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The walking passage continued for several hundred feet before being blocked with loose rocks. Climbing over the loose rocks, the cave ended in a small dome were the ceiling had collapsed blocking any continuing of the cave to the southeast. The length of the cave was now 7,918 feet.
Survey team Hubert Crowell, John Wallace, Mark Gramlich, and Roger Garratt explored for about 5 hours. After making the new easy route to the large upper rooms, John found a passage leading down and south near the first large pit in the big room. Before climbing down into this new section we stopped for a good view of the Lost Column. At one time there was a large column here which was cut away by the water and formed a pit. There is a nice window that you can stand in and look down the pit, the edges of the old column forming the sides of the window.
After mapping about 610 feet of new passage with more leads remaining, we exited the cave. Neil Philpott, wanted to see the cave and said that he had gone a short distance into it when he was a kid. We took him back to the area we had just explored where he pushed a new lead and discovered a small room. This was the first cave trip for Neil, he is the son of Bonnie and Billy Philpott, who own the cave. We named the cave after the owners and the pump house, Philpotts' Pumphouse Cave.
Trip #6, August 27, 1988
Trip #8, February 17, 1990
Buddy, Roger and myself were on this the best trip so far. We started out pushing the stream level and by moving several rocks, we were able to continue at water level for about 100 feet, reaching the place where Buddy and I climbed down on the previous trip.
Picking up the survey, we began climbing again and about 75 feet ahead we crossed over a deep pool of water, the Blue Hole, then over a lip into a large room that showed evidence of filling with mud and water. The Catch Basin had filled up, spilling over the lip and creating the Blue Hole. We entered a narrow opening in the far wall, down into the water and ducked under a ledge with water to our chests, climbed another wall and mapped about 150 feet of crawl until it got too tight.
Although this was the largest group to enter the cave at one time and only a 4 1/2 hour trip, two major discoveries were made. When the group reached the first breakdown, where the tight water passage starts, several members climbed up through an opening in the right side which led to the upper rooms of the cave. This saved about 30 minutes of caving to reach that level and was used on almost every trip that followed.
Climbing down this newest connection provided easy access to the back part of the cave. I led the group down two climbs from this point to where the stream picks up again and we finished up with a round trip through Roger Hall, the Slide Room and back out.
Trip # 5, July 23, 1988 A contuning story on Exploring a Tennessee Cave
Roger Garratt, John Wallace, Mark Gramlich, Roy Dunn, Phil Larkin, Mark Pegin and I made a 5 hour trip to try and scale the wall from Buddy's Plunge. This was mostly a sight seeing trip with one goal, to climb the wall on the far side of the twin pools. It took us about 2 hours to reach the known southeast end of the cave. After climbing down to the pools with the aid of a rope, we explored the far wall in detail and found that the bolts that I had brought for scaling the wall were not needed. A narrow opening was found on the right side and we could chimney up to the passage above.
We then went to the stream level and mapped a short up stream lead. We now had a total of 8,366 feet of passage mapped.
Buddy Davis and I returned to check out the latest discovery at the south end of the cave and check or more leads.
Trip #7, August 2, 1989
The National Speleological Society (NSS), holds a convention each year and this year we met in the Black Hills of South Dakota. After returning from the NSS convention, we were all fired up to continue our explorations, so I advised my cousin to save up some drinking water. After each exploration, it takes several days for the muddied drinking water to clear.
Mapping through the Crystal Hall, which was covered with calcite crystals, and the Slab room, the floor was covered with large thin slabs of rock, we finally met our challenge. We were at the top of another large room with vertical walls and two deep pools at the bottom. Along the right side was a large rock leaning out over the pools. Leaving a narrow passage between it and the wall. However, no way could be found around the room. Our lights could barely make out a dark opening on the far side at our level about 40 feet up a vertical wall. Buddy climbed down to the pools, slid on the mud side and went in without touching the bottom. He was able to reach a space between the pools where the mud was less than a foot deep, but could not find a way up the far wall.
After exploring the large upper rooms someone asked about a lead down through the breakdown on the north side of the room When I looked down I saw a very familiar rock, one we discussed each time we crawled under it. It was fastened to the wall by flow stone and the floor had droped away leaving it extending about 3 feet from the wall at a right angle.
The NSS Convention of 1989 was held in Sewanee, Tennessee, high on Mount Eagle at the University of the South. It was only a short drive from there to the cave so I conducted a trip of 11 from the convention, Larry Clauser, Scott Jones, Ken Law, Mark McCandless, Kevin Regan, Paul Donis, Jim Steet, Danny Gillespie, Kathy Welling, Andy Franklin and myself, Hubert Crowell.
For more information on caves and caving in the southeast, and the complete article with pictures, Please visit my web site at:
Returning to John's Grotto we pushed one of the lower leads to a low lead with a mud cobble stone looking floor and named it Cobble Stone Alley. Several leads were checked and one smelled like gas. It was in this area that we found a strange side passage with the strong smell of sulfur, we were not able to remain in the area for too long due to the odor. After another short walking passage the south end of the cave ended with loose rock. I believe that we were very close to the south side of the hill, all of the cave is above the valley floor and contained in one long narrow hill.
Buddy's Plunge Part 3 of Tennessee Cave
Trip #9, June 23, 1990
Refreshed from our dip in the stream, I was the only on with a wet suit, we continued to the southeast end of the cave. From the Fish Pond on we have seen no moving water, only pools.
We mapped up stream with wide walking passage, domes and crossing the stream several times. We named it Roger Hall, after the survey leader. After a low section we came into a large room, studying it for a while, we decided it was the Slide Room. We had connected for a large loop through the cave which would make a good short tour with very little repeat of passage.
Our new survey started here and went down and to the south. We mapped through large walking passage with large deposits of bat guano and several leads going down. After several levels and a tight vertical squeeze we returned to walking passage for about 50 feet. The passage split and then both leads ended with about 350 feet mapped. We named this John's Grotto.
Returning to the Catch Basin, we could see a high lead about 20 feet up a steep mud slope. Digging footholds for 15 minutes, we found a large oval room overlooking the Catch Basin with another large walking lead continuing to the southeast.
The topographical map shows a sink on top of EDDY Hill that is about 400 to 500 feet from Buddy's Plunge. Cave length was now 7,698 feet but there is more cave left for future explorations. An account of the exploration to this point was written up by me and published in the July 1989 issue of the NSS News.
posted by larkin--62034 at 7:12 PM
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