Boy Scout Trip to Tumbling Rock Cave

Another fun trip to Tumbling Rock Cave...this has been my favorite trip that I went with Sam two years before.  And I was very excited to get back with Davis.  But wow, as I write this a week later, my knees are still aching, altho at least the pain in my arms, neck, legs, abs, and hip seems to be gone.  We began this morning with a windy 40 degrees, and as we set up the dining flys and tents, we actually were looking forward to the 55 degrees in the cave to warm up in. 

 

From the website...

Tumbling Rock Cave is one of Alabama’s finest caves. With over six miles of surveyed passage, it offers beginning and experienced cavers alike a true wild cave experience. The large trunk passage, called borehole, is accompanied by a stream throughout most of its length. The borehole is occasionally interrupted by multiple intersecting passages with several rooms half filled with breakdown (giant piles of large rocks} Some of these passages become sandy crawls which can be fun as well as challenging.

Along the borehole, groups of formations containing flowstone, large stalagmites and stalactites, huge column formations with fanciful names like The Elephants Feet and The Christmas Tree. Other areas include unusual formations called The Totem Gallery and the Little Hall of Mysteries.  Topless Dome, a nearly 400-foot-high waterfall is accessed via the Kings Shower.

Tumbling Rock was very active during the Civil War with saltpeter mining which was used in the manufacture of gunpowder. The cave still holds the remains of this mining operation in the form of several large vats and even signatures left by soldiers on the walls.



I stayed near the back with Davis, as some of the older scouts went ahead with our fearless scout leader Dirk.  But I ended up in the back of the group, and as we made our way towards the Christmas Tree (A stalagmite decorated year round for Christmas), me and about 5 others got lost from the group.  We hit a few dead ends, and definitely did not make it to the tree the same way as the others, but found a hole to climb thru, then finally found our way back to the main group that was already sitting down eating lunch.  I will assume they would have come looking for us as some point. 

 

Me and Dave sat together in 4.5 foot ceiling "room" for our lunch.  Sam had went ahead with a group led by Dirk towards some of the deeper parts of the cave.  At the Christmas Tree, you are about a little over 3 miles deep in the cave, and that was enough for us.  Sam told us later that he had to go thru some tight areas belly crawling and pushing his back pack ahead of him.  The one picture below is Sam crawing thru "The Devil's Anus"...haha or so I was told.  The Devil's anus is not marked on the map, so may be something the scouts came up with...or Dirk came up with.  Davis and I went up into the topless dome, then traveled a little deeper to the Christmas tree, then to Tumbling Rock.  One of the pictures below has Davis touching the tumbling rock...we set up our own photo booth for everyone wanting pics at tumbling rock. 

 

So on the way back, there was a fork in the cave, and I thought I saw some light up and to the left, while the rest of the group went to the right.  I climbed up and found Dirk coming down wondering where we were, I told him I thought one or two had went to the right following a creek.  Ha, he said well wait right here with me, that way is a dead end, we will see them when they come back.  And there was like 20 people that had went that wrong way, including Sam and Davis.  I don't recall any other people getting lost, just steam coming off our bodies, and our breath steaming making our trek thru the cave very difficult.  The steam clouded your vision, so it was very slow going.  I don't know how sam did it with glasses, I am sure they were fogged up the whole time.  We made it out, and I am sure you can tell the before from after pics below.  We also had no showers for our night of camping, so each of us had a baby wipe bath.

 

Sam forgot his extra pair of shoes, but I had kept my boots dry in the cave, so I let him have my dry shoes, but his 12 foot would not fit in my 10 shoe, so that guy duct taped gallon size ziplock bags on his feet then wore his shoes over that.  Haha, he did have dry feet.  The adults ate well that night with jambalaya, and in the morning with some omelettes in a bag.  And both Sam and Davis had some good patrol meals that they helped out with.  Davis helped make donuts for their patrol the next morning.  This was Sam's first campout as Patrol Leader, and he led his group of 6 boys well.  They ate well, and had a good post camp inspection.  I loved watching him get his patrol working together on dinner and kitchen duty.  I was very proud of him.  But he and all the scout patrols forgot one thing...to stake down their dining fly.  Sunday morning brought some wind, and it lifted Sam's dining fly up and out into a field.  BIG LESSON learned for all the boys, as if that would have happened at night, we had many tents that would have been hit.  Scary moment, but I think all the boys realized their error.