Rebel Cave

Rebel Cave

Bruce White, Willie Hunt, Marc Pederson, Benjy Von Cramon, Jeff ?, Jason Recor

The next morning we ate at Shoney’s where we met up with Jason Recor and Jeff ?. We caravanned to Rebel Cave. We parked behind the owners house, geared up, and headed up the hill. It felt weird for my backpack to be so light. We followed a dirt road up the hill and all the way to the cave entrance. It was evident that there must be a hay ride on this trail because there were signs that said headless horseman and such. After an easy hike we arrived at a large sink that was the entrance to Rebel Cave. I rummaged through my backpack and was dismayed that my rack wasn’t there. I was about to trek back down the hill to fetch it when Benjy said that he would share his. I felt bad because I thought this would probably slow the group up but it ended up working out pretty well. I hadn’t double checked my vertical gear because all of my gear had been in my bat pack and I’d put all that stuff into my backpack. I later learned that my rack had hidden itself in Marion’s garage two days ago. It’d fallen out of sight behind a pet cage.

Anyway, when my turn came I hauled Benjy’s rack back up and then free rappelled down the first pit. I climbed down a slope at the bottom of it, over some breakdown and arrived at the next pit. I quickly went down it; the rope was 3/8”. I took some picture as Benjy came down. We were now in a very tall canyon passage. To the left there was a dome with a waterfall. There was another dome to the right. We hiked down the right passage and climbed up into a room to the left. We were now at the 3^rd pit. I waited here and took pictures as the people in front of me went down. There was a rebelay on a ledge 20’ down in this pit. Benjy went down and waited on the ledge. I rappelled on a munter hitch to the ledge and waited there to pull Benjy’s rack up and then rappelled the 160’ pit.

The first 20’ were along a wall but it soon became free fall. The room it opened into was huge! At the bottom, we ditched our vertical gear and toured through some large rooms and interesting passage. Back at the huge dome room we went into another passage that soon became a narrow, winding, slimy canyon. We crossed over the last 20’ pit and continued ahead. After sliding through a small hole, I emerged in another room, climbed a slope and the walls and ceiling were gone! All I saw was blackness! We were in a very large dome room probably 160+ feet tall. A waterfall was plunging down from high above. The group sat around for a few minutes shining Willie’s mini beast around and then routed. Jason and Jeff stayed behind to explore. They thought they might catch back up with us but never did.

Back at the 160’ pit, I took pictures as everyone else climbed up and then went up myself. As I neared the lip I noticed some horn coral in the rock. I climbed the 20’ pit and very quickly traversed the passage back to the next pit. I quickly climbed that and arrived at the entrance. I saw the rope moving and yelled to see if he was still on it. Soon I heard OFF ROPE and begin climbing out. I paused once to take a picture looking out the entrance and climbed the rest of the way out.

It was a beautiful day. The sun was getting lower in the sky casting a light, fiery glow. and the temperature was very warm. This was my type of rainy day! We enjoyed the scenery and weather as we hiked back down to the cars. From here we were off to Georgia to watch the McBride’s rescue.

I noticed that I had 3 voicemails when I arrived back at the car. Brandon had called back, Kyle had called, and my mom had also called warning me again about the pending snow. I called my mom back and she told me they were forecasting a great deal of snow for southern Indiana and ice for Kentucky. I asked her to check the forecast again and discuss with my dad whether it was necessary for me to drive back early before the snow or if they would likely have it cleaned up by the next night when I was planning on coming home. She called back later and it sounded like it was probably better for me to come home early. Brandon tells me that Kentucky doesn’t have any equipment for dealing with snow and my tires are nearly bald anyway. I called Willie and then said good bye to everyone when we stopped at a gas station for food. They went east on 24 and I headed back to the west. I was 60 miles east of Nashville.

I made pretty good time on the way home. Traffic was pretty bad on 65 in Nashville because there were only two lanes. I couldn’t help but think that if there weren’t any semis on the road that I’d be going a lot quicker. Sure enough, as soon as a 3rd lane opened up and the semis eventually obeyed the signs directing them to get over traffic picked up considerably. The third lane was meant to get semis out of the way and only lasted for a couple miles but that was just enough to jumpstart traffic. The rest of the way home there were a couple semis that pleased me. I was happy to see a line of 5 semis contently following each other in the right lane where they belong and one semi who wasn’t governed and passed quickly. The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful though it was rather interesting driving in the rain; at least it wasn’t snow or ice. It seemed to me that the amount of spray semis put off during the rain is rather dangerous. When they’re passing each other, cars behind receive spray from both semis greatly hindering visibility.

As I drove, I looked forward to each upcoming city. I was rather disappointed that I couldn’t see over the cement barricade when crossing the Ohio. I always enjoy the downtown, riverside view of Louisville. I had originally thought that it would take me 8 hrs to get home but made it home in 6 hrs and 15 minutes. A couple times later in the night, I felt a wave of tiredness start to creep over me but was successful ignoring it until I got home. Then the walls of alertness fell as I eased into relaxation soaking up the warmth of the hot tub.

Back to Tennessee

Rebel Cave Gallery

Back to Tennessee