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A JUNE TAG TRIP "Yes R.D., there's rattlesnakes on Sand Mountain." Brian Williams and Caren Beck (3 Part Trip Report) What time is it? Time for a TAG trip. The Beck-Williams team left Gainesville around 10:30am after finally getting all the gear crammed into "Rodeo Bob". Team Vinzant left Lakeland about the same time. After a hard couple of weeks and some long days at work, we were all ready to leave town and have some cave therapy! Caren promptly crashed in the back seat and was out like a carbide light in a waterfall before we left the county line (good thing she wasn't driving!). Our first stop (not including lunch), was White River Cave in Polk County GA. We drove up and down by White River road and hiked through the woods a bit making the cave much more difficult to find than it really was. We finally realized the entrance was that big gaping cavern just behind the guardrail. No wonder we couldn't find. As Brian predicted, this little "boy scout" cave ended up being a pretty trashed party cave. It does take the honors for being the most decorated cave in this part of the state. Decorated with graffiti that is. What a mess. I didn't know they sold that much spray paint in this county. What we didn't predict was how treacherous this muddy little party cave was! We took turns slipping and sliding along and nearly busting our tush in these nasty little passages! The cave had a few formations in it's 1400 ft. We spent most of the time exploring the back crawlways. The Vinzant boys (the old one too) were about 2.5 hours behind us on the way up through Georgia, but they ended up meeting us in the back of the cave. (who has the lead foot, Matt?) Somehow NONE of them looked the least bit muddy compared to us! Does that say something about the skill level? Next stop was, you guessed it.....a Western Sizzlin' Steakhouse. Finally arrived at the TAG house about 10:00 pm and met R.D. there. Caren, (bless her little tired head) was beat and just looking forward to sleeping, but the Vinzant-Williams team was just getting revved up! Guess they needed to burn off some of that Western Sizzlin! So they decided to do a quick little trip up to Cemetery. The mistake was thinking the trip was going to be little, or quick. They finally made it back to the TAG house and were in bed by 4:30 am. 3 hours later we were all up and headed out to Big Coon Valley and trying to keep up with RD as he gave us all a lesson in how to drive (fly) the back roads of Alabama. Captions 1. Entrance of White River Cave, Rockmart, GA. 2. Heavily decorated by the locals 3. Team (clean) Vinzant 4. Interesting passage, disturbing graffiti 5. Rigging the pit at Cemetery 6. Matt at the lip 7. Andy drops in 8. Andy gets intimate with "Earl’s Ledge" 9. Woody and Andy in the big room
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