SKTF River Gorge Sink

[L Roebuck]

Hello fellow cavers;

The SKTF will be sponsoring a cleanup at this year's SERA Winter Business Meeting. We haven't announced until now, because of some last minute details which had to be addressed before the site could be announced.

Our new target is River Gorge Sink. This is a classic karst window on US 41 near Raccoon Mountain and Nickajack Lake. The land is owned by the Tennessee River Gorge Trust. They own more karst mountain side than most other landowners in this region. The region above the pit reminds me of some of Pigeon mountain. There are disappearing streams and lots of karst.

So come on out and have some fun with us. We work hard, but have fun at it. You will meet other cavers and you will feel good about yourself. You do not have to attend the SWBM to attend the cleanup.

Mother Earth needs all the help she can get.

More information and directions to follow.

Jim Wilbanks Chair
SERA Karst Task Force Inc.

Please reprint.

Edit to Add: The clean up starts at 10:00 (eastern). SERA Karst Task Force Director's will be out rigging at 9:00 (eastern). For information visit sktfi.org

[Brian Roebuck]

The cleanup of the sinkhole was quite a success Sunday. We removed about 2/3 full large industrial dumpster worth of appliances and trash from the sink. Much of it was buried under a shallow layer of dirt and consisted of bottles, cans, and various other household type trash. There were also a few old heavy metal water heaters and a Norge Wood Stove (never saw one of those before). It can be interesting to see items from the past as you remove them. A few car parts were also excavated.

More work can and should be done to finish the job here but it looks 100% better than it did already. Other sinks along the gorge also need our attention. Maybe we will get local people involved as well since several stopped, asked questions, and thanked us for the effort.

[L Roebuck]

Here's a couple of photo's from the River Gorge Sink Clean Up.

SKTF Volunteer's in picking up trash in River Gorge Sink

SERA Karst Task Force Volunteer?

Thanks to ImageShack for Free Image Hosting

[Sharon Faulkner]

Wow...it looks great, you guys really cleaned it up! Kudos to everyone!