digest turkey on the day after Thanksgiving, my wife and I decided to head out to White River Cave in Polk County Georgia. I had been talking with Dane Creel about doing some caving so I invited him along, as well as my brother Spencer.
White River is a roadside cave, well known by the locals and is not in the best of shape after years of abuse. I think I warned Dane about 50 times that the cave is pretty trashed, and that didnt deter him a bit. In fact, he was the one who suggested to haul out trash while we were there. Dane is a fantastic ambassador for the Chattanooga Grotto!!
Everone was forwarned that Shannon and I are perpetually late everywhere we go, and around 10:30, we piled into Big Red and headed out to pick up my brother Spencer, and met Dane at the cave - naturally about 30 minutes late. We shook hands and went through all the introductions, donned our gear and headed into the cave. I quickly realized we were going to be a bunch of happy cavers, because all four of us are natural jokers and smart-elicks, and the Yoda impressions and Monty Python quoting began soon after we met!
The cave and surrounding land is for sale, which is one of the reasons I was interested in going as I love to dabble in real estate. Of course when I say "dabble" I mean tire kicker. I'll have to hit the lottery one day. We were greeted by this handsome for-sale sign on the path to the cave:
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0913.jpg
Here are the group pics before we went in:
left to right, Spencer, Shannon, Kevin
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0915.jpg
and Spencer, Dane, Kevin
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0916.jpg
The cave itself seems to be some sort of community bulletin board for the local population. The entrance to the cave is marked with messages such as engagement annoucements (example: Bubba luvs Ethel), posts of general interest ( example: Bill was here), and public service announcements ( example: smoke more pot). I swear that I even saw a birth announcement with the "poster" even telling us the babies birth-wieght and length. These messages and announcements are found throughout the cave from the entrance to the very back rooms and everywhere inbetween. It was nice to see such community involvement in the upkeep of the cave. There was enough of these messages that I became immune to them and almost didnt notice them after a while.
I thought I had been in this cave about 18 years ago, but after the first 50 feet I realized I was wrong. I had never been in this place before. We had our pockets stuffed with empty garbage bags and elected to push to the back of the cave, noting trash deposits for collection on the way out. The first part of the cave was quite easy walking passage. Did I mention mud? Yes, there was plenty of it, in its best slippery slimey form. We came up on a large pile of tires and wires buried in the mud several hundred feet into the cave. Why someone would go through the effort to haul this material so far in the cave can only lead to an illogical conclusion. It certainly didnt wash in that far. One can only assume that perhaps it was intended to be a barrier to prevent further passage. Now it is all part of the floor of the cave.
We saw several dozen bats on the way in, but our first encounter with the wildlife was a gruesome experience as we saw a vole-like creature (imagine a bat sized mouse without a tail) pulling a half-dead bat into its lair. The poor bat was still alive, but barely putting up a struggle. It was horrible, and I hoped it wasnt a forboding sign of what lay ahead. We let the vole alone figuring this was just a natural, and gross event.
We reached a fork in the cave which I recognised from the map. The right passage was easy walking, and the left passage went down into a 2-3 foot high down-trending wet sewery tube known on the map as "The White River". I exclaimed that we should stick with the more comfortable right passage and forsake the left passage, but it was too late as Dane and Spencer were already heading into the tube quite naturally. I shrugged and shuddered and Shannon and I followed a distance behind. With Shannon in tow furiously taking pictures of everything, I stooped and crawled and enountered a 6 foot bowl that trended downward into something black and probably horrible. I chimneyed down without much thought about it, but had to do a bit of coaxing to get Shannon past the obstacle. We crawled on around the corner and caught up with Dane and Spencer. Spencer heard running water and all I could see were his legs poking out of a hole that I was convinced was not the right way. I mean, some spelunker had already laid some string to mark the way and the string did not go that way, so obviously, the correct action was to follow the string. I had had enough of this tiny little slither-hole, especially knowing that there was a much easier route that we neglected to take. I scrambled up the hole and back into the main passage way to be greeted by hundreds of bats... way more bats than I was expecting. They were hissing and chittering at my intrusion into their home. I beseeched Shannon and Dane to follow me which they did, but my brother continued on the hard way. Here is Shannon emergining from the slither-hole, out of the White River Passage:
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0924.jpg
When we regrouped, we continued on to the aptly named Vandals Room. The room itself was quite cool... high ceilings and lots of holes that obviously went to places high about the floor of the cave. While I was off exploring a side passage, I heard a click followed by an expletive. This repeated several times, each click followed by the same expletive. I learned a moment later that Dane had dropped his camera and was cursing in disbelief each bounce it took. Spencer quickly retrieved the camera, and to Danes relief, it still worked. Shannon said "maybe it took pictures all the way down!!!" Had a good laugh about that.
My brother is crazy. He didnt have a helmet and wouldnt wear the extra helmet I brought (although after this trip he did finally agree that YOU NEED A HELMET TO GO CAVING). In any instance, he's no stranger to caving, and in fact, once properly equipped, he will make a better caver than most of us. His curiosity is insatiable and he headed into every hole he saw, and climbed up into every opening he came along. He is indeed a natural.
He was the first to ascend into the Back Room. I started to follow him up this 45 degree mud slope, pre-rigged with spelunker-grade clothes-line, but after slipping and sliding, I decided that room would have to wait for another day. Something told me that the descent from the Back Room would be much speedier and less controlled than the ascent. Dane however followed Spencer up there. They chided Shannon and I with all the "wows" and "cools" from above. When Dane finally decided to come down, he confirmed my reluctance to go ahead without a proper hand-line. In the style of the Winter Olympics, he rode the mud bobsled to the bottom and amazingly was unhurt. The judges gave him a perfect 10 for form and style!
I was not without near injury myself. Although much of the cave is 3, 4, 5, 20 points of contact, I felt at one point that only two points of contact were necessary. Two points went to one point and next thing I knew I went from standing to airborne... quite a hangtime too if I dont say so myself. I caught myself with only my thumb, literally having my whole 145lbs of lean-mean caving machine balanced on my left thumb, rather like a magician "floats" the pretty assistant on stage. My thumb, as strong as it is, gave way, and my levitation feat was over. I was the only one who witnessed this and I'm pretty sure it would have made for a good video. Shoulder, elbow, arm and thumb felt quite sprained, but I have since recovered.
We poked around some more and then it was time to head back. We unfurled our trash bags and started picking up everything in sight, and within reach. Unfortunatly, much of the trash was intentionally thrown back into some unreachable recesses, and of course, we will need about 1000 people to haul out the tires and wires. At one point, Shannon was picking up a piece of glass and something got caught on the very end of her (thankfully) gloved finger. She shrieked "EEEWWWWWW" and flung it off. It was an ancient discarded condom.
Now, why there would be condoms in a cave leads us to another question...... actually, lets not ask that question that ok?
Shannon washed her hands 5,465 times and showered 257 times to insure proper sanitization.
We picked up 4 bags of garbage on the way out, everything from batteries , water-bottles, beer cans, pop-bottles, packaging, candles, broken glass, string, ribbon, tobacco spit bottles and ciggarette packages. Oh there is more in there... the tires, cables and wires will have to wait another day.
Its been said that White River cave is a boyscout cave, and that can be said to be true. But it is far more challenging and interesting than was expected. We encountered cool arches,
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0935.jpg
almost untouched flowstone (with Spencer peering out from behind),
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0953.jpg
Hidden pools of crystal water,
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0948.jpg
lots of bats,
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0926.jpg
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0925.jpg
and an all around interesting cave:
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0923.jpg
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0939.jpg
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0929.jpg
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0923.jpg
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0955.jpg
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0940.jpg
Here are some more pictures of hauling out the trash and the loot we soon turned over to the sanitation department:
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0967.jpg
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0964.jpg
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0969.jpg
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0974.jpg
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0973.jpg
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0980.jpg
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0978.jpg
My assessment:
WRC is salvagable, but will need to be gated, fenced, and basically locked up like Fort Knoxx. The amount of garbage is staggering, but can be removed. The spraypaint on the walls is horrid, but after closer inspection, most of it is painted onto a thin layer of dried mud and actually flakes off quite easily. There will be some stubborn spots of course, and the graffiti that is scrawled and scratched into the stone will have to remain. There were definatly hundred, if not thousands of roosting bats in this cave which really surprised me. I witnessed bats tending their offspring as well, so its nice to know they seem to be prospering despite the vandalism. I know nothing about identifying bats, but I did note there were at least two different species in the cave by appearance.
There are places where it is quite evident that the formations are "healing" and actively dripping. I noted a couple of instances of flowstone that was devoid of spraypaint. The paint had simply been deposited over by the constant drip and flow.
The cave is very interesting, and could be quite beautiful if protected and allowed to heal, and could also be quite a sanctuary for a robust bat population.
At least in the meantime, if everyone who visits WRC would carry out as much trash as they can, that is a start. The big stuff will take a team effort, but I am convinced it could be done.
I hope I have provided a different outlook on this oft overlooked cave.
Kev
White River is a roadside cave, well known by the locals and is not in the best of shape after years of abuse. I think I warned Dane about 50 times that the cave is pretty trashed, and that didnt deter him a bit. In fact, he was the one who suggested to haul out trash while we were there. Dane is a fantastic ambassador for the Chattanooga Grotto!!
Everone was forwarned that Shannon and I are perpetually late everywhere we go, and around 10:30, we piled into Big Red and headed out to pick up my brother Spencer, and met Dane at the cave - naturally about 30 minutes late. We shook hands and went through all the introductions, donned our gear and headed into the cave. I quickly realized we were going to be a bunch of happy cavers, because all four of us are natural jokers and smart-elicks, and the Yoda impressions and Monty Python quoting began soon after we met!
The cave and surrounding land is for sale, which is one of the reasons I was interested in going as I love to dabble in real estate. Of course when I say "dabble" I mean tire kicker. I'll have to hit the lottery one day. We were greeted by this handsome for-sale sign on the path to the cave:
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0913.jpg
Here are the group pics before we went in:
left to right, Spencer, Shannon, Kevin
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0915.jpg
and Spencer, Dane, Kevin
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0916.jpg
The cave itself seems to be some sort of community bulletin board for the local population. The entrance to the cave is marked with messages such as engagement annoucements (example: Bubba luvs Ethel), posts of general interest ( example: Bill was here), and public service announcements ( example: smoke more pot). I swear that I even saw a birth announcement with the "poster" even telling us the babies birth-wieght and length. These messages and announcements are found throughout the cave from the entrance to the very back rooms and everywhere inbetween. It was nice to see such community involvement in the upkeep of the cave. There was enough of these messages that I became immune to them and almost didnt notice them after a while.
I thought I had been in this cave about 18 years ago, but after the first 50 feet I realized I was wrong. I had never been in this place before. We had our pockets stuffed with empty garbage bags and elected to push to the back of the cave, noting trash deposits for collection on the way out. The first part of the cave was quite easy walking passage. Did I mention mud? Yes, there was plenty of it, in its best slippery slimey form. We came up on a large pile of tires and wires buried in the mud several hundred feet into the cave. Why someone would go through the effort to haul this material so far in the cave can only lead to an illogical conclusion. It certainly didnt wash in that far. One can only assume that perhaps it was intended to be a barrier to prevent further passage. Now it is all part of the floor of the cave.
We saw several dozen bats on the way in, but our first encounter with the wildlife was a gruesome experience as we saw a vole-like creature (imagine a bat sized mouse without a tail) pulling a half-dead bat into its lair. The poor bat was still alive, but barely putting up a struggle. It was horrible, and I hoped it wasnt a forboding sign of what lay ahead. We let the vole alone figuring this was just a natural, and gross event.
We reached a fork in the cave which I recognised from the map. The right passage was easy walking, and the left passage went down into a 2-3 foot high down-trending wet sewery tube known on the map as "The White River". I exclaimed that we should stick with the more comfortable right passage and forsake the left passage, but it was too late as Dane and Spencer were already heading into the tube quite naturally. I shrugged and shuddered and Shannon and I followed a distance behind. With Shannon in tow furiously taking pictures of everything, I stooped and crawled and enountered a 6 foot bowl that trended downward into something black and probably horrible. I chimneyed down without much thought about it, but had to do a bit of coaxing to get Shannon past the obstacle. We crawled on around the corner and caught up with Dane and Spencer. Spencer heard running water and all I could see were his legs poking out of a hole that I was convinced was not the right way. I mean, some spelunker had already laid some string to mark the way and the string did not go that way, so obviously, the correct action was to follow the string. I had had enough of this tiny little slither-hole, especially knowing that there was a much easier route that we neglected to take. I scrambled up the hole and back into the main passage way to be greeted by hundreds of bats... way more bats than I was expecting. They were hissing and chittering at my intrusion into their home. I beseeched Shannon and Dane to follow me which they did, but my brother continued on the hard way. Here is Shannon emergining from the slither-hole, out of the White River Passage:
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0924.jpg
When we regrouped, we continued on to the aptly named Vandals Room. The room itself was quite cool... high ceilings and lots of holes that obviously went to places high about the floor of the cave. While I was off exploring a side passage, I heard a click followed by an expletive. This repeated several times, each click followed by the same expletive. I learned a moment later that Dane had dropped his camera and was cursing in disbelief each bounce it took. Spencer quickly retrieved the camera, and to Danes relief, it still worked. Shannon said "maybe it took pictures all the way down!!!" Had a good laugh about that.
My brother is crazy. He didnt have a helmet and wouldnt wear the extra helmet I brought (although after this trip he did finally agree that YOU NEED A HELMET TO GO CAVING). In any instance, he's no stranger to caving, and in fact, once properly equipped, he will make a better caver than most of us. His curiosity is insatiable and he headed into every hole he saw, and climbed up into every opening he came along. He is indeed a natural.
He was the first to ascend into the Back Room. I started to follow him up this 45 degree mud slope, pre-rigged with spelunker-grade clothes-line, but after slipping and sliding, I decided that room would have to wait for another day. Something told me that the descent from the Back Room would be much speedier and less controlled than the ascent. Dane however followed Spencer up there. They chided Shannon and I with all the "wows" and "cools" from above. When Dane finally decided to come down, he confirmed my reluctance to go ahead without a proper hand-line. In the style of the Winter Olympics, he rode the mud bobsled to the bottom and amazingly was unhurt. The judges gave him a perfect 10 for form and style!
I was not without near injury myself. Although much of the cave is 3, 4, 5, 20 points of contact, I felt at one point that only two points of contact were necessary. Two points went to one point and next thing I knew I went from standing to airborne... quite a hangtime too if I dont say so myself. I caught myself with only my thumb, literally having my whole 145lbs of lean-mean caving machine balanced on my left thumb, rather like a magician "floats" the pretty assistant on stage. My thumb, as strong as it is, gave way, and my levitation feat was over. I was the only one who witnessed this and I'm pretty sure it would have made for a good video. Shoulder, elbow, arm and thumb felt quite sprained, but I have since recovered.
We poked around some more and then it was time to head back. We unfurled our trash bags and started picking up everything in sight, and within reach. Unfortunatly, much of the trash was intentionally thrown back into some unreachable recesses, and of course, we will need about 1000 people to haul out the tires and wires. At one point, Shannon was picking up a piece of glass and something got caught on the very end of her (thankfully) gloved finger. She shrieked "EEEWWWWWW" and flung it off. It was an ancient discarded condom.
Now, why there would be condoms in a cave leads us to another question...... actually, lets not ask that question that ok?
Shannon washed her hands 5,465 times and showered 257 times to insure proper sanitization.
We picked up 4 bags of garbage on the way out, everything from batteries , water-bottles, beer cans, pop-bottles, packaging, candles, broken glass, string, ribbon, tobacco spit bottles and ciggarette packages. Oh there is more in there... the tires, cables and wires will have to wait another day.
Its been said that White River cave is a boyscout cave, and that can be said to be true. But it is far more challenging and interesting than was expected. We encountered cool arches,
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0935.jpg
almost untouched flowstone (with Spencer peering out from behind),
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0953.jpg
Hidden pools of crystal water,
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0948.jpg
lots of bats,
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0926.jpg
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0925.jpg
and an all around interesting cave:
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0923.jpg
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0939.jpg
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0929.jpg
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0923.jpg
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0955.jpg
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0940.jpg
Here are some more pictures of hauling out the trash and the loot we soon turned over to the sanitation department:
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0967.jpg
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0964.jpg
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0969.jpg
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0974.jpg
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0973.jpg
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0980.jpg
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/White%20River%2011-24-06/IMG_0978.jpg
My assessment:
WRC is salvagable, but will need to be gated, fenced, and basically locked up like Fort Knoxx. The amount of garbage is staggering, but can be removed. The spraypaint on the walls is horrid, but after closer inspection, most of it is painted onto a thin layer of dried mud and actually flakes off quite easily. There will be some stubborn spots of course, and the graffiti that is scrawled and scratched into the stone will have to remain. There were definatly hundred, if not thousands of roosting bats in this cave which really surprised me. I witnessed bats tending their offspring as well, so its nice to know they seem to be prospering despite the vandalism. I know nothing about identifying bats, but I did note there were at least two different species in the cave by appearance.
There are places where it is quite evident that the formations are "healing" and actively dripping. I noted a couple of instances of flowstone that was devoid of spraypaint. The paint had simply been deposited over by the constant drip and flow.
The cave is very interesting, and could be quite beautiful if protected and allowed to heal, and could also be quite a sanctuary for a robust bat population.
At least in the meantime, if everyone who visits WRC would carry out as much trash as they can, that is a start. The big stuff will take a team effort, but I am convinced it could be done.
I hope I have provided a different outlook on this oft overlooked cave.
Kev
