Post by jspiers on Nov 19, 2008 13:53:40 GMT -5
Early in October 2008, Mike and I decided to go check out some caves we had heard about over in Sevier County (one of them being the large and locally well known Rock House Cave.) After spending our usual hour and a half determining where we were in relation to where the caves were supposed to be, we finally called the friend of Mike's that had told us of them, and were able to locate the valley and wash out in which they were located.
We left the road for a short walk down a stream bed into a sinkhole, in the bottom of which was a small entrance within which we could see an easy 40 feet of cave. I tried valiantly to stuff my overly large derriere through the entrance, but it was not to be. We decided to come back later with a rock hammer to remove the offending piece of boulder that kept us out, and moved on down the wash. Further down, we entered another sinkhole with a spectacular (~12-14 ft.) entrance that led into a nice 300 feet of borehole that terminated (kind of) at the bottom of another large sinkhole very near the French Broad River. Facing the wall of the sink hole we could see two rather nice erosion holes and hear water behind them. Entering, we came to a running underground stream that led towards the river. The stream came from a small entrance on the left and flowed toward the right and away. I followed it until the ceiling got rather low, and abandoned it when I was at "belly crawl" height, as I didn't want to get soaked on that particular day!
After climbing out of the third sink hole, we crossed the small rise to the banks of the French Broad to walk to Rock House, only to find a new house, still under construction, sitting in the middle of the trail! Apparently a gentleman had brought the property, and has built a road on the way to the site. We talked for a while, and he seems rather congenial to the idea of cavers visiting, and even offered equipment if we wished to push some of the small fractures in the back of Rock House, as he had heard rumors of another large chamber further back in the bluff. One interesting note is that there is now a large and well maintained gravel road to the cave now, and the new owner has leveled the once sloping floor of the cave, and added some chairs and a barbecue pit where he can watch the river and enjoy himself!
Upon getting out and later consultation with Jon and Chris, we found that the other two caves have names, and were submitted earlier by Chris. The smaller cave was Rock Out House Cave and the larger was, I believe, Ellis Bend Cave.
We left the road for a short walk down a stream bed into a sinkhole, in the bottom of which was a small entrance within which we could see an easy 40 feet of cave. I tried valiantly to stuff my overly large derriere through the entrance, but it was not to be. We decided to come back later with a rock hammer to remove the offending piece of boulder that kept us out, and moved on down the wash. Further down, we entered another sinkhole with a spectacular (~12-14 ft.) entrance that led into a nice 300 feet of borehole that terminated (kind of) at the bottom of another large sinkhole very near the French Broad River. Facing the wall of the sink hole we could see two rather nice erosion holes and hear water behind them. Entering, we came to a running underground stream that led towards the river. The stream came from a small entrance on the left and flowed toward the right and away. I followed it until the ceiling got rather low, and abandoned it when I was at "belly crawl" height, as I didn't want to get soaked on that particular day!
After climbing out of the third sink hole, we crossed the small rise to the banks of the French Broad to walk to Rock House, only to find a new house, still under construction, sitting in the middle of the trail! Apparently a gentleman had brought the property, and has built a road on the way to the site. We talked for a while, and he seems rather congenial to the idea of cavers visiting, and even offered equipment if we wished to push some of the small fractures in the back of Rock House, as he had heard rumors of another large chamber further back in the bluff. One interesting note is that there is now a large and well maintained gravel road to the cave now, and the new owner has leveled the once sloping floor of the cave, and added some chairs and a barbecue pit where he can watch the river and enjoy himself!
Upon getting out and later consultation with Jon and Chris, we found that the other two caves have names, and were submitted earlier by Chris. The smaller cave was Rock Out House Cave and the larger was, I believe, Ellis Bend Cave.
