Hello all,
My name is Mark, I'm recently retired and 48 years old. I moved to Highland County about a year ago and fell love with caving through a strange series of events.
I bought a place on the Bullpasture river and within 4 months we had a major flood. Lo and Behold a stream came shooting out the side (not down) the mountain behind my house. A new sinkhole! Some local (and very experienced) cavers checked it out and we ended up inserting a culvert in it to stabilize the entrance. Unfortunately it was sumped at river level and we haven't done anything with it since.
But the cave on the hill is different. It is very small and requires blasting to clear it out and that is what I've been consumed with recently. That and any other digs I can get involved with. The engineering I have seen on some of the local digs is simply amazing....and oh yeah, the caves are cool too. And the people. I love the community.
There are many caves withing 30 minutes' driving distance of my house and most are privately owned. And the owners are mostly very good cavers. And I have time on my hands and enjoy the digs too, so...a caver is born.
Love to read the stories here.
Mark