Jive Hole

Jive Hole

Brian Sakofsky, Bruce White, Marc Pederson, Willie Hunt, Tim Curtis, Jason Reckor, Benjy Von Cramon

The night before, I’d driven down after Aaron’s wedding. I drove for 5.5 hrs. I believe that’s the longest and farthest I’ve driven by myself. I was definitely tired when I arrived at Marion’s but the drive wasn’t too bad. I relaxed, listened to music, and enjoyed the drive. I saw a cool dam off of I-40 east of Nashville. The rest of the drive is mostly a blur. It was 2:00 AM, 1:00 central, when I arrived at Marion’s cabin. The lights were all out but I knew I was at the right place because there were trucks with bat stickers. I didn’t want to wake everyone so I went to the front door to see if it was open. I fiddled with it for about a minute because there was no door knob. Then I just shoved it and it opened. I quickly and quietly set up camp on the floor in his living room making sure that I didn’t wake Benjy von Cramon who was sleeping on the couch.

After eating breakfast with Alan Cressler, Marion Smith, Gerald Moni, and Benjy von Cramon, I drove to meet everyone else at the gate in Cook Cove. We had to off-road to get back to the cave so I left my car near the gate and rode with Brian Sakofsky. The drive back definitely required a high clearance, 4-wheel drive vehicle. The valley was quite scenic. High up on one of the hills was an exposed bluff. We parked, geared up, and hiked up the hill to Jive Hole. It was a little further than I expected but not a bad hike at all.

The entrance was bellowing steam when we arrived. Brian Sakofsky rigged a rope and Jason Reckor went down first to see if the current rig would be too wet. He radioed up that it was wet but as good as we’d get. The rope was placed right between 2 of the 3 small waterfalls. Brian Sakofsky rappelled in, and then I grabbed a pack of photo gear and followed. After a short ledge where the water was coming in, the drop was freefall. It was a very nice open drop. I was almost immediately in a light spray of water. I rappelled quickly to stay drier.

Brian Sakofsky was already trying to take some pictures at the bottom but his lens was fogged up; I got my camera out and found mine was too. Willie came down and we climbed up the breakdown slope to find the best spot to take pictures. We knew it when saw it. From this vantage, light shone in both entrances and all three waterfalls were visible. An impressive entrance! Willie and Tim Curtis set up and started taking pictures. Brian and I fiddled around with our cameras.

Marc Pederson climbed and rappelled back down so that Willie could take pictures. Later, Jason also yoyo’ed the pit. I volunteered to climb but Jason had already spoken up. I didn’t mind since they both got drenched and Jason was noticeably cold later. I took pictures of the group and a few pictures of the pit. I was able to use Willies strobes for a few shots.

At one point, I was leaning against the wall and I felt the wall starting to push back against me. I quickly stepped away sidestepping a 200 lb flake of rock that slid off the wall behind me. Somebody pointed out how comforting it was to look above us at the similarly strewn breakdown wall.

Later Benjy and Brian were moving the strobes around so Willie could get different lighting effects. Benjy will eventually create a composite off many of the different lighting effects to create a really cool picture. Ah, the power of Photoshop. Looking up, it was kind of neat to see the stream bellowing out the entrance. It had started to snow when we were back at our cars; I could occasionally see the snow coming in the entrance high above at the top of the 180’ pit.

Eventually, it was time to pack up. Bruce White had suggested we eat at Pizza Hut and go hot tubbing at Marion’s afterwards; great plan! Bruce and I climbed up after Benjy and Brian. We got drenched. I was in a heavy rain most of the way up. I later found out that I picked the wetter rope; we’d rigged 2 ropes. The water gave me incentive to climb fast! It was nice that my helmet kept most of the water off of my head.

Above, snow had accumulated an inch on the ground. It was cold but quite pretty. Bruce and I stumbled and slid down the hill. It was really snowing when we got back to the cars. The snow flakes were huge! The field and trees glistened with snow. I changed and then took some pictures and socialized while waiting for the others.

The drive out was awesome! The rugged trail was covered with snow. Everything was white. It kind of reminded me of driving on the moon. Brian’s Tacoma did an excellent job getting us back to the gate. There, we waited for Tim to catch up with the key. I downed some fruit while I wrote a journal entry. I’d been shaking mainly because I no longer had any food or energy for my body to process in order to keep me warm.

Eventually, Bruce, Benjy, Marc, and I ate dinner at Pizza Hut and then went back to Marion’s cabin. Alan had decided to stay there again that night as well. We were expecting Ryan but didn’t see him until the next morning. The hot tub felt good. It was a cold night. It really did get down to 9 degrees, brrrr.

Back to Tennessee

Jive Hole Gallery

Back to Tennessee