FALL TAG 2014 DAY 2 AT FLOWING STONE CAVE
December 03, 2014
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| Flowing Stone Cave Georgia |
The day before, we drove through the night and went to visit Valhalla on a few hours of car sleep. When I got to the hotel I closed my eyes and in what appeared to be a blink, the time went from 930pm to 6am. We all got ready for the day and got breakfast where we discussed what we were going to do for the day. Our plan was to go to Flowing Stone Cave which was on Pigeon Mountain about an hour from us. Afterwards, we were planning on going to Ulla Cave, Richards Cave, and Dragfold Pit, which are all located near each other. We set out for Pigeon Mountain after breakfast and a few calibrations within our group dynamic. We finally make it over to the Kiosk and park our cars at the end of the road that leads to the quarry.
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| Flowing Stone Cave Georgia |
We gear up and hike for about 30-45 minutes up and around the quarry to make our final B-line to the entrance of Flowing Stone cave. I have heard that this one was a bit hard to find but I was able to get two separate cords for this one so that worked out quite well and we were able to find it rather quickly.We rigged at 380ft rope on a tree and padded the entrance pretty good since there was a lot of fluted water cut rock formations before the main drop was encountered. I get on rope and make my way around the pads and over to the main drop of the cave.
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| Flowing Stone Cave Georgia |
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| Flowing Stone Cave Georgia |
Once I got to the bottom of the cave I looked around and I could see the rain shower from the flowstone above dropping water into a series of rimstone dams and carving out cave pearls where a few salamanders sauntered about. There was a pool of water in the foreground which collected some of the water from the falls but the majority of the water streamed down a series of active flowstone rimstone dams below us which leads to the bottom of the cave. This was absolutely beautiful!!
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| Flowing Stone Cave Georgis |
The rimstone flowstone dams created a stair step of sorts that covered the passage and even encapsulated some other boulders that were in the way of this water action. It is a “must see” kind of place and I am glad we all got to go there.
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| Flowing Stone Cave Georgia |
We continued to ascend back out of the cave after a few pictures and by the time we all got out, the sun was starting to set and realized that this cave venture took all day. Our choice was to continue to some other caves including Ulla, Richards, and Dragfold, or go back to the hotel for dinner and rest to prepare for the following day at Fantastic Pit
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| Entrance to Flowing Stone cave |
By the time we all made it down to the car, it was nightfall so we headed back to the hotel to sort out our gear and group dynamic so we could prepare for the grand finale, Fantastic Pit in Ellison’s Cave.
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| What the Dorian!!! |
FLICKR: https://www.flickr.com/photos/exploration-worldwide/sets/72157649161832377/
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