Post by Brad Tipton on Nov 4, 2007 21:47:47 GMT -5
On Sunday I drove up to Murfreesboro to meet John for a fine day of pit bouncing. We couldn't have picked a finer day with sunny skies and mild temperatures for a day on the ridges.
Our 1st objective was a 230 foot pit on Short Mountain named Youngs Pit. The entrance is rather obscure, but John had been there before so we walked right to the cave. The entrance has an overhanging limestone shelf that almost makes it look like a horizontal cave. We rigged to a tree and redirected from a sling to help us getting on and off the rope. Once down inside the entrance the pit quickly becomes vertical.
John rappelled first, soon I followed. The drop is broken up by large amounts of flowstone that extends the entire length of the shaft. Eventually, I corkscrewed down to the bottom where John was waiting in a side passage. The lower section of the pit was rather muddy. The flowstone was caked and towards the bottom of the drop I slipped and slammed into the wall. Ouch!
At the bottom the small lake in the side room was completely dried up. John said the pool is usually 10 feet deep or better. You could see the calcite ring on the walls all the way around the chamber, evidence of the usual water level. There was a rather impressive echo in the cave and I noticed a strong amount of airflow despite the mild temperatures on the surface.
The climb out sucked, but the formations were well worth the visit.....oh and the pit was 230 feet deep of course. Once we were packed up, we headed back to the truck and drove to our next objective.
We drove around Short Mountain in search of Melton Hole. Unfortunately there was a large amount of NO TRESSPASSING signs along the road, so we proceeded to our 3rd objective, Blue Crystal Well. Blue Crystal Well is a pretty nice 112 foot drop just a 10 minute hike from the road going up Short Mountain. It took us a little longer to locate this pit, but John eventually located it about 100 feet below the horse trail.
Once rigged, we made quick work of this pit. I noticed on the bottom of the pit, in the very back of the room, someone had a little microblasting project going in a crawlspace. I'm not sure if it was active or abandoned, but they left a mess behind.
Overall, a fairly nice little pit. Once we packed up here, we had one last objective just down the road. We loaded up and attempted to obtain access to Devils Hole Cave, but we failed to locate the owner. Oh well, 2 out of 4 isn't bad. Great day to be in the woods in TAG!
www.flickr.com/photos/tagcaver2/sets/72157602993885872
Our 1st objective was a 230 foot pit on Short Mountain named Youngs Pit. The entrance is rather obscure, but John had been there before so we walked right to the cave. The entrance has an overhanging limestone shelf that almost makes it look like a horizontal cave. We rigged to a tree and redirected from a sling to help us getting on and off the rope. Once down inside the entrance the pit quickly becomes vertical.
John rappelled first, soon I followed. The drop is broken up by large amounts of flowstone that extends the entire length of the shaft. Eventually, I corkscrewed down to the bottom where John was waiting in a side passage. The lower section of the pit was rather muddy. The flowstone was caked and towards the bottom of the drop I slipped and slammed into the wall. Ouch!
At the bottom the small lake in the side room was completely dried up. John said the pool is usually 10 feet deep or better. You could see the calcite ring on the walls all the way around the chamber, evidence of the usual water level. There was a rather impressive echo in the cave and I noticed a strong amount of airflow despite the mild temperatures on the surface.
The climb out sucked, but the formations were well worth the visit.....oh and the pit was 230 feet deep of course. Once we were packed up, we headed back to the truck and drove to our next objective.
We drove around Short Mountain in search of Melton Hole. Unfortunately there was a large amount of NO TRESSPASSING signs along the road, so we proceeded to our 3rd objective, Blue Crystal Well. Blue Crystal Well is a pretty nice 112 foot drop just a 10 minute hike from the road going up Short Mountain. It took us a little longer to locate this pit, but John eventually located it about 100 feet below the horse trail.
Once rigged, we made quick work of this pit. I noticed on the bottom of the pit, in the very back of the room, someone had a little microblasting project going in a crawlspace. I'm not sure if it was active or abandoned, but they left a mess behind.
Overall, a fairly nice little pit. Once we packed up here, we had one last objective just down the road. We loaded up and attempted to obtain access to Devils Hole Cave, but we failed to locate the owner. Oh well, 2 out of 4 isn't bad. Great day to be in the woods in TAG!www.flickr.com/photos/tagcaver2/sets/72157602993885872
