Dogwood City Grotto Journey to Ellison's

May 19th 2009

The Dogwood City Grotto journeyed back in time on May 16, 2009 when we visited Ellison’s Cave on Pigeon Mountain. We started our trip at the Blue Hole at the base of the Hill. Our historian, ET Davis described the beginnings of Pigeon Mountain when it was only a wrinkle on the bottom of a vast coral sea. He told us about how William Schreiber explored the cave long ago. Having been there himself, ET witnessed barroom chair-throwing fights among rival groups of explorers. ET’s history lesson pumped us up for the walk up the hill to the Historic Entrance.

We stopped first at the Dug Entrance, opened by Schreiber early on in his explorations. A group of Vertical cavers and their dog were gearing up to enter the cave there. We climbed up out of that ravine to the Old Wagon Road. This road dates back to before the Civil War and was used by Armies of both sides to cross the divide. We followed this old road to the Historic Entrance, which was known to Native Americans and visited by Confederate and Yankee Soldiers.

We climbed down into this picturesque sink and natural storm drain to enter Elliston’s cave. There had been a lot of rain on the mountain within the previous few days. Ben Philips and Ricky Hess were sent in first to see if the tunnels were even passable. The rest of our group followed the cave stream of muddy surface water. We were hoping to see some of the Giant Hellbender Salamanders known to live in the cave. None were seen; the amphibians were able to secret themselves in the pools of muddy water.

The stream we were following joined another stream. People had scratched and carved their names and other stuff into the soft wall vandalized this area extensively. Civil War Soldiers had done the same 150 years ago except their ancient etchings are now lost among the more recent vandalism.

We followed this larger stream down into the mountain as it dropped over several waterfalls. The ceiling got lower and lower until we were crawling. The early explorers named this tunnel “The Agony.” Someone heard Ben tell Ricky, “I hope this is the way or we’re got a lot of mad cavers behind us.” The Agony turned into a belly crawl in water. Near the end, cold water was pouring on us from above too. We popped out through a refreshing waterfall into an amazingly beautiful walking tunnel, “The Ecstasy.”

Especially after the Agony, stepping over boulders in this wide cheerful place felt great. There were a lot of bats on the ceiling in the Ecstasy tunnel. Those furry little flyers know the best places to hang out. Downstream at the end of the tunnel we could hear the deep grumble of the water falling 150 feet down into Warmup Pit.

The Vertical Cavers had preceded us and their ropes were tied to the ceiling by hangers stamped “DCG.” Our group skirted the lip of Warmup Pit and into a tunnel there. This tunnel eventually got so low and small that Ricky was unable to body-drill the muddy groove.

We retraced the Ecstasy to the waterfall of the Agony. Climbing up the waterfall we popped out of the Dug Entrance into a pouring rainstorm. The vertical cavers had left their dog outside the cave tied to a rock by the Entrance. Some of our cavers felt sorry for the beast being out in the weather so they created a little sweater out of their survival trash bag. They also made him a lean-to; we of course were out in the pouring rain, water leaking out the drain-holes in the bottoms of our boots. Poison Ivy with leaves as big as your hand crowded the sloppy muddy trail down the hill. The rain stopped just in time for us to change into our dry clothes at the trucks.

The Cavers:

Greg Long, Ken Brown, Codie Long, E.T. Davis, Laila Anderson, Steve Kennerly
Jason S. Kotz, Elizabeth Boyle, John Carter, Dianne Overmyer, Renata Piurko, Matt Connolly, Lisa Andrews, Sean Blass, Kelly Rowland, Glen Fell, Ben Philips, Tony Theirault, The Anderson, William Bishop, Kenneth Paicott, Page Ashnell, Lynn Buffkin, Cristy Fletcher, Michael Johnson, Debbie Hess, Ricky Hess, Al Hess.

-- Story from Al Hess