Stonewall Cavers Gallery

The Stonewall Cavers sponsored a trip to Xanadu Cave in the Obey River Gorge in Fentress County Tennessee. Seven men attended the trip: Randy, Mike, John, and Brad from Kentucky; Josh and Scott from Virginia, and me (Todd) from Georgia.

It is a long walk to the cave as one must decend the gorge from the rim. The "road" to the bottom is navigable by hikers, horses, and ATVs only, so Randy, the trip leader, suggested we backpack to the entrance and camp when we get out of the cave instead of hiking back out of the gorge: a thousand feet of elevation must be gained in only one mile!

We met at the East Fork Stables campground on Friday night, where we had two primitive sites rented. Got up Saturday morning at about 8AM, and after breakfast, drove the few miles to the rim of the Obey River Gorge. We got our backpacking and caving gear in order.....my pack weighed 65 pounds! And, then we descended the gorge on the so-called "road."

At the bottom of the gorge, Randy and Mike went to look at the lower entrance of Xanadu, to see if we could exit the cave that way. Well, it was completely sumped, so we knew we would have to backtrack out of the cave. Then, we hiked the rest of the way up the cove to the cave entrance, where we all pitched our tents and set up camp. The Stinging Nettles were fierce in the cove.

There were just enough flat areas around the entrance to accomodate us all. Josh and Scott, found a "shelf" up the bluff a ways where they could setup their sleeping pads without having to pitch a tent.

We were geared-up and ready to cave at about 3PM in the afternoon. We all entered the cave, and after a short narrow passage, we came to a wide open passage which was more typical of this cave. Many of the passages are enormous, and not much crawling is required. The most memorable feature of the cave was the sandhills, a series of hills and valleys, which got progressively dustier and steeper as we went. The view from the top of one hill back to the next, with the string of caver lamps lighting the way, was impressive. Sometimes the hills could be rather steep, and at one point, Randy and John rigged a hand rope to assist our climb. We crossed sandhill after sandhill.

Eventually, we came to a place where we climbed high above the cave floor to a low room near the ceiling, which was packed with formations. It was called the "Jewelbox". Because of the very delicate formations and tight walking space, we walked around with our helmets in our hands. Most of the stalactites followed obvious cracks in the ceiling rock. There were many soda straws, long hollow formations, as well. This was the most impressive room in the cave.

After seeing the Jewelbox and taking many pictures, we went down a smaller passage that required some crawling. Then it opened up again. At one point, we crossed a really deep crack. It was only a foot or two wide, but 60 feet deep, and crossing it made some people a little nervous (not to mention any names). The passages were mostly pretty easy. I had not been in the cave since the 80's, but Randy helped in the initial exploration of Xanadu, so he knew just about every turn.

Our last memorable room was "Fort Sanders," before we turned around to go back. We were within shouting distance from the lower entrance but knew that way out would require that we be amphibious. The sand hills seemed much higher on our way out!

We exited the cave about 11PM, 8 hours after we entered. John and Brad didn't even bother to fix dinner before they crashed, and the rest of us were snoring in no time. No partying that night!

The next morning we packed up and started up the gorge. John, Brad, Scott, and Josh got an early start as they needed to get home early. Mike, Randy and I started out a little later. The hike out of the gorge is a killer! And, that damn 65 pounds on my back didn't help, either. We all made it out, however, with only a minimal amount of whining. And, several of us turned-down a ride on the back of an ATV being driven by a tobacco- chewing "Bubba."

Score another kick-ass caving trip for the Stonewall Cavers.

Todd Merriman

todd@toolz.com