TAG Fall Cave In 2001 - Sunday
Bill Walker
Unfortunately, Kevin Greene left Sunday morning with Jason, Chrissy,
and Kim. They missed a really cool cave.
Manatou Cave
Manatou is an old show cave in Fort Payne. It's been shut down for
at least 40 years because it was used as a fallout shelter in the
Sixties. We've all been to show caves before and seen the obvious
side passages that, as cavers, we know must go. We all itch to jump
the railings and go explore the real cave. Well, Manatou is cool
because it's a show cave that you can actually explore.
It's also a great Sunday cave! After 2 or 3 days of caving, no one
wants to do anything strenuous. Manatou is great because the floors
are flat and the streams all have bridges crossing them! In addition,
the side stuff is really cool too. One side passage contains hundreds
of 24lb tins of survival rations from the Cuban Missile crisis.
I'm really glad I got to cave with everyone at Manatou. I had caved
with Sean and Becky all weekend and didn't really get to hang out
with everyone else from the FSS. We had so many people from Florida
show up at TAG this year, that everyone split up in little groups
and did their own thing. It was great to take a leisurely stroll
though Manatou with everyone from the club.
Hurricane
After we said our good-byes, everyone left. The Roberts and I planned
to stay another night with Bill Birdsall. Bill was going back to
camp, but we wanted to do another cave. I suggested Hurricane because
it was close to camp and none of us had been there. None of us really
wanted to do it, though. There is nothing really spectacular about
the cave, and it is wet, too. I don't think we really even wanted
to go caving. We were exhausted from the long weekend, but it was
still early. I think the only reason we did Hurricane is so we could
add another cave to the list!
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