Tumbling Rock Cave Clean-up Report
Posted: Nov 23, 2009 9:45 pmSo, having procrastinated for far too long, it is time to fill everyone in on the SKTF clean-up that was held at Tumbling Rock on November 1. I have to admit that I am constantly reminded why I love being a part of the caving community by events like this one. In total, we had 40 volunteers who came from as far away as Pineville, KY (500 miles round trip) to help with the clean-up. We also made a positive impact with some of the local land owners. I had the opportunity to talk to a couple of landowners after the clean-up and they were extremely impressed that cavers would show up to donate their time and resources for an event like this one. They then invited me to come look at a couple of leads on their land. Their land is leased by a hunting club and has not been open to cavers for a number of years.
The volunteers hit the ground running and we had 4 different projects we hoped to complete. The first group headed back towards the King's Shower and Topless Dome to remove old carbide dumps that had been buried, but had begun to come uncovered. They removed between 50-70 lbs of spent carbide. The second group headed in to the Mud Room (for those not familiar, this is a room where people have written in mud on the ceiling and walls and also made and thrown mud balls everywhere). This was the largest group of volunteers, but they had a lot of work ahead of them. After much spraying and scraping off of mud, the room transformed into a completely new room (when checking out their work afterwards, I actually passed the room before realizing that I had missed it because it looked so different). The group even filled in the holes people had dug to remove mud. They were thorough in their efforts and it showed. The third group worked to remove preselected out arrows and spray paint in select areas of the cave that had been previously checked for historical remains. This group removed/covered more than 40 out arrows. The fourth group walked the length of County Road 111 from Tumbling Rock to County Road 33 and picked up trash from the roadside.
After much debating, a Volunteer of the Day was selected. This person was given a choice for their birthday of having a party with friends or going caving and helping with the clean-up. I guess you know which choice they picked. Kristian Young came to help on his birthday. This was his first "real" caving trip that wasn't in a commercial cave. And, he even had a great attitude when we asked him to help pick up trash on the side of the road instead of going to work inside the cave. It wasn't until that night that he even went caving. The entire day, he busted it to help clean up trash and not once did he complain. Great job Kristian!
A special thanks to all those who came and volunteered their time. I hope you are enjoying your new SKTF t-shirt! Also, thanks to those who stayed for the night and camped. The fellowship around the fire that night was an added bonus to add to an already great day. Thank you to Jay Clark for opening Tumbling Rock Cave up for the clean-up and helping prepare for the event. He was a great resource in helping us plan and coordinate the clean-up. A thank you is also in order for Jackson County Solid Waste Department for providing a dumpster for us to fill up.
The following restaurants helped support our efforts by donating food for the volunteers (and we had a TON of good food!):
Lone Star BBQ
Ruby Tuesdays
Tate's BBQ
Triple R BBQ
Margarita's Mexican Restaurant
Pizza Hut
Buena Vista Mexican Restaurant
Creekside Restaurant/Jackson City Park Restaurant
Next time you are in Scottsboro caving, please stop by one of the businesses for a bite to eat and let them know you are a caver.
A few other stats from the day:
6 years old-youngest volunteer
62 years old-oldest volunteer
17 Georgia volunteers
15 Tennessee
7 Alabama
1 Kentucky
1 ton garbage removed from road and cave
2 light drizzles; amount of rain that fell during cleanup - BTW, Caver's don't melt!
Volunteers (Sorry if your name is misspelled...means your handwriting was too hard to read!)
Daniel Briedes
Steve Holt
Brad Barker
DJ Metroka
Chris Metroka
Michael Coulter
Julie Uselton
Maureen Handler
Jonny Prouty
Deirdra Hahn
Marty Abercrombie
Emily Abercrombie
Laila Anderson
Chris Anderson
Michelle Vaughn
Mike Crockett
Cheryl Pratt
Tommy Royston
Sabrina Simon
Nathan Williams
Kyle Gochenour
J V Lei
Denmark Blount
Jane Lu
Gary Barnes
Milo Washington
Alfred Crabtree
Clinton Elmore
Anne Elmore
Ken Young
Kristian Young
Brent Wilkins
Stacy Cates
Allison Lemke
Harvey Leake
Daniel Leake
Jim Wilbanks
John Hoffelt
Chrys Hulbert
The volunteers hit the ground running and we had 4 different projects we hoped to complete. The first group headed back towards the King's Shower and Topless Dome to remove old carbide dumps that had been buried, but had begun to come uncovered. They removed between 50-70 lbs of spent carbide. The second group headed in to the Mud Room (for those not familiar, this is a room where people have written in mud on the ceiling and walls and also made and thrown mud balls everywhere). This was the largest group of volunteers, but they had a lot of work ahead of them. After much spraying and scraping off of mud, the room transformed into a completely new room (when checking out their work afterwards, I actually passed the room before realizing that I had missed it because it looked so different). The group even filled in the holes people had dug to remove mud. They were thorough in their efforts and it showed. The third group worked to remove preselected out arrows and spray paint in select areas of the cave that had been previously checked for historical remains. This group removed/covered more than 40 out arrows. The fourth group walked the length of County Road 111 from Tumbling Rock to County Road 33 and picked up trash from the roadside.
After much debating, a Volunteer of the Day was selected. This person was given a choice for their birthday of having a party with friends or going caving and helping with the clean-up. I guess you know which choice they picked. Kristian Young came to help on his birthday. This was his first "real" caving trip that wasn't in a commercial cave. And, he even had a great attitude when we asked him to help pick up trash on the side of the road instead of going to work inside the cave. It wasn't until that night that he even went caving. The entire day, he busted it to help clean up trash and not once did he complain. Great job Kristian!
A special thanks to all those who came and volunteered their time. I hope you are enjoying your new SKTF t-shirt! Also, thanks to those who stayed for the night and camped. The fellowship around the fire that night was an added bonus to add to an already great day. Thank you to Jay Clark for opening Tumbling Rock Cave up for the clean-up and helping prepare for the event. He was a great resource in helping us plan and coordinate the clean-up. A thank you is also in order for Jackson County Solid Waste Department for providing a dumpster for us to fill up.
The following restaurants helped support our efforts by donating food for the volunteers (and we had a TON of good food!):
Lone Star BBQ
Ruby Tuesdays
Tate's BBQ
Triple R BBQ
Margarita's Mexican Restaurant
Pizza Hut
Buena Vista Mexican Restaurant
Creekside Restaurant/Jackson City Park Restaurant
Next time you are in Scottsboro caving, please stop by one of the businesses for a bite to eat and let them know you are a caver.
A few other stats from the day:
6 years old-youngest volunteer
62 years old-oldest volunteer
17 Georgia volunteers
15 Tennessee
7 Alabama
1 Kentucky
1 ton garbage removed from road and cave
2 light drizzles; amount of rain that fell during cleanup - BTW, Caver's don't melt!
Volunteers (Sorry if your name is misspelled...means your handwriting was too hard to read!)
Daniel Briedes
Steve Holt
Brad Barker
DJ Metroka
Chris Metroka
Michael Coulter
Julie Uselton
Maureen Handler
Jonny Prouty
Deirdra Hahn
Marty Abercrombie
Emily Abercrombie
Laila Anderson
Chris Anderson
Michelle Vaughn
Mike Crockett
Cheryl Pratt
Tommy Royston
Sabrina Simon
Nathan Williams
Kyle Gochenour
J V Lei
Denmark Blount
Jane Lu
Gary Barnes
Milo Washington
Alfred Crabtree
Clinton Elmore
Anne Elmore
Ken Young
Kristian Young
Brent Wilkins
Stacy Cates
Allison Lemke
Harvey Leake
Daniel Leake
Jim Wilbanks
John Hoffelt
Chrys Hulbert
How will I find my way out???!!! 
