Post by Brad Tipton on Jul 28, 2008 19:52:54 GMT -5
This past weekend I was able to squeeze in on a Nashville Grotto/UCG trip to England Cove to visit a tightly controlled wonderland of caves. I came up to Smithville friday evening to stay at Brian's lakehouse on the Caney Fork River. That enabled us to sleep in after a late night of BS and kept me from having to get up way early to drive from Chattanooga on Saturday morning.
We left Brian's to drive to the head of the cove to meet the others.....hordes of others......a NFL roster of cavers! I didn't actually stand and count the folks standing in the rain at the gate to the cove, but I would guess there were at least 30 cavers total. Some of the folks I knew, Gerald, Avis, Marion, John, Joey and Wood. Others there I had never met. There were so many there, some I didn't even catch their name.
We consolidated into vehicles for the drive into the cove. The rain stopped suddenly, yet the clouds remained....luckily. The humidity was 100 percent and the air was thick. When we parked I realized that a larger percentage of the folks were going to Skagnasty Cave. Gerald and Marion took another smaller contingent with them elsewhere.....likely to punish them in some nerdhole Marion had found. Still our Jive Hole crew was 13 cavers. I got in no big hurry to get to the pit.
When Brian, Avis and I arrived at the pit, John had one rope rigged and floks started down. We sat a told war stories while people piled up at the bottom of the pit. Eventually we rigged another rope to speed things up a bit. It got twisted with the 1st rope, so I went down with John to rectify the problem. Once we seperated the two lines, I set the rope pad for the 2nd line and we rappelled in.
Jive Hole is a massive 181 foot deep pit. Usually the pit has a wet weather waterfall that makes the drop quite sporting. There was barely a trickle on Saturday. The cave has physical characterisics that remind me of Stupendous Pit in Rumbling Falls Cave. The drop doesn't resemble a common pit but more like a large breakdown chamber with a skylight. I believe the ceiling just continously peeled away layer after layer or rock until it reached the surface and a skylight opened up. Jive Hole sits directly over known passage in Skagnasty Cave. I think the falling roof closed off the big room from the rest of the cave over time.
The view from the bottom was great. I stayed on bottom for quite a while as the hordes went up and down the drop. Beams of daylight streamed in, illuminating the walls of the cave with natural light. The pit was quite comfortable in contrast to the blistering heat on the surface. I was fortunate enough to witness Avis smoke Brian climbing out of the pit!
I won't even mention that one of them was recovering from a broken ankle. ;D
Once we finished up at Jive Hole, Brian and I joined some others who were going to check out Skagnasty. Despite the name the cave is really accomodating......strolling borehole.....my favorite kind of horrorzontal. The cave was blowing air like a deep freezer. It was so humid outside the cave was smoking cold, literally. We saw some amazing gypsum formations in the borehole. One rigged climb up has one of the biggest gypsum flowers I have ever seen.
We didn't stay long in Skagnasty as we were on a time limit. Jerrel was the gate keeper for this trip and we didn't want to keep him waiting. We rejoined the others in the valley and we feasted on Avis' famous homemade cookies. Then we said our goodbyes. It was a great day despite the heat. I got to meet new cavers and visit with some I haven't seen in a while. It was a great weekend.
We left Brian's to drive to the head of the cove to meet the others.....hordes of others......a NFL roster of cavers! I didn't actually stand and count the folks standing in the rain at the gate to the cove, but I would guess there were at least 30 cavers total. Some of the folks I knew, Gerald, Avis, Marion, John, Joey and Wood. Others there I had never met. There were so many there, some I didn't even catch their name.
We consolidated into vehicles for the drive into the cove. The rain stopped suddenly, yet the clouds remained....luckily. The humidity was 100 percent and the air was thick. When we parked I realized that a larger percentage of the folks were going to Skagnasty Cave. Gerald and Marion took another smaller contingent with them elsewhere.....likely to punish them in some nerdhole Marion had found. Still our Jive Hole crew was 13 cavers. I got in no big hurry to get to the pit.
When Brian, Avis and I arrived at the pit, John had one rope rigged and floks started down. We sat a told war stories while people piled up at the bottom of the pit. Eventually we rigged another rope to speed things up a bit. It got twisted with the 1st rope, so I went down with John to rectify the problem. Once we seperated the two lines, I set the rope pad for the 2nd line and we rappelled in.
Jive Hole is a massive 181 foot deep pit. Usually the pit has a wet weather waterfall that makes the drop quite sporting. There was barely a trickle on Saturday. The cave has physical characterisics that remind me of Stupendous Pit in Rumbling Falls Cave. The drop doesn't resemble a common pit but more like a large breakdown chamber with a skylight. I believe the ceiling just continously peeled away layer after layer or rock until it reached the surface and a skylight opened up. Jive Hole sits directly over known passage in Skagnasty Cave. I think the falling roof closed off the big room from the rest of the cave over time.
The view from the bottom was great. I stayed on bottom for quite a while as the hordes went up and down the drop. Beams of daylight streamed in, illuminating the walls of the cave with natural light. The pit was quite comfortable in contrast to the blistering heat on the surface. I was fortunate enough to witness Avis smoke Brian climbing out of the pit!
I won't even mention that one of them was recovering from a broken ankle. ;D Once we finished up at Jive Hole, Brian and I joined some others who were going to check out Skagnasty. Despite the name the cave is really accomodating......strolling borehole.....my favorite kind of horrorzontal. The cave was blowing air like a deep freezer. It was so humid outside the cave was smoking cold, literally. We saw some amazing gypsum formations in the borehole. One rigged climb up has one of the biggest gypsum flowers I have ever seen.
We didn't stay long in Skagnasty as we were on a time limit. Jerrel was the gate keeper for this trip and we didn't want to keep him waiting. We rejoined the others in the valley and we feasted on Avis' famous homemade cookies. Then we said our goodbyes. It was a great day despite the heat. I got to meet new cavers and visit with some I haven't seen in a while. It was a great weekend.
We have been so incredibly busy since March that we haven't been able to cave often. We missed it but It would have been a good cave trip! 