Eight Month Wait - Busted Turtle Cave

Tanya found this cave through the owner’s daughter late last year; the January trip was to cave this cave. However due to various reasons we changed our plans; one reason was there were rock climbers coming out of the cave. It was interesting in that one of the climbers knew of a cave just over the hillside; knowing of no caves had been reported on this hill we quickly jumped on the opportunity to cave the other cave, now known as Cotton Cave. This left the original cave on the project list. I had tried several other times to get a trip planned but it didn’t work; this trip I had a vertical oriented crew of Robbie, Rob, and Brian.

The cave requires vertical experience; in fact the cave has three drops totaling over 145ft. We managed to survey 475 feet with some very promising leads left for another day. I can see at least a few more trips to this cave!

Getting back to the day’s activities; we came prepared with ropes and more ropes. One rope was used to repel the entrance pit and was used to drop a nuisance drop immediately following. Large passage awaited us on both sides. Given a solid vertical crew we chose to keep going down; the idea was to determine just what was in store for future planning.

The second drop put us in a large room with various bone piles; the most intriguing was the skeletal remains of a large turtle. The turtle was much too large to be a box turtle which probably leaves only aquatic turtles; what an aquatic turtle was going this high up on the hill would be anybody’s guess. The cave is more decorated than originally thought; most of the formations are old and not active. The top two levels appears to be quite dry.

Robbie was bird dogging out in front while Rob, Brian, and myself surveyed. Robbie found the third pit and rigged it while we surveyed toward him. Given there was nothing in the immediate vicinity to tie into he had to use webbing and rig to some formations about 20ft back. The bolting kit we brought was not of much use as the walls and floor were simply mud and very soft rock.

The bottom of the pit landed us in a large fissure with a stream. The stream came into and out of the cave in very low leads, something that would require some serious digging if the stream ever dried. There were a few leads through some small passage; these leads opened into another fissure that immediately terminated.

Robbie was cold from digging in a wet, muddy section of the cave; he did find another strong lead but it would require a bit of cave modification to take the edge off some rock. While waiting for the others to ascend the third pit I went back to check a few of the open leads; and leads they are.

I’m very excited to get back to this cave. Hopefully I can drum up some interest; the challenging pit has been dropped and doesn’t yield any great interest to work on those leads until the other, much more promising leads are proven out.

Don't Look Before You Leap

Friday evening Tanya McLaughlin shared an account of a felonious escape from Lovers Leap Cave with Matthew Van Fossen and me. The flowery description was written long ago and told a tragic tale of a man trapped underground. It didn't tell us about the obstacles that awaited us.

We met Blaine Schubert of Eastern Tennessee State University at the Food Country grocery. He pointed into the air to let us know where the cave entrance was located. We turned to see the top of a nearby cliff on the edge of town. He has gained permission to let Ty Gosnell collect samples for a Masters Thesis, and the TriTrogs have volunteered to help by producing a cave map. Apparently the caves high on the cliffsides are more likely to produce older fossils, and an account had listed a Pleistocene peccary fossil found in the cave.

We pushed through 50 feet of vegetation to find ourselves in a forested wood, at the base of a steep hill. We zigzagged along deer paths, but there were too few that headed up the hill. I'm guessing that we climbed 500-600 feet vertically to reach the top of the hill. Then Blaine showed us the short path down to the cave entrance.

Matthew and I thought it wise to dress for the cave trip before descending the path. We dropped our backpacks and dressed for the caving trip, left our packs atop the hill, and commenced the slide down to the entrance. I rigged about 80 feet of webbing as a handline to make the ascent easier, but I quickly realized that it also made the descent a lot less frightening. The sloping ledge starts wide but narrows down to a few feet wide near the end of the webbing and shortly before arriving at the cave entrance.

The entrance presented the next challenge to my long legs. To get inside, I had to snake down through the breakdown, but the 90-degree turn is challenging until you figure out the wiggles necessary to drop your legs in the right hole. Blaine and Ty led us down to the main room in the cave. After an easy climb over breakdown, Blaine led me down a slope to a pit that we can explore later (likely won't need more than a cable ladder).

Tanya, Matthew, and I returned to the cave entrance to begin our survey while the paleontologists moved on to collect samples. Survey down through the breakdown entrance was tricky, but we were entertained by live old time country music resonating up the valley. Before I entered the cave again, I noticed that the sky was clouding up. I grabbed the webbing and did a Batman climb up the slope. I grabbed Matthew's pack and my own, carried them down the slope to a dry spot near the cave entrance, and watched rain begin to pour.

Inside the cave we surveyed back down into the main room and then took a sharp left. The left passage took us into a high room and then a fissure with some nice boxwork. Tanya found a deadend at the far end of the fissure, and I managed to slide my body up about fifteen feet to find no leads in the ceiling. The station at the fissure bottom was 48 feet below the entrance, but the cave promises considerably more depth.

Matthew had more luck back in the earlier room. Tanya and I convinced him to climb up on a ledge, cross the room, and ascend toward the ceiling. Matthew found some going leads and then tried to return to us. Six feet above the floor he took some time evaluating the ways he could get back down. As the elapsed time approached ten minutes, we dubbed this room Van Fossen's Conundrum because of his intent puzzling about ways to return to the floor without allowing us to help.

Matthew and Tanya were ready to head out of the cave at this point, but I convinced them to shoot down a passage that I presumed would end shortly. Tanya found that her hips got stuck as she tried to follow the passage. Matthew easily slid through, but I was limited at the same point as Tanya. I just couldn't lie on my side and lift my left hip into the air. Fortunately my head could get into Matthew's room far enough for me to complete my sketch.

Then we headed out of the cave and enjoyed the music emanating from the valley below. Tanya found the climb to the top of the hill very challenging and exhausting. The earlier rain had left the slope muddy. Matthew climbed up next, and I tried to follow with my backpack. The backpack hit the cliffside and knocked me out of my Batman stance and down to my knees. Crawling showed me how hard the slope climb could be. When I got to a place where I could stand again, I rose too quickly and got dizzy for a second. After I got to the top, Matthew headed back for the last pack and found that the climb gets harder with wear.

We managed to slide down the muddier hill and return to my vehicle shortly after dark. Tanya vowed that she won't go ever again to Lovers Leap, and Matthew was receptive to her thinking that evening. Who's ready for the next trip? I don't want to wait until it snows.