While sipping morning coffee, the tranquil silence was shattered by the familiar ring of the cell phone. Looking down at the little black box, I see Scott’s face lit up the screen. We had recently practiced rope work in some trees in Jacksonville, and thought we may have unintentionally swapped gear (this actually happens quite often). Scott tells me they are headed up to Alabama this weekend for a climbing event for his son. He goes on to say the event is taking place Saturday and that he wanted to assemble a small team to drop two large beautiful pits in the area on Sunday, then drive back Monday. My response was “Hell YES’!
I am not a fan of heights and feel a comfort zone around 60 feet. These two pits were beyond my comfort zone but were well known for their beauty. I got up and told my wife, Betsey, that I’m not sure why that I agreed to this trip but was very excited to concur something new. Betsey has no interest in caves, climbing, or driving long hours only to sleep in a tent, so she said “Have Fun”.
I packed up my gear and was ready for Scott to arrive at 3:00AM on Saturday morning. The two of us stuffed gear in the pull-along, then jumped in the loaded down Nisson ExTerra. As I found an empty hole for a travel mug and shut the door, I exchanged sleepy greetings with Holley and Striker who were in a semi-conscious state within a mass of pillows and gear in the back seat.
Scott and I are both a bit chatty (as both our wives remind us), so we entertained ourselves for the 9 hour drive with stories of caving, steam engines, nature, and all things interesting droning Scott’s wife and son to sleep in the back.
After a sunrise, gas stop, and 2 bathroom breaks (with coffee refills) we arrived at Indian Rocks Campground. While making the campground loop, Hollie shouted, “Stop, look at that campsite in the rocks”. We got out to explore and found a small trail heading through some trees (on the backside of the campsite), it opened up to a cliff face with a fantastic view that stretched for miles. There was also a campfire site and picnic table.
We Found Home:
After awing at the view and setting up camp. A rope was dropped over the edge of the cliff at our campsite that was actually the top of a narrow canyon that belled open toward the bottom. On further exploration, we found fissure caves right in the campground.
SUNDAY:
After the climb team started wrapping things up to head home, we headed to Huddle House for breakfast and to meet Dave, who was the final member of our team. Dave is filled with entertaining stories, energy, and good cheer. He had been to our caves years before and was looking forward to visiting them again.
So, off we went.
We arrived at the parking area, got our gear prepared and started trekking straight up the
mountain to find the large hole.
Nature is incredible. Karst, or Limestone is a sedimentary rock made of sea creatures, sand, and deposits. When you think of a pond slowly filling in with leaves, dead things, and fallen logs-how long does that take? During what is known as the Carboniferous
period (355-325 million years ago), this area of Alabama was deep underwater. Deposits were constantly falling to the sea floor building a Limestone layer hundreds of feet thick. It may have emerged from water to land when the 1,100 foot Wetumpka Meteor fell south of the area 85 million years ago leaving a five-mile-wide crater. The Cumberland
Plateau continued to be pushed up. Today it is 1,000 feet above what is now considered sea level. Since that time water had been drawn to the small depression, eroding the limestone through a carbolic acid solution into what is the deep pit called Neversink. Standing at the bottom, you can see the layers of limestone in rings. This may not have the geologic significance of the Grand Canyon, but it is significant, and we were some of the few people that get to witness such a beautiful natural wonder from this perspective.
Okay, on to the next one:
Descending was effortless. However, climbing out is not. We were all fairly spent after climbing 168 feet for 20 minutes up a rope using frogging gear. Except for Striker, who has a seemingly limitless 10 year old energy reserve. It was time to go back down the mountain to the awaiting vehicles and get some lunch, then to concur our next challenge.
There was a big storm a couple days prior to our arrival and the water was pounding. This was an incredible experience an opens up a world of possibilities of bigger pits and drops. These two caves are classics for overall beauty. I could never have pushed my boundaries without the Thomson (Hl) crew.
Until next time…