Spelunking

[Rajobigguy]

A couple of my buddies just did this ride, it's cool but kind of freaked me out watching.

 

[SoCalDave]

Fuk that...

 

[Rajobigguy]

Fuk that...

Yeah it made me a bit uneasy just watching. I told my buddy Chris (guy on the Kawasaki) that he would of appreciated me being along with all the lights on my Husky. At least he would have appreciated it right up to the point that I freaked out and they had to carry me out.

 

[snowhammer]

I would leave one hell of a bread crumb trail

 

[mjc]

where is this

 

[Rajobigguy]

where is this

About 6 miles E. Of Manzanar off the 395.

 

[Taboma]

Yup just like Rajobigguy said

 

[Checkmate21]

I think that I would need to wear a diaper of I did that. I cringed just watching it!

 

[SoCalDave]

Growing up in small town Tennessee I spent many of day in a local cave with friends. Some dates from my elders are carved inside it going ack tonthe early 1900's.
The below story is from a group of kids I would occasionally spend hours in there with. Not a chance in hell I could even crawl through that small opening today without freaking out.



A few miles southeast of Crossville is located Grassy Cove, A depression between two mountains that by all rights should be a big natural lake. The rain water that falls in the cove runs north into a cave, then emerges at the Devils Sink Hole, south of the cove and over the mountain. This long mountain contains many caves and a major stream that flow completely under it. Grassy Cove Saltpeter Cave is well known for being a dusty cave and dust masks are handy to avoid histoplasmosis, a lung disease common in dusty caves and chicken houses. I did come down with a light case of this later and it could very well have been from this cave. The doctor wanted to know if I had been around any chicken houses.

We entered the cave and debated about exploring the west dry passages or to venture down the waterfall at the east end of the cave. There were reported to be more caves below the water fall. However, ropes would be required and we were not prepared for that. The water fall room sounded too good to pass up so we opted for going down through the chasm and to the water fall.

The Chasm is a short drop that can be climbed if you chimney out to a narrow portion of the drop. We however chose to use the rope for the drop. We continued down to the waterfall room and poked around looking for any easy lead to continue on. John was checking behind a large rock on the north side of the passage when he noticed air blowing from the rocks. We all got excited and started helping with the easy dig.

In less than an hour we had a small hole that looked to open up below. I was elected to give it a try, I am not sure why I was first but I was grateful. I went feet first into the hole removing my hard hat in order to squeeze through. At the bottom there was a low craw that went to the northeast for about 50 feet and then a ledge with a short drop of about 5 feet into a large room sloping downward. I studied the floor and could not make out any tracks. I sat there yelling encouragement to the others to come on down. We had found something big.

I felt like Neil Armstrong on the moon when I made that first step on the floor below and left that first foot print where no one had ever stepped before. The mud had a black coating on top and when you raised your foot it left a very clear orange print about 1 inch deep. It felt strange to walk down into that huge room and then look back at the lonely set of foot prints that would soon turn into a well-worn path.

We explored the new extension for the rest of the day finding formations along the west wall and Crystal Gypsum Flowers covering the floor as the ceiling became lower near the end. We crawled through some breakdown into a much smaller room at the end and could find no way to continue.

We were all very excited about our new find and planed to return to map this new section the following month. When Jack Pace moved to Nashville many years later and told the caving group there about the discovery, they quickly returned to the cave, mapped the "Georgia Room" and discovered the the "Nashville Extension", extensive and well decorated passages leading from our March 18, 1972 discovery.

We returned on Saturday, April 22, 1972 with the additional assistance of my wife's cousin, Bill Meier, and mapped the March 18th Discovery. I was working for Eastman Kodak Co. At the time and had access to the latest home movie cameras. I was trying out a new model with very low light capability for taking movies in the cave. We used a Coleman Lantern for the light source and the shutter speed set slow to capture as much light as possible.

As of the close of 2013, the largest room in Grassy Cove Saltpeter Cave does not have a name. As I was the first person to set foot there, I take pleasure in naming the passage that averages thirty feet high by sixty feet wide, and one thousand feet long, the "Georgia Room."


View the Discovery in Grass Cove Movie Clip
View Devilstep Hollow Cave Trip Movie Clip
Grassy Cove Saltpeter Cave now ranks eleventh in the state of Tennessee for the longest cave. I would like to think that we made it a little easier for future cavers to discover the miles of cave that followed in this great cave. Great discoveries were made in the following years, then in the late 70's the Smoky Mountain Grotto sealed our small hole with a slab of concrete marked "S.M.G."

1 Blue Spring Cave 33 miles

2 Cumberland Caverns 27 miles

3 Xanadu Cave System 23 miles

4 Rumbling falls Cave 15 miles

5 Nunley Mountain Cave System 15 miles

6 Big Bone Cave 15 miles

7 Snail Shell Cave System 9 miles

8 Rice Cave 9 miles

9 Cuyler Cave 8 miles

10 Dunbar Cave 8 miles

11 Grassy Cove Saltpeter Cave 8 miles

12 Wolf River 7 miles

13 Haws Spring Cave 7 miles

14 Zarathustra 7 miles

15 Camps Gulf Cave 6 miles

This was the first major discovery that I was involved with and I have been more excited about caving than ever and the challenge of not only exploring but documenting caves with maps, pictures, movies, and articles.

 

[rrrr]

The tailings rubble cast out of the mine (see taboma's photo) look to be at least ¼ mile wide and ½ mile down the slope. The guys that dug the tunnels musta been tough MF'ers. I wonder how long it took to excavate it. Had to be years of hard work, even if they had equipment to load the rubble into small narrow gauge rail cars that ran throughout the mine.

 

[Gelcoater]

Fuk that...

Right?!
45-50ft is as far as my ass goes in a cave, and that would only be to avoid some serious weather.

Or...

 

[Big B Hova]

So being from the construction trade....

Wouldn't there be lack of oxygen in there due to confined space?

 

[floatn turd]

That looks bad ass and fun as hell!

I use to go out to mines out at Calico when I was in High School.
Some friends had a couple old FJ40 Land Cruisers.
We'd drive around those hills, hike in the mines all day and sleep in them at night.
I've ever had and always wanted to go back.

 

[yz450mm]

That looks bad ass and fun as hell!

I use to go out to mines out at Calico when I was in High School.
Some friends had a couple old FJ40 Land Cruisers.
We'd drive around those hills, hike in the mines all day and sleep in them at night.
I've ever had and always wanted to go back.

We do calico six or seven times a year, and have explored quite a few of the mines in the area. One popular spot is the Calico mine complex, and it's a good 30 to 45 minute trail ride from the road, if you know the way.

There is no way you would ever walk to this, or get to it in anything other than a capable four wheel drive vehicle or a side-by-side. However, last time we were there, there was a shit ton of graffiti Inside the mines. It blew me away, we were in the middle of nowhere inside a century old mine, and some douchebags had to bust out the spray paint.

View attachment 812532

 

[JayBreww]

While stationed in Indy for a short time, we hiked all the way down there. Pretty crazy when you turn off your light and it’s complete dark. Think we hiked 1500 feet in?


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[floatn turd]

Those are cool pics!!

But ya shit heads spay-painted 5 or 10 feet inside even 25 years ago. But it died out whit the sun light.
And
I thought I was going to die more than a few times in those old Land Cruisers.
They climbed up some unbelievable crap!!

This was back in in 1993 or 94, but we went in thru a hole where the 2nd "C" is in the word "Calico" (on the mountain) and came out about 12 hrs at night, below the Ghost Town in that wash buy the parking lot.
(That was the coolest mine, if I remember correctly)
If that entrance is still accessible you should try and find it.
We would rope down the air shafts to see what was at the bottom and dig thru caved in areas to see that was on the other side.
Generally, stupid shit that my parents would have killed me over had they know what we were really doing out there.

Good times!

 

[yz450mm]

Those are cool pics!!

But ya shit heads spay-painted 5 or 10 feet inside even 25 years ago. But it died out whit the sun light.
And
I thought I was going to die more than a few times in those old Land Cruisers.
They climbed up some unbelievable crap!!

This was back in in 1993 or 94, but we went in thru a hole where the 2nd "C" is in the word "Calico" (on the mountain) and came out about 12 hrs at night, below the Ghost Town in that wash buy the parking lot.
(That was the coolest mine, if I remember correctly)
If that entrance is still accessible you should try and find it.
We would rope down the air shafts to see what was at the bottom and dig thru caved in areas to see that was on the other side.
Generally, stupid shit that my parents would have killed me over had they know what we were really doing out there.

Good times!

Wow, that sounds like an epic exploration trip! I love exploring mines, and back in my youth we went into the old Sidewinder mine in Apple Valley a few times and did some really stupid shit.

I've always wanted to check out the main Calico Silver Mine, sounds like you got to do it before they closed it off and limited it to the paid tours. The ones I'm talking about are way out at back, and the second picture I posted is a dead end with a huge cliff a few feet in front of me. If you were walking along and didn't know it, you would go right off the edge and be dead real quick.

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[floatn turd]

They were good times!

I'm sure we could swap all kinds of stories about that place!!

Have fun out there man and be safe.

 

[Taboma]

So being from the construction trade....

Wouldn't there be lack of oxygen in there due to confined space?

I wondered the same thing, yet once I found the mine on google, I searched under 'Reward' and found it's called the "Reward Mine Complex" and it's a popular destination for Jeep clubs, because even a Jeep can fit. One article mentioned there's a stiff breeze that blows through the cave, so it must have a 2nd opening.

 

[SoCalDave]

This is the entrance to the cave we visited often. Walking up the mountainside approaching the entrance you could feel the cool breeze blowing from it down the trail. If I remember correctly it was a constant 58f year around inside so it was cool in the summer months and warm in the winter.

A lot of graffiti has happened in this one as well. some dating back to the early 1900's but most of it before it was closed. It is on private property.

Note the water running down into the cave and just disappearing into the rocks as it enters.

Famous horse's head