Good morning yall

[wovocca]

Thank you all for having me. Im brand new here. So far this seems to be a really great site. Im trying to read all the past post to get a feel for it all. I just turned 51 today and hate to admit it but my real caving days seem to be over and done with. I sit and dream by reading yalls post. I seemed to have caught a real nasty case of rheumitory arthritis about 10 years ago. If it bends it hurts. My fingers are now bent about 45 degrees the wrong way and the feet are worse. I started caving years back ,down in west Texas. Commercial caves at first but grew tired of that real fast. Had the itch for the real thing. After a few miror explorations I moved to Dogwood ,Tn. About 20 miles from Crossville.Its good to see folk from this area on here. Once I got here ,I met up with like minded people and started going to Salt Peter Cave in Grassy Cove. Its about 10 miles from the house. Didnt take long to grow tired of the trash in there. Being the type that dont do as told very well, I started exploring on my own. Yeh I know ! Hear tales of the "live section" and just had to find it. Didnt take long for a mud crawler like me to make it down below the water fall and on thru the creek to get there. Well worth the mud in the mouth. Did have boxes of pics I was saving but on April 2 ,04 the house burned to the ground and we lost everything. Buyt thanks to you all and this site, well, I got the bug again. Dont know when or how but I WILL go again. Gt lots of caving,climbing and burt out light stories if anyones ever interested. I guess I will shut up for now and read a bit more. Thanks again for having me.

[Brad Tipton]

Don't feel bad about the arthritis. There is plenty of strolling borehole in TAG. In the meantime I will keep posting trip reports to keep you occupied.

[Brian Roebuck]

Welcome wovocca!

I'm 51 too and yes it hurts a lot more caving now than before. You are in a nice area of TAG and should be able to find some caves that will let you ease through with less bending. Please share some of your tales with us as you have time. It is always good to virtual cave with other cavers. Typing the stories may even help you gather energy to continue caving as you can.

Hang in there..

[wovocca]

Thanks for the welcome. Ive got a daughter that about to turn 19. She told me the other day that instead of going out and partying with freinds that she wanted to go caving with her dad for her birthday. Sure made my head swell. So it looks like Im on an exercise regiment for sure. The modivation I needed. I read some where in here about someones trip to Hinch mountain and down into Jewitt cave. Its so wild to see other people here talking about places Ive been. I only had enough rope for the first three drops but I went anyway. Tieing off on the rock a ways from the entrence ate up more rope than I would have liked but the bolt inside the entrance seemed a bit low for my likings. I did manage to get some good photos of the salamanders inside. Ive heard there was a second cave just uphill across the road but I never found it. I do have a question though. Since some of yall seem to know the area. When you drop down into Sesquachie valley past Devils Step and take [if I remember right] the first left hand turn, down the road aways there is a cave on the left that has a small creek coming out of it. There is a water pipe running out to someones home. All this can be seen from the road without getting out of the car. Ive been in as far as you can with out getting into the peoples water supply. Is this one thats possable to explore or off limits? Just wondering.

[L Roebuck]

Hi wovocca! Welcome!

Gosh, just because you are getting a bit older -doesn't mean you have to give up caving completely. But you may want to re-evaluate the type of caving that you have done in the past and adjust it as needed.

The state is acquiring the cave --but just recently East TN cavers began cleaning up Grassy Cove Saltpeter Cave. A very worthy project that might help to keep the cave open for caving!

Looking forward to your caving or burnt-out light stories!

[wovocca]

AAhhh the burn out light stories. Hmmm. Where to start. Being habitually poor Ive made almost all of my own equipment. Rope,harness and rack were store bought but nearly everything else was inprovised. My first lighting set up was an old plastic hard hat from who knows where. I took a 12 volt spot light and took it apart with a hacksaw. A few screws and some glue it fit onto the hardhat. Had to cut a nice sized hole to fit it togeather but it worked. Figured in the dark it wouldnt matter how homely it looked. Ran the wires to a switch down to my blue jean bag tied to my harness. A 6 volt lead acid motorcycle battery and a new 6 v bulb and I was off. Oh how wrong. POP. Thats when I learned a 6volt bulb didnt handle the 7.6 volts my battery was putting out. Hmmm. A 6v bulb only rated something like 4.2 volts. After a few trys I got the system figured out and kept at least a dozen bulbs in various places on me and stashed in the cave. I was definetly the brightest feller in there. Being the type that has a head harder than my hard hat, off to the water fall room in Salt Peter Cave in Grassy Cove all by myself again. I kept hearing from others about the live section where the crystals are still growing but it had been shut off from tourist. Well, I found a passage to the left of the waterfall that cork screwed around and down to a tight sideways crawl with a 180 degree bend that folds a 6 foot tall feller in half to get past it. Down 3 short rappels and I find myself standing with on foot on each side of a huge waterfall. Never measured it but it looked at least 50 or 60 foot down. Muddy and no foot prints anywhere. Just the type place I wanted to find. POP. There went another light. I knew where I was and just 2 or 3 steps in the direction I was facing was a flat safe spot to sit. Changed out the bulb in the dark and still nothing. Uh oh. I ended up taking the switch out completely and wireing the thing straight to the battery. Needless to say, I might be stubboren but not unteachable. I went straight to the car and then to WalMart and bought 5 back up lights. Muddy and still with my harness on I was quite the site that day in line to check out.
Wasnt long till I saved up enough $ to get a real Petzel lighting system and a new helmet.
As nice as it was, I still liked my home made system best. Once the bugs were worked out,it was a good one. Looking back I wonder how I ever lived this long. But now that Im older and got a good reason to stay living I'll re-buy the propper equipment before teaching my daughter the finer points of crawling thru holes.

[Brian Roebuck]

He he,

I can't top that one! Good story to tell the kids though! I am glad you survived it also. At least you learned quickly and were prepared for disaster. Many new cavers are not.

Thanks for sharing!

[L Roebuck]

I enjoyed that story!

It reminded me that when we began caving we also made our caving lights.

Gosh, how did we ever survive?