Caving Adventure '04

Pigeon Mountain
March 20, 2004

Several Honors students got together on March 20, 2004 to go to Pigeon Mountain for a day of spelunking and rappelling. We got up early Saturday morning and carpooled to Northwest Georgia . After a bumpy and dusty ride toward the top of the mountain, we arrived at our first destination. Everyone suited up for our descent: helmets with flashlights, boots, gloves, and backpacks. We hiked a short way to the cave's entrance and were shocked to see such a small entrance! "Would this be how narrow the whole cave would be?" we wondered. Mr. Hyde, our guide, assured us that the interior of the cave was much larger.

We each took our turn going down into the cave. Once we were in, the cave opened up to this large room--big enough to hold us all standing upright. One of the first sights we saw was a salamander and a few bats flying across the room. We proceeded toward the back of the cave climbing over rocks, stepping over (or through!) streams, going under boulders, and crawling through narrow corridors. About 45 minutes later, we arrived at a smooth slanted ledge. We had to move around on our hands and knees and lean to one side due to the slippery slope. We turned our lights off and experienced absolute darkness. It was so dark we couldn't see our hands in front of our faces! We rested for a few minutes before turning around and returning to daylight.

Once everyone emerged from the cave, we changed into a fresh set of clothes and cleaned up. We drove to the top of Pigeon Mountain to eat lunch. Over Subway sandwiches and cokes Mr. Hyde explained how close the Confederate and Union armies were at Pigeon Mountain during the Civil War.

After lunch we hiked about a mile into the woods and encountered a few rock formations. One of them was a vertical column of rock that was perfect for climbing. Without pads, ropes, or helmets, three of us climbed to the top of the rock. Some would argue the hardest part was climbing down—not up! Not too far from this rock column was the cliff we rappelled down. The cliff was about 35 feet tall and was easily accessible going up. With adrenaline pumping, almost everyone rappelled down the cliff. There were a couple of people who rappelled for the first time. Once they were on solid ground, they expressed how fun and easy (once you got over the ledge) it was to rappel.

At the end of a cool sunny day, everyone agreed that this was one of the best social outings they'd been apart of. Spelunking and rappelling instilled a great deal of confidence while relying upon each other for assistance helped us grow closer together. The trip was as much a teambuilding exercise inasmuch as it was a social event. The pictures below capture the highlights and memories of this awesome trip.