Neversink: 160 ft After breakfast, we drove on up to Neversink.  The scenery was beautiful!I was finally able to see the Alabama countryside in the daylight.  Just before getting to Neversink we passed a house with the most unique decorated yard I’ve ever seen.  It was covered with large boulders shaped and painted like animals, especially memorable: the Penguin and the Turtle.  I am kinda mad we didn’t take any pictures. We came to the parking area and I was quite confident that my car could not make it in, so I parked on the side of the road.  The hike up to Neversink was a death march.  It was not really too long or steep, but a death march with the hot weather and thick humidity. As you walk up to the amazing open-air pit, it is as if a scene from some sort of magical fairy tale.  A few folks were finishing up and they mentioned to me that there is no need for a headlight in this cave; it had plenty of natural light.  I rappelled the cave first and was splendid with what I saw.  I immediately got out my camera and started snapping pictures. In the pit we saw a dead snake that I picked up with a stick to see if it was a rattler.  It reeked so badly, I dropped it and didn’t determine what kind it was and I nearly ralphed my Western Sizzle.  Next we found a rat snake and copper head on the ground they were very photogenic and friendly.  The climb out was fun and tiring with my frog system.  At the top we met Milton Poleski and his 13 year-old boy-wonder son: Run Run who could climb 400 ft in 6 minutes.  Run Run was practicing to compete at a rope climbing competition at the caving convention.  We also met Guy Wolf originally from Indiana who now lives in Scottsboro and works at Ruby Tuesday.  He gloriously announced that cavers get a 15% discount at Ruby Tuesday when he is your server.  We knew we had to go there later.  We then took a nice long break in the Alabama sun and had some snacks and lots of water to regenerate.

The Copper Head Looking Down the pit View from the bottom View from the ledge. By Brandon Stephens

Cagles Chasm: 198 ft

The drive to Cagle’s was also filled with amazing views.  As we pulled up, we parked in a parking area that the hunt club allows cavers to use.  It was right next to a smelly kennel filled with about 100 beagles and chickens and roosters.  They were all making noise: bark bark, cock a doodle dooo, bawk bawk!  It was a little tricky locating Cagle’s and Brandon welcomed me to a typical time finding caves in TAG.  When we found the pit, Brandon took a little nap on a rock while Mike took a little walk into the woods to fertilize the Tennessee soils.  Brandon woke up to a nasty insect bite and verbalized some choice words while I started rigging the pit. Brandon went over to another pit connected to the cave and rigged it.  We went in Cagle’s and out Jeepside.  It was a neat experience.  It was getting dark, so we packed up and left.  Walking back Brandon took a spill right on his caboose.  It was a hoot! We cleaned up and went to dinner at Ruby Tuesday.  We had Guy as our waiter.  It was great food.  Plus, we got the caver’s discount.  Guy brought me out some Sweet Iced Tea that he dubbed ‘straight out of Martin Luther King Jr. Bvld.’ It was a fun dinner that night.After dinner we ran to a store so Mike could purchase a sleeping pad that he had forgotten at home.  While there, we ran into Brian, Sean, Alan, and the 2 folks from New Mexico.  One of them had a large gash in leg from McBride’s.  The story is that while rappelling, the sharp stone sliced through his boot and his skin.  Needless to say, he was still bleeding and he bought new boots.  Saturday night we camped at Scottsboro.  I rigged a high line to dry the caving clothes while Mike gave himself a Nalgene bath. 

Valhalla: 230 ft

I parked my civic a little way down the driveway; I knew my car could not make it through this road. Erin and I loaded our necessary gear into Brandon’s Explorer and took the death ride standing on Brandon’s rear bumper the rest of the way.  We caught air many times during the 15-minute ride.  We finally made it and geared up!  Once again, people there were from Indiana (Evansville).  Valhalla was an awesome cave.  The pictures turned out great.  We spent a lot of time in the pit where we found another Copperhead.  Mike snake charmed the Copperhead into a gear bag.  Let the records state there was no hole in the bottom.  We checked.  Then he tied the bag to the rope and pulled it up after exiting the pit.  Mike got the snake out and released it back into the wild.  

Stephen’s Gap: 140     (click on here for more pictures from a previous trip)

Next we hit Stephen’s Gap.  Once again people were there from Indiana (Indianapolis and Bloomington). This cave was Beautiful and fun.  It was a death march to get there; not too tough of a trail but so hot and humid, I sweat a bunch!  I ran to the cold water from the waterfall that ran into the cave.  I took a little mini shower and it felt great!  We were able to rappel into this cave and walk out another entrance without getting on-rope.  Well, that’s what we thought, but luckily we got Mike’s attention while he was climbing the rope out (because he wanted to climb) and we had him rig a hand line to get up the waterfall safely.  Brandon actually chose to never hit the bottom of this one; he changed over a few feet above the ground and climbed back out.  It rained hard afterwards.  We had some concerns about water getting in Mike’s tent, which he dubs the ‘Wal-Mart Special.’

War Eagle: 142

After the rain it was time to do War Eagle.  We found it very fast with directions that we had gotten from Milton, but as Brandon saw the relatively small entrance he was having motivational issues.  I made the obvious analogy: don’t judge a book by its cover and don’t judge a cave by its entrance.  Mike sarcastically commented that he couldn’t have made that connection. After much debate, we decided to use the rope that was rigged in the entrance, after-all the car parked in the lot was from Indiana, so they had to be friendly.  Well, they weren’t too happy with us when we met up with them underground.  But, we had Mike rig our rope since he hadn’t come down at that point.  Mike also rigged a great footstep on a separate and smaller rope that really helped getting over the tough lip.  War Eagle was the most decorated non-tourist cave I have ever seen.  I thought it was amazing but Erin and I were getting burnt out on climbing.  Exiting the cave was cool as we could hear the fireworks in the distance.  When we got back to the car, I discovered the immense joy of the Nalgene bath under the dark and starry Alabama sky.  It felt good and I smelt a little better. We then went to dinner at the Huddle House.  It was the only place open at that hour that would let you sit down to eat.  They must have had the air-conditioner on cave mode because I am pretty sure that it was in the 50s.  Freezing cold and very uncomfortable.  All I can say is that place had horrible food and service and was not worth the money spent.  Eating Taco Bell, Wendy’s, or McDonald’s sitting on the pavement would have been a major upgrade.  Major! Then we camped. We heard a beautiful hoot call from an owl near by.  It was soothing and we all slept well.  

Monday

On the morning of the 4^th of July, Brandon spotted an obviously huge spider on his tent.  We didn’t know what type it was, so I photographed it for positive ID.  Erin and I packed up our stuff and threw in the towel on caving for the day.  Brandon and Mike were on their way to Sinking Cove and Erin and I drove over to Desoto falls.  It was very pretty, but many people were there.  A high-line was rigged and a group of girls were preparing for a day of flying across the gorge.  The scenery there looked exactly like the setting for Deliverance, we hoped our day would end up better than the movie.  We didn’t really stay too long. We got back in the car and headed North.  It was a great

drive.  We had a pit stop at a Stuckey’s in Tennessee.  I bought a lot of candy.  I saw it as a sweet acquisition, while Erin saw it as 15 bucks for a bellyache. The drive back took forever.  Erin had the pleasure of driving through Tennessee and Kentucky.  There were wild-fires on the side of I-65 in both states and the highway was closed for periods of time that the fire crew fought them.  In Kentucky we tried to find the Makers Mark distillery.  I wanted to dip a bottle in the wax, but no luck.  We made it over to Bardstown, only to get a pamphlet and see that the tours were finished for the day.  Erin and I had a delightful dinner in Louisville at Deke’s Marketplace downtown.  We sat outside and they didn’t say anything about our massive BO.  The food was excellent and the price was right.  The drive from Louisville was a breeze.  When we got home, I looked at the pics then took the shower of my life!!  I am clean again and the trip was amazing!

Big Ass Spider Desoto falls (left) Photo's By: Kyle