Post by Chad Dubuisson on Nov 11, 2008 11:04:24 GMT -5
This past Sunday, David Weider and myself ventured into Franklin county in search of some caving. Our original plan was to descend Baby Hog Horror Hole, but we were disbanded by a group of trigger happy hunters at the parking area, so we drove over to Guy’s cave, only to run into a similar road block. Those damn hunters. 
We eventually decided to do the Wilkson Hollow Horror Hole, just so we could indeed get some horror hole action into our weekend. We spoke with Wayne Prince and after driving our vehicles through a big field of cow pies (which now cover the tires of my girlfriend’s car) we parked and headed up the mountain. Last time I was here, we hiked right up the hill towards the cave, which kinda sucked. This time, David and I took the trail going out of the field straight up the hill on an old logging road, which then proceeded to curve around and go almost flatly up to the cave. Very nice.
After locating the entrance and kitting up, we headed in about 12:30pm. We descended through the various climb-downs and squeezes, taking a wrong turn at one point. Once we realized the error of our ways, we were back on track and next thing we knew, we were peering over the lip of the climb-down into the big room. What an awesome place. We tried to take some pictures here, but the huge room just swallowed every bit of flash and light we had, even the Stenlight was no match for this room.
Finding the draperies on the right wall, we crawled into the breakdown and located the first drop, the Horror Hole. David rigged this one up pretty fast and we headed down. We knew the drop was about ~165’ and brought 2 ropes, a 70’ for the top and a 130’ for the bottom. The 70’er just barely reached the rebelay, in fact, you needed to clip into the rigging for the next pitch before rappelling off the end of the first rope. No worries though, we rigged the 130’er from the rebelay station and went on down.
This is as far as David had ever been into the cave. We proceeded onward into the cave, topping the big flowstone mound and crawling down into the fissure above the infamous “OkeeFenookee” Swamp. Last time, we descended here and plowed through the swamp, sinking up to our waist and losing boots in the process. This time, we stayed high in the fissure above the swamp, finding a couple of bolts Andy Zellner told us about. Down we went, landing just past the exit from the swamp.
From here, it’s only a few hundred feet to the last drop of the cave, Bear well, a ~90’er. There is 3 bolts here, only the last being a good, trustworthy bolt. To safely approach this lip, you really need to rig a traverse line from the first bolt out the other two. Rigged properly, these last two bolts will give you a free drop.
We headed down, hoping off rope on the huge ledge about 30’ from stream level. We only brought a 100’ rope for this last drop, so after knots and traverse line, it just didn’t quite reach the bottom. We called it a day and headed out. We emerged into the last of daylight around 6:15pm, with just enough light to snap a couple of pictures before we headed down the mountain in the dark. Trying to follow the logging road back down, we got off trail in the dark and ended up walking way past our vehicles, popping out of the woods not far from the equipment shed near the house.
Good times were had, including the obligatory Mexican food at Majical in South Pittsburg. What a great cave!
We eventually decided to do the Wilkson Hollow Horror Hole, just so we could indeed get some horror hole action into our weekend. We spoke with Wayne Prince and after driving our vehicles through a big field of cow pies (which now cover the tires of my girlfriend’s car) we parked and headed up the mountain. Last time I was here, we hiked right up the hill towards the cave, which kinda sucked. This time, David and I took the trail going out of the field straight up the hill on an old logging road, which then proceeded to curve around and go almost flatly up to the cave. Very nice.
After locating the entrance and kitting up, we headed in about 12:30pm. We descended through the various climb-downs and squeezes, taking a wrong turn at one point. Once we realized the error of our ways, we were back on track and next thing we knew, we were peering over the lip of the climb-down into the big room. What an awesome place. We tried to take some pictures here, but the huge room just swallowed every bit of flash and light we had, even the Stenlight was no match for this room.
Finding the draperies on the right wall, we crawled into the breakdown and located the first drop, the Horror Hole. David rigged this one up pretty fast and we headed down. We knew the drop was about ~165’ and brought 2 ropes, a 70’ for the top and a 130’ for the bottom. The 70’er just barely reached the rebelay, in fact, you needed to clip into the rigging for the next pitch before rappelling off the end of the first rope. No worries though, we rigged the 130’er from the rebelay station and went on down.
This is as far as David had ever been into the cave. We proceeded onward into the cave, topping the big flowstone mound and crawling down into the fissure above the infamous “OkeeFenookee” Swamp. Last time, we descended here and plowed through the swamp, sinking up to our waist and losing boots in the process. This time, we stayed high in the fissure above the swamp, finding a couple of bolts Andy Zellner told us about. Down we went, landing just past the exit from the swamp.
From here, it’s only a few hundred feet to the last drop of the cave, Bear well, a ~90’er. There is 3 bolts here, only the last being a good, trustworthy bolt. To safely approach this lip, you really need to rig a traverse line from the first bolt out the other two. Rigged properly, these last two bolts will give you a free drop.
We headed down, hoping off rope on the huge ledge about 30’ from stream level. We only brought a 100’ rope for this last drop, so after knots and traverse line, it just didn’t quite reach the bottom. We called it a day and headed out. We emerged into the last of daylight around 6:15pm, with just enough light to snap a couple of pictures before we headed down the mountain in the dark. Trying to follow the logging road back down, we got off trail in the dark and ended up walking way past our vehicles, popping out of the woods not far from the equipment shed near the house.
Good times were had, including the obligatory Mexican food at Majical in South Pittsburg. What a great cave!
