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bobby49 wrote:Bears do not go caving because they can't find a headlamp strap that will fit their head.
Vince wrote:Bear encounters may be uncommon but we did have a strange incident here in NW New Jersey. Check out these media reports:
https://www.cnn.com/2015/12/21/us/bear- ... index.html
https://www.dailyrecord.com/story/news/ ... /77680698/
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/nation ... -1.2472133
-V
rdube02 wrote:Hi Everyone - I have a question for the experienced cavers on this board.
My wife and I are new to cave exploration - we've visited a few shallow caves while living in Maine but never anything as extensive as underground tunnels & caverns, so we were excited to move to Tennessee where the possibilities are almost unlimited. Using information I've learned over the years about how to locate high-likelihood cave hotspots, I took my wife this weekend to a dry river location where we could park on public land and essentially hike miles into a remote wildnerness area where I'd pinpointed as likely having caves.
We were shocked that within barely 2.5 miles of hiking the riverbed into the start of the wilderness area, we spotted a cliff on the left side of the riverbed with at least 4 caves (that we could see). The openings were on various levels of the cliff - some were smaller and round, but the one that surprised us was a v-shaped opening at ground level.
Growing up in Maine I'm *always* aware of bear threats so we started calling out to ensure there were no bears around. All was silent. So we donned our headlamps and peeked into the V shaped cave. To my surprise, after the immediately left turn it extended at least 40 feet to what I thought was a dead end (typical of the Maine caves we visited). But to my surprise I could see a passage going off to the right before the dead end. I carefully walked to it, constantly calling out in case a bear was in there, but it was all silent. At that passage, I peered down and saw it went about 4 feet and then turned left. I went and peeked down there and sure enough it went another 40 feet before turning again to the right.
At that point I couldn't overcome my concern about bears. The many spiders, crickets, and other critters, no problem. But I did NOT want to trap a bear in there. Despite my wife's pleading to continue on, I convinced her we'd come back when we were better prepared (and I could do more research! That's why I'm here...).
What concerned me was when we left the cave to continue hiking down the riverbed, we heard what we thought were baby goats bleating. I didn't think anything of it until about an hour later when we were headed back home and passing these caves, I *swear* I heard the sound coming from the caves. Then I realized where I'd heard the sound before -- when I was a kid and hiking in the woods in Maine, I came across bear cubs and they made that sound.
We left the area immediately. And now I'm here...my question is: I'm DYING to go back and explore this particular cave further. But is it safe? Do bears in Tennessee actually go really deep into passages like this (my wife and I could just fit in some of the shorter passages)? What is the danger level of stumbling across a bear as we get deeper into these tunnels?
Sorry if this sounds amateur or stupid but we're definitely new to caving in Tennessee and don't want to be stupid about it so I'm hoping for some expert advice from all of you. Thank you in advance!
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