With the group size already set to descend the pit and my usual climbing partner (Striker) not on the trip, I wasn’t planning to drop it myself. The number was about the maximum you’d want for time purposes and having just done it a couple months back I wasn’t going to clog the rope just to bounce it again. My kid was off on a spring break adventure with his mom and not wanting to sit by myself at the top of the pit I didn’t even have to think about who would be good company for a little bit of North Georgia caving. Phil loves a bad idea as much as I do so with the cave set for Friday morning we were in the car Thursday afternoon with plans to go caving, then turn and burn for a workday for the Florida Cave Cavort on Saturday. It was going to be a very busy 48 hours.
My interest, aside from going caving with some good people, was to try to see if we could streamline things compared to our previous trip. Phil and Jeff were apparently thinking the same thing, so we chose to arrive before the Pickles Posse, hump the ropes up the hill and get the Warm-Up Pit rigged with the first rope. This way when the rest of the group arrived, they could just start down the pit as the second rope was rigged, which would help avoid bottlenecks for descent and ascent and guiding the 700′ rope back up on our way out.
Not dropping the pit meant I was the perfect mule to haul the 700′ rope up the trail to the entrance, but believing the youth should do something to earn the true Fantastiche Experience the Corpse Duffle was unceremoniously dumped at the entrance for them to leisurely carry through the Ecstasy.
There was a good bit more water flowing in the cave than last time which was fine with me because I was just enjoying a leisurely bit of TAG caving. The Ecstasy was this time a jolly burbling stream passage and the Warm Up pit with the extra water was wonderful to rappel beside. It felt good to know the route and we made good progress.
Even the sorta annoying bits like the Elevator and getting the rope around the ledge to the Attic were handled pretty quickly and very soon it was time to rig.
Dylan (aka. Pickle) handled the rigging this time, which I was happy about because I felt I’d spent the perfect amount of time hanging out on that rock the last trip in there. In the end I had to visit my old perch over the hole to free off a quick link Dylan had used on one of the anchors requiring someone tall but stupid to free it off, which is a job description I’m amply qualified for.
Will was first down, over the walkie talkie he reported that the pit was definitely as wet as the noise from up top implied but he got down smoothly despite needing to deal with a tangle 100′ off the bottom.
Liam was next, he had a smooth trip down, setting the fastest descent for the day. Dylan and Charlie chose to hang out top side and Sarah was still making up her mind so that meant it was Jeff’s turn.
On our last trip Jeff hadn’t been feeling it and had the good judgement to wait until he was 100% ready. He was fired up for his rematch with Fantastic and it was a thrill to watch him stand up from where he had been sitting next to me and work his way to the rig point.
He rigged in, smoothly worked through the mentally hard part of easing out over the pit, taking off your safety and unlocking your rack. Then he was moving and out of sight and we waited for “off rope” to come over the walkie talkie. When the call did come through I had a giant grin to have been there as he was half way to finishing something he’d started back in December. My only regret was that I wasn’t on the bottom to see the look on his face. Congratulations just had to wait until he was done climbing back up, followed by Will and Liam. Liam in particular thrashed up the rope shockingly fast and as he panted and recovered from his 586′ frog sprint we started to derig. Debate had already started about if we had enough time to get out and drive to a Mexican restaurant before they all closed or if it was going to be a Waffle House kinda night. So we had to get on with it.
One of my hopes for this trip had been to see what we could streamline for future visits and pulling the rope was one place I felt we could improve over the last time. It’s a necessary but annoying task that we hadn’t given much thought until we were all tired and had to get on with it. This time was much smoother and didn’t cut into our salivating talk of what we were gonna eat once we were down the mountain.
Back through the cave we were almost shocked to still see daylight outside. Mexican was on the menu! Pictures taken, gear redistributed for the hike down and the group started off on the trail. Watching them go I was struck by the sight. A day that had started as a disparate group of folks from all over; old friends, new friends, close friends that had moved apart as life began after college… all were now one single line of cavers trudging down a mountain after a very fine day underground. No longer strangers this was now a team. I was immensely proud of that little line of people walking off excitedly talking of burritos and queso.
Only it wasn’t the end of the trip! Phil and I still had to get home and over to Jerry’s to help the FSS get ready for the Cavort next weekend! By 5 am the next morning we were back at Phil’s and I was headed to my house. A few hours later we were watching the FSS probably committing a crime that they were passing off as “clearing out a brush pile” while I stumbled around pretending to put screws into things and attempting some simple plumbing.
There’s no way, by myself, I would have driven to north Georgia just for a hole, no matter how amazing. I did it because great people were up there doing amazing things and I have good friends that are equally willing to jump in a car to support them. There’s no way, by myself, I would have then driven through the night to watch a field get set on fire (well, I might). I did it because there are good people working hard to put together an event for their fellow cavers and Phil and I are equally willing to jump in a car to support them as well.
