Cave Exploration in Southeast

[gwd-scouter]

Anyone know of good locations for caving in the Southeast? None of our current troop leadership has the training or equipment for rapelling and that sort of thing, so we would need to find a place that perhaps did this kind of thing for scout troops or other organizations.

 

Or, do you usually just go to the more commercial type locations (i.e., Ruby Falls in Chattanooga) that have a program for scouts?

 

[click23]

None of the commercial caves, that I am aware of, in TAG( Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia caving area) offer any sort of vertical program. You might want to contact a Grotto (chapter) of the National Speleological Society, http://www.caves.org/ at the bottom, if you are set on a vertical trip. There is a rather lengthy section of the G2SS on caving, http://www.scouting.org/pubs/gss/gss09.html , right under the Sweet 16 section. For a commercial cave I would recommend a "wild tour" at either Raccoon Mountain Caverns in Chattanooga, TN or the Lost Sea in Sweetwater, TN. Mammoth Cave National Park, near Bolwing Green, KY is absolutely great if you are looking for a good time, but not very many formations. ItIm not too big on Ruby Falls for scout trips, to me it is grandparents out with the young grandkids type of place.

 

From your profile I take it that your near Greenwood Sc

From Greenwood to the Lost Sea, about 6 1/2 hours

"" "" Raccoon Mountain Caverns, about 8 hours

"" "" Mammoth Cave, about 10 hours

 

You might also want to check out the caves listed here http://www.cavern.com/caves.htm

 

 

 

 

[BrentAllen]

Not vertical, but just caving - try Cumberland Caverns. Very commercial, "sleep" in a big hall (about like trying to sleep on the Yorktown - take ear plugs!). Cumberland is a little dryer than Raccoon Mtn., with larger rooms.

At Raccoon, you are going to get wet and muddy (just what the boys want!). As for sleeping, everyone is much more spread out, but it can be difficult to find a decent sized flat spot.

 

As a youth, we used to go to Tumbling Rock in Alabama. Camped in the cow pasture outside. I don't know if they still allow people in - it was on private property. Very cool cave. Provide your own guides.

[packsaddle]

I agree with Brent's post. The boys in this unit find the overnight trip in Raccoon Cavern quite enough of a challenge...not to mention some of our out-of-shape leaders. I love squeezing through the 'birth canal' and later the '49-cent squeeze', etc., and exiting through the 'mail slot' right as the grandmas are walking past on the regular tour. The looks we get are just fiiiine. Sleeping in the mud is one of our rights of passage. Great fun!

 

If you want something vertical, you can also consider the New River Cave near Blacksburg, VA right off the shore of the New River at the Radford Arsenal. But it is not guided and you will need to pay careful attention to the G2SS. There are some wonderful crawls and leaps of faith. At the apparent end there is a beautiful waterfall coming out of the ceiling. Ropes are required beyond that. Be careful.

[ManassasEagle]

Hey packsaddle - did the New River cave many times during my years down there at school. Worst part was the climb from the road all the way up to the entrance

[EagleInKY]

Just echoing what others have said. There's a lot of options in the Kentucky-Indiana area. Mammoth Cave has an "Intro to Caving" program that is supposed to be pretty good for Scouts. We're doing it later this month and I'll be happy to give you feedback. There are a number of private caves in the region where you can do your own spelunking as well. I find this personally a lot more fun, but a challenge with scouts.

[gwd-scouter]

Thanks for the info so far guys. Yes, EagleinKY, please send you feedback after your trip. We are leaving for our troop's annual planning campout in a few hours and I wanted to find out something about caving for the guys since they asked about it last week.

 

Unfortunately, as I said before, our troop leadership is not trained or experienced in this kind of thing so we're looking for something that will fit within the G2SS (yep, I read the rules) and our abilities.

 

Which brings to mind a thread I'm going to spin off - just how trained/prepared/skilled should a Scoutmaster be before taking the job?

[packsaddle]

ManassasEagle, Hey man, I must have blocked that out of my memory but you're right about that. Quite a trudge up that hill. We suit up in coveralls at the entrance for the cave and then, in the summer at least, we exit and head straight for the river for a dip. Really a lot of fun.

 

One trip we canoed the Big Reed Island Creek (I think it runs into the New River at the upper end of Claytor Lake) and the next day canoed that section of the New River that goes through Radford Arsenal. We were told that legally we could do it as long as we stayed on the water, but big trouble if we set foot on shore in the Arsenal. So we stayed on the water, armed guards following us on shore to make sure. They looked mean. But that was fun too.

 

Edited Part: gwd-scouter, I would vote for the trip at Racoon Mountain, just the other side of Chattanooga. You don't have to have any special training and they supply all the gear. It really is great fun! Here's the url:

http://www.raccoonmountain.com/html/wild_cave.html(This message has been edited by packsaddle)

[gwd-scouter]

Thanks guys for all your help. I checked out and printed out information for the websites you posted. This past weekend the Scouts did their annual planning. Spelunking was high on their list of new things to do and they were very excited about the web site information I gave out. Now, if they can just decided which place to visit...

 

 

[ASM59]

I think this will qualifies as "Southeast". I just got back from taking some of the youth from our Church youth group to Carter Caves State Park in KY. The boys had a lot of fun, as did the adults. There is a wide variety of Caving that you can take part in at this park.

 

1)-Along some of their hiking trails are two caves that you can go through yourself, unguided. There is no way to get lost in these caves. They are simple single path caves with only a few short dead-end side passages. They are great fun to go through as a group, but make sure to get your hiking permit from the office first.

2)-There are guided tours of X Cave and Cascade Cave and more. Each is lighted with finished walkways.

3)-There is a guided tour of Bat Cave as well. This cave has not been modified with walkways, hand rails or installed lighting. You go on the tour with a tour guide and your flashlights only. The standard tour is not too difficult. Its about two hours long with some passages that require squating or crawling as the ceiling gets pretty low.

4)-There is also a guided crawling tour of the Bat Cave and another cave in the park. I haven't been on these tours, but I've heard that they're great fun as well.

 

I am familiar with the caves of this park and did not have any worries about the boys being able to get through any of the caves that we went through. The 2 caves we went through on our own are considered wild caves, but they are not difficult to get through at all. The Bat Cave is a wild cave as well, but it was a guided tour and the tour is not too extreme. On our trip, the youngest was a 6th grader (11 y.o.) and he did fine on all the cave tours that we did. Of course, always submit to the G2SS when you are going on an official Scout outing.

 

http://parks.ky.gov/resortparks/cc/index.htm

 

ASM59

 

 

[gwd-scouter]

Thought I'd get back to everyone and let you know what the Scouts decided. Since this is their first cave trip, we're going to Lost Sea then, assuming they have a good time, they want to put another more ambitious trip on the calendar for next year.

 

The guys have looked forward to this trip since they put it on the calendar last fall - we're leaving next weekend for Tennessee.

[click23]

GWD,

 

I am from Sweetwater, and worked at the Lost Sea during high school. If you have any questions about the area or the cave just ask away I will be happy to answer them. If you like send me a PM and I will send you my contact info in case you need something while you are down here, I live in the next town over now, Athens. Well it is off to Wood Badge this weekend.

 

Robert

[Scouter&mom]

My daughter did the overnight at the Lost Sea with her Cadet GS troop (a real adventurous group of girls) and they all loved it. She dug out her pictures of them all muddy to take with her to GS World Center in Switzerland next month. It was one of the highlights of her years in Scouting that she wants to share. At 21 she is still proud of that night.

[okiepatchtrader]

I have absolutely now input on caves in southeastern U.S. But what I do have is a story from way back when we took our boys to the wild caves at Alabaster Caverns State Park in Oklahoma. There are about six wild cave, those that are not guided by state park personnel, and a couple of them are pretty difficult. The last one we did each time had a low pass where you had to go under water to get through. The boys absolutely loved it. We kept pics of them on our webpage after coming out. They were covered completely from head to toe. I mean they looked like they were dipped in chocolate. That was usually the month we had the most hits on our webpage indicated they were telling people about it. Yes we did a couple rapelleing a year, but the caving rally seemed to get thier attention. Just my two cents worth.

[ASM915]

gwd,

If you willing to come a little father north, southwestern Pa., there are a couple of sites that put on good scout oriented programs.

 

One is the Laurel Caverns near OhioPyle Pa. They offer a year round Climbing MB program that is run down in the cave. Totally underground. You camp in the cave also. I think it is out on by the Laurel Cavern staff. I'll have to check.

 

While you're there, the second would be worth checking into, depending on how much time you have for the trip. Check out Wilderness Outfitters. They offer Climbing, Whitewater MB's and I think BSA Kayaking Certification. They also run rafting and canoe trips on the Yough. River.

 

Plan a week and spelunk and get your Climbing MB on days one and two, Gat your Whitewater MB on days three thru five and finish it off with one heck of a rafting trip. You probably will need to fundraise a little. This might be an idea for their plan for next year.