Pettyjohn first trips

 Hunter Murphy (hunter.murphy@juno.com)

 Mon 13 Sep 2010 09:24:30 PM EDT

I just wanted to make a post and talk about my first two trips into Pettyjohn. I have officially been in two caves in my life, once on a very easy tour through Cumberland caverns in Tennessee, and twice into Pettyjohn. My two trips into Pettyjohn have been in the past month, the first with two good friends, and the second with one of the same.
I would like to thank Mr. Crowell for his amazing documentation on the cave, including his virtual tour and fantastic text about how to actually get places in the cave.
My friends and I had heard about the cave, and on a trip to Rock Town, we had heard about the cave and decided to stop by and check out the entrance. After taking a look, we decided to come back the next weekend and do some exploring. None of us are experienced cavers, and all of us who entered the cave were there for the first time, so in the week leading up to the trip, we did as much research as we could and planned a route, and decided what to bring along. We found Mr. Crowell’s website and read his articles on the Pettyjohn loop, and decided to try and make our way through some of it. When we got to the cave, we ended up going to the back of the entrance room and doing the last bit of the loop based on what we had read, and successfully made our way to the back of the Volcano room. Once we got to the window into the Volcano room, we wanted to go down in, but none of us are experienced climbers, and we had no climbing gear, so we decided not to drop from the window. We found the bypass tunnel, but did not exactly remember what Mr. Crowell had written about it, and decided we were not well enough informed to try it. On our next trip, we made our way back to the Volcano room, and went for the squeeze down, having no problems and enjoying the room thoroughly. We even found that the mud man with the hat Mr. Crowell described in his second article about the loop was still there! This was the end of this part of our second trip, as we had been in the cave for about six hours and were exhausted. On the second half of our first trip, we made our way back to the entrance room and climbed up onto the ledge over the entrance to the passage leading to the Pancake squeeze. We did not know that this was the location of that entrance, until, while we were on the ledge admiring the formations, a small group emerged. we had a short conversation, and when we found out that they had just come from the Raccoon room, we decided to go see what we could find.
We ended up finding our way through the pancake squeeze, and down to the room with the drop to stream level and the climb to the Raccoon room. This was the end of our first trip, because we were exhausted from the trip to the Volcano room, which had taken quite a while to complete without a guide. At the beginning of our second trip, before our trek to the Volcano room, we went straight down through the pancake squeeze and into the room with the drop to stream and climb to the Raccoon room. We were interested in getting more familiar with the first leg of the loop, but on our first trip we were not sure of the entrance, and after reading more of Mr. Crowell’s articles, we went back and found the climb to the Raccoon room, but decided not to try it, being inexperienced climbers.
We ended up taking the plunge to the stream and moved upstream toward the main waterfall, moving slowly and cautiously, being unfamiliar with this part of the cave. We managed to work our way upstream to the entrance to the double echo domes, and continued further upstream, but stopped our journey before long. We made it to a fork in the stream, where it continued forward under a very low ceiling, or up left through a very muddy passage. We decided to go up left, because we didn’t want to spend a lot of energy crawling, as we knew we were near the point we would need to turn around to have the energy to make the long climb back up from stream level. We ended up coming into what appeared to be a fair sized room, but did not venture in as it seemed to have the potential to be a confusing room to find the way we came, and so turned around and made our way back, resulting in the second trip to the Volcano room. We have been very careful and slow, being so unexperienced, and brought along plenty of food and water, headlamps, backup flashlights, and extra batteries, trying to prepare for the unforeseen.
We have also made the habit of letting multiple people know where we are, both the cave itself and our intended route through it so that if something does happen, and we do not emerge when we intend to, they can get us help. Gladly, both of our trips have resulted in safe return. We love this cave, and have been planning our next trip. Both trips have ended up being almost exactly seven hours underground, and made possible almost entirely based on Mr. Crowell’s information. We have plans to eventually make our way through the loop, to the main waterfall, and possibly up to the Double Echo Domes and Echo room, once we have improved our climbing skills and are confident in our ability.

We sincerely thank Mr. Crowell for providing the information that has made, and will make, our journeys through this wonderful cave safe and fun.

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