ADAM HAYDOCK

 Last day in TAG before we headed home on a drive that turned out to be the longest 12 hours we have ever experienced, we decided to go to South Pittsburg Pit and bounce this one as it was on the way home.  We got to the parking spot and followed the dirt trail up to a connector trail that took us to the entrance of this 160 ft drop.  I finally go to use my rope and all the other pits required rope longer the 250 ft.  We rigged the drop and set up a redirect on a pulley to avoid rope abrasion.  Noboru and I descended this pit and saw this from the bottom.

 All of the walls from the bottom were lit up from the sun which made this pit a very unique open air experience for us.  It was a nice last pit on our trip to see the reflecting light coming off the damp cave walls and looking at the canyon passage behind us

 We went back to a small water fall and free climbed into a crawl that leads to more dome rooms and passage but decided to turn around so we could save some more time and I didn't want to drag my gear through the mud anymore than I had already.  There was a rope to assist the waterfall climb so I used it to descend and Noboru climbed down.  Noboru got on rope and ascended up the pit and I followed quickly afterwards. 

 We got back to the car and started out on our estimated long 9 hr drive back home to Chicago when we ran into some of the worst traffic jams I have ever seen.  We were at a dead stop and the side streets were pouring over with people trying to get around the traffic so which ever way you went, it was a complete shit show. We stopped of for some excellent bar b que ended up making it home around midnight thinking about that we were just on one hell of a trip for summer TAG.  I want to thank Colin for making this trip happen, Laura and Noboru for driving and all working as a team as well as the "TA TA's" for just being the TA TA's! keep your teeth clean and we will see everyone soon.!!!

We got a chance to sleep in a bit more and catch up on some rest for the trip out to Green's Well.  This cave was about an hour and a half drive from Chattanooga but once we got to the landowners property, we geared up and had a swift but mildly challenging ascent up the mountain to the cave location.  It was not as hot out as it was the day before which made it nice but the humidity was up there so again, I was sweating like crazy.  We rigged the drop with a redirect and pigs tail for tandem climbing which helped save a bit of time in the 227 ft drop. Once I descended down the pit,  the water from the waterfall at the top started to expand out so once at the bottom it was like you were in a rain storm, a cold but a beautiful rain storm as you looked up to see the sun entering from the hole in the ground and reflecting off the wet cave walls.

 This was one of the more impressive slot canyons I have ever seen with the layers of Chert embedded into the scalloped rock showing signs of major flooding through this cave when the water levels are high.

 I was very impressed with this cave but it was getting rather cold even with a rain jacket on so we had everyone ascend out without a problem. While we were waiting for everyone to ascend the cave Laura, Noboru, and I went to Maxwell Cave just up the mountain.

 This cave had an impressive entrance with water flowing out and down into another insurgence which is said to feed Green's Well.  The water from Greens well flows down inside the mountain to Doug Green Cave which has a waterfall inside but we were not able to get the time to check out this cave.

Inside Maxwell Cave reminded me a bit of the caves in Puerto Rico as it was a bit warm and a lot of old looking formations with a stream running through it.  I went to the back of the cave where their appeared to be a sump that seems to keep going.  Maybe sometime in the future I can come back to this and check it out.

 Afterwards, We went to the landowners house to share pictures and stories about our trip into greens well as well as celebrate good times with friends both old and new.  Has anyone seen the movie teeth?

FLICKR: http://www.flickr.com/photos/exploration-worldwide/sets/72157634955930121/

FLICKR: http://www.flickr.com/photos/exploration-worldwide/sets/72157634955360437/

 

We drove an hour and a half from Conley Hole to Chattanooga TN so we could check in, grab the key and proceed to one of the biggest waterfall pit caves in the world, Mystery Falls!!!  Mystery Falls use to be a commercial cave back in the day and they had a system that would lower people, one at a time, down this pit cave to the bottom where they would be able to view the falls from above.  Someone fell and died on this mechanical system so they closed the cave and placed concrete at the 295 ft drop from the surface.  There was another entrance made which has a small water walking passage to the drop at 270 ft.

 There was a large rock and bolts in the wall which we rigged to everything which gave us redundancy for tandem climbing this pit but took some more time to build.

Another interesting feature about this place is that you can plug the water fall so the water stops flowing and allow a reservoir of water to build up.  Why would you want to do this?  because when you are at the bottom and the water is released you get this MASSIVE surge of water that comes crashing down which was absolutely amazing to see!!!! AMMAAZING!!!!!!!!!!

Waterfall at Mystery Falls from the bottom

The pictures I got were not the best because my Canon G12 only works for smaller rooms and this room has just massive! I used all my lights and I still could not get the right shot for this cave. At the bottom was the old carriage system they used which they seemed to have left at the bottom along with some small passage that choked out on either side.

One by one people descended this waterfall pit and the only thing you could see at times was their headlamps lighting up the walls as they dropped deeper to the center of the mountain.

 It was one hell of an experience for me climbing out of Mystery Falls.  I was using a frog system and I was able to stop to view the massive flowstone formations along the way as I ascended on rope. It is still fascinating to see the stratified rock slabs that the water has carved away in this mountain creating this massive hole. As I ascended to the surface level, I was thinking to myself that this is just incredible to see how water can form some of the most amazing places and also made me wonder how many more swiss cheese mountains are in the TAG region yet to be discovered..

We woke up super early to make sure we fit two massive caves into our schedule for the day, Conley Hole and Mystery Falls.  Conley Hole is a 161 ft drop into a large dome room with some interesting features at the bottom and mystery falls is a 270 ft drop into a HUGE waterfall room.
We met up with Colin Gatland, Tama Cassidy, Tammy Otten, and Traci Miklos Hacker for this challenging day of hiking and vertical caving into some of the worlds best caves. We were eating breakfast and Chris the "Wet Turtle" gave us the terrible news that his car is leaking gasoline and he is going to have to get his car back to Bloomington so he can get it fixed, sucks bro!! I wish you made it to these holes in the mountains. 

Adam Haydock Hiking up to Conley Hole Tennessee

Down to seven people, We all geared up and made it over to the parking lot of Conley Hole.  It was a hot and humid day as we walked up hill in a field of grass with the sun beating down on us until we got to the the forest.  We made our ascent to the mountain so we could get to Conley Hole which was a sweat box.  It was a bit of a Gut check carrying all the gear plus the 375 ft of rope needed for the drop but we made it to the entrance of Conley Hole. My clothes were drenched from sweating my ass off on the way up the mountain, I almost felt like my body is allergic to water.  It was ridiculous.

 We rigged two ropes so we could get in and out to save time for Mystery Falls which worked out pretty well. Everyone descended down to the large dome room and we all walked around in shock at the site of how large this dome room was. It reminded me of the rooms in Puerto Rico.



The Dome was massive and had some interesting flowstone features and hoodoo carved mud with rocks resting on top which is something I have never seen in a cave before.

 There was also a huge flowstone feature that appeared to be a place to climb but we didn't have any time to try that out. Next time!

We all ascended out of Conley Hole so we could get to Mystery Falls at a good hour as this was going to be one hell of a cave to rig and drop.

Wolf River Cave Towering Inferno

We scaled the Towering Inferno and thought we were on the right course but ended up finding ourselves going in circles in some side passage rooms that I refer to as the merry go round section.  We came back around to the Towering Inferno and found a crawl that took us up to the Tremendous Trunk.

The Tremendous Trunk is one of the two main sections in Wolf River Cave. The Tremendous Trunk has large connections to the Enchanted Forest, Milk and Butter room, Aborigine Avenue as well as some other side passage ways.  We spent the bulk of our time in this section of the cave.  The other section is called the Horrendous Highway which consists of waterfall rooms, Jaguar bones and foot prints. 
Originally we wanted to go down the Tremendous Trunk but decided on the horrendous side to save time but found out that we were on the Tremendous side of the cave. Yup, we got turned around a bit in this one!   We continued down the passage and found a side section to the cave that had Gypsum Flowers growing on the ceiling.  This was a interesting encounter to see as the crystal curls around on itself and creates this flower looking design.  They look like the finger nails of a witch and if I had discovered these crystals, that is what I would have named them, crazy bonnie the witch crystals or some shit like that.



Gypsum Flower Crystals



 We continued down the passage and encountered large rooms with mounds of breakdown to climb over in order to continue on to the Enchanted Forest and the Milk and Butter Room.

Shortly after the Treasure Chamber we made our way over to our final destination, The Enchanted Forest of Wolf River Cave!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This section of the cave is beautiful!!!.  There are all kinds of formations in a walking/stooping passage that leads to a dig as well as the end of this cave system section.  It is beautiful to be walking past all the drapery, flowstone, and formations made of white gypsum as it felt like we were in a forest of sorts with crystals sparkling around us.



We stayed in the enchanted forest for about an hour and decided to turn around knowing we had a long drive to Manchester TN.  We wanted to make sure we got there at a decent hour and get a good night sleep so we could wake up early for Conley Hole and Mystery Falls.

FLICKR: http://www.flickr.com/photos/exploration-worldwide/sets/72157634962222232/

 Around 20,000 years ago the glaciers receded back into the Lake Michigan Basin and deposited these sand hills which rendered this massive amount of sand we can find today at the National Lakeshore.

 As the receded, there were points where the dunes created kettle ponds which can be found today in the form of small swamps located within the National Lakeshore.

 There are around 45 miles of trails that extend through the Lakeshore and the lakeshore itself is around 25 miles from tip to tip.

 It was a nice hike to go through the sand trails and view how the trees grew out from the dunes.  The sand hills in the woods are a bit hilly but they are not to difficult.

 We hiked through some of the trails and enjoyed the unique Flora that we found in the hinterland and the beach front.

The lake water can be quite cold even in the summer and rip currents do exist out in Lake Michigan so if you venture into the water, be careful of the wave action.

 If you have a boat, you can set of the coast to find the shipwrecks preserved in the sand lake bottom at around 30ft. which included the shipwreck of the J.D. Marshal.

  This is a wonderful place to visit as it is only a couple of hours from Chicago and absolutely worth at least one visit.

 This is also a great destination for people to hangout at the beach and enjoy the long stretch of sand with sections where people hangout and other sections where people can find solitude.