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Wow!
By Glenn Ledbetter
From the July 2001 Flowstone
On Saturday, June 16, I met Keith Filson and John Barnett near Spencer Tenn. for
a trip to Rumbling Falls and Stupendous Pit. The cave was originally found by
John Hutchison several years ago. Then Marion O. Smith and co. climbed two
waterfalls to find more cave and Stupendous Pit as well as the major borehole at
the bottom. They have kept this great find to themselves while they explore and
map. Great job to them.
We met at 9:00 am and were at the entrance before 9:30. We rigged the first drop
of 77' to walking passage below. We followed the passage up stream and up to
pre-rigged water falls (odd to follow water up stream to a pit). Next we had to
follow a hands and knees crawl for about 400' to more walking passage, then some
tight canyon passage and after about 2 hours we were at the pit. WOW! was all I
could say after looking at this awesome site. We rigged the rope and John was
first down followed by Keith and me. While on the way down I got a good look and
the immensity of this pit when all I could see was the flame of John's carbide
lamp. Once on bottom I could not imagine how big this room is, it was like
standing in an open field in the dead of night.
We then climbed down 175' to the bottom of the breakdown mountain to the river
borehole! We followed this huge passage for what seemed like several miles till
the water became to deep to wade across. Keith was able to traverse around one
wall to more shallow water and went on to see an in-feeder passage that was
larger than the one we were in. At this time we turned around and started for
the entrance. We exited the cave around 5:30 pm for a total of 8 hours in the
cave. Rumbling falls is a true cavers cave, it has every thing a caver dreams
of: water, walking and crawling passage as well as Stupendous Pit. At 201' deep,
it is a classic by its self. Now all I can say is WOW! What a trip! Thanks to
Keith and John for letting me tag along on this great trip. Until next time,
keep caving deep in TAG.
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